What is Event Design for Weddings?

What is event design?

Let me explain it in house-building terms: like a contractor deals with all of the trades, schematics, logistics, and budgeting, so too does a wedding planner consult with all of your vendors, create your detailed wedding day itinerary, and oversee your budget.

Where the beauty comes into your home is thanks to an interior designer: the way your floor plan is brought to life, the well-planned uses of colour, the perfectly combined elements to create the space you live your life in. In the wedding world, this is the job of your event designer: to thoughtfully craft an aesthetic experience with all of the visual components in mind: stationery, linens, rentals, lighting, bridal party attire, floral design, and so on.

Photos by Esther Funk Photography

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In short: event design is what makes your wedding look and feel good.

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Event design is a common service in the US, but here in Winnipeg, it’s still a bit unknown. Many couples inquire with me about hiring me for both floral and event design services, but then the first thing they ask, what IS event design? They know they love the sound of it, but just aren’t sure what it encompasses.

Consider my role as your event designer to be like your wedding’s creative director. I’ll lead you through a multi-layered process that will allow me to distill what you’re hoping your wedding will look and feel like, and then expand on that vision to dream up unique, creative elements that haven’t been done before. I’ll create a detailed design brief, which will outline your colour palette, vibe, as well as the many components that we’ll use to achieve the vision: florals (obviously), stationery, lighting, rental items, floor plan options, and so on. I’ll also refer you to my preferred vendors, who I have complete trust in and know will take the very best care of you!

Who is event design right for?

-Couples who want an expertly crafted visual experience, but don’t necessarily have the creativity to do it themselves. You’ve seen images from weddings that had unique installations, creative displays or a really engaging tablescape and you know you WANT those things…but you just don’t have the innate vision to dream and execute it.

-Busy professionals: you might have a really good handle on the logistics and the budgeting component of your wedding, but you don’t have the time or skill set to pull together the design for yourself.

-Couples planning from out of town. It’s one thing to save images on Instagram of details and ideas you like…it’s a whole other thing to know how to achieve that from another city.

-If you are the type of person who can evaluate a good outfit, but you can’t pull together the individual pieces for yourself, event design services are something you should consider investing in!

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Personally, I’ve always been cautious about following trends too closely.

I never wanted to have the same outfit as someone else. I’d much rather invest in quality pieces that will last a few years rather than an inexpensive, trendy item — and since I want pieces to last, that also means that I can’t hit the trends too hard because that outfit will look really dated in just a year — and let’s be honest, with Pinterest and Instagram churning out trends in seconds, a look dates MUCH quicker than in just a year.

I feel the same way about wedding design. I’d rather invest my time and creativity to create a design that has lasting power, that has quality, and that is different than what everyone has done. It may cost a little more, but you’ll be spared the embarrassment of wearing the same outfit as someone else. 

So, here’s why I think you should consider hiring me as your event designer.

Vanessa Renae Photography

I’ll start with this compliment to many floral designers: we really are the design experts here.

Those images of weddings that you're finding on Pinterest and Instagram that make your heart sing and inspire your entire wedding? Guess what: that was often made possible because of the FLORAL DESIGNER. So it only makes sense to let your floral lead your entire event design, and trusting the same creative professional to direct the visual aesthetics is the perfect way to make the entire process and design seamless.

Note to add: not all floral designers also offer event design services (and nor are all floral designers interested in offering event design, or skilled to do so). They are not one and the same thing. If you are hiring someone for event design, know that that is a specialized service that should be paid for separately and worked on separately. It’s not just a matter of saying “So and so has nice candle holders, you should rent from them.”

Here’s what you need to look for in hiring someone to fulfill the role of event design: someone who knows how good design works and comes together. You don’t want your designer to just mimic what Pinterest shows you — you want someone who can take the design further.

An event designer should have an excellent understanding of colour, texture, movement, scale and size.

Stone House Creative accepts a maximum of 3 event design commissions per year, in addition to my other floral-only clients. Event design clients also receive complimentary access to my rental inventory!

A note for couples who are working with a wedding coordinator or wedding planner:

Event design does NOT overlap with wedding coordination, and Stone House Creative does not provide coordination services (though I can refer you to several excellent coordinators if you like!). There CAN be overlap between specialized event design services and the services of a full wedding planner, but while I don’t want to be rude, not all wedding planners are gifted in event design. They may be able to deal with the logistics of your wedding better than anyone else, and be able to look at a Pinterest photo and say “rent this linen from this company,” but evolving the design into something creative, polished, and personal is not in everyone’s skillset.

Alternatively, you might want to handle all of the planning, logistics, and budget details on your own but you want help with the visuals and the wedding management — for that, you would hire both an event designer (👋🏻) AND a wedding coordinator, to get the services that you’re looking for.

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My Design Philosophies

I believe that:

• A unique design does not come from already produced work

• Pinterest is not the end all and be all

• Context matters

• Your wedding should look and feel like you

• Colour doesn’t have to be intimidating

• Elegant doesn’t mean boring

• Any style should still be refined and well-executed

• The most beautiful designs come from an open, trusting partnership

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Want to see the full gallery from this shoot?

