Modern Meets Classic White Wedding Flowers at SMITH
Kate and Denis’ wedding was set in late May — one of the best times for flowers! We’re talking tulips, lilac, AND spirea — and you know I used it all!
They had chosen SMITH for their reception, loving the intimate setting and delicious food. But, they have a more classic style overall, so in the design process we needed to find ways to blend that more traditional style with modern design elements, to create an overall event design that worked with the restaurant setting.
Kate and Denis’ wedding was set in late May — one of the best times for flowers! We’re talking tulips, lilac, AND spirea — and you know I used it all!
They had chosen SMITH for their reception, loving the intimate setting and delicious food. But, they have a more classic style overall, so in the design process we needed to find ways to blend that more traditional style with modern design elements, to create an overall event design that worked with the restaurant setting.
Photos by Brittany Mahood
Planning by Soiree Event Planning
“The flowers were absolutely stunning. Exceeded all of our expectations! Thank you again for everything. We’re just so so impressed and happy. Thank you so much!”
The Floral Design
When I delivered Kate’s bouquet that morning, her mom was shocked to see me, assuming I would have someone else handling deliveries. But you know what? Delivering your bridal bouquet to you on your wedding morning is one of my most favourite moments of the entire day. A lot of brides start to feel like things are getting real when bouquets get delivered and seeing the excitement in your eyes is thrilling.
Kate had a vision for a slightly smaller bouquet, with a bit more of a vertical shape. Her inspiration image was made of faux flowers, which can be tricky for a florist to then figure out how to execute in fresh flowers. There’s the simple but substantial difference of fresh flowers having their own movement, where each stem is going to do what it wants, while faux flowers are super easy to manipulate due to having a wired stem. All that being said, I LOVED the way Kate’s bouquet turned out!! It was delicate, petite, SO lightweight, and filled with a small selection of absolutely stunning blooms.
The bridesmaids carried single stems of large calla lilies, which I tied with a delicate bow. I didn’t originally plan to use a bow, but I did need something on those stems. At first, I tried just a simple wrap of ribbon and it looked like a hilarious bandaid wrapped around the handle, while the bow looked charming. Done!
Bridal Bouquet Ingredients: Spirea, tulips, sweet pea, mini calla lilies, and mini phalaenopsis orchids.
The Ceremony Design
The ceremony took place at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. It’s a really striking space, with soaring ceilings and tons of windows. Since the ceremony and reception were going to be in 2 different venues, we wanted to choose a ceremony design that would be easy to repurpose over to Smith without too much difficulty, and to choose something that would ground the eye. With ceilings that high, it can be tricky to figure out the right scale to design for.
We settled on two pedestals to frame in an altar, with 2 lush, branching floral arrangements added on top. When I tell you I got SO lucky with the timing for both spirea and white lilac to be blooming!!! I added in a few mini green hydrangea to bring that fresh spring colour, and we were set to go.
Smith absolutely glowed that night! We layered in classic taper candles, a few statement branching arrangements (at the escort card table and on the bars), and linen accents to bring the entire space together.
Tabletop Styling
Balancing the moody, modern setting of Smith with the desire for a more traditional overall design, the Soiree team and I knew we needed to make very particular design choices to pull it all together.
We included the classic elements of taper candles and central floral arrangements, modernizing them for the restaurant setting with modern floral styling, warm neutral candles, and varied heights to create visual interest.
Dinnerware
Though Smith has nice dinnerware (most restaurants do!), the in-house plates didn’t give the elevated classic feel the family was really after. Soiree chose the Kaleb set from Collective Rentals, which does a really nice job of adding a chic feel to the place settings!
Taupe Candles and Linens
Kate wasn’t confident about coloured candles at first — we looked at samples of a few different colours, including blues, but it felt a little too playful. White felt too crisp. This sandstone taper candle is just the right choice for warming up the overall design without necessarily feeling like you’re adding a colour. They also chose Planned Perfectly’s taupe linens for the round tables, and wanting to add a bit more polish to the rectangular tables, Kate’s mom made coordinating taupe linen runners.
Stationery
Soiree knows just how to bring in a slight touch of colour to elevate a design! Delicate touches of this perfect dusty blue paper in the table numbers and menu cards was perfect.
Floral Centrepieces
One of my first thoughts when discussing the tables was to keep the vases clear — I wanted as much twinkling candlelight as possible, and it reflects so nicely off of clear glass. They preferred classic arrangements, in all whites and greens, and we simply adjusted the size of container and the quantity of arrangements to the size of each table. Restaurant floor plans are often a little more on the random side, so it’s never a cut and dry “x# of centrepieces that all match.” You need to be a lot more detailed and specific, ensuring there’s enough space on the tables to make it all work.
