Botanical Beauty

I absolutely love the gorgeous glasshouses you find in botanical gardens, so it's always a treat to share a shoot from one of these very places. Todays flower filled inspiration also has some seriously stylish bridal wear and stunning beauty looks too. I have proper hair envy right now, those luscious curls!!! Images come from Sarah Folega and I love the way the shoot feels fun and contemporary as well as elegant and bridal. Oh, and that bouquet by Paeony Floral Design is just beautiful. The more you look at it, the more you discover...

The Dresses

The Team Behind The Shoot: The dress and veil used in this shoot are from KMR Bespoke Bridal Designer’s collections. The ‘Ava’ bodice was styled with the ‘Amelia’ skirt. The ‘Ava’ bodice is an ivory corded lace and crepe backed satin top. It features full length lace sleeves and an open lace back beautifully fastened with delicate pearl buttons and rouleau loops. The bodice features soft scallop lace edge detailing around the hem and sleeve cuffs. The ‘Amelia’ skirt is an ivory satin drop hem skirt with a thin waistband and train. We also styled our ‘Emily’ two tier chapel length veil for some of the shots. All of KMR Bespoke Bridal Designers Veils and Accessories are available to purchase online via their website, from their stockists and Sheffield based studio. All KMR gowns can be ordered via stockists or direct from their studio.

The Beauty

Hannah: For the make up, to create the look on the beautiful Millie, I tried to use as few products as possible as I wanted the look to be monochromatic so as to enhance her features but still have an usual twist. On her eyes I used a mixture of different blushers from Inglot and MAC. Millie has great skin so that made my job super easy when it came to the coverage. I wanted the skin to look flawless but still 'skin like', so I used MAC Face and Body foundation and mixed a few shades together to make sure she had the perfect shade for her skin tone. I used the same blushers on her cheeks as on her eyes, and on her lips used MAC lip pencils in Soar and Boldly Bare and a clear lipgloss. I loved creating this look and I think it tied in so well with the rest of the shoot styling and gave it a slightly different edge to a typical 'bridal' makeup! For the hair & for the first look I wanted to create a bold statement hairstyle that stood out against the lush backdrop of the botanical garden, while taking inspiration from the tangled branches and vines, using Wella EIMI velvet amplifier styling lotion to create textures and twists that softened the look and made it more feminine and wearable.I finished using Wella EIMI dynamic fix spray to add shine and a flexible hold. The second style was wild and untamed, again taking inspiration from nature and the gardens, I used Loreal super dust styling powder around the root area and mid lengths to add volume and GHD styling irons to smooth and flick the hair ends for a full downy and natural wave. The look was finished using Wella EIMI perfect me lotion to add a brilliant light reflecting shine and movement.

The Flowers

Paeony Floral Design: This photoshoot, set in Sheffield’s timeless Botanical Gardens, allowed me to explore a much wilder side of a bridal flowers. I’ve seen a rise in real brides wearing flower crowns (I have adorned one myself a few times) and this photoshoot would have had lacked half of its beauty had we not decided to include one. The head dress was made mostly with Hellebore red queen, blue muscari and jasmine, matching a lot of the flowers in the bouquet, and alongside such elegant lace in the dress the floral crown really set apart a look from more on-trend wedding styles. This look seems to sit comfortably in between elegance and wilderness, traditional and modern, and I think it looks just amazing. I wanted to use a colour scheme that was full of deep, rich colours, but I also wanted to incorporate masses of texture to give the bouquet a more natural botanic feel. This informal collaboration of Vuvuzela roses, avanatique roses, queens red heleborous, sarah bernhardt peonies, blue muscari, fritella, blue veronica, sword ferns and jasmine were all securely tied with Kate Cullen ribbons in the most beautiful lilac-mauve.