Moody Romantic Wedding at the Leaf
Welcome to Tara and Adam’s moody, romantic wedding at the Leaf in early September.
When we start our floral discussions, I always clients (and their planners) to tell me about the overall vibe they’re hoping to achieve. Tara said, “romantic, moody, with lots of lighting and candles, and focusing on making it a memorable experience for guests.” I LOVE that. Such a fun brief for us to get creative within!
Welcome to Tara and Adam’s moody, romantic wedding at the Leaf in early September.
When we start our floral discussions, I always clients (and their planners) to tell me about the overall vibe they’re hoping to achieve. Tara said, “romantic, moody, with lots of lighting and candles, and focusing on making it a memorable experience for guests.” I LOVE that. Such a fun brief for us to get creative within!
Photos by Brittany Mahood
This palette — whew! It started off as mostly white, green, and gold. I wanted to bring more richness and depth to it, so I started tucking some cappuccino and brown tones into my floral design board, along with some of those neutral pinks — the idea was to transition pink into a fall palette. As you scroll, you’ll see how that developed in the reception with the perfect linen selections and the custom stationery. This couldn’t have come together more beautifully, and I forever want to use brown ninebark in everything from now on.
Bridal Bouquet Ingredients: Cappuccino and cafe latte garden roses, magic mocca spray roses, white ranunculus, and locally grown lisianthus, orlaya, jewel of opar, ninebark, and explosion grass.
The ceremony took place in the Leaf Performance Gardens. When we started planning, this site was actually developed yet so we tentatively decided on a loose plan of ground-based pieces, and it worked perfectly in the end. I even incorporated some potted plants that corresponded with the gardens (and they’re now planted in my garden!).
Listen. You can fight me if you want to, but I might be almost fully converted to a lily lover. These rose lilies (double blooms) are particularly spectacular. They don’t always have a place, but in installations like this where I am desperately looking for anything with a non-circle shape to bring some architectural variety, the star shape of a lily can really elevate a design and bring a lot of visual interest. I love roses, but I can’t JUST use roses, and basically everything available to us at the wholesale level is round so I need something different!
See what I mean about the depth of this palette looking SO chic and delicious in the reception?
One design element that I really wanted to hit on when designing the tablescapes was repeated clear glass elements. I knew that would work perfectly with the clear acrylic chairs, and pick up on the twinkling of all the candlelight. I chose clear glass vases for the floral centrepieces, as well as all the bud vases and candle holders.
The overall space felt so warm, so welcoming, and just held a really beautiful, modern and moody ambiance.
Bonus — a large majority of these flowers were locally grown!
I love a good floor plan that integrates multiple table shapes. A room with all round tables can just get really boring, really quickly. Connie at Harlow designed this floor plan around the dance floor and the bar, making them 2 natural focal points in the room.
The dance floor featured a twinkle light canopy, flanked on three sides by long banquet tables and by the band stand on the other side. Round tables were set outside of these, with another long banquet table along the exterior wall with windows, mirroring the bar on the opposite end of the room. This was a really nice way to use the Leaf space!
I loved the place settings! The “toffee” napkin paired with “taupe” linen (all from Planned Perfectly was such a gorgeous combination that added femininity and richness. The personalized menus by Blake Creative Co were also the PERFECT colour.
On the round tables, we placed a medium size floral arrangement, incorporating the full palette and some fun locally grown textures. I flanked that with a collection of different candle holders with soft taupe and beige candles for a little more depth.
The long tables featured those repeated clear glass elements, with the taupe and beige taper candles in clear hurricanes, votives on gold-rimmed and gold-based candle holders, and a mix of stem vases with petite stems in each. The gold flatware and clear carousel goblets were a really nice finishing touch.
