What You Need to Know About Postponing Your Wedding Due to Corona Virus in Manitoba
I know that this unbelievable situation we have found ourselves in is not the fault of anyone, but that doesn’t make it any easier. I’m really sorry that this virus has become a massive issue during the year that you are planning to get married, and I’m sorry for the extra stress and worry it causes you.
Please know that whatever happens, what I really want is for you to have the very happiest and most wonderful wedding. The wedding world is one that fills me with so much joy, and my love for weddings is actually what drew me to flowers in the first place. Know that I (and all the rest of your wedding vendors) are here for you — what we hope to do is make the rest of your engagement as easy and stress-free as possible. So, if you find yourself making the decision to postpone your wedding due to corona virus, I’m ready to talk with you and find the best possible backup date.
Here’s what you need to know about postponing and rescheduling your wedding in Manitoba due to COVID-19.
Man. So much has changed in so little time. So let’s start this off by taking a deep breath, in and out. I’m going to do my best to help you out, and I want you to know, no matter when your wedding will be, I’m going to do everything I can to make it AMAZING.
First, I’m really sorry.
I know that this unbelievable situation we have found ourselves in is not the fault of anyone, but that doesn’t make it any easier. I’m really sorry that this virus has become a massive issue during the year that you are planning to get married, and I’m sorry for the extra stress and worry it causes you.
Please know that whatever happens, what I really want is for you to have the very happiest and most wonderful wedding. The wedding world is one that fills me with so much joy, and my love for weddings is actually what drew me to flowers in the first place. Know that I (and all the rest of your wedding vendors) are here for you — what we hope to do is make the rest of your engagement as easy and stress-free as possible. So, if you find yourself making the decision to postpone your wedding due to corona virus, I’m ready to talk with you and find the best possible backup date.
Here’s what you need to know about postponing and rescheduling your wedding in Manitoba due to COVID-19:
First, and most importantly: Postpone and reschedule, don’t cancel.
Since there is no historical precedent for this, our timeline is SO unknown. But this flowchart from Evergreen Flower Co is right in line with what I’m thinking.
Ready to find a new date? I’m right here with you.
Your first step should be to connect with your wedding planner, if you have hired one. He or she should take the lead in guiding you through this process. If you haven’t hired a wedding planner, stay calm! That’s fine — just take it in steps.
1) Talk to your venue.
Reach out to your venue coordinator and ask for date options that you can consider, and what their rescheduling policies are. Once you have a list of possible dates, then you can start considering what the best option will be — don’t immediately jump on the first available date that they have, as you’re more likely to end up losing a lot of retainers and deposits this way.
2) Talk to your family/friends about their availability.
If you have very important guests who will need to travel to your wedding, particularly if they are travelling internationally, it’s unrealistic to expect a 2020 wedding date will work. Chances are also pretty good that you have some friends who are in the same situation as you and are rescheduling wedding dates, so you’ll want to talk about their backup dates, too.
3) Talk to your wedding vendors.
Start by reaching out to your priority wedding vendors with the list of possible dates that your venue has given you. It’s my nightmare that a client will reschedule their date with the venue before reaching out to me, and I won’t be available. If you can give us a few options, that’s better!
It’s unlikely that ALL of the vendors you’ve hired will be available for the same wedding date. Manitoba has really long engagements and many of us book up 12-18 months in advance. I’d suggest prioritizing based on which vendors can only take 1 wedding per date, the ones you can’t imagine your wedding without, which you’ve spent the most money on so far, and what their cancellation/refund/rescheduling policies are. Check your contracts to find out what these details are.
If you are unable to reschedule with a vendor, expect to lose the non-refundable retainer that you placed with them as listed in their contract. As much as we would love to return all monies to you, we also have mortgages to pay and contracts to abide by.
Before you cancel with your vendors who aren’t available on your new date, try to come up with some out of the box solutions to mitigate your losses. If your photographer isn’t available for your new date, is their associate shooter? If so, your photographer will still be able to edit all of the images in their style, which you fell in love with in the first place, while making sure you don’t lose money.
4) Get planning!
