Parkwood Estate Engagement Photos: An Oshawa Location Guide

Maninder nuzzled Parneet’s temple, and she laughed with her whole face. I had them framed between two of the giant stone columns at Parkwood Estate, hands together at her waist, ivy hanging on the wall behind. It was a little after eleven on a Saturday in September, and the colonnade was our first stop.

Parkwood is the Oshawa estate of R.S. McLaughlin, who founded General Motors of Canada. The mansion has 55 rooms, the gardens cover 11 acres, and the whole site is a National Historic Site.

This guide is for couples planning Parkwood Estate engagement photos or a pre-wedding shoot there. It covers the photo pass, the spots, the light and the timing, with Maninder and Parneet’s September 12 session as the example.

Parkwood Estate at a glance

Location: 270 Simcoe Street North, Oshawa. The main entrance is on Simcoe at Adelaide Avenue.

What it is: The home of R.S. McLaughlin, founder of General Motors of Canada. The Toronto architects Darling and Pearson designed it, construction began in 1916, and the family lived here from 1917 to 1972. It has 55 rooms and was named a National Historic Site in 1989.

The gardens: 11 acres, built in layers. Harries and Hall began the landscape in 1917. H.B. and L.A. Dunington-Grubb added the Italian Garden, the Sundial Garden, the Summer House and the Sunken Garden in the early 1920s. John Lyle’s Formal Garden followed in 1935 and 1936, about two acres of art moderne design around a long pool.

Admission: The grounds and gardens are free. The guided mansion tour is $18 plus HST for adults.

Photo pass: $300 plus HST for two hours outdoors. $400 plus HST for an hour inside and an hour outside.

Hours: Seasonal, so check the banner on the estate’s website first. In summer, weekdays run 9 am to 5 pm and weekends 10 am to 5 pm. In October the gardens are open 1 pm to 5 pm daily. The grounds close for winter.

Parking: Free on site for Parkwood guests, but very limited. A paid garage sits on the west side of the estate.

Drive time: 50 to 75 minutes from downtown Toronto.

On screen: Parkwood has appeared in X-Men, Chicago, Billy Madison, Murdoch Mysteries and The Boys.

The Parkwood photo pass, in plain words

Parkwood calls its photography permit a photo pass. Phone photos on a casual visit are free. A professional photographer, or a professional camera and set up, needs a pass, booked in advance.

There are two kinds.

Outdoor: $300 plus HST. Two hours on the grounds, for up to 20 people. There is no indoor alternative in bad weather. Passes are rain or shine, with no refunds or date changes for weather. To move a date for weather, the estate asks for at least five days’ notice.

Indoor: $400 plus HST. One hour inside and one hour outside, for up to 10 people. The indoor spaces are the Sunroom and Loggia, the Drawing Room, the Cantilever Staircase and the Orchid Greenhouse. The greenhouse is not available from June 1 to August 31, and indoor sessions are unavailable at certain times in July and August. Video is not allowed inside the mansion, so any film is shot on the grounds.

Every pass includes photos in front of the mansion all year, snow permitting, even though the grounds close for winter. No alcohol, no smoking, and no candles, smoke bombs or fireworks. No drones either, because the estate sits close to Oshawa airport. The pass does not give you the grounds to yourselves, since other bookings can run the same day.

To book, use the Photo Pass Form on the estate’s weddings page, or reach the Photo Pass Coordinators at photos.weddings@parkwoodestate.com or 905-433-4311 ext. 32872. Prices change, so confirm the current rate when you book.

The spots, in the order we walked them

Maninder and Parneet’s session was outdoors only. Here is our route through the grounds.

The colonnade. Giant round stone columns, ivy on the wall behind them, an arched doorway. The columns are wide enough to shoot between, so a frame can open with stone on both sides.

The rose and dahlia beds. Pink roses in front, orange and yellow blooms behind them, and tall evergreens over everything. Parneet spun through them with her hair flying.

The Formal Garden. A wide flight of stone steps leads down into it. John Lyle’s long turquoise pool runs the length of the garden, with round fountains along the water and a tall centre jet near the far end. Pyramid cedars stand along it, with white hydrangeas turning pink between them and red begonias in the beds. A sunken lawn runs beside the pool. At the far end is a pale columned pavilion with red umbrellas. The Tea House restaurant sits by this long fountain in summer.

The big lawn trees. An open lawn under big old trees, the sun coming through the leaves in patches. There is room to move here, and it is where the cape went up.

The mansion lawn. Ivy on the stone, dormers in the roof and a curved bay of tall arched windows.

The terrace. A lawn terrace along a stone balustrade, with tall evergreens behind it and, on our day, the first orange leaves.

The arched windows, up close. The curved bay rises over a wide flight of stone steps, with a stone urn on each side. From the bottom of the steps, the windows fill the frame.

The hedged garden. Tall clipped hedges, a stone wall, a row of pointed evergreens and a small summer house with a clay tile roof. Pink flowers fill the urns on the balustrade in front of it.

Plan for daylight: the gardens close at 5 pm

The gardens close at 5 pm, so Parkwood is a daylight location. Do not plan a golden hour session here.

The Parkwood frames run from 11:13 am to 1:01 pm, under a clear blue sky and hard overhead sun. At noon the open Formal Garden is bright and flat. The shade is under the colonnade and beneath the big trees on the lawn.

Most of the close frames are in full sun anyway. Some frames I made with a slow shutter, letting them move so the hard light smeared into streaks of colour. Grain in the edit softened it further.

The warm light came later. Two weeks after Parkwood we were on a quiet Lake Ontario beach at sunrise, and that half of their story is in my post on sunrise engagement photos. Both days sit together in their full gallery.

When to come, and what to wear on your feet

Late summer into early fall. On September 12 the roses and dahlias were still out, the white hydrangeas were turning pink, the red begonias were in bloom, and one tree behind the terrace had already gone orange.

The grounds are gravel, flagstone and grass, with plenty of changes between them. The paths beside the pool are gravel, and heels sink in gravel. Wear shoes you can walk in between spots. My guide to what to wear for a pre-wedding shoot covers the rest of the outfit.

Getting there and the two hour clock

Driving is the practical way from Toronto. If the free lot is full, the paid garage on the west side is the fallback. By Durham Region Transit, the nearest stop, on Simcoe northbound at Hillcroft, is about a four minute walk.

The outdoor pass gives you two hours, including arrival and departure, so plan the route before you arrive. Arrive more than 30 minutes late and the estate cancels the booking. The far fountain end of the Formal Garden is about a five minute walk from the lot. Our whole route, colonnade to hedged garden, fit inside the two hours.

Maninder and Parneet at Parkwood

Parneet wore a white dress with a long sheer cape. Maninder wore a camel suede jacket over a black tee and black trousers. The cape swung out on every turn.

On the lawn under the big trees she held both his hands at arm’s length, and the cape opened behind her arms like a pair of wings.

Beside the long pool he lifted his arm and turned her under it, and the cape swung out over the gravel. Later, on the terrace, she walked off along the balustrade with him and looked back at me over her shoulder, the cape sweeping out behind her.

I filmed the session too. Their film covers Parkwood and the sunrise at the lake.

If Parkwood is on your list, send me your date. Pre-wedding sessions start at $351.25, and some packages include a film like this one. See the pre-wedding page for what is included, or build a package and see your number before we talk. The Parkwood page in my location guide keeps the essentials in one place.