Port Hope Golf & Country Club

Port Hope Golf and Country Club feels like a wedding that has stepped back into another century, with a lakeside mansion, a great old tree and a lawn that seems to have been waiting for the processional.

The club's wedding grounds are known as Penryn Park, and at their centre stands the Penryn Mansion, built in 1859 by Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Williams for Emily Seymour, the woman he was about to marry. The property passed through the Williams, King and Smith families over the generations, and it sits on a bluff above Lake Ontario, surrounded by mature mixed forest, only a few minutes from Highway 401 on the edge of downtown Port Hope.

Ceremonies take place outdoors, with rows of white chairs set beneath a large tree and the mansion in view beyond the lawn. Afterwards, guests move to a clear-span tent for dinner and dancing, while the billiards house, the pool area and a wooden bridge give photographers and wandering couples somewhere beautiful to go between courses.

The venue welcomes ceremonies and receptions from 50 to 200 guests, and its team helps with recommending trusted vendors and with setting up the event, so the historic setting comes with practical hands behind it.

Imagine vows beneath the branches, the lake somewhere behind the trees, and a tent lit up against a house that has watched over one wedding after another since the first. For couples who want history, water and a country club's calm, Penryn Park offers a Port Hope setting that feels quietly storybook.

• Ceremony and reception in one place
• On the water, or with water views
• Gardens and grounds
• A historic setting
• A coordinator to guide the day
• Tented celebrations possible
• On a golf course