Chic Minimalist Wedding at The White Poplar
Tara and James’ wedding is the perfect exhibit of total trust within artistic collaboration — she is an incredible stationery designer and paper maker, and had a chic vision for the wedding. I was so thrilled to bring it to life.
The vision was an airy, clean, natural feeling design with minimal yet elevated details. I chose limited floral ingredients, and Tara requested chic, unfussy arrangements. The overall vibe was structured yet unstructured, and it was idyllic.
Tara and James’ wedding is the perfect exhibit of total trust within artistic collaboration — she is an incredible stationery designer and paper maker, and had a chic vision for the wedding. I was so thrilled to bring it to life.
The vision was an airy, clean, natural feeling design with minimal yet elevated details. I chose limited floral ingredients, and Tara requested chic, unfussy arrangements. The overall vibe was structured yet unstructured, and it was idyllic.
Photos by Nicole Plett
Oh my gosh, how much did I LOVE THIS BOUQUET!! I knew that the best way to accomplish Tara’s vision was with limited floral varieties. This creates a more elevated, chic look and given the shape of her dress and the petite bouquet size she wanted, I chose to keep it simple but organic.
Bridal bouquet ingredients: locally grown bleeding hearts (totally the star of the show!!), tulips, freesia, and hellebore.
There’s definitely an art to selecting the perfect mis-matching bridesmaid dresses, and this group did an amazing job. The textures, tones, and subtle touches of pattern combined beautifully. And HELLO, can we talk about Tara’s dress?! Custom-made by Cathy Wiebe, it was literally divine. The sleeve length, the drape of the shoulder, the flow of the skirt…I’ve never seen anything like it.
Tara and James chose to orient their ceremony towards the back of where The White Poplar normally does it, and I thought it looked beautiful! The two oak trees were really important to them, and Tara actually used them as part of the letter-pressed line sketch in their wedding invitations (Oh! Did I mention that Tara is an incredibly talented paper artist and wedding invitation designer? You’re going to want to check out her work here).
For the ceremony floral, we wanted to create floral pieces that really blended into the setting, bringing an organic softness. There wasn’t a lot of spatial depth for us to work with, so instead of the typical curved ground arch, I went for two large, overgrown-inspired ground-based pieces that were positioned straight along the edge of the ceremony site.
This reception design was one of my very favourites of the entire year. It felt like an elevated take on an organic, simple design and the ambiance was just perfect. Tara carefully chose such beautiful elements to bring it all together: the king’s table for the wedding party, her stunning stationery, and each rental piece was curated so perfectly to bring the right texture and chic feel.
The florals fit right in. Tara and I chose these bowls (so glad she wanted them, as I’ve used them so many times since then!), and I designed several different centrepiece styles to bring movement and organic texture down the length of the tables. I primarily used tulips, hellebore, and Queen Anne’s Lace, tucking in some locally grown pansies and bleeding heart to finish it off.
We repurposed some of the ceremony floral to the base of the king’s table, and more of it to the entrance and seating chart.
If this look is what you dream of, here are some tips to creating the right vibe:
-Elevated rentals are key. Touches of textured glassware, this gorgeous bar from Collective, and the perfect textured linens elevate an empty space.
-Floral ingredients should be minimized. I chose a few things and used them en masse and in repetition to create the look I was going for.
-Aim for some outdoor space! They were able to have their ceremony, cocktail hour, and dancing under the stars and it was perfect (while still making sure their guests were comfortable indoors for the dinner).
Nicole Plett Photography ~ The White Poplar ~ Idyll Paper ~ Planned Perfectly ~ Feast & Festivities ~ Collective Event Rentals ~ Union Table ~ Simply Beautiful Decor ~ Myuz Artistry ~ Cathy Wiebe Clothes ~ Lineage House ~ Brides Eye View
Getting Married at the White poplar?
I might be a bit biased…but I happen to do a really great job of creating unique floral designs that are perfect in their space.
