How to Make the Most of Your Intimate Wedding
I have an opinion, and it may seem strange, coming from someone who makes her living off the gathering of large groups of people: I LOVE that we are having an increase in intimate weddings.
If my husband and I were getting married again, I would do it differently than when we tied the knot 10 years ago. We were quite young when we got married (barely 22 years old!) and hadn’t actually been guests at very many weddings, so we planned things that we thought we were “supposed” to plan them. I don’t have any regrets about our wedding at all — I just would do it differently now. And one thing that I would love is to have it smaller.
We had 150 guests, which isn’t that huge to begin with, but there were definitely a few tables of people that were on the guest list because, again, I thought I was supposed to have them there. It was such an honour that they did come, but if I were doing it again, I’d probably aim for 75-ish people. I would love to be bold enough to say 50 people, but with the size of my family (and they are important to me), we simply wouldn’t have been able to get away with 50 people. Realistically, I think we could could be looking towards a few months of 10-50 person wedding guest lists, so I’m excited to envision that with you!
I have an opinion, and it may seem strange, coming from someone who makes her living off the gathering of large groups of people: I LOVE that we are having an increase in intimate weddings.
If my husband and I were getting married again, I would do it differently than when we tied the knot 10 years ago. We were quite young when we got married (barely 22 years old!) and hadn’t actually been guests at very many weddings, so we planned things that we thought we were “supposed” to plan them. I don’t have any regrets about our wedding at all — I just would do it differently now. And one thing that I would love is to have it smaller.
We had 150 guests, which isn’t that huge to begin with, but there were definitely a few tables of people that were on the guest list because, again, I thought I was supposed to have them there. It was such an honour that they did come, but if I were doing it again, I’d probably aim for 75-ish people. I would love to be bold enough to say 50 people, but with the size of my family (and they are important to me), we simply wouldn’t have been able to get away with 50 people. Realistically, I think we could could be looking towards a few months of 10-50 person wedding guest lists, so I’m excited to envision that with you!
So, let’s make the most of your intimate wedding!
Above all, what I want you to come away with is this knowledge: even if you didn’t originally envision or plan an intimate wedding, that doesn’t mean that it’s not a wedding worth celebrating, and celebrating HUGE. Get excited!
For any of your couples considering a smaller wedding this year, I HIGHLY recommend it. I was very much against the thought of a smaller wedding initially but it was honestly everything I could have wanted and more. I am so glad we went ahead with it and truthfully, the ceremony itself meant so much more to both Daniel and I because of who we did have there!
-Lainie and Daniel (married in an intimate backyard wedding on June 28, 2020)
What it’s all going to come down to is carefully designing a plan to treat your guests to an experience unlike any other, and that means starting with what YOU love!
Photo by Lynsey Corbett Photography ~ Planning by Soiree Event Planning ~ See more here!
My Must-Haves for an Intimate Wedding:
-Petals (or confetti or bird seed) for each of your guests to toss as you celebrate down the aisle.
-Live music, at least for the ceremony.
-Over the top florals, obviously. At least for your ceremony!
-A catered dinner from your favourite restaurant with ALL the menu options.
Let’s be honest: you may never have the reason to do something elaborate like this ever again. With fewer guests, you’ll have an increased amount of budget to spend per guest, which means you can treat your favourite people to the ultimate wedding, the wedding you dreamed of in the beginning before the realities of money ever got in the way.
Imagine how it would feel to be a guest at this wedding:
Planning, Design, Florals by Rhiannon Bosse (she’s got some amazing ideas on your blog for you!)
You’re welcomed in with personalized charcuterie boards and pre-poured cocktails, while a musician plays acoustic guitar in the background.
The table is set to the highest degree: the scent of flowers sweetly floating on the breeze, elegant glassware in your hand, personalized menus and place cards with a note from the couple written just to you to make sure you know that you are an important guest.
An incredible dinner awaits, and it’s far from the basic bottle of wine and salad/entree/dessert. Your palette is spoiled with upgrades: a full bar, multi-course dinner with wine pairings, table-side creme brûlée. Maybe the typical dinner fare is skipped in favour of the couple’s favourite elevated street food instead — individual servings of hand-smashed guacamole and grilled corn, or a beloved food truck has set up shop in the backyard for the night!