And by the way, all these vases and candle holders are part of my rental collection :)
We need to give a MOMENT to this bar. This is the perfect example of why you need to trust your vendors and leave it in our hands to create the good stuff. Connie from Harlow had planned out the curved bar with the black bar backs, framed with those gorgeous gold chandeliers hanging above and a gold pedestal at the front (which served a dual purpose, first with the signature cocktails and then later with the wedding cake). We were intending to repurpose some ceremony flowers but hadn’t really settled on anything specific.
As soon as we walked into the room during setup and saw the bar with the chandeliers, it looked good — it looked really good! But the scale felt a bit off. It’s hard to get the scale right when we’re just at the mercy of what rental items we have available to us (we have a smaller rental market here in Winnipeg, so a huge kudos to our planners and event designers who roll up their sleeves to constantly be reinventing what we have and find new ways to display it all!). I digress — but the shelving unit felt a bit short.
Enter, the Stone House team. Rather than putting flowers on the bar top as was the original plan, I asked Connie if we could veto that and instead line the top of the shelving units with flowers. She is always down for whatever we suggest, and DANG, DID IT TURN OUT GREAT. I picked my three favourite pieces from the ceremony ground floral nest, and placed them on top of the shelves (we weighted them down to make sure they were nice and sturdy up there), placed another in the centre of the bar behind the signature cocktails menu, and tucked a few more on the floor to camouflage the base the truss system that suspended the light fixtures. The bar became an immediate focal point in the room, which I always love to do, because people are going to spending a lot of time there, anyways!
This lighting canopy over the dance floor was SO special. I love the idea of twirling around together (I mean…if you can dance. Which Tara and Adam clearly can!) for your first dance under this romantic canopy of lights with all the rest of the room dimmed. Especially when you have a live band like Big City!
LOOKING FOR A WEDDING FLORAL AND EVENT DESIGNER IN WINNIPEG?
Planning a wedding at the Leaf and want to elevate the space? I’d love to be your floral designer.
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!
Luxurious Fall Wedding at Canadian Museum for Human Rights
Modern, luxurious, and sleek were the words Soiree Event Planning used to describe what they envisioned for Michelle and Adam’s late October wedding. With it taking place at The Canadian Museum for Human Rights, the setting created the perfect moody ambiance to carry it all off.
Modern, luxurious, and sleek were the words Soiree Event Planning used to describe what they envisioned for Michelle and Adam’s late October wedding. With it taking place at The Canadian Museum for Human Rights, the setting created the perfect moody ambiance to carry it all off.
Michelle wore several gowns throughout the day — first, her mother’s (or possibly her grandmother’s? I can’t remember!), and then one of her own, and then a fun dress for the party. This vintage gown was so elegant and such a beautiful touch for their church ceremony.
Photos by Brittany Mahood Photography
It doesn’t happen often, but I LOVE when I get to style the flatlays. It’s such a fun creative challenge to create a beautiful memory for the couple. These invitations were GORGEOUS — the blind embossing on the cardstock! I especially loved the dried baby’s breath tucked into their wax seal — such a great touch. I referenced that with the fresh baby’s breath blossoms that I sprinkled over the invite suite. I love the life that fresh flowers bring, and the depth that added as well.
Fall bouquet deliciousness. Rich, luxurious, and moody — I’m so grateful there are good images of this bouquet, because I didn’t manage to get a single one myself! Don’t these rich pink and plum tones look divine against those deep green velvet bridesmaid dresses?
Bridal Bouquet Ingredients: cafe latte garden rose, sweet escimo rose, deep plum ranunculus, deep plum dahlias, blush snowberry, almost black scabiosa, and touches of Israeli ruscus. All tied up with black ribbon.
The ceremony. One of Winnipeg’s oldest churches, with ornate wood detailing, stained glass, and a long centre aisle, St Luke’s Parish was the perfect location for a warm, luxurious design and a romantic ceremony.
Our focal point was a deconstructed arch, composed of a base of textural baby’s breath (we used two varieties for more visual interest and coverage), and then clustered in sections of moody florals in mixed plum, burgundy, and pink tones. We focused on roses, mums, smoke bush, and some really incredible antique hydrangea.