Reach out to inquire about your date availability, and find out how we can create the perfect ambiance for your wedding.
Garden Meets Classic: A Destination Wedding at Clear Lake
There’s a few things that you can do to immediately get me on board with your wedding: plan for a great location (hello to the natural beauty of Clear Lake!), ask for some stellar florals (an over the top ceremony design? yes, please!), and throw in the challenge of logistics to get me excited (more on that below!).
Alex and Travis’s destination wedding at Elkhorn Manor (Clear Lake) was the perfect combination of all of the above.
Let’s get into it!
Photos by Brittany Mahood Photography
There’s a few things that you can do to immediately get me on board with your wedding: plan for a great location (hello to the natural beauty of Clear Lake!), ask for some stellar florals (an over the top ceremony design? yes, please!), and throw in the challenge of logistics to get me excited (more on that below!).
Alex and Travis’s destination wedding at Elkhorn Manor (Clear Lake) was the perfect combination of all of the above.
Let’s get into it!
Photos by Brittany Mahood Photography
Logistics aren’t sexy. They just aren’t. But when you’re planning a destination or semi-destination wedding, at a venue that is a few hours away from any major city and requires your vendors to travel in, logistics are the name of the game. You absolutely cannot hire someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing. Not to toot my own horn, but this is where I absolutely thrive.
Over the last few years, Stone House Creative has become known for the work we do on larger-scale weddings, and I’m incredibly proud of that. Alex and Travis’ wedding was both large, and logistically challenging due to being in Clear Lake. I don’t feel like I can possibly shout this from the rooftop enough: if you’re envisioning a larger, floral-focused design, or your venue necessitates a lot of logistical difficulty, you must absolutely hire a floral design team that understands what truly needs to happen to make your wedding come together without issue.
From the start of my earliest conversation with their planner, Tricia Bachewich Events, I laid out some of the special considerations that their chosen florist would need to be able to have solutions ready for:
-Staffing, and the size of team that we would need to have.
-Delivery logistics. Travel time to Clear Lake is ~ 3 hours, not including all the time needed to load the vehicles; with the amount of installations needed on-site and the set up time we would need, it was clear we would not be able to drive up the same morning as the wedding and still be able to accomplish everything.
-This naturally progressed into needing hotel rooms, which aren’t typically able to booked at Elkhorn until January of that calendar year, along with increased staffing costs due to additional time and per diems.
-Arriving the day before also would mean that we would need a cool holding space at the resort. The ceremony/reception location does not have any air conditioning, so the hotel would need to have an option for us.
-With the size of floral order and guest count, I knew that a single Uhaul would not be sufficient, nor would I be comfortable with the flowers driving for 3 hours in an un-air-conditioned Uhaul. We were heading up to a remote location with not even a regular flower shop nearby; if any of our flowers crapped out while we were driving, there wouldn’t be anything nearby for us to replace it with.
-The requested ceremony arch would require a custom structure build in order to create the scale they desired.
-Additionally, while the couple are originally from the Clear Lake/Brandon areas, they currently live in the USA as the groom is a hockey player in the NHL. They didn’t have the time to dedicate to planning their wedding, and needed a vendor team that could progress without needing their input.
While I normally go for a lot of colour, I have to say that this white and green palette (with touches of taupey blush) looks really good at Elkhorn Manor! The bridesmaid dresses were the perfect colour, especially through Brittany’s lense.
Alex’s Galia Lahav dress is stunning — the floral appliqued details almost feels like tiny floral confetti floating throughout the gown. I chose to design her bouquet in a classic-meets-garden way, making sure that there was some movement and nothing too stiff.
Bridal Bouquet Ingredients: playa blanca roses, quicksand roses, white ruffled lisianthus, sweet pea, dahlias, ranunculus, and jasmine vine.
