Colourful and Fun Winnipeg Art Gallery Wedding

It’s always fun to design for someone I know! Katelin is my brother-in-law’s sister, so I was excited about this Winnipeg Art Gallery wedding from the start. It also became the perfect combination of elements — an art museum, juicy colour, a collab with Soiree Event Planning, my cute niece and nephew as the flower girl and ring bearer…everything was awesome!

If you’ve been around here for any length of time, you’ll know I’m an unapologetic colour lover. This wedding shows you exactly why!

Photos by Cojo Photography

Another day, another one of my favourite colour palettes 😍😍 Katelin was totally on board for colour and I was thrilled. She was really drawn to oranges, and Soiree created this lovely palette of lavenders, peaches, a pop of orange so it wasn’t overwhelming, and a nice base of soft pinks. Some people think neutrals are only white/grey/beige…in my opinion, soft pink is totally a neutral.

Another bonus of August weddings — the LOCAL FLOWERS. Ugh they just make all the difference in the world. We had a ton of locally grown goods for this wedding.

Bridal Bouquet Ingredients: Locally grown foxglove, sweet pea, zinnias, and lisianthus along with cafe latte garden roses, anemones, and ranunculus.

(Pause for a moment to notice my ADORABLE (sassy) niece as flower girl!!)

This ceremony arch was so delicious. We’ve designed similar styles many times, but never in this palette and it was SO juicy and yummy. We wanted it to be fuller at the base and lighter at the top, in part because we were on the WAG rooftop, so we needed to heavily weight the base and ensure it was sturdy enough to not blow over.

Those orange dahlias were total perfection, and added just the right change in texture to pop in here.

Excuse the interruption while I tell you WHY YOU ABSOLUTELY WANT TO HIRE A WEDDING PLANNER. There’s no knowing what’s going to happen at your wedding. For example, there might be a wasp infestation…

While we were setting up the ceremony, there were a few wasps buzzing around and then a few more and then a few more…and I thought “this seems like more than usual” while Deanna was this close to losing her ever-loving mind over them. I walked over to the stone/tree area along the side of the rooftop, and realized I could hear a lot of buzzing. There were hundreds of wasps. I’m known for exaggeration, but there were HUNDREDS.

I went to Andrea from Soiree right away and let her know that we had an issue. And professional that she is, they took care of it. They had to call in an exterminator, who came in SO quickly, and move the cocktail hour from the rooftop to the Skylight Gallery. There were still wasps buzzing around during the ceremony BUT not a single sting because they had been sprayed and were on their way out. Soiree took care of all of this behind the scenes, and didn’t even worry the couple with the details.

SO YEAH. Hire a wedding planner. I’ve got a few recommendations for planners that we love, if you want (and yes, Soiree is on that list!).

Can we take a moment to talk about HOW LUCKY we got with the artwork in Eckhardt Hall?! Dang. One of the things about having a wedding in an art gallery is that you never know what the artwork itself is going to be. I know this very vibrant, colour-celebrating exhibit isn’t ideal for everyone but it was incredibly perfect for Katelin and Derek.

One of the design elements I was MOST looking forward to for Katelin and Derek’s wedding was the base palette of monochromatic pinks at the reception: light pink linen, pink glassware, pink vases, and then of course, tying pink into the flowers with vibrant pops of orange and lavender.

I LOVE how this gave a soft and fresh feeling base for the entire event — definitely something to consider for yourself!

A lot of the time, people get stuck in the idea of “white plus my accent colours” or “our main colour is x and therefore that’s what our linen needs to be.” That’s not necessarily true — I think it can work a lot better if you choose something as your neutral, and use it heavily as a base throughout. Then add your primary colour as a focal point but in fewer areas, and that’s what’s going to pop! Like here, the neutral is the soft pink, and the focal colour(s) are the lavender and orange.

