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.
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.
Modern Garden Wedding at The White Poplar
I absolutely LOVE working at The White Poplar and I will shout it from the rooftops! So when Tori and Ian inquired about their wedding (more than a year and a half in advance!) I was already pumped. Then they brought on the best vendor team, and a gorgeous design plan, and I was in wedding design heaven.
Tori has a really classic style, and we wanted to meet it with modern sensibility — so a crisp palette of black and white was chosen, with warm taupes and mixed greens added.
Photos by Brittany Mahood Photography
I absolutely LOVE working at The White Poplar and I will shout it from the rooftops! So when Tori and Ian inquired about their wedding (more than a year and a half in advance!) I was already pumped. Then they brought on the best vendor team, and a gorgeous design plan, and I was in wedding design heaven.
Tori has a really classic style, and we wanted to meet it with modern sensibility — so a crisp palette of black and white was chosen, with warm taupes and mixed greens added.
Photos by Brittany Mahood Photography
“Lauren, I cannot thank you enough for your beautiful work. It was truly better than I could have imagined! I spent so much time on the dance floor just staring at the arch, it was insane!! Thank you thank you thank you 💕”
— Tori and Ian
There’s something about the shape of Tori’s beautiful gown that reminds me of Maria from The Sound of Music. It is so refined! Her pearl-dotted hair and veil were the perfect finishing touches. And isn’t the green tone they bridesmaids chose gorgeous? This was a September wedding, so we definitely didn’t have “fall” leaves yet but the richness of the green was very seasonally appropriate.
Tori requested a classic cascading bouquet, and I initially made it WAY too big because the flowers were just so lush and divine. Late summer is the perfect time for locally grown flowers, and we had them in abundance for Tori.
If you’ve been around here a while, you know that I’m a lover of lots of colour. That’s just my personal preference, but part of that is also because a lot of white weddings look the same. Designers tend to gravitate toward their few favourite ingredients, so it’s tricky to see how to pull through the client’s individual style along with the designer’s style.
I actually designed quite a lot of white weddings this year, and I made it a mission to make them each unique. My secret weapon: locally grown flowers. Tori’s wedding had SO many.
Bridal Bouquet Ingredients: white lisianthus, roses, dahlias, anemones, sweet pea, and snowberry combined with olive and stephanotis vines.
One of many reasons why The Poplar is an incredible place to get married: the photo ops! The natural setting is really stunning.
This ceremony because such a beautiful focal point for the day! Their service was personal and relaxed, and of course, I loved the florals. When your backdrop is a wall of trees, we need to be careful with a green and white palette, so that the arch you’re investing money into doesn’t get blend right into the scenery.
The couple loved the idea of an asymmetrical 2 piece arch, with full white and green coverage. Gorgeous — but also, very easy to end up looking like every other white and green wedding. It’s always a priority for me to make each wedding look unique, so I decided to focus on selecting ingredients that would feel fresh.
For any white wedding, I almost always use playa blanca roses. They open up HUGE and have such a gorgeous shape. But again, even though they’re the perfect rose, I needed to add something that would be unique. So, I cut and dried locally grown green hydrangea — they dry exactly like they look fresh, so I didn’t have to worry about a water source. We clustered these in different groupings along the arch structure, and then focused on lots of white lisianthus (locally grown, whenever I can get them!), the roses, white delphinium for a few fluttery touches, and some clustered white ball dahlias.
We added 2 large arrangements at the back of the aisle to tie the entire space together.
Reception time! The building at The White Poplar is so great — those large front doors, the patio leading to the ceremony site, and all those clear walls make for a great blank space.
The first thing guests saw when they entered was this beautiful seating chart, where we repurposed the aisle flowers. The tables flowed from there, with long tables lining the centre of the room and round tables along the outsides. A sweetheart table was positioned in front of the fireplace.
Soiree Event Planning chose the perfect matte black flatware to accent the industrial black chairs, and a gorgeous dark olive napkin. For the long tables, we clustered petite arrangements in black and grey smoke glass vases (all white, mostly locally grown florals!), and added in ribbed grey smoke glass votives along with soft green taper candles.
The round tables featured a fuller floral arrangement in a matte black vase, complimented by assorted sizes and styles of candles for a more collected but still modern look.
Tip for weddings at The White Poplar: affix your place cards to your menus, and tuck them into your napkins. It can be very windy out there!