I also added baby’s breath pew hooks to the pews. They looked so cute, but let me tell you what — I spent AN ENTIRE DAY making these. I thought I’d be able to whip them out in one morning and it just took forever 😂 Some things you just don’t expect!
The reception design was sleek and modern, featuring a ton of airy baby’s breath and a really great floor plan.
With different size and shape tables, we designed 3 different table centres: a tall, airy cloud of baby’s breath on round tables with an additional mini cloud at the base, a full length baby’s breath runner with floral tucked throughout on two long family tables, and a shorter baby’s breath garland on short rectangular tables.
We layered in black taper candles and mixed smoke glass votives, which worked perfectly with Planned Perfectly’s smoke glassware and a combination of deep green velvet linens and grey linens.
I recall Michelle being uncertain about using the emerald velvet linens — in my opinion, green is basically a neutral, so for any of you who might be unsure, I’d say to go for it! I’m sure you’d all agree that they look amazing in this context.
Long, single-sided head tables can be such a challenge to design because they’re just not that interesting. It’s always in my mind to try to figure out some different ideas for decor and I think this one turned out great!
We repurposed the ceremony arch behind the table, and added mixed candles and florals along the top of the table. I wanted to create some tabletop baby’s breath clouds, to tie through the design. The black candle boxes were rented from Collective, and I tucked in a few more black pillar candles and smoke glass votives as well (part of my rental collection!).
The Soiree team crafted such a stunning design. This room felt grand, modern, and very luxurious. Details were not missed, and that’s one of the reasons why I love working with them. I know that the clients will be well served, but it’s also a great experience to work on their vendor teams because their logistics and their designs are both well thought-out (not just one or the other).
Cute little fact — I had no idea that there was such a huge height difference between Adam and Michelle until I saw their photos, as I hadn’t met him beforehand. I think it’s over a foot difference!
I so loved being part of this wedding, and I had a great team of people helping me. Deanna, as always, along with Kirsty and Emily. We worked all week out of our wholesaler’s warehouse (I didn’t have enough space at my studio!) and it was so rewarding to see it all come together.
Brittany Mahood Photography ~ Soiree Event Planning ~ Canadian Museum for Human Rights ~ Planned Perfectly ~ Collective Event Rentals ~ Event Light ~ Rhyme & RHYthm ~ Two Fold Paper Co ~ Myuz Artistry
LOOKING FOR A WEDDING FLORAL AND EVENT DESIGNER IN WINNIPEG?
Dates book fast at the Human Rights Museum. Contact us today about our availability!
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!
Luxurious Wine-Inspired Fall Wedding at Hawthorn Estates
I’ve been so looking forward to Ana and Sam’s luxurious, wine-inspired fall wedding at Hawthorn Estates because I have been so excited for the venue! Since seeing the plans for their re-build after the fire they experienced two winters ago, I knew that it was going to be a STUNNING venue for weddings. They made so many good decisions in terms of the structure’s design and finishings, and even better for me, they added in so many features that make it really easy for floral and event designers like me to have a LOT of flower fun :)
Sugar & Soul Photography ~ Amanda Douglas Events ~ Hawthorn Estates ~ Planned Perfectly ~ Bliss Bridal Boutique ~ High Tea Bakery ~ Urban Prairie Cuisine
Okay, flower time! Ana wanted a pretty good sized bouquet with a slight cascading shape, but a modern take on it. I still designed this with a hand-tied method (meaning no floral foam - #yay for the environment!!), and layered in different blooms in shades of deep reds, light pinks, and creams with plenty of greenery.
Bridal Bouquet Ingredients: Secret garden roses, black beauty roses, white majolica spray roses, burgundy cymbidium orchids, burgundy dahlias, white waxflower, burgundy hypericum berries, burgundy astilbe, with several types of foliages.
For the church ceremony, the couple requested some flowers at the front of the church to define the altar space, garland-style aisle arrangements, and something for the back of the two chairs they’d sit in at the front. I chose to feature the cymbidium orchids throughout the ceremony florals.