Katelin comes from a family of dance-loving people — I wish I could have been there to see it in person! I am a horrible dancer, but I do love it and wish that I could. At my sister and brother-in-law’s wedding, their parents and friends just had their way with the dance floor and it was so impressive.

A huge thanks to my amazing team of freelancers who helped make this floral magic come together! My associate designer Deanna, Andrea from Addison Taylor Designs, and Andrea from Cameo Flowers. The WAG has a shorter setup timeline (which makes sense, they are open to the public during the day!), so when it comes time to setup, it’s GO TiME and all hands on deck. So grateful for these hands and the way they made my vision come together.

Cojo Photo ~ Soiree Event Planning ~ Winnipeg ARt Gallery ~ Planned Perfectly ~ Collective event rentals ~ Event Light ~ Bailey Delbigio ~ Taylor Neufeld Hair ~ DJ Sir Charles ~ Keith MacPherson

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LOOKING FOR A WEDDING FLORAL AND EVENT DESIGNER IN WINNIPEG?

Getting married at the WAG? Stone House is one of their preferred vendors, and in our completely biased opinion, we’re the best at bringing the space to life 😎

Flowers are the best way to make a statement at your wedding. Whether you already have a specific vision or want me to dream up something custom just for you, reach out to Stone House Creative for stunning bridal bouquets, truly unique ceremony backdrops, and beautiful floral centrepieces to create the perfect ambiance for your wedding! 

Creative Rock N Roll Rainbow Wedding in Winnipeg

Sam and Evan’s rock-n-roll themed rainbow wedding was definitely a career highlight for me. Everything about it was SO creative, so well thought-out. They clearly put in so much effort to consider making their wedding an amazing experience for all of their guests, as well as for themselves. The personalization level was top-notch. The music was amazing. The ceremony was so engaging.

And obviously, the florals were 🤌🏻 You know I LIVE for colour and this palette and overall design that Soiree Event Planning created was just DIVINE and such a delight to flower for.

Photos by Joel & Justyna

There are endless things to say about how wonderful this wedding was. They hosted their guests on Sam’s parent’s private property in Charleswood — it’s one of those amazing places where you don’t realize the yard is going to be big enough and then you walk out the back door and discover that it’s TOTALLY PERFECT.

The ceremony faced the river, with a clear top tent installed beside it. Guests entered through the house, enjoyed a welcome cocktail on the patio, and then walked across the shaded lawn to a long, narrow aisle. Samantha’s walk down the aisle was breathtaking — it was deliciously dramatic, with her beige veil with custom embroidery catching the breeze.

The couple are music lovers, and came up with a clever wedding slogan: “Stairway to Evan.” This was embroidered on Sam’s veil and it was just so stunning. And I mean, her dress. Yes. I know that a colourful dress is not for everyone, but I think we can all agree that her gown was spectacular.

Given the colour in her dress, I wanted to minimize the colours in her bouquet. We definitely wanted to hit the creamy/beige tones, and the red. I decided to add in the violet to play off the rest and just love how it worked. This was one of my fave bouquets of the year, and Sam’s, too — Sam had it preserved by Stephanie Singh in Toronto and sent me a picture of her tear drops on the box as she packed it up! Click here to see how it turned into an incredible art piece.

Bridal Bouquet Ingredients: anthurium, nina and sahara roses, lavender sweet pea, red ranunculus, and lavender phalaenopsis orchids.

Sam’s career is in the colour world, so she had a ton of Pantone swatches that she thought could be used. Enter, the creative genius of Michelle from Soiree. She took the couple’s love for Big White (the ski hill where they first met, had their first kiss, and have vacationed many times) and transformed these Pantone swatches into an art piece / photo backdrop inspired by the mountain ranges.

The Big White theme kept coming, with this incredible seating chart also conceptualized by Soiree. They took the run map and created individual lift tags for each guest, which told guests which table they were at as well as became their ticket to get into the after party. ADORABLE.

And obviously, we added some slick colour blocked floral to enhance it.