Hopefully, most of the work that’s been done for your wedding so far will carry over to the new date. If there are a lot of changes that need to be made, such as changing your design from a summer palette to a winter palette, for example, expect that you might be charged some minor fees for additional labour.
Make sure to update your guests! I’ve seen a lot of people using the phrase "Change the Date” instead of the typical “Save the Date,” which is super cute. HERE is a really beautiful (free!) download that you can use to share that your date will be postponed. HERE are a few digital “Change the Dates” that are available for a very low cost and were created by a designer here in Winnipeg. If you want to send a physical Change the Date card in the mail, Minted has some really lovely options — though I would always recommend hiring a local stationery designer if you can. Keep that money in the local economy! If you’re sending out a mass email but aren’t sure how to word it, HERE are some really well-worded templates that could help you decide what to say.
A few things to think about:
-Don’t wait to the very last minute to postpone/cancel or you’ll risk losing a lot of money and vendors. For the vendors who deal with perishable product, like florists and caterers, this is of utmost importance. If a wedding is cancelled or rescheduled within a 15 day window from the original wedding date, I can’t get a refund on your flowers, which means that I can’t refund you.
-Be open to “off” dates. It’ll be a lot easier to find a new date if you’re open to Friday, Sunday weddings, or maybe even Thursday dates or a winter wedding.
-Consider a smaller guest list. Here in Manitoba, the current state of emergency specifically states a maximum of 10 people allowed to congregate for at least the next 30 days, with larger gatherings being punished by fine and/or jail time. If you still want to move ahead with an intimate elopement, I don’t blame you (but please don’t expect that your guests will come — they love you, but the health of our society needs to come first). I would love to create a beautiful bouquet and boutonniere for you. I’ll be offering a special package to do that for you, so don’t hesitate to reach out about that.
-This is a completely unprecedented time. As much as your wedding vendors would like to say that we’re prepared for anything, this is something that no one has ever had to deal with before. Remember that along with our emotional desire to serve you well and make your dream wedding happen, we are also scared. There is a very real possibility that we will lose our entire year’s worth of income. We are anxious to protect our own families from the virus while also paying our mortgages.
If you are looking for valuable resources that provide facts on what is happening in Manitoba and Canada when it comes to Covid-19, here are the resources that I have been relying on:
Canada.ca
CBC News
Manitoba Government page dedicated to Covid-19
I’ll be back in a few days to share some of my thoughts and ideas about the best ways to plan a wedding amidst this crisis — tips and ideas, and some of the best things that can come out of this. See you soon, friends!
Guide to Hanging Floral Installations
I’m kind of known for my hanging floral installations here in Winnipeg. It seems that whenever a couple says they want hanging flowers, they get referred to me - and obviously, that’s the way I like it! I’ve done them big, small, floral heavy and greenery focused, at reception spaces over a head table or dance floor and at ceremony spaces creating an altar. Sometimes they’ve involved the addition of ribbon streamers or built on wood boards, sometimes I’ve added in string lights, once I created a floral chandelier. All of them have involved tall ladders!
I thought I’d run you through some of the things I think about while I’m designing hanging floral installations!
I’m kind of known for my hanging floral installations here in Winnipeg. It seems that whenever a couple says they want hanging flowers, they get referred to me - and obviously, that’s the way I like it! I’ve done them big, small, floral heavy and greenery focused, at reception spaces over a head table or dance floor and at ceremony spaces creating an altar. Sometimes they’ve involved the addition of ribbon streamers or built on wood boards, sometimes I’ve added in string lights, once I created a floral chandelier. All of them have involved tall ladders!
I thought I’d run you through some of the things I think about while I’m designing hanging floral installations!
Designed for Planned Perfectly’s 2020 catalogue photo shoot at the Manitoba Club. Photos by Luxe Images by Jill.
Mechanics
Without a doubt, the mechanics of the HOW it’s going to hang is the most important part of planning a hanging floral installation. The first step of that is making sure there’s something that I can actually hang OFF of. Open rafters is always the best case scenario because they’re nice and sturdy! Sometimes I need to hire a lighting company to install cables for me to work off of, and for a wedding this summer, I’m planning to take a licensing test to use a scissor lift - bah!
