Planning a styled shoot for a workshop in another country comes with a lot of unknowns. You can’t control the weather, we were unsure of vendor participation…. not to mention the difficult task of packing everything in our suitcases. We laughed at the ridiculousness of it all: wedding dresses (3 of them, because you just never know what the model will fit best in!), crates (yes, heavy, wooden crates), details, delicate jewelry…. It was all planned ahead of time, stuffed into our bags, and then we crossed our fingers it would all work out okay.
Well, I can now say that this shoot ranks in my top two favorite things I’ve ever photographed, with the other being my Tuck Everlasting shoot. It isn’t just the pretty details and the gorgeous models; it is so much more than that. It is the heart and soul that gets poured into the concept, the designing, the purchasing, the creating, and ultimately, the on-site production, with the actual taking and editing of the photos being the cherry on top! This shoot has my whole, whole heart. Karen and Michael are genuinely sweet and kind people, and I walked away from this session feeling like my world had been brightened by their presence. The weather had been calling for FORTY MILE-AN-HOUR WINDS the day before our session and we just thought that for sure there would be NO WAY we would be able to photograph the details + invitation suite in weather like that. We were also supposed to be shooting on the beach, and how would that work with sand pelting into our models’ faces and into our cameras?!
But as the time drew nearer for our shoot, the sun shone brightly above and the winds were tolerable. We found a small cove to shield us from the wind and created our set up! Everything was absolutely breathtaking. Perfect, I might even venture to say, though I don’t take that word lightly. Us three photographers took turns directing, posing, and shooting and we shared in the feeling of triumph as the sun began to set and our shoot came to a close.
Three years ago I went to Iceland and everywhere I went, I dreamed of photographing a girl in a white dress next to the man she loved. Perhaps they were eloping to Iceland. Or perhaps this was just fun anniversary session in Iceland, but either way, I wanted to be photographing them. And I might it happen! It was a lofty goal, but it turned out far better than I ever could have anticipated thanks to amazing models with hearts of gold, incredible people by my side to make the journey so fun and exciting, and pure luck that the weather was in our favor.
A huge thank you to all those who contributed to this beauty:
Calligraphy | Coffee & Calligraphy
Headpieces | Sparrow Station
Models | Karen + Michael
Design + Planning | Charming Grace Events
Attendees | N.O. Photography & Stacey Lee Photography
Ring | Ring Crush
Styling Cloth + Wax Seal | Greenhouse Wax Seals
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