Ribbon Tied Bouquet for a Heritage Styled Elopement Shoot

This elopement style inspiration shoot is just filled with gorgeous blooms and cakes. We love florist Anna at Swallows & Damsons' work, her bouquets are always so distinctive and have that natural, thrown together look, she uses colour and texture so beautifully. The cakes are also to-die-for...Amanda Perry clearly has a fabulous eye and if her cakes taste even half as good as they look - they will be delicious!!! The whole shoot has a lovely warm, happy feeling to it, which probably stems from the fact that the models are a real life couple and the styling is fun - a great mixture of quirky and pretty, with some elegant gowns to swoon over too. The two photographers who collaborated on this shoot both have gorgeous styles, that are actually quite different, and looking at them both can help you to identify what style of photography you like - once you've swooned over Lucy at Ever Thine's photographs here on RMW, make sure you check out Helena Marie's images too - it's so interesting to see how both creative ladies have captured the same scene. Enjoy the double dose of pretty :)

The Photography

Lucy The Photographer: A friend (a fellow photographer) and I decided to collaborate on a styled shoot and create something special together. We both really value collaboration over competition and wanted to use our styles to compliment and contrast each other. I’ve been a wedding photographer for a few years and I really want to spread the love of wedding photography to others - it really is the best job in the world! It was really fun to work together on this and experiment a little bit, as well as show off how fun it is to photograph anything wedding related. It’s so interesting to see how our differently our photographs came out! Helly is really edgy - you can see lots of grain, gorgeous dark tones and cool light leaks in her photos, where as my style is more on the light, soft and romantic side. You can see all of Helly’s photos over on her blog, too.

The Inspiration

After a lot of research into upcoming trends for 2015/16 we knew that Past Modern was the perfect theme for us, as this was a trend that really excited and inspired us both. To us, 'Past Modern' conjured thoughts of reworked classics, augmented florals, and contemporary heritage. We also loved that this theme incorporated the 2016 Pantone colour trend of 'Emphera' which included wan blues, pale peaches and tender yellows. Heritage somehow feels a little less done than vintage and a little different - more elegant and a slightly softer. We loved incorporating those ideas in to the shoot. 

The Venues

We shot in two venues in Sheffield; Wood Lane Countryside Centre and Abbeydale Picture House. As a city, Sheffield has been through so much regeneration and restoration so we loved that it fitted with the theme so well. Helly recently moved to Sheffield, while Lucy recently moved away to elsewhere in Yorkshire, so it was a good both get to know and say goodbye to the city! Wood Lane Countryside Centre has a gorgeous barn but because the sun was shining so much, we decided to set up the first part of the shoot under a big tree in the beautiful gardens. Afterwards, we headed down to Abbeydale Road to the Picture House - a really exciting restored venue in Sheffield. We were so thankful to be able to shoot there before they are open for weddings (which they will be soon!)

The Team

One of the things we love about the city is the immense amount of talent and inspiring creative business owners who live and work here. We were really keen to work with local wedding vendors and celebrate all things Sheffield. We worked with some of the industry’s best e.g. Swallows & Damsons, Debbie Carlisle and Jenn Edwards and a whole team of amazing local wedding stylists, bakers, calligraphers and prop suppliers. Everyone in the team worked incredibly hard and there was real positivity and excitement on the day. If I were to get married again, this would be my dream team! 

The Couple

Our brilliant models are a real couple, Curtis and Sarah, whose real wedding I photographed in the November after this shoot. It was really important to me that I captured real love for this shoot and that the photos were as natural and un-staged as possible. Many of my brides are quick to tell me that they've never been in front of the camera before, so I wanted to show that you don't have to be a model in order to look jaw dropping-ly amazing in your wedding photographs. I wanted this inspirational shoot to be exactly that - inspirational - but also for brides to be to feel like they could recreate aspects of it for their own wedding day. 

The Dresses

At Wood Lane, bride-for-the-day Sarah wore two dresses from the White Room Bridal in Sheffield - Iris by Halfpenny London and the Claire Pettibone ‘Eden’ dress. The Claire Pettibone dress is a gorgeous blue colour and we choose not only because it fit perfectly with the palette for the shoot, but also because it is such a different (and totally gorgeous) wedding dress. The Kate Halfpenny dress was worn again in the Picture House, but this time as just the silk slip without the lace on top. It looked absolutely gorgeous on Sarah and proved that simple can be best! Debbie Carlisle provided some stunning head pieces - we loved the delicate gold hair piece and birdcage veil.

The Beauty

Jenn Edwards and her team did an absolutely amazing job with hair and make up. Every time I see her work I am mesmerised and this was no exception. She’s also absolutely lovely: after the shoot she offered to do Sarah’s hair and make up on her wedding day for her, too. It was such a sweet and selfless gesture - Sarah was over the moon!  

The Flowers

We chatted to Anna at Swallows and Damsons prior to the shoot and told her what we thought we wanted. We had all of these ideas in our heads but the flower designs she came up with were far more gorgeous than we could have ever have imagined!  

The Styling

Katharine Booth is an amazing stylist who's worked for the White Company and Urban Outfitters and is absolutely amazing at what she does. She sourced beautiful props which were perfect for the shoot from Honeysuckle at Home, which really complimented some pieces that Helly and I found from Vintedge.

The Cakes

Amanda Perry made the cakes for our desert table. She even incorporated the shoot’s palette into her bakes and came on the day with blue and pink meringues and two absolutely gorgeous cakes. If you’re going for the deconstructed, naked cake kind of vibe then Amanda is your girl.

The Stationery

Mia Warner designed some gorgeous menus and elopement announcements for us. The designs were beautiful and she even marbled the paper herself!


The Rings

The wedding rings were actually my own. When we got married one of the things we prioritised were getting fair trade, ethically mined gold for our wedding rings. CRED jewellery make gorgeous pieces out of fairly mined gold and we love showing them off!