I also need to make sure that there’s something that I can build the installation off of, some sort of base to use. At Hawthorn Estates, they have a suspended vintage wooden ladder that hangs above the head table that forms an EXCELLENT base. I’ve also used wood lattice, lots of chicken wire, rope, airline cable…lots of stuff.
Photos by Aimee de la Lande
Ingredient selections
Choosing the right floral ingredients is SO important because I don’t typically have a water source built into the installation. Foliage and flowers need to be hearty and last pretty well without water. Most foliages are pretty good - especially if they have a woody stem or waxy leaves. Many times we can water tube flowers so they have a few hours of drinking, but some things like roses or carnations don’t really need to be in water to last well. I try to use as little floral foam as possible in my work (it’s hazardous to the environment as it’s essentially a non-biodegradable single use plastic, and it’s bad for my health as it’s carcinogenic), and though I can’t always figure out a way to work without it, using foam isn’t best in hanging installations because it is very heavy and it often drips - again, reinforcing the need to choose flowers that either do well without a water source or can be watertubed.
Photos by Izabela Rachwal at The Gates on Roblin
Designing for Context
I always want to keep the vibe of the venue and the wedding’s style in mind as I plan the design. Maybe I don’t want to do something super modern and sleek in your average golf course banquet room (since they are typically not modern or sleek 🤪), for example, or design with a gorgeous berry toned colour palette in a room with orange wallpaper. This rule goes for all design, not just hanging installations, but I wanted to mention it nonetheless!
Photos by Luckygirl Creative at Whitetail Meadow
Next week I’ll be chatting about all things wedding ceremony flowers. If you have any questions, drop me a line and I’ll happily address it!
Looking for a Wedding Floral and Event Designer in Winnipeg?
2021 wedding dates are now booking! From Gimli to Steinbach, out to Kenora or anywhere in the Winnipeg area, reach out to Stone House Creative to create the perfect floral compliments for your wedding.
I create beautiful weddings for great people, designed with and for love.
Whimsical Garden Inspired Wedding at the Gates on Roblin
I remember being excited when I received Thao’s initial inquiry. She described her vision of a whimsical, dreamy garden inspired wedding at the Gates on Roblin, wanting greenery intertwined with string lights on the ceiling. Suffice it to say, I was pretty enticed with this idea!
I remember being excited when I received Thao’s initial inquiry. She described her vision of a whimsical, dreamy garden inspired wedding at the Gates on Roblin, wanting greenery intertwined with string lights on the ceiling. Suffice it to say, I was pretty enticed with this idea!
And did you know, I’m actually a Preferred Vendor for The Gates? Check out what I designed for their 2019 wedding open house here!
Thao’s bouquet was one of the BEST smelling bouquets I’ve ever made, and it was all because of those garden roses! Bridal bouquet ingredients: pink o’hara garden roses, raspberry scabiosa, dahlias, locally grown lisianthus, ranunculus, waxflower, Queen Anne’s Lace, acacia and eucalyptus.
“It was an absolute dream come true working with Lauren on our wedding florals. She is absolutely brilliant – so creative and talented and truly passionate about her industry and craft. She took our idea of an ethereal whimsical garden feel, added her magic touch and brought the whole vision to life. The sweet scent of the beautifully ruffled pink O'Hara garden roses that she recommended is still etched in my mind!” - Thao and Marc
These gorgeous portraits sure make me miss summer! I cannot wait for the days of green grass and the warm summer sun again.
Along with her bouquet, Thao requested a floral piece for her hair. We designed this textured comb, made in a way that it could be applied to her hair in a few ways. You can see that it was worn both with her hair up and her hair down and it looked awesome both ways!
I had nothing to do with their tea ceremony in the morning, but I just had to share this picture - isn’t it SO cute?
For the ceremony, Thao requested my copper arch with an asymmetrical application of fresh flowers that could be moved from location to location. I don’t typically like to have pieces that are going to be moved without me being there, but sometimes it’s just not an option. We first set up the arch outside of Thao’s parents’ home, so as guests arrived for the morning tea ceremony they walked in under the flowers. The entire arch was then moved to the church for the formal ceremony.
