Modern, Organic Wedding at St Norbert Arts Centre
Every wedding that I’m hired for full event design for is a special project for me. Chantal and Avo were planning from out of town (she’s originally from Manitoba) and we had a few bumps in the road thanks to Covid causing us to postpone a year AND their venue closing a few short months before their wedding.
The creative brief called for a calm, intimate atmosphere (Avo wanted it to feel like a family dinner) with a modern, organic vibe. Whites with cool mixed blues and greys, warmed up with a few wood accents felt so good.
Photos by Esther Funk Photography
I really hit the flower jackpot the week of Chantal’s wedding! The ranunculus was gorg, the spirea was delish, but the icing on the cake was that we were able to find some white lilac — Chantal’s fave that I just never guarantee because if I get it in wholesale, it always craps out. But if it’s blooming locally, then we’re good! And my friendly neighbourhood flower farmer, BLD Gardens, had these gorgeous lilac AND the most mind-shattering tulips that blew all of Instagram’s minds that week.
Bridal Bouquet Ingredients: white lilac, ranunculus, tulips, sweet pea, and spirea, with a few touches of olive and stalks of wheat to remember Chantal’s late father with.
The stationery suite! We worked really closely with Meredyth from Leech Letter Co to design this custom suite, in both French and Lebanese. I wanted to create this watercolour ombre effect on the vellum overlay, with a blue fade. We kept the rest of the design quite simple, with just a minimal branching touch.
Nothing to do with flowers, but Avo’s first look reaction was just amazing. This deserved to be memorialized.
Everything was out at St Norbert Arts Centre. I wasn’t confident that there was enough space on the lawn to fit their smaller guest list, but the chairs were angled to kind of work around some tree stumps and it actually fit just fine!
Originally, we were going to be at the the former Cloakroom Wellness, which was a downtown venue with an industrial vibe. Obviously the very natural setting of SNAC is pretty different than the original vision, so we tweaked the design plan. We were always going to use a lot of greenery, but instead of ground-based pieces that curved around a window nook, we went up, creating some greenery pillars to frame the couple in.
And now inside! I love the feel of SNAC (though it can get really hot there, as it’s not air conditioned, so just a word to the wise!). The only thing I don’t like is the red beams. Whyyyy anyone would use red as an interior colour is beyond me, especially in a space that is otherwise white/wood/light brick. Those red beams were the first thing to address.
I worked with Planned Perfectly to add some draping between red ceiling beams down the centre of the room — it didn’t perfectly hide the beams, but it softened and somewhat camoflauged. And it would have made for a lovely rain plan for the ceremony as well, to walk beneath the drapery as an aisle.
The next thing I wanted to do was camoflauge the red posts that greet you at the entrance. In the original venue, we were going to have greenery boughs suspended from the ceiling, hanging above all the guest tables. We basically took all that greenery and funnelled it into these central posts. It looked gorgeous!
I loved the way we used the small entryway to welcome guests in, with this lovely blue seating chart and floral piece along with a small cocktail table for guest cards.
We brought in all of the wood tables and crossback chairs (which were planned for the original venue), which brought in some much needed warmth.
The centrepieces were simple and minimal, leaving enough space for family style platters of food (the menu looked incredible, tying together specialities from both their heritages). We cannot use real flame candles as the venue is a heritage building, but I don’t mind the battery-powered tealights when they’re tucked inside a coloured glass votive holder! Textured white florals in ceramic stem vases featured sweet pea, spirea, and tulips.
I always want to make sure there’s a beautiful place setting — there’s just something about them that I love. Layering a charger and a dinner plate can feel wasteful if budget doesn’t allow, but with family style meal service, they’re super functional. The salad was served on a small grey salad plate, which was then layered with white and grey plates. An oatmeal linen napkin and blue water goblet were added, with personalized menus added to each.
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