This isn’t the first time I’ve done a rainbow wedding with Soiree — we did one at Whitetail Meadow a few years ago, but with a very different overall style. Take a look!

OHHHHKAY. The ceremony florals were my favourite. Evan constructed the open air chapel beams — amazing. We went back and forth on a few ideas for aisle florals, and always knew that we wanted a dramatic altar with colour-blocked floral pillars. They needed to be pretty tall and full to suit the scale of the white aisle beams.

Down the aisle, I decided to grow up clustered florals around the chapel uprights. We wanted to camoflauge any grass damage (there wasn’t much, in the end) and just blend amp up the colour and the garden-inspired ambiance even more.

I could have lived here happily for the rest of my life.

And here comes the tent! The Soiree team worked SO diligently on this layout to maximize the design and it paid off. White linens paired with clear and smoke chairs, to set a minimal base. The tables were carefully laid out to colour block the entire tent. We decided on three different centrepiece styles (a full floral arrangement in a compote, a low floral arrangement with no visible vase, and a clustering of unique stem and smaller vases), per colour. This meant that my team never made the same arrangement more than 3 or 4 times — it was so refreshing and creatively inspiring.

My favourite part of the tablescapes was the custom-made, colour-blocked velvet charger plates. The Soiree team handmade them all and anytime I asked them “isn’t that going to be a big project?!” Michelle would say, “oh, it’s not bad! You just do this and do this and and and” and I was astonished. But the effort was OBVIOUSLY worth it.

The head table was so perfectly coordinated to hit the entire rainbow palette with detailed colour-blocking. The charger plates lined up perfectly with the centrepieces, and lined up perfectly with the seating. You’ll notice a mix of velvet and leather chairs and sofas used for seating for the wedding party at the head table, and we sprinkled in bud vases and candles in the entire range of colours down the length of the table. So fun!

I also had Meg Does Pottery, a local artist, create a couple of ADORABLE bud vases custom for the head table in the red/lilac palette. They’re on my shelf and I will love them forever.

My team was SO mighty. I’m so grateful for their hard work! It’s always a long week, and a long wedding day, and it’s so rewarding to see it all come together but it’s exhausting nonetheless.

Deanna, Emily, Vanessa, Andrea, Chad, Tricia — thank you all SO much. My hands certainly couldn’t have gotten this much done alone.

Joel & Justyna Photography ~ Picture and Poet ~ Soiree Event Planning ~ Planned Perfectly ~ COllective event rentals ~ Trend Rentals & Decor ~ Event Light ~ beyond the lounge ~ two fold paper co ~ Cathy Wiebe Clothing (AFter party Dress and custom veil) ~ BERTA ~ MYUZ Artistry ~ Creating a Scene

My Best Friend's Wedding: A Colourful Farm Wedding During Covid

How is a wedding designer supposed to feel when her cousin/lifelong best friend starts to plan her wedding? Excited, inspired, super happy…and in my case, also stressed lol!

Roberta and Fernando were originally going to have about 150 people at the Winnipeg Art Gallery with a ceremony at her parents’ farm. Since Fer is from Mexico, and his family lives there, obviously that meant major changes to the wedding plans. They still wanted to get married, but they pivoted: everything would now be on the farm just outside of Stonewall, and since his family couldn’t be there, the guest list would be massively reduced to the bare minimum: the bride’s parents and siblings, my sister and myself, and the groom’s best man and his wife.

It may have been small, but dang it was mighty.

You can read some of Roberta’s reflections on what it was like to plan her wedding during Covid in an earlier blog post, here!

Here’s what you need to know about Roberta and Fer: They love colour. So much colour. Roberta has always been a jewel tones girl and I’ve been planning her bouquet for years already. Fernando is a neon guy, and orange is his favourite colour.

I won’t lie, orange can make me nervous…but this wedding converted me. In the right dosage and shade, I now will happily proclaim that orange can be awesome.