The evening finishes on a sweet note with a personalized dessert board — petite molten cakes in individual ramekins, the bride’s favourite cookie, a scoop of the groom’s favourite ice cream, a hot chocolate shooter.
I think it’s safe to say that your guests will agree that there’s absolutely nothing missing from the experience, and if they’re being honest, it’s probably the best wedding they’ve ever attended.
Don’t let anyone leave without a gift — and I’m not talking about your regular old wedding favour. Perhaps it’s as simple as an elegantly wrapped box of your favourite Constance Popp chocolates, or a premium welcome bag featuring your prized must-haves from local Manitoba makers: a sweet bottle of Bee Project honey, a can of your favourite Little Brown Jug ale, or locally made bitters or shrubs from Abiding Citizen.
Left: Sinclair & Moore, Middle: A Signature Welcome photographed by Corbin Gurkin, Right: A Signature Welcome photographed by Rebecca Yale
A few final thoughts…
Instead of spending $75 per table centrepiece for 20 tables, you could spend that total $1500 on floral arrangements for 4 or 5 tables. I can’t even begin to tell you have stunning that will be! There’s NOTHING that does a better job of bringing life and excitement to an event than fresh flowers (in my completely unbiased opinion 😉).
I very literally salivated while imagining all of these food options and dreaming about which restaurants I would order from…529 Wellington, Merchant Kitchen, The Red Ember food truck, and I have always wanted to host a party catered by Nuburger!
I talked to my friend Kaytee of Roots Floral Design, who is a wedding florist in Cincinnati, and she made an extra good point: “Take advantage of the outdoors! Each region will have different guidelines and regulations, but most places are much more lenient with outdoor intimate weddings (and I think many of your guests would be more comfortable attending an outdoor wedding!). Take advantage of a smaller venue with beautiful outdoor scenery to hold your wedding. Other options are a relative's backyard, parks (if they allow it), or even an Airbnb! One of our couples choose a beautiful Airbnb property to hold her intimate wedding celebration. Their wedding became a weekend long celebration with their closest loved ones. When painted in this light, intimate weddings sound so dreamy, right?”
A few vendors and I were chatting at an intimate backyard wedding we were working on together this past weekend, and all said how much we have been loving these smaller weddings. Why? I realized that everyone is HAPPIER. There's so little stress with these smaller weddings; fewer things to be concerned about. Even if you are DIYing some elements, or cooking some of the food, you're only doing it for 30 people and so the time investment is so much lower.
If you need some help pulling together the loose ends for your intimate wedding, don’t hesitate to ask your vendors. I have loved the opportunity of being more involved with some of my couples, and I know I’m not the only one. Kaytee said it perfectly: “No matter what you decide for your wedding, we know that it will be perfect and just right for you. Your wedding day should be exactly how you envision it to be, even if that vision slightly changes. Hiring the right vendors will help you bring that vision to life.“
LOOKING FOR A WEDDING FLORAL DESIGNER IN the WINNIPEG area?
2021 wedding dates are now booking, with limited 2020 dates still available! 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!
Q&A about Wedding Flowers with Stone House Creative
A few weeks ago, I put out a call for any questions on Instagram and I loved all of the questions that I received! It’s always surprising to me what those questions are — they’re almost never what I expect. So, here we are!
A few weeks ago, I put out a call for any questions on Instagram and I loved all of the questions that I received! It’s always surprising to me what those questions are — they’re almost never what I expect. So, here we are!
All photos by Photography by Jodi, from Shannon and Michael’s wedding in Kenora, summer 2019.
Q. What are some seasonal (and affordable) summer wedding flowers? (@laurenjc)
A. This is an interesting question! Without a doubt, summer is an AMAZING time for flowers because the locally grown blooms are killer. Some of my favourites are lisianthus, feverfew, delphinium, foxglove, sweet pea, and zinnias. Generally speaking, locally grown flowers tend to be “affordable,” though I should also be clear: flowers are a luxury, perishable item. No matter where they’re grown, they’re attended to with utmost caution and grown and cut by hand. There’s a LOT of work that goes into flowers, so they’re never really cheap — and they shouldn’t be.
