If you are planning a wedding here in the Peace Country, the first question worth asking is not what colour you want. It is when your date falls.
We grow everything we sell on our farm just outside Dawson Creek, and our season is short. Knowing what is actually blooming the week of your wedding changes what we can put in your hands, and it usually stretches your budget further too. Flowers that are cut down the road that morning cost less and last longer than flowers that have spent four days in a box.
Here is how a year looks on our farm, and what it means for your day.
Our season really starts in February
Long before anything shows up in the field, we are starting seed indoors under grow lights. That work runs from February through May, and it is where every wedding order actually begins. By the first week of June, the young plants go out into the field.
Some things are generous and easy. Bunny tail grass comes up like it cannot wait. Others make you work for it. Lisianthus is slow and stubborn and takes months before it gives you anything, which is exactly why it feels so good to hand over a bucket of it in August.
The practical takeaway is simple. If you tell us your date in the winter, we can plant for you. If you come to us in July, we are working with whatever is already in the ground.
May and early June weddings
This is the honest part. In early spring our field is not producing yet, and no amount of hoping changes that. If your date lands here, we will talk with you about a different approach rather than promise you peonies we cannot grow in time.
That usually means leaning on dried and preserved material we put away from the previous season, keeping arrangements smaller and more intentional, and putting the flowers where people actually stand close to them. A beautiful bridal bouquet and a handful of good centerpieces will do more for an early season wedding than thin arrangements spread across a whole hall.
Late June and July, the first real flush
By the back half of June the field starts giving. Snapdragons come on tall and last well in a vase. Bachelor buttons, cosmos, and the first zinnias follow. This is a lovely window for soft, loose, garden style arrangements in whites, blush, and soft blues.
If you like an airy look with movement in it rather than something tight and formal, a July date suits you well.
August into early September, our peak
This is the sweet spot, and it is the reason we are called Dahlia Barn. Dahlias hit their stride in August and keep going until frost. They come in everything from dinner plate size blooms to small tight pompons, in shades that range from cream through peach and coral to deep wine.
Zinnias are at full strength by then, snapdragons are still going, and there is enough variety that we can match almost any palette without reaching outside the farm. If you want the fullest, most colourful flowers we are capable of growing, book an August date.
Mid September and later
Our first hard frost can arrive without much warning. We keep growing as long as the weather lets us, but past the middle of September we plan with a backup in mind and we will be upfront with you about it well ahead of time.
What to send us when you get in touch
You do not need a finished plan to talk to us. The more of this you have, the faster we can give you a real answer.
- Your date, and whether it is firm
- The venue, and whether it is indoors or outside
- Roughly how many tables need something on them
- How many people are carrying or wearing flowers
- Two or three colours you love, and any you would rather avoid
- Whether you want to keep the vessels or return them
What a wedding costs depends on those answers more than anything else. Guest count, how many tables need centerpieces, and whether your palette is in season that particular week all move the number. Send us your date and we will put together a quote for you.
One piece of advice
Ask us for a palette rather than an exact flower list.
Weather does what it wants. A cool August can hold the dahlias back a week, and a hot stretch can push everything early. If we have agreed on soft peach, cream, and a touch of burgundy, we can always deliver that. If we have promised one specific variety on one specific day, we are both at the mercy of the season.
The couples who end up happiest are the ones who tell us the feeling they are after and let us bring them the best of what is open that morning.
Who sets it up on the day
Weddings run on a tight clock, so it helps to agree early on who is carrying what.
For most of our couples we deliver everything ready to place. Personal flowers go to wherever people are getting dressed, and the table pieces go straight to the venue in water. Somebody from the wedding party sets them out, which takes about twenty minutes for a room of ten tables.
If your ceremony and reception are in different places, tell us. Arrangements that need to move mid afternoon are built a little differently so they travel without shedding, and knowing that in advance is much easier than solving it on the day.
If you are working out flowers for a wedding in Dawson Creek or anywhere in the Peace Region, we would love to hear about your day. Get in touch and tell us your date.