So a little while ago I received an email from the very gorgeous Kara V who explained that due to RMW’s very own Dolly Rockin’ post on Chic and Unique a few weeks back she found the dress of her dreams for her up and coming engagement shoot and just wanted to say a big THANK YOU.

Brilliant.

I love emails like that, it’s what RMW is about -finding little nuggets of gorgeousness and inspiring our readers.

Kara also kindly included an image in her mail from the engagement shoot so I could see the dress in “action” as it were….

Erm Hello?! This girl, her fiance and the whole darn thing were smokin’ HOT HOT HOT.

And at the same time so very very cool.

So I asked her to send it ALL – every single image she had, for my own viewing pleasure and clearly for all of the readers of RMW to swoon over…..

Kara has kindly written a little piece on the experience which I will post amongst the eye candy.

All images by the fabulous James Brown

I have always been into anything retro/vintage and timeless, when our photographer James asked where we would like to do our engagement shoot we started wracking our brains. Beautiful photos on the beach? Serene photos in a park? Buzzing photos in central London?! I have to say that London certainly wasn’t my first choice. What I did know was that I wanted our shoot to be different from the norm, no jeans and t-shirts and summer dresses for us!

In the run up to the wedding I had looked at several blogs (of course before RMW was around!), and was very inspired by the kooky American engagement shoots with themed outfits, assortments of props and what looked like a brilliant day out.

I wanted to look back at our engagement photos without cringing at how slushy they were, and instead think; “That day was so much fun”. Our wedding is in March 2010 and a lot of the on-the-day items are vintage/vintage inspired and my bridesmaids are in 1950s style dresses, so the hunt began for me to find a 1950 style dress for the engagement shoot.

He came back extremely pleased with himself, massive meringue in tow, what I hadn’t bargained for was that the high street dresses do not have the same full circle skirts as the original 1950s ones as they now make them more fitted (think dress up round my thighs with the skirts bunching up all the way down to me knees). So with 2 days to go before the shoot I was completely stuck, until I remembered the GORGEOUS 1950s Dolly Dagger dresses that RMW had posted a few days before.

I had drooled over them at the time but they were a bit over my budget, throw into the mix the postal strike and I wasn’t sure it would come together on time. Frantic phonecalls, couriers, and several prayers later the beautiful Dolly Dagger dress arrived and the petticoat looked awesome under it…. job done!

When it came to the props it was easy, the balloons were inspired by an old Audrey Hepburn photos and the LOVE letters were inspired by the original RMW wedding- thanks Charlotte!

When our photographer James heard our wacky plan of themed clothes and props galore he loved it, much to our relief, and suggested that London would be a great place for some kooky, retro shots. London is my hometown so despite my initial reservations I decided to trust him, and WOW was he right?!

Thanks James- what an utterly fabulous day! I’m so glad we’ve had this “practise run” before the Big Day so that we now know what to expect, and what James needs from us to make great shots. We are so lucky to have found James, and he is also providing an “after shoot” for us to put our wedding gear back on after the big day and take more wonderful shots after the wedding madness has calmed down- what more could a girl want?!

Quite. What more could a girl want?

Thanks to the stunning Kara for submitting her engagement masterpiece, can’t WAIT for the wedding, it’s sure to be bloomin’ fantastic.

Check out James Brown’s website and his really rather cool blog.

Have a rockin’ weekend folks

lots of L.O.V.E

Charlotte xxxx

• Previous Entry: Soft, Pretty and Green….
• Next Entry: Ooh La La !