Who This Design is For
Whether you’re blending a modern setting with a classic style like this couple, or merging your personal tastes with your fiance’s, this wedding is a great example that you can find the right elements to bring it all together.
Looking for a Wedding Floral Designer in Winnipeg?
Florals shape the feeling of a celebration. Our design philosophy sees colour, movement, and composition working together to create deeply intentional floral experiences. We see florals not simply as decorations, but as essential elements that define atmosphere, emotion, and visual cohesion.
If this is what you’re looking for, Lauren would love to connect with you!
Intimate, Colourful Weekday Wedding at 529 Wellington
An intimate Monday vow exchange wedding in the park. An elegant dinner at one of Winnipeg’s most iconic restaurants.
For Claire and Lee’s late summer wedding, we let the colour do all the talking, layering in flowers and candles to create visual movement, depth, and a really fun ambiance for a twinkling, elevated dinner party.
An intimate Monday vow exchange wedding in the park. An elegant dinner at one of Winnipeg’s most iconic restaurants.
For Claire and Lee’s late summer wedding, we let the colour do all the talking, layering in flowers and candles to create visual movement, depth, and a really fun ambiance for a twinkling, elevated dinner party.
Photos by Brittany Mahood Photography
There was no formal wedding party, but I did design a small bouquet for Claire’s sister — and look at how PERFECTLY the girls’ dresses go with the floral palette!!! I always provide my clients with a colour palette in their proposals, and it brings me so much joy when the family or guests have very obviously chosen attire that fits within that palette. My husband’s family accidentally all wore shades of the same three colours at our wedding, and our family photos are dynamite.
“Lauren, I knew there was a reason you were my first and only choice for florals, and at the wedding I saw that reason with my own two eyes. Everything was just absolute perfection!”
The Flowers
Quite literally everything was all about the flowers here. Claire was SO excited and so invested in the flowers, to the point where she was having stress dreams about me accidentally using eucalyptus and then creating her own memes to send to me. I love Claire :)
Her specific request was “Flowers so delicious they’re good enough to eat.” Juicy yummy here we come!
Bridal Bouquet Ingredients: Pretty much everything was locally grown! Zinnias, dahlias, cosmos, sweet pea, and even the orchids were locally grown in Manitoba, with a few ranunculus added in for the fluff factor.
The Ceremony
Leo Mol Sculpture Garden is one of my very favourite places in the entire city. It feels so transformative, like you wander through the trees and you’re transported somewhere else. It’s quiet, intimate, and so inspiring. And for smaller guest lists, it is the absolute perfect wedding ceremony location. While we were setting up for this wedding, all the vendors were charmed by an otter flipping around in the pond!
Covering up the view with an arch is a no for me at Leo Mol, so I often suggest to couples that we go for ground-based florals here. These are also so easy to repurpose over at the reception, and easy to install in the short setup timeline that Assiniboine Park gives us.
We kept the juicy palette, adding in more greenery both to use as a base mechanic that takes up a lot of space in the arrangements, and to tie together with the natural vine-covered setting. I had the most glorious Manitoba dahlias, marigolds, and zinnias, paired with bright, rich roses.
The Reception
The perfect late summer dinner party, set at 529 Wellington. I love that Claire and Lee planned this reception like they did the rest of their wedding: fuss-free, but still elevated.
Claire really gave me creative freedom here! We obviously wanted to keep that juicy colour palette front and centre, and since the guest list was so small, we had a lot of budget flexibility. I also needed to stay realistic about the amount of space that I had to work with.
I elected to feature 2 larger, rectangular floral arrangements on each table, interspersed with taper candles, bud vases, low floral frog arrangements, and votives. The glow of the coloured candles perfectly complimented the colour of the florals, creating an engaging ambiance.
Looking for a Wedding Floral Designer in Winnipeg?
Florals shape the feeling of a celebration. Our design philosophy sees colour, movement, and composition working together to create deeply intentional floral experiences. We see florals not simply as decorations, but as essential elements that define atmosphere, emotion, and visual cohesion.
If this is what you’re looking for, Lauren would love to connect with you!
Bold Winnipeg Wedding at Deer & Almond
Restaurant weddings are some of my very favourites. It’s so much fun to work in a space that already has its own aesthetic and vibe. Deer & Almond is one of Winnipeg’s most treasured eateries, and was the perfect location for Sharyne and Gavin’s bold evening reception.