Oh baby, I loved this ceremony design! Mid-way through the planning, they chose to add the clear top tent as insurance against the rain. While we didn’t end up needing it on August 3 because the weather was perfect, it actually did POUR that night. You can never be too careful with an outdoor wedding!
To create more of a natural feeling, we softened the tent ceiling with strands of vining smilax. It took a fair bit of time to maneuver our scaffold around on the grass to get me up high enough to do this, but it turned out beautifully.
Then, the piece de resistance: the arch. As many pro athletes are, Travis is pretty tall. And once I saw Alex’s inspiration image for the ceremony arch, I knew that the scale of the arch (height, width, and fullness of the floral!) was going to be really important to nail in order to create the look she wanted. I collaborated with Creating a Scene to custom-manufacture the wood boxes that we then attached the arch structure to — and the devil is in the detail! The box trim on the boxes matched that on their bar, and of course, I made sure to appropriately counter-weight the metal arch structure that I had custom-made to fit on the boxes so that no disasters were possible.
The aisle was fully lined with floral to create a garden effect, and we repurposed most of these pieces throughout the reception design, as well.
Along with the logistical mindset needed to accomplish this destination wedding at Clear Lake, any wedding at an out-of-town venue requires serious flexibility. For months, I was mentally preparing myself for anything that could possibly go wrong.
Here’s a quick run-down of things we had to address the week and day of the wedding: the reefer truck we reserved had an issue and they cancelled our reservation so we needed to figure something else out; the ceremony tent size changed at the last minute so we had to adjust how we hung the ceiling greenery; a chandelier was hung in the ceremony tent literally right where the arch was supposed to go, so we had to take that down; the grids for the hanging installation over the head table were installed incorrectly so we needed to adjust how we designed the florals (and note, we did indeed solve all of these problems. They all took a lot of time, though, so the team came in clutch to make it all happen on time!).
The cocktail hour details were so cute — one of these living wall features to serve specialty cocktails (guests had to ring a bell under whichever cocktail they chose, and a gloved hand would appear with drink ready!). The seating chart was added to the wall, and I added some floral and greenery touches to tie it all together.
They also rented a cute phone booth / photo booth, to which we added more smilax, coordinating floral pieces, and a tall delphinium arrangement to the attached guest book table.
The reception tent featured a central king table for the wedding party, set under a hanging floral piece, and round guest tables interspersed with faux olive trees elevated on white pedestals with box trim. A primarily white palette was warmed up with natural cane-back chairs, taupe candles, and slight touches of blush in the florals.
For the head table, I opted for 20x mixed size clear glass vases that each featured a single variety arrangement, allowing for a delightful garden-inspired smattering of florals and textures down the length of the table.
I’m not always huge on the marquee letters, but this was pretty epic! Set up on the hill, above the tent, it looked so good and was such a fun backdrop to their dance party.
It’s not every wedding when the couple flies in a multi CCMA and Juno award winning country music star to play their first dance — but Alex and Travis brought in Brett Kissel to play a set for their reception! This must have been SUCH a fun party. I would have loved to have been a guest!
I have to give an enormous thank you to the crew that was part of making this wedding happening! Emily and Deanna who helped to design everything leading up to the wedding, Jason and Chad who came along to help us set up, clean up, and drive, and Kayla, Andrea, and Amanda who each drove up to Clear Lake for the day to help us design and install everything. A solid team is crucial, and this crew was AMAZING.
Brittany Mahood Photography ~ Tricia Bachewich Events ~ Elkhorn Manor, Clear Lake ~ Paper & Palm ~ Union Table ~ Special Event Rentals ~ Dream Day Decor ~ Creating a Scene ~ House of Silk ~ 4 Square Foto ~ Trident Films ~ Ginger Snips Salon ~ Oak & Ivy Salon
Looking for a Floral Designer for your large scale wedding in Winnipeg?
Large scale weddings come with a lot of logistics, and require both creativity and a detailed mindset to pull it off. Stone House Creative specializes in this!