Watch for Part 2 tomorrow!

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LOOKING FOR A WEDDING FLORAL AND EVENT DESIGNER IN WINNIPEG?

Getting married in 2022? Appointments to design your dream wedding are now available. I currently have the availability for a maximum of 2 more event design clients in 2022 — if you want that to be you, click the button below to get started!

Please note that event design services are only available in conjunction with Stone House Creative’s floral design services.

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! 

Garden Inspired Wedding Style Spilling Over with Colour

Classic and neutral palettes will always be popular, and for good reason…but for all of you who are in love for colour but might be afraid to use it, this one’s for you! 

Coral, peach, blush, taupe, plum, terracotta. Rich, jewel tone greens. Crisp black accents. An energetic palette like this one lends a sense of happiness, of life, to a celebration but here’s the thing: you don’t have to go “Crayola bright” to use vibrant colour. This is bold but still feminine, modern and still elegant. 

Many of these florals were locally grown, which makes them even more beautiful - ranunculus, snap dragon, lisianthus, lilies, foxglove. My favourite element to design was the indoor garden - who wouldn’t want to say their vows in the midst of a sweet garden spilling over with colour, fragrance, and beauty?

So let’s talk about COLOUR. Like I said, you don’t need to go Crayola to go colourful. For this palette I layered together coral and peach with subtler shades of taupe, mauve, blush, and terracotta. It feels a little vibrant here because of the fuchsia backdrop I painted, but against white, it’s a little softer.

You know what would be amazing? Getting married right in the middle of a garden grown just for you. Whether your wedding is indoors or out, I would LOVE to make this happen.

And we can’t not talk about that dress! It’s a vintage Donna Karan in a soft taupe silk and it’s AMAZING.

One of my favourite things about SMITH (and, of course, the main reason why I wish I could be invited to a wedding there!!) is the FOOOOOOD. I mean, look at that charcuterie board. Every time I’m setting up a wedding here, they are firing up the kitchen. I steal a glimpse at a menu and literally start to salivate. If that’s not a good enough referral to a venue for you, I don’t know what else could be.

Here, we had the beets with creme fraiche, cauliflower fritters, NY steak, and the charcuterie board.

One of the joys of my career is being selected to work on the full event design for a couple. Even though this was a photoshoot, I still wanted to apply a similar level of focus and detail that I do for a client who has hired me for event design. A detailed design brief develops a layered colour palette, textures, and design ideas that form a really incredible base for your wedding. Interested? Contact me here!

Brittany Mahood Photography ~ Stone House Creative ~ SMITH REstaurant ~ Mad ABout Style Warehouse ~ Jessica Janel for Tiopo & Co ~ Gossamer Vintage ~ Minted ~ The EveryDay HOst ~ C&T Rentals ~ Grace Hill Salon

From Sketches to Reality - How Wedding Design Comes Together

Sketching isn’t something that I do for every client, but it serves many purposes in my job. I love being able to provide my clients with superior customer service, and sometimes, sketches are needed to do just that. So, I wanted to show you all a little behind the scenes - from sketches to reality, how a wedding design comes together!

Most of the time when I sketch, it’s either to communicate a vision that isn’t clearly understood or shared, or it’s for an event design client who receives more detailed design plans as a part of working with me. I love being able to sketch out different elements for my event design clients, especially when they happen to live out of town. It helps them to make sure that I understand the features and limitations of the venues they’ve chosen, and above all, shows them that I have great ideas for how we can personalize their wedding and make sure that theirs will be a celebration that is really and truly custom to them.

This combination was one of my most popular posts on Instagram this year - and it’s what made me realize that you all like to see the behind the scenes a little more! Lise came to me inspired by maypoles and dreaming of a whimsical garden party. For her head table at Cielo’s Garden, I came up with the idea of a maypole-inspired floral chandelier but felt like my words were doing a poor job of describing what I was picturing - enter the sketch!
Photo by Ariana Tennyson

For Jessica and Liam’s wedding at the Rustic Wedding Barn, we wanted to do something a little fuller and more special for their head table and I wanted to give her and her wedding planner a visual to make sure we were on the same page. Sometimes when there are multiple heads involved in the design process, things can get a little muddy so it’s best to be as clear as possible!
Photo by Sugar & Soul Photography

Celia and Cam’s fall wedding at The Kitchen Sync was so lovely and intimate! They were planning from long distance, which can make it extra tricky to communicate a vision well. In this case, I did up two side-by-side sketches of a table garland option to communicate two budget options, showing differing amounts of greenery, floral spotlights, and candles. While this doesn’t always show the exact scale, I tried really hard to make this as close to accurate as possible and then allowed them to choose what budget point they were most comfortable with!
Photo by Sugar & Soul Photography

Heather (and her mom, who was very involved in the planning) wanted a feminine, garden-inspired wedding with lots of florals. The ballroom at St Charles Country Club is somewhat strangely U shaped, with low ceilings, so we felt that it would be really important to create a major focal point for the head table and I wanted to use these gold stands that were a new rental item for me. Mid-way through the planning, Heather’s mom was unsure if she liked the idea of a differently shaped head table, if it should have floral on it, etc. Sketching it out helped her to visualize the overall design, and also helped to calm her nerves about how it would look.
Photo by Joel Ross