Given how awesome Hawthorn Estates is and how well-built it is, I decided that we should take full advantage and create multiple floral focal points throughout the room: 1) the head table 2) the fireplace and 3) the entry way/staircase. Thanks to the couple’s planner, Amanda Douglas Events, for letting me do what I do here and just giving me full reign!
The Head Table
Hawthorn thoughtfully included a sturdy set of move-able arms that can extend from the wall behind the head table to allow for a hanging installation over the table. Whoop whoop! Love it. They also have a vintage ladder that typically hangs here, though I don’t believe that you have to use it if you don’t like that vibe. For Ana and Sam, it worked perfectly as a base for the full hanging arrangement that I was planning. I loved adding in the hanging orchid blooms - Ana’s mom had the idea of incorporating orchids, and I ended up with the MOST FULL stems of cymbidium orchids I’ve ever experienced so I had a ton of leftover blooms and was super excited to add them into this design. Pretty good for a last minute addition, eh?
I decided to add in mixed greenery and grapes lining the front of the head table, for colour and texture as well as to emphasize the wine theme. I also really loved the idea of creating a vine-like piece behind the head table, so I “grew up” some viney greenery on the beams on either side of the head table.
The Fireplace
First of all, don’t judge Mel from Sugar & Soul on the above photo. That was taken with my iphone and I just wanted to include it so you could see the full set up :) I know it’s nowhere near as good as what hers would have been!
The fireplace is built of beautiful, neutral stone with a gorgeous driftwood mantle. We kept this design fairly similar to the head table in terms of the elements included - greenery, grapes, and coordinating florals in cut glass stem vases. Since this wasn’t the main focal point in the room, I didn’t want to go over the top with the design - though I can envision some AMAZING things happening with this fireplace and florals if this were to be the backdrop for your head table! I have so many good ideas and will just keep them percolating for the right couple :)
THE ENTRANCE STAIRCASE
This piece came about through me wanting to find a really good way to incorporate both the ceremony aisle garlands, along with adding more vine-like greenery to the space. As you can see, I decided to “grow” greenery up the main post and the staircase, adding a luxurious component that certainly isn’t necessary in this beautiful of a space, but still adds a little something extra special!
For the guest tables, Amanda Douglas Events had helped the couple choose these beautiful, soft metallic table linens that looked really good with the colouring of the venue and with the chairs. We decided on a low centrepiece (truth be told, I’m often hesitant to do tall centrepieces in most spaces - something about them just so often feels off in my opinion), with florals and colours to coordinate with the rest of the wedding. Burgundy and light pink roses, touches of cream, and plenty of green in my bronze urn were perfect on the tables.
You guys can’t imagine how disappointed I was to be pregnant when I saw this unreal charcuterie display from CHEW. Invited guest or not, I would not have been able to resist stealing a few little bites had I been medically allowed! And the incredible dessert display below from High Tea Bakery was so tempting (in fact, I did take a tiny bite of gluten free brownie after helping to set up the whole table and it was DELISH).
Thank you, Ana and Sam, for trusting me with your vision and letting me run with it! I loved being able to work in this new space. It was awesome to not feel restricted to what had been done in the space previously, because it was literally being built while we were planning their wedding! And by the way, if you’re a Hawthorn couple, I have SO many ideas for florals and design in here (including some really sweet ideas for a ceremony in their solarium area!) and I’d love to talk with you about your wedding!
And yes, it did snow on their wedding day. So much for a September wedding!
Looking for a Wedding Floral and Event Designer in Winnipeg?
My 2020 waitlist has already been started, and couples interested in full event and floral design will be contacted first about their dates. I offer a limited number of dates for event design each year, in order to allow me to work closely with each couple. Combining event and floral design is the perfect option for couples who live out of town, or couples who feel they need a little extra help in creating the visual plan for their wedding day. Click this link to learn more!