Whether you already have a specific vision or want me to dream up something custom just for you, reach out to find out how we can create the perfect ambiance for your wedding.
Top Trends for 2025 and 2026 Winnipeg Wedding
I love this quote encouraging couples planning their weddings: “You can’t please everyone, so please yourself. Trying to make every family member and guest happy can lead to a wedding that doesn’t reflect you two as a couple. Focus on what makes you happy.” So my friends, if you don’t like what I have to say here, that’s TOTALLY FINE. You do you, my friends. Make your wedding the greatest it can be, for you.
And before I get too far, the wedding trends I forecasted last year (and the year before, TBH), are still totally relevant: sculptural floral design, creative floor plans, focal design moments, mono-bloom bouquets (I see this fading out, but I don’t know why — I still love it!), meandering aisles (still looking for someone to let me dig into this for them!), unique draping, and a few bows touches here and there!
And now, let’s get into the pretty and inspirational! (And PS — if you’re newly engaged, congratulations! If you’re new here, welcome! Here on the blog, I share a deep look into my real weddings, along with sharing planning advice and tips!)
I always love forecasting wedding trends, so here we go!
Writing my annual wedding trends post is one of my favourite posts to work on. It’s fun to see how many of my couples are digging into “trends,” and TBH it’s also kind of fun for me to hate on trends that other people are talking about. Not all trends are good trends, friends.
Photo above by Brittany Mahood Photography
As always, before I jump into some of my favourite trends that I hope we’ll see continuing into 2025 and beyond, here are a few things that are always at the top of my list:
Environmental Responsibility
Quality Over Quantity
Locally Grown Flowers
Doing Things Your Own Way
I love this quote encouraging couples planning their weddings: “You can’t please everyone, so please yourself. Trying to make every family member and guest happy can lead to a wedding that doesn’t reflect you two as a couple. Focus on what makes you happy.” So my friends, if you don’t like what I have to say here, that’s TOTALLY FINE. You do you, my friends. Make your wedding the greatest it can be, for you.
And before I get too far, the wedding trends I forecasted last year (and the year before, TBH), are still totally relevant: sculptural floral design, creative floor plans, focal design moments, mono-bloom bouquets (I see this fading out, but I don’t know why — I still love it!), meandering aisles (still looking for someone to let me dig into this for them!), unique draping, and a few bows touches here and there!
And now, let’s get into the pretty and inspirational! (And PS — if you’re newly engaged, congratulations! If you’re new here, welcome! Here on the blog, I share a deep look into my real weddings, along with sharing planning advice and tips!)
Mocha Mousse: The Pantone Colour of the Year
I’ll admit something here: normally I hate the Pantone colour of the year. And maybe I hate the colour itself less than the way people use them. Typically I just find the Pantone colours of the year to be so saturated, and then wedding vendors with no design sense (oops, but I’m just being honest) take it in the most literal way and make crap with it 🫠
But this one!! I like this one! Though again, I think I like the mocha mousse less than I do the things that we can add to it. I’m seeing the mocha tone look amazing with chartreuse and bright shades of green, mauves, even with richer burgundies.
Sculptural Floral Ingredients
Last year I highlighted sculptural floral designs as a trend; this year, I’m getting more into the detail of it by telling you that it’s all about the INGREDIENTS.
As floral designers, we can’t create the unique and funky shapes you’re inspired by, without using unique and funky ingredients. If this is what you’re looking for, then you need to hire a designer who actually gets it. This is where a lesser designer will falter.
I’m seeing lots of calla lilies, lilies, clematis, gloriosa lilies, antherium (yes, still!), nerine, hellebores…unfortunately, all the things that are expensive 😂
Moody Ambiance
Where great lighting, rich colours, and a desire for a chic, elevated vibe combine, we can create a really moody ambiance. I’m not sure what has spurred this trend on, but it’s here and definitely not going anywhere.
