For those of you not familiar with the concept of a styled shoot, it's basically a bunch of wedding vendors coming together to put together a sort of mini wedding. I feel like most styled shoots are just doing the same old things - I'm so over picnics on a blanket in a field! - but a wedding in an ice castle? Styled shoots are great because you can be as creative as you like, there's usually no time pressures (although not in this case!) although it's a TON of work for everyone involved - you all have to get on board with the vision, come up with products, services, and then put everything together in a very short time. Not to mention we'd be shooting in freezing cold temperatures late at night!
I fired off a bunch of excited yet fairly vague emails and was delighted when I had lots of great responses from super talented wedding industry friends and colleagues. I'm holding off on posting too many pictures and too much info about the inspiration as fingers crossed these images will be published shortly but here's a little sneak peek!
Mallory & Erin (ELM Events) took my vague ramblings of ice queens in Narnia and designed a spectacular setting with a Narnia theme. Kelli (à deux:bespoke wedding paper) made a clear acrylic invitation laser cut and laser etched and nestled in into a custom white, side-lined, faux-crocodile box amongst other amazing paper products.
The make up was inspired by the light and the shadows within the ice itself. Cheeks and lips were made up to look kissed by the winter glow. Hair was glossy and elegant for the bride and set off with a stunning headpiece and a more relaxed imperfect curl was given to the bridesmaid that mimicked the lines in her fur coat:
No joking, it was maybe 6 or 7 degrees and way past midnight when we shot this one. Jess & Scott deserve medals "most romantic in horrific conditions!". If you'd like a recap of their awesome wedding you'll find it here.
Our fabulous cake designer Erin (Wild Orchid Baking Company) told me "When I designed the cake I imagined a beautiful garden inspired cake that had been taken over by frost. The focal point of the cake was the lush, fantasy, sugar flower sash running from top to bottom..." Have you ever seen such a perfect table? ELM Events, Rentals Unlimited and Flower Kiosk came up with a look beyond my wildest dreams.
Hugest thanks go to all of the fabulous people who worked on this project! Some with very very short notice indeed (the castle is usually only open through the end of February so we didn't have a lot of time to plan!). Although just checking the site it looks like the current close date is March 16th for the NH location so you still have a couple of days to go visit!!! You really don't want to miss it!
ELM Events - Mallory & Erin jumped on my "wouldn't it be fun to do a shoot in an ice castle with some tables and flowers and stuff?" email and came up with the most beautiful design which they executed perfectly. Mallory even picked up all sorts of rental furniture and linens and drove a precariously loaded pick-up truck up to NH!
Flower Kiosk - I'd worked with Betsy on a beautiful wedding where she brought in giant birch branches to "bring the outside inside" and hide the tent poles and she totally got our vision for this shoot and brought it to life with the most beautiful (and fragrant) bouquets and snowballs of flowers and centerpieces
Flair Boston - Stacey not only loaned us all sorts of dresses and accessories but she even came all the way up to style our models late into the night (not to mention being official coat-holder). Stacey also sourced all of the stunning jewelry (E.B Horn) and the furs.
Wild Orchid Baking Company - Erin came up with a masterpiece of a wedding cake that literally shone - it was the softest silver with rock sugar "ice" and "snow" and the most delicate flowers I've ever seen.
Joya Beauty, & Hair That Moves - Joanne & Lena went all out, pinning shots of hair and make up looks to our pinterest boards, buying new make up materials and taking two fabulous ladies and making them look even more beautiful. They then came with us to the ice castle for touch ups!
à deux: bespoke wedding paper - Kelli took our Narnia theme and worked it into the escort cards, the favors and other luxurious paper products. Even the envelope box for the invitation was addressed to Aslan the lion AND everything was ready a day early!
Rentals Unlimited - Mallory and Erin were given access to the most stunning tables, chairs, linens, china, glasses, silverware, chargers and more which made our tablescape look amazing in the ice castle.
Last but not least, you can't have a wedding-themed photoshoot without someone getting married so I was delighted to hear from two of my previous brides when I put out a plea for models on my facebook page. Jessica even convinced her husband Scott to come up with her for the day so they became my bride and groom (again!) and Laura took the role of bridesmaid. I can't tell you how COLD it was on the night that we shot, maybe 8 degrees, and they were all troopers - shivering away in their thin dresses/suits and looking like they were warm and cozy! I had 4 layers of thermals and my ski suit on and was still cold so I don't know how they did it!
The always fabulous Audrey helped out massively at this shoot, I'm surprised her arm didn't fall off from holding lights for close to two hours! Not to mention staying late to help with the load0out before an early morning flight to TX!
Finally a huge thank you to the Ice Castle Team. Jackie, Ryan and Cory were super helpful over email in the run up to this shoot. The biggest thanks to Andy who stayed late into the night once the ice castle had closed to the public, helped us with location, even brought in sleds to help us load all of our equipment in and out.
Come back next week to see some of my images that just won awards from the International Society of Portrait & Wedding Photographers! *blush* Have a great weekend!
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