Sharyne and Gavin are both artistic and creative (he’s a photographer), and would you believe me that they started out wanting a French countryside-inspired, white and green wedding? In her initial inquiry, she said “I've also taken a look through your instagram account and we could probably be swayed to some brighter and funkier colours.” — cue my happy tears :)
So I swayed them! We did originally talk about the whites and greens, but it honestly didn’t feel right in the restaurant. The space has some vibrant, joyful tones and we decided to move that direction.
They were married in a private ceremony the week prior, and this was their celebratory dinner with a small group of friends.
Photos by Michael & Melanie
Restaurant weddings are some of my very favourites. It’s so much fun to work in a space that already has its own aesthetic and vibe. Deer & Almond is one of Winnipeg’s most treasured eateries, and was the perfect location for Sharyne and Gavin’s bold evening reception.
Sharyne and Gavin are both artistic and creative (he’s a photographer), and would you believe me that they started out wanting a French countryside-inspired, white and green wedding? In her initial inquiry, she said “I've also taken a look through your instagram account and we could probably be swayed to some brighter and funkier colours.” — cue my happy tears :)
So I swayed them! We did originally talk about the whites and greens, but it honestly didn’t feel right in the restaurant. The space has some vibrant, joyful tones and we decided to move that direction.
They were married in a private ceremony the week prior, and this was their celebratory dinner with a small group of friends.
Photos by Michael & Melanie
We decided to pull together a few different softer peaches, corals, blues, and lavenders, and punching them up with saturated red and small hints of lime. This came from a combination of inspiration images, and Sharyne wasn’t sure how to tie them together. I could see it right away — the perfect reminder that even if you can’t visualize it, your creative professionals can!
The Flowers
With this as my colour palette, you know I had a lot of fun with the flowers! The wedding was in mid-June, so we didn’t have much in the way of locally grown flowers available to us yet — all I could get my hands on were the pansies. But OH how perfect those little lavender pansies were!!
Of course I had to use my favourite red roses, nina. They’re just the most delicious, vibrant colour. I had ordered lavender anemone to pair with them, but they came in kind of fuschia. Would I have preferred the lavender? Yes. But sometimes, a problem becomes its own solution and the brightness of the fuschia worked really well with the space.
We wanted the centrepieces to be smaller in footprint, but with an architectural feel and a little more vertical in shape.
The Hanging installation
As with most restaurant weddings, we did not have a lot of tabletop space to work with. The focus is on the food and the drink, which is awesome! But Sharyne loved the idea of having some sort of focal feature in the space, and when we realized that we could use the slatted wall at the front entrance, the idea was set: a hanging floral feature moment, with their sweetheart table set in front of it.
I wanted to design something sculptural, with strong lines, and a unique feel to it. I always love using allium in designs — those are the large purple “balls” that really command attention. I also decided to tuck in some strands of threaded gladiola, and we used stems of phalaenopsis orchids to get the right lime green (which is really hard to find in the flower world!).
Even better, this piece was also entirely foam-free. I built it on a chicken wire structure, and some of the flowers were water-tubed and others went right into the chicken wire (and ps, we reuse all the chicken wire and water tubes that come back to us, too!).
Looking for a Wedding Floral Designer in Winnipeg?
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!
Colourful Prairie Tent Wedding in Neepawa
They have the world at the fingertips, and they chose to come back home to get hitched ❤️
Working with Brooke and Taylor on their wedding was a 2025 highlight for me. They were planning from out of town (NYC), and getting married out of town (in her hometown of Neepawa), so there were a lot of logistics to sort through and plans to make.
A few of the things I love: summer flowers, the colour coral standing as a focal point in a fun palette, and a couple who gives me creative control. AND WHEN THEY ALL ROLL INTO ONE? My literal dream!
Photos by Pretty Burd Portraits
They have the world at the fingertips, and they chose to come back home to get hitched ❤️
Working with Brooke and Taylor on their wedding was a 2025 highlight for me. They were planning from out of town (NYC), and getting married out of town (in her hometown of Neepawa), so there were a lot of logistics to sort through and plans to make.
A few of the things I love: summer flowers, the colour coral standing as a focal point in a fun palette, and a couple who gives me creative control. AND WHEN THEY ALL ROLL INTO ONE? My literal dream!