I also want to touch on the word “seasonal” because it really doesn’t mean very much anymore, due to the way that farmers across the world have been able to extend their growing season. If you truly want “in season” flowers, then the word you need to look for is LOCALLY GROWN. For example, order gatherers, Costco, grocery stores, and so on often say they have “seasonal” bouquets, but that means absolutely nothing. The flowers they use are available year-round because they’re grown in greenhouses near the equator with perfect weather. If you want is truly seasonal, then what you want is locally grown.
Often we’ll read advice from wedding blogs and magazines that the best way to save on your wedding flower budget is to choose “in season” flowers, and that’s a misconception. What that really means is not to choose out of season flowers. For example, a peony in season is still going to cost at least $15/stem, whereas a rose is going to cost you $5/stem at any time of the year. That $15/stem peony is NOT cheap…but it is technically “seasonal.” So again, if you want to look for seasonal flowers, then ask for locally grown (keeping in mind, of course, that we live in Manitoba and our growing season is ramping up throughout June and really hits its stride in July and August, before tapering off in September while we wait for those first few frosts to hit).
In the image below, you can see a closeup of icelandic poppies, ranunculus, and delphinium, all of which were grown locally in Manitoba!
Q. What are you doing with flowers this summer, now that we don’t have weddings? (@amandadouglasevents)
A. Wah. Don’t remind me 😭 I’m still hoping to get my hands on as many flowers as possible this summer. I have a few couples who are opting for an elopement style ceremony this summer with their big celebratory party next summer, so I get to create some beautiful bouquets for their elopements! I’m also hoping that things with Covid will relax enough to allow me to work on some personal projects and photoshoots, so that at least I can enjoy the flowers while they’re blooming locally!
Q. What is your absolute favourite flower combination? (@lainiedahle)
A. Lainie, you’re killing me. How on earth can I choose? I tend to be drawn more towards colour combinations, and my natural love is for brighter corals and peaches with beiges and pinks, and I LOVE ruffled flowers. I could see this combination looking killer with garden roses, zinnias, sweet peas, butterfly ranunculus, foxglove…all the good stuff.
Lately, I’m finding myself drawn more to using fewer ingredients and fewer focal flowers. I’m not sure if this will be working into my wedding arrangements or not, but it’s something I’m going to be playing with on my own.
Q. Locally grown vs florist - what’s the difference? (@meganpatricialewis)
A. This is another interesting question! I think what you’re asking here is where we get the product from. I used to work in a retail floral shop (over 7 years ago) and we imported all of our product — a small amount from across Canada and Holland, but mostly from South America. I still bring in a lot of flowers from these regions in my business today, but I try to utilize as much locally grown product as I possibly can.
There are a LOT of benefits to using locally grown flowers. To start, I know my farmers. I know that by ordering from them, I’m supporting their small, women-owned businesses, who pay their staff living wages and I really like that — let’s do everything we can to keep our money in our own economy. I also seek to reduce my carbon footprint where I can, and ordering locally grown flowers obviously cuts down dramatically on shipping and packaging material waste. Additionally, the quality of locally grown flowers is UNBELIEVABLE. They are sturdier, healthier, and more beautiful (in my opinion). I should do a comparison post when local flowers are growing, so you can see the differences yourselves!
I would highly encourage you to ask the florists you are considering hiring for your wedding if they are able to use locally grown flowers for you!
Q. How much does the average couple spend on flowers for their wedding? (@brooklynkehler)
A. My client average spend is $4500, and that sees a typical 18-20 tables , 4-5 bridesmaids, and something gorgeous for the ceremony! If you want to create a realistic floral budget based on what you’re looking for, here’s a really good rundown of different price ranges of typical items!
Q. I am not engaged yet, BUT I love wedding planning and I’m obsessed with your work so much. I am wondering, if I want to do "sky is the limit," crazy flowers, what is the budget I should have? I know zero about flowers — I want them everywhere though, they’re my favourite thing at every wedding!!
