The fourteen questions couples actually ask

Your rain plan is reserved the day you book: the Conservatory for up to 90 standing or 60 seated, or the Great Hall for anything bigger. At 10:00 a.m. on the day, our coordinator checks the radar with you and you make the call together. Moving inside never costs a fee, and the hall is dressed either way, so the choice is about weather, not money already spent.

Candles, yes. They are half the point of the place. Every flame must sit in a hurricane glass or votive (the house candle package includes ninety of them). Open flame outside glass, such as sparklers, hand-held candles, or fire performers, isn't allowed indoors. A sparkler send-off is welcome in the gravel courtyard until 10:30 p.m., with sand buckets ready.

Anything freestanding, tied, or clamped is fine. Nothing nailed, stapled, or taped to the 1872 timber; our steward carries the right clamps and wire, so ask before you improvise. No confetti, glitter, or fake petals anywhere on the estate (real petals in the garden are fine), and no floral foam in the hall. Everything you bring leaves the same night, unless you've booked the Estate Weekend.

The estate holds the liquor licence, so all alcohol is poured by our Smart Serve staff, and you can't bring your own (that includes favours opened on site). Bar packages are on the packages page, and billing by consumption is available too. Last call is 10:30 p.m. every night, because the curfew isn't ours; it's the township's.

The parking field, garden aisle, courtyard, Great Hall, and the Conservatory's courtyard entrance are all step-free, on firm crushed limestone or stone floors. The hall has two accessible washrooms, and one getting-ready suite is on the farmhouse ground floor. The upper farmhouse rooms are stairs only. We say so up front, and the ground-floor suite always goes first to whoever needs it.

Amplified music outdoors ends at 10:00 p.m. and the hall closes at 11:00 p.m. That is a Caledon noise bylaw, not a house rule, and no venue in the township can honestly promise later. Most couples run the dance floor from 8:30 to 10:45 and finish with a courtyard send-off. Estate Weekend couples can keep a quiet fire going past midnight at the farmhouse.

The garden seats 180 and the hall seats 160 for dinner with a full dance floor. So 160 is the real limit for a seated dinner, and 180 works for a cocktail-style reception. No package has a guest minimum, but each package's catering minimum applies at any guest count. Under about 40 guests, The Winter House is usually the best fit.

Yes: leashed, outdoors, with a handler who isn't in the wedding party, and home before dinner. The garden has seen more ring-bearer dogs than ring-bearer children. Dogs can't enter the hall or conservatory while food is served (health code), and the millpond is fenced but tempting, so the handler rule is firm.

Food and bar come from the estate kitchen. It's the one closed category, and it's why we can publish real per-guest prices and hold them. The exception is a family or cultural menu our chefs can't cook well. For those we co-cater: a specialist you choose works in the kitchen beside our team, with no extra fee from us beyond that caterer's own price.

A held Saturday has a free seven-day hold on it. Another couple toured, asked us to pencil them in, and has a week to sign before the date opens again on its own. Holds are free, first come first served, and never extended, which keeps the calendar fair for everyone. If your date shows held, ask anyway: about a third of holds come back.

Holding a date is free. On signing you pay a deposit of 25% of the venue fee, then 50% six months out, and the rest plus catering on your final count thirty days before. If you cancel more than a year out, we return everything except $1,000. Inside a year, payments come back only if we re-book your date, and we work hard to. You can also move your date once for free if you ask at least six months ahead.

Every package includes a one-hour rehearsal on a weekday earlier in your wedding week, booked around that week's weddings. The Estate Weekend goes further: Friday afternoon is yours, and most weekend couples rehearse at 4 p.m. and walk straight into their conservatory rehearsal dinner.

Our own crew clears and salts the lane, courtyard, paths, and parking. A 6 a.m. pass on your wedding day is written into the winter contract, not offered as a favour. The hall is fully insulated and the conservatory runs a woodstove and heated floors. The one honest winter catch: the garden is closed, so winter ceremonies happen indoors or at the courtyard bonfire.

Our coordinator manages everything that touches the estate: your timeline against the building, vendor load-ins, the rain call, tables and candles, and the day-of steward who stays near you all evening. What we don't do is design your wedding, book your vendors, or build your seating chart. That's a planner's job, and for fully designed weddings we suggest hiring one (two we trust are on the vendors page).