Classic Garden Wedding at Alloway Hall
Say you want your wedding ceremony to look like a garden, over top of your swimming pool? SAY LESS.
Chelsea and Adam’s classic garden wedding was a dream in every way. Their joy at finally wedding after years of long distance, a stunning designer gown with details that made it look like she was surrounded by fluttery butterflies, exchanging their vows on a platform suspended over top of his family’s pool, and the complete transformation of a museum into a classic, flower-filled reception featuring 20 foot long beams dripping in fresh blooms over top the dance floor are just a few highlights.
Photos by Brittany Mahood Photography
It’s taken me many, many months to be prepared to write this blog post. This week is Chelsea and Adam’s 1st wedding anniversary, so I decided it was finally time to dive in. Why? Because I was daunted at the idea of trying to choose favourite photos or moments from this wedding, because every single moment and every single detail was so beautifully orchestrated, intentionally designed, and required so much work. It’s hard to find a way to capture the magic that was their wedding day!
So, I’m just going to walk you through the entire day, section by section, and tell you what I absolutely loved the most and some behind the scenes at what it took to get us there.
The Bouquets
As soon as I saw a photo of Chelsea’s Elie Saab bridal gown, I knew exactly what I wanted to do for her bouquet. This dress was incredible — very classic and elegant, with added feminine detailing in 3D floral applique on the off-the-shoulder sleeves, and scattered throughout the veil. The veil in particular looked like she was surrounded by fluttering butterflies. The best way to complement this, in my mind, was sweet pea. And a TON of sweet pea. I wanted her bouquet to be a bit smaller, simpler, and just fluttery. Chelsea asked for peonies (which is a tall order in August, but my wholesaler pulled through and they were GORGEOUS!), and they enhanced the sweet pea perfectly.
The bridesmaid bouquets were simple sweet pea nosegays, which looked divine against their mixed green dresses (LITERALLY the most beautiful combination of bridesmaid dresses I’ve ever seen, which they curated from Selkie and V. Chapman).
The Ceremony
So you want your ceremony in your parents’ backyard, over top the pool? And you want it to feel like you’re exchanging vows in the middle of a garden? Yes, please!
I was so excited when Soiree Event Planning told me the plan. It wasn’t for the feint of heart (and thank goodness they were leading the charge and taking care of all logistics!) but I was up for the challenge of figuring out how to get the most amount of flowers I possibly could on that suspended altar.
My goals were to make sure it was lush, natural, and full, but also have good height. I wanted the floral to be around waist-height, which meant that a lot of math and a focus on the scale was a priority. You can see more of that process here!
The REception
There’s truly no way that I can show the reality of how stunning this reception was. Alloway Hall is the event space at the Manitoba Museum, and it’s quite a blank space with a slight industrial edge. Chelsea’s style is romantic, feminine, and with a little granny chic (floral patterns, ruffles, so cute!). Soiree Event Planning really worked SO hard to create a unique space, and soften the hard edges of the room with endless perfect details. Let’s just go one by one.
The Floor Plan
Alloway Hall is quite large, so there was ample space to have the large guest list seated for dinner on one end, a huge dance floor and band stage on the opposite end, and a large central lounge joining the two spaces. The room was functional, and gorgeous.
The Lounge, Dance Floor, and Hanging Florals
The lounge and hanging floral installation were my personal favourite design elements. I loved the dual lounges flanking the stunning wedding cake (a Jenna Rae Cakes masterpiece that mimicked the detailing on Chelsea’s dress), the furniture selection, and the perfect shades of green. We layered in some delicious floral arrangements to the lounge, and then really went for it on the ceiling installation.
We designed 2, 20 foot long, double sided floral installations (entirely in fresh flowers!), making a total of 80 linear feet of impression florals that hung low enough to make an impressive statement but not get in the way of the dance floor, set in between those 2 long floral beams.
The Guest Tables
We had a mix of long banuqet tables and round tables. With soaring ceilings, we chose to go tall and full on the round tables, and Chelsea envisioned long, lush florals on the banquet tables. One of the things I always aim to include in my tabletop designs is a lot of undulating movement — think waves, rising and falling smoothly, keeping your eye moving along the length of the table. This means high points, low points, candlelight and florals, and sweet details to create pockets of visual interest.
The green flatware was definitely a personal favourite detail, as well as the stationery! Alloway Hall doesn’t allow real flame, so we used my LED candles — they cost me a fortune, but they’re SO nice and look really realistic!
The Head Table
And now to the head table! Sometimes it feels like there’s only so much that can be done to make a head table design interesting, but it is naturally a display piece in the room and everyone’s attention is on it multiple times throughout the night. Chelsea loves hydrangea, so I wanted to use as much as I could here, with extra roses and lush floral arrangements tucked throughout.
The main statement was the arched backdrop behind the head table, which really helped to frame the wedding party in the very large room. We added an absolute ton of smilax to the backdrop, to create a lot of depth against the white walls.
The Bar
The bar was so special! With such a large guest list, they needed a large bar to accommodate everyone, so this was a substantial beast that was custom built for the wedding. Soiree custom-designed the wallpaper for the bar back, we added some floral touches, and mostly tried to keep it as functional as possible while still looking phenomenal.
I can’t believe it’s already been a year! All of your weddings are incredible celebrations, but some have a lot more moving parts and details to sort out, so this one was really rewarding for me. I love the logistical aspect of my job, figuring out how all of the pieces are going to come together and how to do the best job of some of these more spectacular pieces. I’ll forever be grateful to Chelsea and Adam for choosing me to design their wedding, to Soiree and the entire vendor team who made this such a streamlined and successful event, and to my amazing team of designers and setup staff who worked tirelessly to pull everything off. These types of events are not done by just 1 or 2 people — it was a team effort for sure!
Brittany Mahood Photography ~ Soiree Event Planning ~ The Manitoba Museum ~ Brett Anderson ~ Paper & Palm ~ Event Light ~ Beyond the Lounge ~ Planned Perfectly ~ Collective Event Rentals ~ Trend Decor ~ Simply Beautiful Decor ~ Creating a Scene ~ Big City All Star Band ~ Wow Hospitality ~ Jones & Company Wine Merchants ~ MYUZ Artistry ~ Jenna Rae Cakes ~ Luminous String Quartet
Looking for a Wedding Floral Designer in Winnipeg?
If you’re dreaming of anything but a generic wedding, I hope you’ll shoot me an email. Whether you already have a specific vision or want me to dream up something custom just for you, reach out to find out how we can create the perfect ambiance for your wedding.
