I can say with 100% certainty that it doesn't matter what order the Sims 3 expansions are installed in. I had the base game, and Ambitions installed before I got WA or any Stuff Packs, and I also installed Late Night before Fast Lane Stuff. But before I did any of that, I contacted EA customer support and they confirmed that it doesn't matter what order they're installed in, so long as you use the most current expansion installed to run the game. So even though Late Night will be the last expansion you install, you'll still use Outdoor Living to run the game.
For Sims 1 and 2, it definitely mattered which order you installed them in, but for Sims 3, it doesn't.
I can confirm it doesn´t matter, too. What I did just today:
1. I only had a base game (1.50 version, installed from a CD as a 1.46 version, released in 2012) + seasons (released 2012), very few store content, no CC, no mods.
2. I patched it via launcher up to 1.57 version.
3. I installed Ambitions from a CD (released in 2010).
4. I installed Generations from a CD (released in 2011).
Of course, between each two consequent steps I was making the required backups, I even backed up the core game files both before and after the patch.
Only thing that the launcher required me to do after installing Generations, was to update my store content, which I did.
Then I started a new game and tested it pretty thoroughly. And it just works totally smoothly and flawlessly.
I tested pretty much everything. There are no errors, no crashing, not even after build mode, not in CAS, not anywhere. All the content, all the EP-specific features, everything is there, it is not conficting with the previosly installed Seasons at the least. I tried to bother the game as much as I could - not a single freeze.
So not only it seems to not matter in which order you install EPs, it even might not be essential to apply incremental patches after each installation, as far as your game is up to date as such.
In case I found some error, I could still digress to the official EA cumulative superpatcher, and I believe it would be fine.
However, if one can choose, it is probably safer to install everything in the right order, and of course, backup everything and test everything after each installation.