Photos by Pretty Burd Portraits
The Floral Design
Brooke and Taylor’s wedding was in the middle of August — aka the PERFECT time for flowers in Manitoba. Everything in the local fields is just perfect. The dahlias are ramping up, the lisianthus and zinnias have hit their stride, and there’s so much colour and texture available. With their summer sunset palette in mind, it’s safe to say I had a lot of fun.
Bridal Bouquet Ingredients: Mixed coral roses (dragonfly, pink xpression, coral xpression), dahlias, zinnias, foxglove, cosmos, lisianthus, feverfew, sweet pea, and mixed grasses. This was definitely one of my favourite bridal bouquets of the year!!
As a special addition, we commissioned Kathryn from Golden Age Botanicals in Toronto to create these custom gold bees, as a nod to Brooke and Taylor’s original meet-cute through Bumble! I included 2 in her bridal bouquet to represent the two of them, and another in the bar arrangement.
The Design Inspiration
Since Brooke and Taylor live in NYC, they were feeling a bit anxious about everything coming together in a well-rounded way without them being able to actually see anything. After they fell in love with their floral proposal, they asked me to also provide Event Design services. I was so happy to take it from there!
With that “late summer sunset palette” as our starting point, and knowing that the guest list was going to be substantial, I got to work on floor planning and trying to build a tent plan with interest and flow. The only problem was, the guest list kept going up 😂 We ended up re-jigging the layout a few times, luckily adding on a separate tent for the buffet to be served out of so we could keep the dinner tent clean and functional.
The Reception Details
After we sorted out the floor plan, I got to work on tablescaping. I like to have some symmetry in the tent, and I like to have a mix of table shapes. Visual interest is everything in event design — if everything is a sea of sameness, it falls flat VERY quickly (especially if it’s rows of 20 of the exact same thing!).
From Design Board to Reality
Right off the top, this Toffee Belize linen from Planned Perfectly was a great base for all the tables. A tent has so much white from the tent itself, and so much green from the grass, so I needed to create a warmer layer that the rest of the decor could stem from. Brooke loved the idea of a coloured glassware, and while we had a few choices, I ended up selecting Planned Perfectly’s pink tinted glassware for two reasons: 1) it was visually interesting and 2) it wouldn’t actually stand out. We were gong to have a lot going on, and I didn’t need the glassware to make a huge statement.
Next up, deciding how to layer in greens (her favourite colour) and dark yellows/oranges (his favourite colour). Flowers were obviously an easy place, and we also chose green taper candles, golden vases, and LED table lamps. Why go for white or clear when you can layer in a shade from the palette?!
JUST LOOK AT THESE ROSES!!!! This definitely unlocked a new favourite rose combination for me.
The Hanging Installation
This was a sort of last-minute addition! A few months before the wedding, Brooke asked about the possibility of adding something hanging over the dance floor. The logistics of a hanging piece get me really excited!
I ended up using baskets as a base, strung up on airline cable, adding in chicken wire balls and then all the greenery and florals. Luckily for me, Brooke’s entire family of men were around and willing to help, so they graciously did all the hoisting!
You can see the BTS of this here!
I’m so grateful both for the creative trust and the long distance trust that Taylor and Brooke put in me. It’s a lot to hand over the reigns to your most special day, but when you’re planning from afar, it’s also the way that things work best.
It was also so wonderful to have Brooke’s handy family involved! They built and painted all of the ceremony pedestals, outdoor signage, and the bar back wall. Whenever I made a suggestion, they were on it. Tent weddings on your property are a LOT of work (seriously, don’t underestimate it!!) but if you’ve got the right kind of people involved, then there’s nothing else like celebrating in the place you grew up!
planning a Tent Wedding in Manitoba?
Count me in! Whether it’s an intimate wedding for 30 or a celebration the likes of which have never been seen before, 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!
Minimalist Meets Maximalist Wedding at The White Poplar
Lindsay came to me requesting monochromatic, minimalist meets maximalist vibes with spotlight floral features. Over time, things shifted a bit into a luxurious, modern European direction and I can’t wait to tell you all about it.
I always love to start my blog posts for the new calendar year with some of my favourite weddings from the previous year. Lindsay and Michael’s wedding was absolutely a highlight of 2025!
Photos by Michael & Melanie
Planning and Design by Melanie Parent Events
Lindsay came to me requesting monochromatic, minimalist meets maximalist vibes with spotlight floral features. Over time, things shifted a bit into a luxurious, modern European direction and I can’t wait to tell you all about it.