I love the way this design came together at The Gates! I was able to accomplish Thao’s vision of greenery floating above the dance floor on the string lights and it really did look SO pretty. It was light and airy, achieving that whimsical aesthetic.
We designed 2 centrepiece styles for the guest tables. The first was a greenery wreath that circled a trio of feminine toned taper candles set in brass candlesticks rented from Something Borrowed. The other half of the tables featured a large gold bowl (part of my rental inventory) with a mostly greenery arrangement that incorporated a few pops of locally grown flowers for colour.
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!
Ethereal Beach Wedding in Gimli
Some clients come to me with very clear ideas of what they want their wedding to look like. Some weddings evolve stylistically over time. Kristene and Travis’ ethereal beach wedding in Gimli was actually a combination of both!
Kristene did have a pretty clear picture of what she liked: the colour palette of blush and light blue with lots of white was planned and set.
Some clients come to me with very clear ideas of what they want their wedding to look like. Some weddings evolve stylistically over time. Kristene and Travis’ ethereal beach wedding in Gimli was actually a combination of both!
Kristene did have a pretty clear picture of what she liked: the colour palette of blush and light blue with lots of white was planned and set. The Gimli venue was booked and dreamed about. But Kristene was looking for a month-of wedding coordinator, as the wedding was somewhat of a destination wedding, and I happily recommended Emily from Feast & Festivities. She took care of the wedding coordination, and Kristene also hired her for event design, and that’s when the visual side of this wedding really started to come together. Emily took Kristene’s ideas, my plans for the florals, and made some serious magic happen.
Pretty in pink - and a bit of pale blue, as well. You know when you hear the phrase “cotton candy skies” and you can picture exactly what that sunset looks like? That’s what we were going for here.
Bridal Bouquet Ingredients: garden roses, ranunculus, locally grown lisianthus, delphinium, rice flower, and Queen Anne’s Lace with varied foliages.
When you’re getting married at the beach, the plan is, of course, to get married at the BEACH. But sadly, this day was not the best in the weather department. The skies were stormy most of the day, so the majority of the festivities were moved indoors. I’m so glad they managed to take some portraits outside though - wouldn’t you agree that the stormy blue gray skies are just the perfect compliment to this colour palette?
And as far as I’m concerned, the fireplace at Johnson Hall at the Gimli Waterfront Centre is quite a good backup for a ceremony space. The original design plan had the fireplace as the backdrop for the couple’s head table, so we had already planned for a thin eucalyptus garland along with the candles on the mantle. Simply moving in the floral arrangements that were designed for the ceremony in front of the fireplace was the only change that needed to happen! Kristene really liked the idea of the arrangements looking like they were growing out of the my wood stands (by the way, you can see much of my rental inventory here!), so I opted to use a very low design tray instead of a larger vase or urn.
The flowers in these arrangements were ALL locally grown here in Manitoba, complimented by imported foliage.
I really love the way that Feast & Festivities designed this room!
Emily does a beautiful job of conceptualizing floor plans and creating interest and movement throughout a room. It’s always a personal favourite of mine when we get to work with multiple table shapes and centrepiece styles.
We decided to design a fuller compote style arrangement for the long guest tables, complimented by simple candle clusters on the round tables. Kristene really loved a lot of crisp white, and the way Emily designed the entire room around that was quite breathtaking - and especially because the room itself is so nice! I think she layered something like 3 or 4 different white linens on each of the guest tables so that there would be a lot of visual texture. The round tables had a bit of a shimmer lace visible underneath, while the long tables were lined with a gauzy runner - the difference made simply by paying attention to the linens is huge!
I also love that the place settings pull in other elements from the wedding design - the smoke gray charger plate, the blue cut glass water goblets, and the sweet little vials of sand for each guest!
Looking for a Wedding Floral and Event Designer in Winnipeg?
2021 wedding dates are now booking! From Gimli to Steinbach, out to Kenora or anywhere in the Winnipeg area, reach out to Stone House Creative to create the perfect floral compliments for your wedding.
I create beautiful weddings for great people, designed with and for 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!