Tori and Ian literally told me that flowers weren’t a huge priority for them, but what was a priority was the overall design, and making sure that everything was the appropriate scale and just “felt right.” We went through a few revisions of the floral plan to make sure that we had it right, and I think it came together pretty perfectly between the simpler but still interesting floral centrepieces and the way we repurposed the ceremony florals.
Looking for a Wedding Floral Designer in Winnipeg?
Planning a wedding at The White Poplar? I’ve got a list of design dreams I cannot wait to make a reality. I’d love to be your designer!
Flowers are the best way to make a statement at your wedding. 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!
Modern Meets Whimsical Wedding at the WAG
Jess and Nick’s wedding took place on the literal hottest day of 2023. 🫠 But we loved it anyway!
The overall design vision called for a modern, intimate feeling wedding (yet with a full guest list) that incorporated garden-inspired whimsy.
Jess and Nick’s wedding took place on the literal hottest day of 2023. 🫠 But we loved it anyway!
The overall design vision called for a modern, intimate feeling wedding (yet with a full guest list) that incorporated garden-inspired whimsy.
With the venue being at the Art Gallery, we didn't have a clue what the exhibit was going to be in the gallery where the reception would be, so we just had to roll with the designing and hope that it worked out in the end — the clean, feminine design style ended up working really well with the bold and colourful exhibit, and the last minute addition of hints of lime added a lot of fun that played off the artwork really well.
Photos by Brittany Mahood Photography
With all the florals, I wanted to warm up whites with taupe and added in accents of lime. The bouquets ended up looking so fantastic with the selection of bridesmaid dresses!
Bridal Bouquet Ingredients: white dahlias, sahara roses, white lisianthus, brown lisianthus, white iris, green amaranthus, white sweet pea, and phalaenopsis orchids.
Jessica's gown is an Alex Perry gown, which she selected from LOHO Bride in LA. It was the perfect combination of classic A-line meets super chic, with a sleek bust line.
Each of the bridesmaids wore a unique dress from different designers, in a kind of mushroom palette (cream, taupe, mocha). They were all floor length, but different silhouettes. The girls looked so great that you'd have no clue it was the hottest day of the entire summer!
We fully sought to blend modern, classic, and garden-inspired design at Jess and Nick's wedding, and the florals and decor were a major component of this.
I love a groom who sheds a few tears. My husband bawled our entire wedding day so seeing Nick tear up is so sweet to me!
The ceremony took place on the WAG rooftop, focusing on a classic black garden arch with whimsical, locally grown florals growing up and around. We included plenty of lime amaranthus, green and white hydrangea, white and brown lisianthus, and Queen Anne's Lace. Several arrangements were also clustered together at the front of the aisle, both had their fair share of work contending with the wind to stay where we wanted them.
And hello to that cute petal toss bar! Prior to guests walking onto the WAG rooftop statue garden, they stopped at a Petal Toss bar, filling up paper cones with cream and blush petals. Luckily one of the photographer assistants reminded a few guests to actually go ahead and toss them, and it made for such a sweet ambiance while the newlyweds walked down the aisle.
And now to downstairs! The reception took place in the former Eckhardt Hall on the main floor of the Winnipeg Art Gallery, featuring a clever floor plan utilizing banquet tables and round tables, and a combination of grey smoke acrylic chairs, gold chivari chairs, and grey banquette seating.
Have I mentioned frequently enough how much I LOVE an interesting floor plan? It creates so much interest in a room, allowing the eye to move or pause, prompting conversation or comfort or dancing depending on where you are in the room.
Notable design elements include: a double-sided seating display (I LOVED the placement of the seating chart at the front of the room!), statement bar florals, fruit incorporated into the tablescape to satisfy Jess's last minute request for some lime green accents, ribbed glass elements, and primarily white florals.
We repurposed the ceremony arch to the cake display (see below!) and the aisle arrangements to the base of the seating chart.
One of the things we need to consider when repurposing an arch is accounting for additional stems to allow us to replace flowers that are spent — especially when the ceremony was outdoors on a hot day. We spent about half an hour moving the ceremony florals from the rooftop down to the main floor, and then refreshing the arch with new blooms.
This might be something that needs to be budgeted for extra, or it might just be something your florist will include in the cost of the arch. Just know that it’s something you definitely want!
The cake and desserts display was set up in the entrance to the Hall, cleverly planned to repurpose the ceremony florals behind while taking up as little space in the floor plan as possible. Trays of mini cheesecakes, cookie sandwiches, cupcakes, and chocolate-dipped pretzels were styled on black and glass shelving and on cream and black ribbed pedestals.
