Autumn at Dorfold

I have managed to go my whole career without doing a styled shoot of my own. So many things held me back. I would tell myself I’d never be able to create something as beautiful as the images I see all over blogs such as Style me pretty or Wedding sparrow. I doubted myself as a photographer for a long time. I was convinced I wasn’t well known enough for other suppliers to want to work with me and so avoided asking all together so not to prove myself right. I was happy in my little bubble, I have the most incredible couples and shoot beautiful weddings from Italy to the Cotswolds so I didn’t feel I was missing out on what I thought was a hype about nothing. How wrong I was!

When Emmylou from Dorfold Hall asked when I was going to do a shoot there I laughed it off for as long as I could until I ran out of excuses. I bit the bullet and contacted Krysta from “For The Love of Weddings” . I met this fabulous lady earlier last year at a wedding in Gloucestershire and as well as being incredibly talented she is one of the loveliest people i’ve ever met so I was over the moon when she jumped at the idea.

There was never any doubt on who I wanted to do the florals for this shoot. Lucy the Flower Hunter” creates the most incredible floral designs even creating installations for the Chelsea flower show last year. She is a talent beyond words and I was lucky enough to work with her a couple of years ago at her sisters wedding which is where my love affair with her work began.

Our aim with this shoot was to stylise an Autumn wedding concept away from the industry standard dark and deep colours of autumn seen so often. We set out to portray the romance of Autumn as well as the warmth the season brings. We set out to make the Jacobean architecture of Dorfold Hall using the gateway holding busts of Queen Anne and King James VI to frame our ceremony set up. Lucy constructed a flower arch to soften the harsher lines of the gateway which paired with beautiful late afternoon light created the perfect backdrop. Light autumnal colours of the renaissance period inspired the colour palate to fit with Dorfold’s neoclassical style. We used pale pinks, peach tones paired with minimal splashes of maroons. The flowers themselves really led the styling as everything centred on the delicacy of Lucy’s floral work. Hand dyed silks from Kate Cullen and Lancaster and Cornish were used to soften any harsh backgrounds as well mirroring the textures in the renaissance age. The hand appliqued dress we chose, designed by the fabulous Emma Beaumont atelier brought a sense of modernity to the shoot as well as adding texture and a hint of sensuality.

Everyone who took part in this shoot are some of the most talented in their fields. From Claire at “By Moon and Tide Calligraphy” to Amy Swann who creates the most incredible cake designs and invite illustrations.

Katie, our model did an incredible job with her exquisite hair and makeup done by the talented Jodie A Smith and delicate hair accessories hand made by Clare Lloyd. I was quite vague when explaining to Jodie what we were after with the hair. I liked so many different styles but couldn’t settle on just one. What she created was absolutely perfect with the style of the shoot. She created exactly what I wanted but couldn’t explain.

Thank you so much to everyone who contributed to this shoot. I was extremely humbled by the amount of amazing suppliers who wanted to take part and it was a testament to them that this shoot was across 5 full pages of Brides Magazine.

A full list of all suppliers is at the end of this blog