A few tips for achieving a moody ambiance: Lighting will be key. The overhead lights should be dimmed or off, with uplighting and spotlighting made a priority. Add in table lamps and candles to boost the ambiance.
Deep colours work really well to naturally lend a moody feel to a design, as do long tables and signature cocktails.
Rounded Shapes
Circular altars surrounded with florals, curved meandering aisles, round guest tables arranged in a serpentine shape, rounded die-cut wedding invitations or table numbers, or scalloped edges on a veil — what we’re looking for is ways to soften the hard edges that might feel a little too harsh.
Pattern Play
I know this is going to stress a lot of you out. But maximalism pattern play is a really fun trend that we’re going to see taking centre stage — but in larger markets. In Winnipeg, this is going to be really hard to accomplish because our rental options are so much more limited.
So how can you make this happen in a smaller town? Pattern play will be best accomplished through stationery and signage pieces, and bold colour florals/mismatched vessels. Throw a fun table number into the mix, and see what you can find for coloured glassware, and that’ll make a big difference!
Cottage + Granny Chic
I see the cottagecore trend of a few years ago moving more into a granny chic vibe, retaining those kind of sweet, old lady elements: nubby linens, soft floral patterns, pastels, woven or rattan textures (lamp shades, chair backs, and so on!).
Think charming, English countryside wedding. Like if Iris from “The Holiday” got married at her sweet little cottage.
Even better if you can hold your ceremony in an overgrown, outdoor ceremony, with a flowing dress with some lace touches, and mismatched ceramic vases.
Old World Opulance
This one comes to us from my friend Kayla at Kayla Lagos Weddings:
In 2025 we are seeing the revival of old world opulence and the Rococo era. Think, ultra feminine, pastel, Bridgerton garden party! For tablescapes we will continue to focus on gold and brass accents through cutlery, candlesticks, and dinnerware. Floral arrangements will be abundant in pastel colour palettes on guest tables and in ceremony spaces. We will see lots of intricate details like lace, bows, ruffles, pearls and ditsy floral prints in things like stationery, linens and accessories. Intricate piping on cakes and dessert tables, as well as ruffle cake layers is also continuing to trend. Linens will be very important this year in lots of draping and choosing tablecloths with florals, texture and pastel tones to bring the whole look together. In wedding attire the continuation of bows is important along with pearl accessories, coloured embroidery and drop waist gowns. We are so excited to see how this trend and these elements are interpreted in 2025!
Unique Draping
I’m straight up recycling this from last year because it’s not slowing down. This one is a bit harder because it really hinges on your venue, but I’m seeing a lot of really interesting, unique draping installations and I’m HERE for it. Why?
Draping can create a really cool ambiance, and completely change the vibe of the space. Dreamy, modern, organic, clean…all things possible with drapery. And no unsightly venue walls to contend with.
Images Above: Dress, Table, Champagne Tower
looking for a wedding floral designer in winnipeg?
We can design an incredibly beautiful wedding for you, trendy or not.
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!
Year in Review 2024
Whew. 2024 was amazing!
I’m pretty confident this is the longest wedding season I’ve had yet — late May through the end of November with very little slow time in the mix. It was also quite possibly the most beautiful season of all (though I probably say that every year!), but I can barely remember the earliest days of the season! Those May and June weddings seem like a lifetime ago.
I’m still waiting on a lot of galleries (if you’re a client and you’ve got your photos back, please share them with me!) but I hope to be sharing a lot of those images this winter to give newly engaged people a lot of ideas and inspiration.
Whew. 2024 was amazing!
I’m pretty confident this is the longest wedding season I’ve had yet — late May through the end of November with very little slow time in the mix. It was also quite possibly the most beautiful season of all (though I probably say that every year!), but I can barely remember the earliest days of the season! Those May and June weddings seem like a lifetime ago.
I’m still waiting on a lot of galleries (if you’re a client and you’ve got your photos back, please share them with me!) but I hope to be sharing a lot of those images this winter to give newly engaged people a lot of ideas and inspiration.