A. Favourite question ever 😂 I’m not going to share this person’s name, so that her boyfriend doesn’t get weirded out ha! Obviously I LOVE the idea of a “sky is the limit” floral plan for a wedding, but when it comes to what that budget number should be, that depends on a lot of things. In particular, the guest count: how many tables do we need floral heavy arrangements on? Then I’d also want to know what other focal areas you want to emphasize with flowers: an unreal cake display? A floral-heavy entrance to your ballroom or tent? When you’re talking sky is the limit, balls-to-the-wall flowers, I’m assuming you’re not just talking about the typical order of bridesmaid bouquets and table centrepieces. My client average spend is $4500. If you’re looking at a typical 18-20 tables and 4-5 bridesmaids, but you want a LOT of flowers, I’d suggest budgeting in the $10,000 range. And then call me 😘
Q. Tips for anyone planning a wedding (not during the pandemic lol)? (@brooklynkehler)
A. Ah, another good question. I know that wedding planning can be super overwhelming at the best of times, especially when you’re just getting started. There are SO many decisions to make (especially if you’re not a good decision maker), many options to consider, endless referrals from people you know…so let’s start by getting really clear on a few things: This is YOUR wedding. That means the two of you make the decisions. Feel free to make those decisions based on what’s important to you and keep those “most important” things at the forefront of your mind, as that’s likely where you’ll be spending the bulk of your budget.
I always suggest starting with the aspects of the wedding that are most important to you — nailing down the right venue, the date, and then your top 3 or 4 VIP vendors (for me, that would be my photographer, floral designer, and dress. I’d suggest a wedding planner or coordinator be included in there as well!).
Hire vendors based on how well you get along with them (particularly your photographer — you’ll be spending all day with him or her!) and how well they seem to be aligned with your personal style and vision (especially your floral designer and your planner). Choose high quality vendors that you trust, and ask them what they suggest within your budget, rather than trying to force your budget on the vendors you really want, or worse, assuming that those vendors you love won’t work with you because of your budget.
When it comes to the design and details of the day, try not to get sucked into the Pinterest trap! Same goes for Instagram. Looking at what other people have done for their weddings will be like quicksand, getting you stuck in a loop of what OTHER people have done. You’re not other people! Let’s design something that’s just for YOU. The best way to do that is ask your design-related vendors to give your creative vendors a lot of flexibility and encourage them to get creative!
Q. What time of year is it best to have a wedding so all the flowers you want are available? What type of flowers are the most expensive? (@jeannaleeartistry)
A. Well, this answer totally depends on what those favourite flowers are! During spring you’ll find the perennial favourites: peonies and ranunculus, blooming branches, and tulips and hyacinth. These are all quite feminine, delicate, and lovely — exactly what you’d want for a spring wedding! Summer brings us the best locally grown flowers in a riot of colours and textures: lisianthus, zinnias (a personal fave), cosmos, snapdragons, strawflower, sweet pea. Early fall we can still get some locally grown flowers (just up until the frost starts) but you can also get most flowers still available through the wholesaler. And obviously, here in winter we can’t get anything locally grown but many things are still available through wholesale (roses, always) — my favourite winter flowers include amaryllis (woah baby, especially the peach ones), agapanthus, lots of interesting textures like pieris, privet berries, and skimmia.
As to which flowers are most expensive? Probably all the ones you love the best 😂Peonies, garden roses, ranunculus, butterfly ranunculus, poppies…I know, I know. All those ruffly, special, beautiful blooms. What an we do? We love all the pricy stuff!
Looking for a Wedding Floral and Event Designer in Winnipeg?
2021 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 to Stone House Creative for stunning bridal bouquets, truly unique ceremony backdrops, and beautiful floral centrepieces to create the perfect ambiance for your wedding!
Roundup of my Top Wedding Flower Posts
My least favourite episode of every TV show ever is always the “Clip Episode” (except for on the Office). You know, those episodes where the characters look back at their fondest memories and there’s nothing new in the episode, it’s just clips from the past? Yeah, that’s boring.