Like, did I ever think that a burnt orange suit would be the most amazing? And yet, it totally was.

One of my VERY favourite parts of the wedding: the custom-made bumblebees made by Toronto artist Golden Age Botanicals. Roberta and Fernando met on Bumble (hence “we swiped right” on the hankie above!) and I wanted to reference that in a unique, fun way. They were incredibly realistic (the bride’s brother got quite the fright) and are now keepsakes in the couple’s home!

I just love making colourful bouquets! Roberta told me she trusted me fully and I knew she did, but being that she’s my cousin, making her bouquet was a strangely detached process for me. I was a little stressed about it! She likes an organic look but is a classic girl to her core, so I wanted to blend those styles together while not going too far in either direction. And of course, jewel tones were the primary request!

Bridal Bouquet Ingredients: locally grown dahlias, zinnias, sweet pea, cosmos, scabiosa and gomphrena with imported ranunculus, garden roses, waxflower and foliages.

I absolutely HAVE to mention that many of the flowers that I used were locally grown, right here in Manitoba. I feel like I talk about locally grown flowers all the time, but in case you’ve missed the memo, these are my favourite flowers to design with. The colour, the texture, the hardiness…it is all unmatched by the vast majority of imported flowers. More plusses: fewer chemicals, far less travel-related environmental impact, the opportunity to support a local business that pays living wages to its employees, and the list goes on and on. For this wedding, I also got to use some blooms from the mother of the bride’s garden, which I loved!

Roberta came to me with 2 inspiration pictures: one of a ceremony with mismatched chairs, and the other with a serpentine dinner table.

Her dad mowed a clearing into the pasture, a short walk through the oaks from the house. I can’t communicate how magical this space was! Because her dad was also officiating the wedding, Roberta walked most of the aisle alone, and the look on her face was so joyful and expectant. Fer was standing up at the altar, already crying when he turned to see her, with his family Facetiming to join in.

We debated between an arch or freestanding floral pieces for the altar, but I always knew that I wanted to have the aisle “planted.” Roberta’s mom loves to garden so this would be a perfect project for her to take charge on. The aisle planters and some of the wood pedestals were made by the woods teacher at Roberta’s school, and I just loved the opportunity to bring so much colour to the already stunning wooded scene.

One of the great things about these very intimate weddings is the atmosphere. There’s no stress, there’s no feeling like you have to put on a “show.” Case in point, Roberta’s brother played her down the aisle on acoustic guitar. Their other sister was to cue him…but something happened and he started playing too early. She hissed his name and made that “cut it” hand signal across her neck…and it was just plain funny! We all sat there and grinned but didn’t feel any worry about people seeing or things not going perfectly. He then came in at the right time, and it was, indeed, perfect.

After the ceremony, we celebrated with a group toast at the end of the aisle. The servers from CHEW so kindly set this all up for us in complete silence while the ceremony was going on, so it was all ready as soon as the vows were said!

Post-ceremony, Esther Funk led the way with a few group and family portraits in the ceremony site, and then the wedding party drove down the road to an old stone barn (you might recognize the scene from this wedding and featured on Once Wed here!). This site used to belong to our ancestors, and is right across the road from where I grew up (in a stone house, obviously!). The stone walls were the foundation of a barn that was demolished many years ago, but the ruins are so stunning, and make an incredible backdrop for photos. I had my own wedding photos taken here 10 years ago!

Alright, here we are at the reception! We set up under the oak trees on the front lawn of Roberta’s parents’ house. With cafe lights strung from the trees and music softly playing, once again the atmosphere was so incredible. There were 15 of us and with the exception of the best man and his wife, we’re all family so dining under the stars together really just felt like the best, most celebratory family dinner we’ve ever had. It felt so comfortable, so content — it was the best evening I’ve spent in a long time.

Here’s a look at those serpentine tables Roberta envisioned! One unexpected bonus about using serpentine tables is that the curve forces you to sit farther apart than you usually would set a table. Not exactly the 6 feet of social distancing, but definitely less close. They are a little tricky to cover with linen, so we had to play around with pleating and layering the blush linen we selected as a more neutral base.