A few Numbers to kick things off…
30 weddings (some super small, some very large!)
6 corporate events plus a handful of social events (birthday parties, bachelorette parties, bridal and baby showers!)
353 bunches of roses = over 8800 stems!
594 bunches of locally grown flowers = almost 6000 stems!
10th Anniversary!
2024 was not only another year filled with beautiful weddings, it was also my 10th business anniversary!
I genuinely don’t remember much about the early days of starting my business. I remember strategically planning out my very first website (I’m still proud of it!), and I remember connecting with my friend Britney Fache who ended up referring me about 25 clients that first year! I recall my first phone call with Kelly from Lilystone Gardens — I was so hopeful that I would be able to connect with a local flower grower but didn’t really know where to start, but Kelly was really the first to pursue growing flowers for wedding purposes, and that was such a blessing and really shaped my dedication to using locally grown flowers.
To celebrate my 10th anniversary in business, I ran a giveaway with 2 prizes — a custom veil from Cathy Wiebe Clothes (that bride is getting married next year!), and a content creation package from Brides Eye View. Kaylee won that, and it was SO amazing — here’s her video!
I definitely don’t remember writing this 5th anniversary blog post, though some of the dreams and plans that I had at that point have come true, some are still on the table, and some have just changed completely.
Over the years, I’ve committed to making my business as sustainable as possible, which entails having a beautiful rental collection instead of putting the onus on clients to purchase and provide vessels to me. It also entails me making as many sustainable business choices as possible — composting, recycling, using reusable materials, and eliminating floral foam as much as possible. I’m really proud of this work — some of it is harder to do than the alternative, but it’s worth it in the long run, of course!
The Whirlwind that was August
August 2024 was the busiest month of Stone House history. It was quite unreal, to be honest with you. Everything about it was amazing, but I was so looking forward to it being over!
We kicked things off with a destination wedding in Clear Lake (a full dive into that wedding is coming in the new year!) for an NHL player. I took a team of 4 of us up there, with 3 more women driving in from the surrounding area for the day. We celebrated with pizza from TR McKoy’s (my FAVE restaurant in Clear Lake!) and ended the wedding day at Elkhorn’s new Nordic spa (it was AMAZING).
Photos below: Brittany Mahood
Following that large wedding, we dove right away into our largest wedding of the year the next week. I think we had 4-10 people on our team for that week, with TONS and TONS of flowers and a killer hanging installation composed of 80 feet of floral coverage. Cannot wait to show you more from this!
Photos below: Brittany Mahood
We designed for 4 other weddings that month, each of which was completely different from the next and filled with gorgeous flowers and colours and TONS of locally grown product. And for the final wedding of the month, I was hired for both floral and event design and it was really beautiful.
Photos below: Michael & Melanie, Casey Nolin, Bennett Murphy Mills, and me :)
Client Highlights
It’s incredibly exciting when my past clients are either part of the wedding party, or part of the family. It seems like this year, I got to see quite a lot of my past clients in wedding parties! Here are just a few :)
Photos (l-r) by Tedi Jean, Kassandra Donaldson, Karina Walker, Casey Nolin, Brittany Mahood, and Ariana Tennyson
It Takes a Village
It’s not possible to do the weddings that we do completely on my own. I’m so grateful for the wonderful team that comes together to make your wedding dreams come true. I really love being able to control the overall design and logistics, while being able to trust these women to design in such a beautiful way.
And below are a few of the random spots where you might have found me this year: up on a 20 foot high scaffold, inside a dirty plinth that needed cleaning, and designing in (and on top of!) a pool!
continuing to level up
I’ve spoken at length before about why I think it’s important to continue pursuing education and design inspiration. I’m not a new kid on the block at this point, but I think it’s really valuable to continually be seeking out both inspiration and wisdom from others in my industry.