I love being able to create a new vision for a space that’s been used a lot before. The loft space at Fort Gibraltar is used for a lot of wedding ceremonies (especially winter ones!) and I knew I wanted to do something different, that hadn’t been done there before. Rachel and Matt loved the idea of a hanging installation, and given that they were having a December wedding, I wanted it to be fragrant and seasonal. We wanted to incorporate lights (originally, we were planning on using cafe lights but on the day of, the venue told us we had to use the little Christmas lights to avoid the bulbs getting too hot, which was a bummer but it still worked out!).
Photo by Sugar & Soul Photography

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And of course, sometimes sketching things out makes it obvious that it’s not the right design for a particular wedding. Here are a few of my favourite sketches that didn’t come to fruition, but would still be gorgeous options for a wedding!

Above and below were original design plans for Stephanie and Andrew, for whom I provided event design as well as floral design. While the overall plan stayed relatively the same, some things were edited or eliminated - like the potted fern table numbers.
Photo at bottom right by Ariana Tennyson

The sketches above and below are based on a wedding that I dreamed up at Whitetail Meadow for a competition I was a part of at the Team Flower Conference in 2018 (I ended up receiving the top award for this portion, “Mastery in Communication”). If you want me to make this a reality for you, I will do so VERY gladly!

This arch and head table sketch served very useful for my communication for a bride who spoke English, but not comfortably, and who also did most of her planning from China. I could tell she was worried that I wouldn’t understand her because of the language barrier, so putting these sketches together helped her to feel more comfortable and know that I shared her vision and understood what she was looking for!

The sketches below actually did come mostly to life for another event design client in 2017 (we ended up changing the ceremony design), but I never received the professional photos to share with you. I was so pleased on the day of the wedding - these sketches truly became reality and were just what I had promised to the clients. This was another case of a couple who lived out of town and were planning from another province, and I wanted to make the entire event and floral design process as simple as possible for them. Providing them with detailed ideas and sketches made them feel extra comfortable, despite the long distance.

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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!

Stephanie and Andrew's Stylish, Organic Wedding at Cielo's Garden

Stephanie and Andrew were married mid-June in an incredibly stylish, organic wedding at Cielo's Garden. They live in Toronto, and it was clear to me from our first email exchanges that Steph has a gorgeous personal aesthetic so I was really excited to work with them. I think the biggest challenge was deciding on the colour palette - we started off with Steph telling me that she only wears black and gray, but wanting a bit more colour at the wedding. We thought about lots of terracotta accents (which were eventually removed from the plan), and ended up tucking in a bit of mauves to the loose palette of peaches, plum, apricot, dusty greens, and earth tones.

I worked on their event design along with their floral design, though we ended up doing a bit of a hybrid design package as a result of the features of the venue as it is. You don't need to bring in a lot to make Cielo's gorgeous!

Photos: Ariana Tennyson ~ Floral and Event Design: Stone House Creative ~ Venue: Cielo's Garden ~ Day of Coordination: Melanie Parent Events ~ Catering: Chef Ben Kramer ~ Stationery: Everly True ~ Hair: Mallory at Prep Hair ~ Makeup: Tina at Myuz Makeup ~ Officiant: Colleen Olafson

Head's up: there are a LOT of really good flower photos from this wedding, and I'm just going to share them all. Sorrynotsorry.

Bridal Bouquet Ingredients: cappucino roses, amnesia roses, ranunculus, scabiosa, iris, flowering ninebark, freesia, magnolia, boxwood, and ruscus. I finished it with a touch of mocha toned  silk ribbon from Tono & Co.

The girls chose their bridesmaid dresses sort of at the last minute. The one thing Stephanie said at the beginning was that she didn't want them to wear blush 😂I absolutely love their choices - both dresses complemented Steph's so well and I love that they're obviously not "bridesmaid" dresses. They just look stylish.

Below is Stephanie's second dress of the night - see what great style she has?

They loved the hanging greenery pieces that I've done for other weddings, but asked that I sort of mimic the shape of the window. I really love how this one came together - we used several different types of greenery so it was really textured, and almost looked more like a living plant wall.

Because of the features of the venue itself, Steph wanted to really load up the tables and make them look full, but also keep them really in keeping with the natural environment. With the clear walls and ceiling giving you 100% views of the woods around the tent, I think it's really important to suit the views with the design. Steph's personal preference was for nothing to look perfect, so I used several different types and cuts of glass vases (keeping them all in clear glass maintained the overall design integrity while bringing visual interest), and a mix of fuller arrangements, individual floral or greenery stems, and greenery arrangements.

Stephanie and Andrew dropped by the studio a couple days before the wedding and she saw my scraps jar, and really liked that - which I thought was hilarious. So, I made sure to add in lots of texture and dried "weedy" bits into the floral arrangements, and almost went a little haphazard with the greenery arrangements to keep them messy.

Looking for a wedding florist in Winnipeg?

Getting married in Manitoba? I might be biased, but 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! 

Limited summer 2019 wedding dates remain available. Click below to check your date!