A small vintage-inspired cutting cake (funfetti flavour!) was set on a pedestal, under their repurposed ceremony arch, which made for a super cute photo opp.
Looking for a Wedding Floral & Event Designer in Winnipeg?
Dates at the Winnipeg Art Gallery book quickly, and we’re one of their top designers! Reach out to inquire about your date availability.
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.
Sophistication Meets Modern Wedding at St Charles Country Club
Carlee and Matt’s June wedding at St Charles Country Club was the perfect mixture of sophisticated, timeless design and modern elements! And I do not often think that things are timeless, so that’s quite a lot coming from me lol!
When she first reached out to me, Carlee explained that she was inspired by a Nancy Meyers aesthetic (Parent Trap wedding, anyone?). With Emily from Feast & Festivities, they merged this into a literary and poetic inspired design featuring a mostly white palette with accents of sage and light blue that’s just too good to miss.
Carlee and Matt’s June wedding at St Charles Country Club was the perfect mixture of sophisticated, timeless design and modern elements! And I do not often think that things are timeless, so that’s quite a lot coming from me lol!
When she first reached out to me, Carlee explained that she was inspired by a Nancy Meyers aesthetic (Parent Trap wedding, anyone?). With Emily from Feast & Festivities, they merged this into a literary and poetic inspired design featuring a mostly white palette with accents of sage and light blue that’s just too good to miss.
Photos by Kassandra Donaldson
There’s a funny coincidence, that Emily from Feast & Festivities and I seem to only do white palettes together at St Charles. Take a look at this white rose wedding from last summer, and you’ll see! But I love that with a different take on a floor plan and some different focal design elements, two weddings can look completely unique even if they’re in the same space and with the same palette. Hats off to Emily, for the beautiful event design!
Bridal Bouquet Ingredients: white roses, white garden spray roses, white sweet pea, and olive foliage.
I love the chic black gowns the bridal party wore, and that we paired them with simple white roses. This is a fantastic way to save on your budget, while also making a more modern statement.
The ceremony was on the lawn at St Charles, and though the garden wasn’t in bloom yet (aside from a few peonies, which smelled DIVINE), the arch did all the talking. I used my classic garden arch, and we went for full coverage in a classic design. We didn’t want anything too messy or organic in shape. I used a lot of white roses, along with baby’s breath, stock, and white tulips.
We also placed two ground-based arrangements at the end of the aisle, which were then repurposed onto the fireplace mantle as part of the lounge.
Pretty pretty reception space! St Charles renovated a few years ago, and it’s now a very clean, neutral space with so many great windows. It’s got a bit of an awkward shape, with that L shaped floor plan, but using a mix of round and rectangular tables worked really well.
Emily brought in Beyond the Lounge’s high gloss white banquet tables, which are a bit on the narrow side. So, we kept the centrepieces minimal, just lining the middle of the table with stem vases and candles. One of my favourite touches was a custom scented candle that Emily partnered with Farmer’s Son Co, so the wedding had a subtle scent.
The round tables were draped with a taupe linen, and we placed an all-white compote centrepiece on them. The locally grown tulips that we included were totally the star!
I loved this disco ball and fringe installation over the dance floor! I know they’re trendy, but I just cannot get enough of the shimmer that a disco ball gives off. I’m thinking about hanging one in my office.
I love that the dance floor and lounge area is somewhat separated from the dining space — it gives a really cool opportunity to shift the vibe.
The experience was truly flawless from introduction to execution. She has incredible creative vision—even though the colour palette for my day was mostly white and I knew I wanted to incorporate a lot of roses, she put in thoughtful care and consideration choosing complementary blooms so that each bouquet and installation looked truly intentional and beautiful and visually dynamic. Our ceremony arch was even more breathtaking than what I could have imagined. Lauren hand delivered my bouquet the morning of our wedding, giving us all a few tips about how to hold our flowers and some well wishes for the big day. She was an excellent and organized communicator and clearly goes above and beyond for all of her clients. Couldn’t recommend Lauren more!
Looking for a Wedding Floral Designer in Winnipeg?
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 for stunning bridal bouquets, truly unique ceremony backdrops, and beautiful floral centrepieces to create the perfect ambiance for your wedding!
