Location: St. Basil’s Church, 50 St Joseph St, and the Gardiner Museum, 111 Queens Park, Toronto
Description: This October wedding moved between two very different Toronto settings: a Gothic church with white stone columns, dark carved wood screens, and stained glass, and the bright, glass-walled dining room of the Gardiner Museum. The couple wanted a natural, earthy, textural look in burgundy, light pink, and white. We designed it to carry from the ceremony to the reception.
At St. Basil’s, large arrangements of green and burgundy hydrangea, pink sedum, Queen Anne’s lace, dahlias, and dark foliage were set around the altar in stone-coloured urns. Hydrangea sat taller in each arrangement, with sedum lower down for a layered, full look. At the Gardiner Museum, burgundy-pink calla lilies rose out of long moss runners that stretched along the dining tables, with the stems left tall and sculptural so guests could still see each other across the table.
The day had complex logistics. Personal flowers went to two family homes before noon, with the groom’s side first. Ceremony florals were installed at the church while the reception was set up at the museum at the same time. The reception was ready before guests arrived, and right after the ceremony the church arrangements moved across town to the reception, where they were used as décor, including at the bar. Every request on the couple’s list was delivered, on time and as designed.
Colour Scheme: Burgundy, light pink, and white.
Objective: To create a natural, textural floral suite that works in a historic church and a modern museum dining room, and moves from one venue to the next in a single afternoon.
Flower Types: Calla lilies (burgundy-pink, ivory, and two-toned), green and burgundy hydrangea, pink sedum, Queen Anne’s lace, dahlias, celosia, burgundy cymbidium orchid, peachy orchid, smoke bush, variegated “Heart of Jesus” foliage, and moss.
Arrangements:
- Bridal bouquet – two-toned ivory and pink calla lilies on long stems, finished with minimal green ribbon.
- Bridesmaid bouquet – made for the same palette as the bridal bouquet.
- Groom’s boutonniere – a calla lily with a peachy orchid.
- Groomsman boutonniere – a single calla lily.
- 5 parent corsages – calla lily and sedum.
- 2 parent boutonnieres – calla lily.
- 3 ceremony arrangements – hydrangea, sedum, Queen Anne’s lace, orchid, dahlias, smoke bush, and variegated foliage, each about 1.5 times the size of its urn.
- 4 reception table runners – calla lilies in moss, installed across 4 long tables as continuous runners that together measured over 90 feet in total length, with about half a foot left clear at each end of each table.
