The Glenerin Inn & Spa

Hidden among the trees of Mississauga's Sawmill Valley, The Glenerin Inn feels like the sort of old country estate you should have driven hours from the city to find.

Instead, it is right here.

Built in 1927, the Tudor-style stone mansion brings almost a century of history into the wedding day, with grand stone fireplaces, exposed wooden beams, stained glass and oversized windows looking toward the greenery outside.

It is intimate in a way that feels wonderfully suited to a wedding.

Five distinct event spaces allow couples to shape the celebration around their guest list, with seated weddings of up to around 150. Four of the rooms open onto patios overlooking the Credit River Valley, letting cocktails and conversations drift outside when the weather is beautiful.

The ceremony can happen here too.

Then, while guests settle into cocktails, the newlyweds can disappear into the Inn's two acres of landscaped grounds and gardens for photographs without ever having to leave the property.

There are lovely corners everywhere.

Old stone.

Garden paths.

Tall trees.

Fireplaces waiting inside.

The kind of architecture that makes even the quiet photographs, a hand held in a hallway, a dress beside an old window, someone laughing on the patio, feel as though they belong to another time.

And because The Glenerin is an inn as well as a wedding venue, the celebration does not have to end when the reception does.

Thirty guest rooms and suites give the couple and their people somewhere to stay, while the full-service spa offers a rather lovely reason to arrive early or linger the following morning.

That changes the rhythm of the wedding.

Instead of rushing toward the venue and disappearing when the music stops, guests can settle in.

Get ready upstairs.

Gather for the ceremony.

Eat, toast and dance downstairs.

Then eventually wander back to their rooms through the same old mansion.

By then the patios are quiet.

The gardens are dark.

The fireplaces have watched another celebration unfold.

And somewhere inside a nearly century-old house in the middle of Mississauga, another little piece of its history has just been written.