This spring, I travelled to Montreal to learn from 2 of my favourite designers, and found myself fully refreshed and inspired by doing so. Here’s a quick recap of that trip! It seems so long ago, but it really did give me a great start to the season.
I also invested in an online course to help me level up my visual proposals. It’s an aspect of my process that I love and that sets me apart from my competition, and I know my clients appreciate. I can’t wait to dig into this even more for my upcoming clients.
Room Reveals
I always love seeing these moments! The moment when you first see your wedding space, completely finished. Your dreaming has actually, finally, happened. It’s exciting!! For a lot of you, this moment won’t be caught on camera (a lot of logistical planning needs to happen to allow for this!) and those moments are just as sweet to me. Even if I’m standing in a pile of stems I’m in the midst of sweeping up, when you walk in and see it all, it’s so exciting.
Above photos all by Brittany Mahood
In 2024, I was hired for multiple very large weddings with lots of production detail and processes to work through. I’m super proud of how I managed all of that! I really love the direction that Stone House has been growing, and I can’t wait to continue on this trajectory. While I will always love the smaller weddings, too, I really thrive on the logistics that are required for larger scale weddings and events.
And speaking of which…I will be hiring for a new position in 2025! I am not quite sure when I’ll post that announcement, as I’m still determining exactly what role(s) I want to fill, but if you’re interested in working with me, keep your eye out for that info!
I always like to promote some charitable offerings at the end of the year, in case any of you are looking for a great cause to donate to. Here’s a couple that I love:
Villages of Hope is an amazing Canadian organization that partners with communities in the poorest nations in Africa, providing schools, shelter, safety, nutrition, healthcare, and above all, hope. Their Hope Packs are a super cost-effective way to make a huge difference for a child, and include books, toys, clothing, and treats. They’re only $25!
Mainstreet Project: Amazon Wishlist
The Mainstreet Project is a Winnipeg organization that serves our city’s most marginalized people, and with the Canada Post strike this year, they’re in a rougher spot than most years. Their Amazon wishlist is such an easy way to support them with the items they need, without needing to worry about Canada Post.
So what’s coming up for the next few years? That’s a good question! I’ve got one really big idea…but I’m just not quite sure if it’s what I really want. Anyone know how to figure out the direction you really want to go? (that, and a few million dollars are needed, too…)
“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord.” Colossians 3:23
If you’re interested in following along for more regular updates, I post on Instagram every few days with snippets of my wedding season, featured weddings, and behind the scenes of my work!
The Winnipeg wedding industry is an amazing industry to be a part of. There are a lot of great people, working to make sure that all of your weddings come together wonderfully. There is also a lot of creativity and professionalism, a lot of knowledge and excellent service. It’s an honour to be a part of that. Thank you to all of my colleagues for making every wedding such a great work environment.
Modern Garden Wedding at The White Poplar
I absolutely LOVE working at The White Poplar and I will shout it from the rooftops! So when Tori and Ian inquired about their wedding (more than a year and a half in advance!) I was already pumped. Then they brought on the best vendor team, and a gorgeous design plan, and I was in wedding design heaven.
Tori has a really classic style, and we wanted to meet it with modern sensibility — so a crisp palette of black and white was chosen, with warm taupes and mixed greens added.
Photos by Brittany Mahood Photography
I absolutely LOVE working at The White Poplar and I will shout it from the rooftops! So when Tori and Ian inquired about their wedding (more than a year and a half in advance!) I was already pumped. Then they brought on the best vendor team, and a gorgeous design plan, and I was in wedding design heaven.
Tori has a really classic style, and we wanted to meet it with modern sensibility — so a crisp palette of black and white was chosen, with warm taupes and mixed greens added.