I always love to start my blog posts for the new calendar year with some of my favourite weddings from the previous year. Lindsay and Michael’s wedding was absolutely a highlight of 2025!
Photos by Michael & Melanie
Planning and Design by Melanie Parent Events
The Bridal Bouquet
Lindsay’s vision for the wedding design shifted and flowed throughout their engagement, but one thing that remained the entire time was my suggestion for her bridal bouquet: smaller, scaled back, slightly floaty, and with absolutely no focal flowers. I wanted the overall feel of her bouquet to be refined, and definitely as an accent to her dress isntead of taking centre stage on its own.
Bridal Bouquet Ingredients: hydrangea (as a base), phlox, corn cockle, and lisianthus.
The Ceremony
With the overarching design goal to feature maximalist moments, we decided that the ceremony chuppah and aisle would be the primary floral feature. This was one of the areas where the design fluctuated a lot! We weren’t originally planning to have anything down the aisle, and the ceremony focal point was originally planned to be a ground-based arch.
Chuppah: we designed with full coverage on the front of the chuppah, with grouped floral placements to create a lot of visual interest. The colour pockets allowed both the green and the white to stand out more, instead of creating a polka dotted effect (which would have been the DEATH of me).
Aisle: I was pumped after Lindsay saw an image of another wedding with a beautiful aisle and asked if we could incorporate floral pieces. While a full aisle is not necessary to create a beautiful space, it really makes a visual impact! I focused on longer stems and lots of texture, to create a fluttery path that felt organic and modern.
The draping textures were gorgeous, but one unexpected, hilarious moment happened at the beginning the ceremony: Michael stood at the chuppah, and decided he didn’t care for the draping green amaranthus bits that Lindsay loved…so he ripped them down 😂 We were all standing inside the venue just quietly killing ourselves laughing.
Memory Bouquets: A few beloved family members had passed and we wanted to find a simple, thoughtful way to honour them during the ceremony. We decided on a handtied bouquet placed at each chair. Each bridesmaid and Lindsay carried a single white rose that was tucked into the back of their bouquets, and placed on the memory chairs as they walked down the aisle.
The Reception
Florals on the tables were not a design priority for Lindsay. She wanted a twinkling candlelit evening, and Reveal Event Decor absolutely LOADED the tables with candles. I was so glad it wasn’t us that needed to light everything (though we did pitch in — you wouldn’t believe how long it took ha!) and even more glad that we weren’t responsible for cleaning the wax out of all the holders afterwards!
We repurposed all of the aisle florals to the ends of the tables and around the base of the cake table, allowing the sweetheart table to be the second major focal point.
The Floral Waterfalls
From the sweetheart table to the bar, we incorporated these cascading waterfall moments to create a major impact.
These babies are gorgeous but sure aren’t a design to underestimate. These are time-intensive, full of product, and tricky to get properly weighted. But the end result? Total magic!
Luxurious moments were added to cocktail hour on the patio, with floral touches cascading out of the fountain, floral urns on either side of the bar, and a gorgeous seating chart.
It can be really hard to sift through all of this inspiration that’s available out there, and figure out what you want to do for your own wedding — especially when your engagement is long. Lindsay’s design ideas were generally within the same vein, but we tossed around a brighter green with some more modern styling choices, or possibly incorporating some deep burgundy, and we also considered waterfall floral features cascading off the ends of each table. All of these would have been gorgeous choices and led to a great design and ambiance.
Sometimes, my advice to couples is to take your time and not put pressure on making every single decision. Save images, and see what your thoughts keep coming back to.
And sometimes, my advice is to hire a planner (technically, my advice is always to hire a planner because a good planner is truly invaluable). Melanie Parent came on board and really helped Lindsay to refine her vision and ease the worries.
Michael & Melanie Photography ~ Melanie Parent Events ~ The White poplar ~ Stone House Creative ~ Lauren B Wycoff ~ REveal Event Decor ~ Planned Perfectly ~ Collective event rentals ~ Creating a Scene ~ Sweet Retreat Bakery ~ Asarye Paperie ~ Bride Files ~ Hair by KelCey Marie ~ Refinery Event Rentals ~ All SEason’s Catering ~
LOOKING FOR A WEDDING FLORAL DESIGNER IN WINNIPEG?
Getting married at The White Poplar? We happen to know the space REALLY well, and in our completely biased opinion, we’re the best at bringing the space to life 😎
At Stone House Creative, florals are crafted in harmony with the surrounding space, bringing balance, atmosphere, and a quietly elevated feel to your celebration.