The centrepieces were basically the only part of the decor plan we never had to change! We were always going to use my copper bowl as the vessel, and fill them with a riot of colourful flowers. I also had Roberta’s mom plant small terracotta planters with flowers and herbs to fill in the tablescape with. I wish more people did this!

Because of the reduced guest count, it was within their reach to splurge on rentals that they otherwise wouldn’t have been able to afford for 150+ people. We chose cross-back chairs from Planned Perfectly for the guests and fun dark blue velvet chairs from Trend Decor for the couple. China from the bride’s mom and grandmother’s collections was layered for the place settings, and then we selected gold flatware, gold-rimmed wine glasses, and light pink glass water goblets from C&T Rentals. We finished the place settings with white linen napkins that we added our own navy fringe trim to, adding in some whimsy and reinforcing the dark blue in the palette. And when I say “we”, I mean that I ordered the fringe on Etsy and my mom sewed them onto the napkins 😂

You know I’m a huge fan of coloured candles, and for good reason! Can you imagine how boring white candles would have been here? The mix of harvest gold and navy pillar candles, with tropical pink votive candles, layer in depth to the table without feeling out of place. I always buy my coloured candles from Yummi.

This wedding was so much more meaningful to me to be a guest and bridesmaid at. I didn’t experience the amount of emotion experienced by all of you who have had to decide between going ahead with vastly different weddings than you imagined, or postponing. None of 2020 was easy. I know that it’s not over yet, either.

But if I learned anything from this wedding, it’s this:

You and your love absolutely deserve to be celebrated.

Whether you want that to be in small or huge ways, whether you want to go ahead with it or postpone until later, this day deserves to be celebrated. And I hope that when your wedding day does arrive, you can put aside the stress and anxiety that planning a wedding during covid has caused you, and let go to celebrate.

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I want to say a huge thank you to all of the vendors who took part in making this wedding so amazing. 2020 was a really hard one to be in the wedding and events industry, so anytime we got to make magic happen was really special.

Esther Funk Photography ~ Stone House Creative ~ Bliss Bridal Boutique ~ Essense of australia ~ BHLDN ~ RW & Co ~ Planned Perfectly ~ C&T Rentals ~ Trend Rentals & Decor ~ Chew ~ The Blushing Blonde ~ Justine Barry Artistry

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LOOKING FOR A WEDDING FLORAL AND EVENT DESIGNER IN WINNIPEG?

Getting married in 2022? Appointments to plan your dream florals are now available. Click the button below to get started!

Flowers are the best way to make a statement at your wedding. Whether you already have a specific vision or want me to dream up something custom just for you, reach out to Stone House Creative for stunning bridal bouquets, truly unique ceremony backdrops, and beautiful floral centrepieces to create the perfect ambiance for your wedding! 

Girls Gone Mild: Laidback Summer Bachelorette Party

When you work in the wedding industry and your cousin/life-long built-in best friend gets married, you do what you can to celebrate in a BIG way. And with Roberta’s wedding coming up THIS WEEKEND, I thought this would be the perfect time to show you how her laidback summer bachelorette party came together!

Bachelorette parties (along with basically every other event that requires people) are all VERY different in this Covid world. There’s not really a responsible way of going out on the town in the same way as we used to…so, girls gone mild, anyone?

My sister and I are 2 of 3 bridesmaids (the other lives in BC and wasn’t able to come just for the party), and we hosted the party on my sister’s back patio. Knowing that Roberta is a pretty laid-back person and doesn’t go for anything too wild anyways, the girls gone mild theme with a slight Mexican twist was perfect (her fiance is Mexican, after all, so we HAD to play to the stereotypes lol!). Our goal was really just to create a great ambiance, so that our guests could have a relaxing night, making jokes, playing games, and eating good food.