Modern, Organic Wedding at St Norbert Arts Centre
Every wedding that I’m hired for full event design for is a special project for me. Chantal and Avo were planning from out of town (she’s originally from Manitoba) and we had a few bumps in the road thanks to Covid causing us to postpone a year AND their venue closing a few short months before their wedding.
The creative brief called for a calm, intimate atmosphere (Avo wanted it to feel like a family dinner) with a modern, organic vibe. Whites with cool mixed blues and greys, warmed up with a few wood accents felt so good.
Every wedding that I’m hired for full event design for is a special project for me. Chantal and Avo were planning from out of town (she’s originally from Manitoba) and we had a few bumps in the road thanks to Covid causing us to postpone a year AND their venue closing a few short months before their wedding.
The creative brief called for a calm, intimate atmosphere (Avo wanted it to feel like a family dinner) with a modern, organic vibe. Whites with cool mixed blues and greys, warmed up with a few wood accents felt so good.
Photos by Esther Funk Photography
I really hit the flower jackpot the week of Chantal’s wedding! The ranunculus was gorg, the spirea was delish, but the icing on the cake was that we were able to find some white lilac — Chantal’s fave that I just never guarantee because if I get it in wholesale, it always craps out. But if it’s blooming locally, then we’re good! And my friendly neighbourhood flower farmer, BLD Gardens, had these gorgeous lilac AND the most mind-shattering tulips that blew all of Instagram’s minds that week.
Bridal Bouquet Ingredients: white lilac, ranunculus, tulips, sweet pea, and spirea, with a few touches of olive and stalks of wheat to remember Chantal’s late father with.
The stationery suite! We worked really closely with Meredyth from Leech Letter Co to design this custom suite, in both French and Lebanese. I wanted to create this watercolour ombre effect on the vellum overlay, with a blue fade. We kept the rest of the design quite simple, with just a minimal branching touch.
Nothing to do with flowers, but Avo’s first look reaction was just amazing. This deserved to be memorialized.
Everything was out at St Norbert Arts Centre. I wasn’t confident that there was enough space on the lawn to fit their smaller guest list, but the chairs were angled to kind of work around some tree stumps and it actually fit just fine!
Originally, we were going to be at the the former Cloakroom Wellness, which was a downtown venue with an industrial vibe. Obviously the very natural setting of SNAC is pretty different than the original vision, so we tweaked the design plan. We were always going to use a lot of greenery, but instead of ground-based pieces that curved around a window nook, we went up, creating some greenery pillars to frame the couple in.
And now inside! I love the feel of SNAC (though it can get really hot there, as it’s not air conditioned, so just a word to the wise!). The only thing I don’t like is the red beams. Whyyyy anyone would use red as an interior colour is beyond me, especially in a space that is otherwise white/wood/light brick. Those red beams were the first thing to address.
I worked with Planned Perfectly to add some draping between red ceiling beams down the centre of the room — it didn’t perfectly hide the beams, but it softened and somewhat camoflauged. And it would have made for a lovely rain plan for the ceremony as well, to walk beneath the drapery as an aisle.
The next thing I wanted to do was camoflauge the red posts that greet you at the entrance. In the original venue, we were going to have greenery boughs suspended from the ceiling, hanging above all the guest tables. We basically took all that greenery and funnelled it into these central posts. It looked gorgeous!
I loved the way we used the small entryway to welcome guests in, with this lovely blue seating chart and floral piece along with a small cocktail table for guest cards.
We brought in all of the wood tables and crossback chairs (which were planned for the original venue), which brought in some much needed warmth.
The centrepieces were simple and minimal, leaving enough space for family style platters of food (the menu looked incredible, tying together specialities from both their heritages). We cannot use real flame candles as the venue is a heritage building, but I don’t mind the battery-powered tealights when they’re tucked inside a coloured glass votive holder! Textured white florals in ceramic stem vases featured sweet pea, spirea, and tulips.
I always want to make sure there’s a beautiful place setting — there’s just something about them that I love. Layering a charger and a dinner plate can feel wasteful if budget doesn’t allow, but with family style meal service, they’re super functional. The salad was served on a small grey salad plate, which was then layered with white and grey plates. An oatmeal linen napkin and blue water goblet were added, with personalized menus added to each.
Looking for a Wedding Floral & Event Designer in Winnipeg?
2024 wedding dates are now booking! 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 for stunning bridal bouquets, truly unique ceremony backdrops, and beautiful floral centrepieces to create the perfect ambiance for your wedding!
