Vibrant Autumn Wedding at The Pavilion

One of my all-time favourite fall weddings: an amazing colour palette, one of my favourite venues, an incredible vendor team, and perfect autumn weather. Everything about Nicole and Rourke’s vibrant autumn wedding was beautiful.

Photos by Brittany Mahood

This palette — MAN. I know I say that a lot, but I just love colour. Nicole gave me a couple of inspiration photos, and then as with most of my designs, I started working on her proposal by creating their colour palette. Colour is such an important part of a design and I wanted to layer in warm tones with different varieties and shapes.

We definitely wanted to include corals and oranges, to which I added a rich berry tone, plum, and some softer caramel. It really sung “autumn but not trying too hard to be fall,” if that makes sense!

Bridal Bouquet Ingredients: Caramel antique garden roses, pink dahlias, barista roses, mango mini calla lilies, chocolate cosmos, sahara sensation spray roses, golden ilex berries, olive foliage, and agonis foliage.

We’re going to need to talk briefly about how stunning Nicole’s dress and veil were. Handmade by Cathy Wiebe, I LOVE the soft colour that was worked in with hand-embroidery and beading. Cathy and I even collaborated a bit (like a TINY bit) as she incorporated some of the actual flowers I was using into her designs.

I love a good ground-based floral nest for your ceremony! Knowing that the wedding was in October and there wasn’t likely to be much colour still around (though I was astonished at how good the gardens at the Pavilion still looked!!), I was excited to be able to create a garden for Nicole and Rourke to say their vows in.

One of the benefits of pieces like this is that they can be relatively easily repurposed into your reception. This means you’re getting a stunning design for your ceremony, and then during your cocktail hour, your florist or planner will pick those pieces up and sneak them into your reception. We used them all at the seating chart for a major statement (scroll down to see more of that, which I LOVED) but we could also separate the pieces and use them at your bar, on your dessert table, as part of your tent entrance, or as table end-caps for banquet tables. Just be sure to discuss this with your floral designer, so that we can make sure to design them intentionally to fit both spaces where they’ll be used!

The design brief: minimalist tables allow for a maximalist ceiling installation.

Minimalist tabletops does not mean there was a lack of detail — rather, what we chose to incorporate was intentionally selected to create the character and ambiance desired, while allowing the ceiling installation to take centre stage.

Mixed centrepiece styles in a rich floral palette, all placed on a warm toffee toned linen created a really beautiful, elevated base for the entire space.

Three different centrepiece styles were featured. The round tables around the outside of the room featured a fuller, low floral arrangement in a modern compote vase, with a collection of low glass votives surrounding it. The smaller round tables in the “nook” (the window alcove area, which is a bit smaller so we usually use smaller tables in there) focused on bud vases (5 per table) with taper candles, and the long tables saw a simple collection of taper and votive candles lining the narrow length of the tables.

Lately I’ve been loving using lots of clear glass vessels — the candlelight sparkles off them so beautifully. You’ll see that here with all the stem vases and varied candleholders themselves. And the colours and textures of the flowers in these stem vases? GOOD. REALLY GOOD.

This is where having a designer on your vendor team comes into play. When Nicole explained that they would need to remove tables for their dance, I immediately knew what I wanted to do: focus on hanging greenery above the tables, and keep the tabletops minimal with just candles. This way, the ambiance would be amazing both for dinner and the dance (especially the dance, actually!!). Dancing beneath the canopy of vines in the dimmed light, without spending a lot of money on centrepieces on the table that would only be used for a portion of the evening.

I then worked really closely with Cam from Event Light (one of my top 15 Winnipeg wedding vendors you need to know!) to figure out how we were going to suspend this greenery canopy. We settled on his crew creating a system for us to attach our smilax vines to, without damaging the ceiling or hanging from something we weren’t allowed to! It worked amazingly and looked fantastic!


LOOKING FOR A WEDDING FLORAL AND EVENT DESIGNER IN WINNIPEG?

Planning a wedding at Assibinoine Park Pavilion and want to elevate the space? I’d love to be your floral designer.

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 (like a greenery canopy hung above your dinner tables!), 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!