Made in the Shadows

When organising this photoshoot, I really wanted to embrace rich, bold colours, I wanted to give real couples some out of the box wedding inspiration, as after all we don’t all want that white wedding dress look, do we?

I wanted to create a real statement piece with my balloons, I want couples to know that balloonists can decorate more that just a demi arch or a full arch at a wedding and a piano is a perfect example. Part of being a luxury balloonist is using and creating custom colours, it’s like mixing paint to create beautiful mutted shades, so I did this and used lots of deep coloured florals cascading from the piano.

VENUE Bradbourne House a Grade 1 listed building set in 20 acres of parkland, in the village of East Malling , Kent, originally built in Tudor times was perfect for our shoot.

BALLOONS I wanted to create a real statement piece with my balloons, I want couples to know that balloonists can decorate more than just a demi arch or a full arch at a wedding and a piano is a perfect example. Part of being a luxury balloonist is using and creating opulent custom colours, it’s like mixing paint to create beautiful mutted shades, so I did this and used lots of deep coloured florals cascading from the piano.

The black wedding dress was calling me, Lisa Lyon’s kindly made our vision come to life with her beautiful bespoke handmade wedding dress, we took inspiration from a bouquet of flowers I found on Pinterest and we were all attracted to the pinks, so it was from that our shoot was born!.

I have worked with all of the suppliers previously so I knew I could completely trust them all to be amazingly creative and they didn’t disappoint.

THE TABLE Erika from erikaalbrechtceramics had previously made some black crockery for a shoot we did last year and I was itching to work with her again, I just love her crockery so much. Our table looked lush with the richness of her crockery, the pretty pink glasses and cutlery from Natasha at atouchofvintageuk they made the table look so wonderful. We had beautiful dried flowers from Gwenda at bohotanical and some lovely homemade candles from findcandles which are basically up-cycled glasses from charity shops, they looked really lovely as they were all different and smelt beautiful. I wanted cookies to match the plates, Nadia from cookietownuk came up trumps again, her cookies looked amazing and matched perfectly and Katy supplied our lollipops from willowandboo, her lollipops are always great as a finishing touch, made in black and a pink flower was cres I dressed the table with ruffled black chiffon, dried rose petals and believe it or not baby muslin in pink for the napkins. It looked quite impressive with the gorgeous menus with tassels from Rachel rebeccarichardsdesigns and personalised bows from Heidi at extraspecialtouch she also created a lovely bouquet tail for the bride.

THE BRIDE & GROOM/CEREMONY Carolyn from tuxntails gave us two looks for the groom, a traditional black tux and a gorgeous deep burgundy suit which was a favourite of mine, it looked so cool against the black dress, this look could also look amazing for a black tie event! The brides dress was made from soft tulle, layers upon layers, Lisa lisa.lyons.bridal did an amazing job, we had a stunning long pink veil from Hazel at honeyvtiaras she also made a beautiful black crown. We used a brass octagon from Leah at bohoandbloomprophire for our ceremony area she also supplied various other props, Gwenda from Bohotanical then dress the octagon with dried flowers and pampas grass. Our gorgeous bridesmaids Nadia wore a blush pink dress from ASOS and our little Evie wore a beautiful tutu from Katy at meliestutus/ both looked stunning.

THE CAKE Serena from cobi_and_coco_cakes always exceeds expectations, creating a magnificent opulent black masterpiece, the detail was amazing, the flowers looked so real and of course they were all made from sugar!

VIDEOGRAPHER I gave Harvey from merosproductions two instructions on the video, as we had a beautiful black dress, I pictured drama, like a perfume advert, I also wanted a Cinderella moment of losing a shoe, Harvey got my vision straight away and completely run with it, creating 2 completely funky videos, I hope you love them as much as we do as he completely exceeded our expectations!

PHOTOGRAPHER