Your Day
A Saturday here, hour by hour
This is the shape most Alder House weddings settle into — not because we insist, but because the light, the kitchen, and the township curfew all vote. Your coordinator builds your real timeline with you eight weeks out.
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10:00 a.m. · Farmhouse & coach house
Suites open
Hair and makeup set up in the morning light. Coffee tray and the quiet hours before anyone needs you.
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10:00 a.m. · Wherever you are
The rain call
If the radar is arguing, our coordinator phones and you make the garden-or-conservatory call together. Then it's decided, and you stop checking your phone.
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12:30 p.m. · Courtyard
Vendor load-in
Florist, band, photographer, cake. The steward meets every van so nobody texts you about parking.
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2:30 p.m. · The south wall
First look & portraits
The wisteria wall and millpond path are at their best light before four. Your photographer will already know this.
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4:00 p.m. · Ceremony Garden
Guests arrive
Lemonade and shade at the garden gate. Shuttle from Orangeville lands at 3:45.
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4:30 p.m. · Ceremony Garden
Ceremony
Twenty-five minutes under the alders, give or take a reading. Unamplified strings carry naturally in the garden bowl.
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5:15 p.m. · Conservatory & terrace
Welcome hour
First cocktails out in ninety seconds — the bar is stocked before the recessional ends. Lawn games on the long lawn.
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6:30 p.m. · Great Hall
Dinner
Family style down the harvest tables. Speeches between courses, not stacked at the end — trust us.
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8:30 p.m. · Great Hall
First dance
Chandeliers to half, candles doing the rest. The floor opens straight after.
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9:30 p.m. · Great Hall, north end
Late-night table
Flatbreads in summer, grilled cheese in winter. Disappears in eleven minutes on average.
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10:00 p.m. · Estate-wide
Outdoor sound ends
The bylaw hour. The courtyard stays open for air and stars; the party continues inside.
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10:30 p.m. · Great Hall bar
Last call
Water and coffee ride out with the last round. The 10:45 shuttle boards for Orangeville.
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11:00 p.m. · Courtyard
Send-off
Sparklers over gravel, sand buckets standing by, and the estate goes quiet the way it has most nights since 1872.
Two footnotes worth reading
- Winter weddings shift the ceremony to 3:30 p.m. so portraits catch the daylight; everything after dinner runs on the same clock.
- This is a starting point, not a rule — your coordinator builds the real timeline with you (and your planner, if you have one) about eight weeks out.
Who does what on the day — our coordinator versus your planner — is spelled out in the FAQ.
Caledon, ON · One wedding a day
Stand where the 4:30 ceremony happens
Timelines read differently once you've walked them. A tour traces this exact day through all three spaces.