BUT, I thought it might be helpful for all of you who are stalled out on your wedding planning thanks to Covid-19 OR those of you who are looking ahead to 2021 and 2022 weddings to round up some of my personal favourite and some of my most popular blog posts to give you a hand or two!
My least favourite episode of every TV show ever is always the “Clip Episode” (except for on the Office). You know, those episodes where the characters look back at their fondest memories and there’s nothing new in the episode, it’s just clips from the past? Yeah, that’s boring.
BUT, I thought it might be helpful for all of you who are stalled out on your wedding planning thanks to Covid-19 OR those of you who are looking ahead to 2021 and 2022 weddings to round up some of my personal favourite and some of my most popular blog posts to give you a hand or two!
Wedding Venue Selection
Top 5 Unique Venues in Winnipeg
Top 5 Best Locations in Winnipeg
*There are a handful of new wedding venues that have recently opened up in Manitoba, or will be opening soon and I haven’t yet been able to see them — Gimli, East Selkirk, Morden, the Interlake — which is so exciting to see!
Wedding Flower Budgeting
Floral Inspiration
A Few Favourite Real Weddings
Wedding Flower Planning Tips
Covid-19 Wedding Planning
Looking for a Wedding Floral and Event Designer in Winnipeg?
2021 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 to Stone House Creative for stunning bridal bouquets, truly unique ceremony backdrops, and beautiful floral centrepieces to create the perfect ambiance for your wedding! Beautiful weddings, designed for and with love.
My Top 5 Must-Haves for an UNBELIEVABLE Elopement
What I love about an elopement is IT’S ALL ABOUT THE PROMISES AND THE TWO OF YOU. In the current climate, I’m assuming that many of you who are planning an elopement is because you can’t have the large wedding that you’d like, but you still want to have the ceremony and make your promises to each other. Whether that’s your case or not, I wanted to talk about my must-haves for an UNBELIEVABLE elopement!
Photos by Ariana Tennyson
What I love about an elopement is IT’S ALL ABOUT THE PROMISES AND THE TWO OF YOU. In the current climate, I’m assuming that many of you who are planning an elopement is because you can’t have the large wedding that you’d like, but you still want to have the ceremony and make your promises to each other. Whether that’s your case or not, I wanted to talk about my must-haves for an UNBELIEVABLE elopement!
Love Letters
I’m assuming that one of the things that’s making the decision to have an elopement a challenge is that you’ll miss your loved ones. So make sure they’re there with you, in spirit: ask your loved ones to write letters to you, that the two of you can read together on your elopement day. I found this idea on Junebug Weddings, and there are some other amazing elopement ideas here!
Create an Amazing Scene
No eyes will be on you, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t deserve a breathtaking ceremony backdrop. My goal is always to design a ceremony space that gives you a sense of space that’s just for the two of you. A space that feels grounded, that creates an ambiance that you’ll never forget. How are we going to do this? Florals, furniture, tons of candles, scents…whatever your style is, I’m going to make that happen.
If you’re able to have a dinner afterwards, then let’s do that up, too. While you’re taking some photos with your new husband/wife, I’ll re-purpose pieces of that ceremony design and bring in tabletop elements to put together the most perfect evening for two — or, brunch!
Don’t Forget To Capture It
Make sure that your photographer and videographer will be there to capture your elopement so you can show it at your party later! You’ll never regret having those photos taken. My favourite photos are always the ones that are taken right after the ceremony is over, and the photographer sneaks away with the couple for a few private moments.
Celebrate the Season
Whatever season your elopement will be in, let’s do it to the max. A super cozy fall ceremony outdoors in the woods. An intimate, romantic ceremony in December in front of your fireplace while the snow falls outside. See what I mean?
Cheer each other down the aisle
You know that moment, when the bride walks down the aisle and the guests all stand to greet her? Or that moment, once the vows have been said and the kiss happened, when the music picks up, and you rush back down the aisle together, hands held high? Just because you don’t have a large guest list doesn’t mean you can’t have those moments. Cheer each other down the aisle!
Bonus Must-Have: Make sure you feel your best
Get your hair done, your makeup done, wear your dress, drink some champagne. Oh, and carry a gorgeous bouquet 😘
Looking for a Wedding Floral and Event Designer in Winnipeg?