Basically the only reason why this set up looks as good as it does is because of Trend Decor. We’re so lucky that Maureen from Trend offers an awesome selection of lounge furniture, because the only other real option for lounge pieces in Winnipeg is very glam white leather, which was not our vibe. I had my van loaded with all of her pieces — obviously we chose a lot of the rattan accents, and I really wanted to find a way to hang the lanterns (luckily they’re SUPER lightweight so we just looped them around the patio lights), and we sprinkled in some black accents as well as using a few of my sister’s patio pieces.

I’ll tell you what: if you’re unsure what to do to make your bride-to-be feel special during this weird Covid time, get a photographer to come to your party for a few minutes. It’s so special to have photos of Roberta and her girlfriends! Mary-Margaret Magyar Photography came, and we are SO grateful for her!

Obviously I added flowers. I made a few arrangements here and there, using exclusively locally grown flowers, along with a selfie wall with garlands of bright orange marigolds, and fuchsia and purple carnations. It’s lucky for me that Roberta LOVES bright colours so I could really indulge in a palette that has no subtlety at all 😂 I also added a few mini garlands to her chair!

Guests came into the backyard and were greeted with hand sanitizer, a cocktail, and the selfie station.

Watermelon Margaritas

-Frozen watermelon
-1 can lime-aid-Tequila
-Triple Sec
-Add fresh watermelon when blending
-Garnish with a piece of watermelon (or don’t, if you forget about it like we did ha!)

I thought I’d share my original design board! I create one of these for each of my events. The only thing that I envisioned that didn’t happen was the bridal sombrero…it arrived the day AFTER the party 🙄

I’m so glad that we could celebrate my dear Roberta! Wedding events have felt really different this year, but let me tell you, this woman deserves to be celebrated. She’s incredibly generous, always the first to lend a hand (in fact, she stayed late after her own bachelorette party to wash the dishes), and is a kind and caring friend.

We could not have made this party quite as beautiful without a lot of help from the following Winnipeg wedding vendors:

Photos: Mary-Margaret Magyar Photography
LoungE, Glassware, Flatware Rentals: Trend Decor
Bride’s Makeup: Justine Barry Artistry
Bride’s Dress: Anthropologie

Lauda and Jeremy's Colourful Summer Wedding at Pineridge Hollow

I loved being a part of this colourful summer wedding at Pineridge Hollow. When we first met, Lauda sort of had a vision for her wedding flowers, but it hadn't completely come together yet. By the day of the wedding, it all came together so beautifully. It was incredibly fun for me to work with all of this colour, and I used about 90% locally grown flowers so I loved that even more! 

I love these photos from Sugar & Soul Photography so much! 

As featured on Host Winnipeg.

Laura's bridal bouquet was cheerful, vibrant, whimsical, and a complete breath of fresh air for me. It's so fun to design something that's different from the norm. Her bouquet included: Foxglove (one of my faves!), dahlias, zinnias, cosmos, marigold, asclepia, and veronica. I loved using this rich palette of purple, magenta, pink, orange, and blue. 

A few days after the wedding, Lauda stopped by with a thank you card, and a mini bouquet of flowers she had picked out of her own garden. They matched perfectly with the flowers in her bouquet - it was so sweet of her!

Aren't the purple bridesmaid dresses just perfect with the colour palette? And you know I love tiny flower girl bouquets! The lovely bridesmaid at the end is my friend, Tracey! We used to work together.

I'm not sure where this garden is that the couple went with Mel from Sugar & Soul Photography, but it is just flower heaven. Isn't this the perfect summertime setting?

Over at Pineridge Hollow, more colour was in order! The tent is so white and clean, which of course is lovely, but it just begs for colour. I loved Lauda's idea - we used different sized jars and containers to line the tables, each with a bouquet of colourful, locally grown flowers! Jeremy built this incredible wood backdrop to place behind the head table, and isn't it beautiful? It added so much to the space.