Photos by Brittany Mahood Photography
“Lauren, I cannot thank you enough for your beautiful work. It was truly better than I could have imagined! I spent so much time on the dance floor just staring at the arch, it was insane!! Thank you thank you thank you 💕”
— Tori and Ian
There’s something about the shape of Tori’s beautiful gown that reminds me of Maria from The Sound of Music. It is so refined! Her pearl-dotted hair and veil were the perfect finishing touches. And isn’t the green tone they bridesmaids chose gorgeous? This was a September wedding, so we definitely didn’t have “fall” leaves yet but the richness of the green was very seasonally appropriate.
Tori requested a classic cascading bouquet, and I initially made it WAY too big because the flowers were just so lush and divine. Late summer is the perfect time for locally grown flowers, and we had them in abundance for Tori.
If you’ve been around here a while, you know that I’m a lover of lots of colour. That’s just my personal preference, but part of that is also because a lot of white weddings look the same. Designers tend to gravitate toward their few favourite ingredients, so it’s tricky to see how to pull through the client’s individual style along with the designer’s style.
I actually designed quite a lot of white weddings this year, and I made it a mission to make them each unique. My secret weapon: locally grown flowers. Tori’s wedding had SO many.
Bridal Bouquet Ingredients: white lisianthus, roses, dahlias, anemones, sweet pea, and snowberry combined with olive and stephanotis vines.
One of many reasons why The Poplar is an incredible place to get married: the photo ops! The natural setting is really stunning.
This ceremony because such a beautiful focal point for the day! Their service was personal and relaxed, and of course, I loved the florals. When your backdrop is a wall of trees, we need to be careful with a green and white palette, so that the arch you’re investing money into doesn’t get blend right into the scenery.
The couple loved the idea of an asymmetrical 2 piece arch, with full white and green coverage. Gorgeous — but also, very easy to end up looking like every other white and green wedding. It’s always a priority for me to make each wedding look unique, so I decided to focus on selecting ingredients that would feel fresh.
For any white wedding, I almost always use playa blanca roses. They open up HUGE and have such a gorgeous shape. But again, even though they’re the perfect rose, I needed to add something that would be unique. So, I cut and dried locally grown green hydrangea — they dry exactly like they look fresh, so I didn’t have to worry about a water source. We clustered these in different groupings along the arch structure, and then focused on lots of white lisianthus (locally grown, whenever I can get them!), the roses, white delphinium for a few fluttery touches, and some clustered white ball dahlias.
We added 2 large arrangements at the back of the aisle to tie the entire space together.
Reception time! The building at The White Poplar is so great — those large front doors, the patio leading to the ceremony site, and all those clear walls make for a great blank space.
The first thing guests saw when they entered was this beautiful seating chart, where we repurposed the aisle flowers. The tables flowed from there, with long tables lining the centre of the room and round tables along the outsides. A sweetheart table was positioned in front of the fireplace.
Soiree Event Planning chose the perfect matte black flatware to accent the industrial black chairs, and a gorgeous dark olive napkin. For the long tables, we clustered petite arrangements in black and grey smoke glass vases (all white, mostly locally grown florals!), and added in ribbed grey smoke glass votives along with soft green taper candles.
The round tables featured a fuller floral arrangement in a matte black vase, complimented by assorted sizes and styles of candles for a more collected but still modern look.
Tip for weddings at The White Poplar: affix your place cards to your menus, and tuck them into your napkins. It can be very windy out there!
Tori and Ian literally told me that flowers weren’t a huge priority for them, but what was a priority was the overall design, and making sure that everything was the appropriate scale and just “felt right.” We went through a few revisions of the floral plan to make sure that we had it right, and I think it came together pretty perfectly between the simpler but still interesting floral centrepieces and the way we repurposed the ceremony florals.
Looking for a Wedding Floral Designer in Winnipeg?
Planning a wedding at The White Poplar? I’ve got a list of design dreams I cannot wait to make a reality. I’d love to be your designer!
Flowers are the best way to make a statement at your wedding. Reach out to Stone House Creative for stunning bridal bouquets, truly unique ceremony backdrops, and beautiful floral centrepieces to create the perfect ambiance for your wedding!
