Whimsical Woodland: Styled Wedding Inspiration

Hello ladies, I’m super thrilled to be sharing and absolutely loving this Whimsical Woodland: Styled Wedding Inspiration.

The shoot was dreamt up by Jo Irvine and is an amalgamation of pretty whimsical styling with vibrant pops of earthy jewelled tones and über sophisticated bridal attire.

Winter is a beautiful time of year and I wanted to create something that brides would look at and take inspiration from. The thing I love best about the colder months is the low light and crisp mornings – Pretty hard to capture, but I knew Jo Hughes (captive photography) had a special touch when it came to outdoor earthy photos as she often works in fields and woodland creating images with a whimsical feel.

After my initial ramblings Jo and I firmed up our creative ideas and decided on a woodland location but instead of the obvious rustic feel we chose a more decadent route and added natural richness with Peacock blues and greens.

We wanted to focus on the beautiful images, the natural lighting (when we had it) and create something altogether quite cool and nice to look at. The day of the shoot was wet and very cold, but by utilising natural light enhanced with off camera flash, the images show how outdoor photography is so dynamic, even in tricky weather conditions.

We asked the lovely Kim from Idylic days what she thought initially to help us out with styling but my goodness, she took our idea and ran with it. She interpreted and enhanced our idea perfectly, Kim also sourced the cake , flowers and videographer and styled the shoot beautifully.

Jo wanted to have fun with the hair and make up so decided on bold peacock and strong earthy colours – wearable styles for brides to take ideas from. We chose a Lovehair floral headband to pull the final look together, as well as the Jenny Packham Poppy headdress with large sparkling crystals and seed beads.

One of the most exciting things about this was having the pleasure to work with Jon Dibben, who very kindly lent us rather a lot of jewels. Jon uses fine diamonds and gemstones, and is licensed to work with Fair trade and Fair mined gold and platinum. Jon’s design inspiration comes from beautiful and rare gemstones which he individually selects with a strong focus on unusual cut and colour. The handmade golden branches, twigs, peacock colours and ethically sourced goodness suited our earthy feel perfectly and added more sparkle than we could shake a stick at!

The other thing of greatness was the dresses that were loaned to us by Liz at Amante in Reigate. You will never meet a nicer person and her dresses are the dresses of dreams. She let us have free reign and I ended up with 9 beauties that finally got whittled down to these 4 on the day. 2 Jenny Packham’s, 1 Lusan Mandongus and an Iain Stewart dress. We wanted to show contrast with the surroundings with decadence and luxurious textures. We eventually chose dresses for their delicate detail, sparkle and ability to be worn in a wood. The Ian Stuart goes perfectly with the veiled make up created by Laura as she wanted to create a ‘masquerade’ feel.

Colour in any way is a huge look for hair this year and I wanted to incorporate the striking colours so used chalks to create the blue and green tones running through our model’s hair.

We wanted to have fun with the hair and make up so didn’t want to keep it too classic, the peacock colours were enhanced in both but are also wearable styles for brides to fall in love with and take ideas from. We also chose a Lovehair floral headband to pull the looks together.

So what do you think my loves… crazy pretty or what? I am just in love with the earthiness and vibrancy of the shoot, the pops of bright jewelled tones are just gorge!!

Thanks so much to Jo and her talented team for sharing this amazing bridal inspiration. Well done everyone!!

Please don’t forget to leave your love and appreciation for the team on the blog.

Credits ~ Who are these wonderfully creative people?

Photography – Jo Hughes at Captive Photography www.captivephoto.co.uk assisted by Natalie Oliver
Hair & styling – Jo Irving, Creative Director Lovehair www.lovehair.co.uk
MUA – Laura Hannon, Lovehair www.lovehair
Stylist – Kim at Pink Pumpkin Wedding Design www.thepinkpumpkin.co.uk
Vintage china – Idyllic Days www.idyllicdays.com
Flowers – Tiggy Johnson, Idyllic Days www.idyllicdays.com https://www.tiggybespokeflorist.blogspot.co.uk/
Cake – Cakes by Krishanthi www.cakesbykrishanthi.co.uk
Jewellery – Jon Dibben www.jondibben.co.uk