2021 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 to Stone House Creative for stunning bridal bouquets, truly unique ceremony backdrops, and beautiful floral centrepieces to create the perfect ambiance for your wedding! Beautiful weddings, designed for and with love.
A Primer on Different Wedding Bouquet Shapes
One of the first questions I like to ask in a flower appointment is about what you LIKE. Tell me, what kind of bouquet shape are you drawn to? And if you’re one of those people who doesn’t know what they like yet, then consider this your primer on different wedding bouquet shapes.
So I’m totally biased, but I really think that your wedding flowers should be your favourite part of your wedding. Aside from your new husband or wife, that is… ;)
Flowers are an incredibly unique thing in that they are living, breathing art. No two flowers are ever the same - they grow and open up in many minuscule different ways - and so no two bouquets will ever come together in the same way. Your wedding bouquet is a perishable work of ART - I treat it that way, and I hope you will, too!
One of the first questions I like to ask in a flower appointment is about what you LIKE. Tell me, what kind of bouquet shape are you drawn to? And if you’re one of those people who doesn’t know what they like yet, then consider this your primer on different wedding bouquet shapes.
Classic, Round Handtied Bouquet
The classic, rounded bridal bouquet will always be a desired look. Full and sort of voluptuous (never thought I’d used that adjective to describe a bouquet!) , this bouquet shape is best suited to a bride wearing a classic ballgown with an elegant, romantic, timeless sense of style. The setback with this style is that a lot of the rounded bouquets you’ll see are VERY boring and can come across as super dated in style - but it doesn’t have to be that way! With a combination of ruffled blooms mixed with textured fillers, different sized and shaped flowers, and some space and movement between the layers of the bouquet, you can achieve a much more modern take on the classic, rounded bridal bouquet. It does NOT have to be a dome of roses that looks like a generic grocery store bouquet. Let’s elevate it.
Photos by Charmaine Mallari
Cascade or Teardrop Bouquet
The cascade bouquet has seen an uptick in popularity over the last few years, but these bouquets are designed VERY differently than they were in the 80s and 90s! We are not looking for that overly pointed shape and I do not design the bouquets in a plastic holder (which are filled with toxic floral foam, FYI). Instead, we started with a luscious combination of trailing greenery to create the teardrop shape, and then start layering in a combination of focal flowers, line flowers (to evoke that draping feel), and textured fillers to finish it off. The modern cascade bouquet is lush, full, and often oversized. Simply due to the number of stems needed to create the shape, these bouquets can get pretty heavy - just a warning!
Photos by Cynthia Bettencourt
Garden Style Bouquet
If you’ve been following my work for any time period at all, you’ll probably be able to tell really quickly that my personal favourite bouquet shape is a garden style design! Every single gardenesque arrangement is going to come together differently - sometimes they’re wider, sometimes we incorporate a lot of trailing greeneries, often I’ll create an asymmetrical shape. The goal is to create a lot of movement and depth between the flowers, placing each bloom on a different plane, so that the bouquet has an airy quality and feels more natural and freshly picked (though please don’t misunderstand: this design style is not as simple to create as it might look. It’s not simply shoving a bunch of draping greenery at the bottom of a rounded bouquet).
Photos by Charmaine Mallari
Modern Sheath or Arm Bouquet
It’s not often that I get a request for a sheath bouquet (also known as an arm bouquet or a pageant bouquet)! Jessica was having a mid-century modern inspired wedding and this shape was very current then so it was really fun for me to try my hand at this. The design has to be very intentional - a limited number of stems can fit, you need to incorporate some long, reaching stems to create the shape (here I used those gorgeous oncidium orchids and locally grown delphinium), and of course, I need to teach YOU how to hold it correctly! If this bouquet were held vertically, it literally looks like the worst DIY bouquet of all time. Held correctly, over the arm, and it feels somewhat dainty, light, and romantic.
Photo by Brittany Mahood
More to come from this gorgeous wedding soon!
Looking for a Wedding Floral and Event Designer in Winnipeg?
2021 wedding dates are now booking! 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!
