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When Brides Up North Featured Supplier Andrea of Fabulous Day asked me if I would consider featuring a beautiful two part wedding inspiration shoot that she coordinated at the gorgeous Chirk Castle, I didn’t need asking twice. Let’s get this week off to a stunning start with part one of this talented team’s efforts.
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And hands up… who wants that dress? Those shoes?………….. an owl?
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Andrea of Fabulous Day takes us behind the scenes: The idea for my very first photo shoot was formed after visiting a big bridal fair in the North West earlier this year and talking to like-minded suppliers. I had been involved with Chirk Castle for a few months and had not long been given the go ahead to hold marquee weddings in their grounds. I really wanted to share this stunning National Trust venue with as many people as possible – it was too beautiful to be kept a secret. A photo shoot seemed the best way to showcase it!
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My first call was to Caroline White Photography – a fab photographer I have worked with on a number of weddings and I knew she would be prefect for capturing all aspects of Chirk.
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When I took her up to visit for the first time we really couldn’t have chosen a worse Winter’s day – heavy rain, low cloud – totally miserable –but even in these grim conditions Caroline was gasping at the beauty of the place. So there we were soaked through excitedly talking about the ideas we had to create a magical shoot!
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Then it was time to hit the phones and talk to people we wanted to work with, I knew the lovely Sara and Tony from Brides Up North Featured Supplier Marry Me Films and they agreed to shoot a ‘behind the scenes’ type video for us.
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Of course you always need a dress, so Caroline and I went to see Wendy at Boda Bridal, we both fell in love with the Danbury Dress by Enzoani (Benjamin Roberts) – it was perfect for what we were looking for on the first part of the shoot! Wendy also kindly agreed to supply a Cameron Ross suit and then she even came along and helped on the day. She also suggested I speak to Gail from Rocks for Frocks to get some great pieces for the model’s hair. Gail then helped me out further by finding our model Megan.
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One of my brides this year is the very talented Cheryl from Pink Sherbet Designs, so I didn’t have far to look for gorgeous invitations and bespoke stationery to complement the ideas that we were forming.
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Through Cheryl I got to know Helen from Cupcake Revolution and wow did she have fun creating the most exquisite cakes for us – it was shame to eat them at the end of the shoot (but we managed it!).
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For the first part of the shoot Caroline involved Wendy from Flying the Knot – who had two beautiful owls and as the Castle has a Hawk House, it felt only right that we had Angel and Spirit involved and they certainly added an extra dimension to the day –I loved the idea of the owl delivering a love letter!
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David from Frog Flowers providing all the gorgeous flowers for the shoot and Rupert from the Fine Dining Company (one of the preferred caterers at Chirk) also provided us with some delicious fancies to complement the cupcakes.
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To do the hair and make up we had a wonderful makeup artist – Liz Griffiths who was happy to create the look we wanted – quite natural and girly but with a bit of glamour.
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Caroline and I worked very closely in developing the look and feel for the shoot, we had decided to do two on the day, and in the first one we wanted to create a modern princess getting married at her Castle. We really wanted to showcase the grounds and the beautiful backdrops that Chirk has to offer, as well as the amazing architecture in the Courtyard –we were truly spoilt for choice.
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The Hawk House would be where we would do the detail shots and we loved the Union Jack theme, which is so hot just now. It also echoed the prince and princess feel we were going for, so we had a lot of fun looking for items for that!
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As this was mainly an outdoor shoot, we were all obsessing about the weather and on the day we were very, very lucky as we escaped the rain! Both Megan and our male model Ashley did a great job of not showing just how cold they were!
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That’s not to say the day wasn’t without incident – we had lost one of our models just a couple of days before, but a few calls sorted that out and our make up artist had a car crash 24 hours before, but bless her was ok to carry on! On the morning of the shoot I got a call from the caterer to say his head chef had dislocated his shoulder and was it ok if he changed the items he brought? Of course! All things to keep you on your toes – a bit like a wedding really – but other than that it all went pretty much to plan and to time.
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We are all delighted to share these images with you and I want to say a huge thank you to the team involved, it was great fun and I have definitely got the bug! I look forward to sharing the second part of the shoot with you on Brides Up North shortly…a very different shoot!
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Little Black Book
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Photographer – Caroline White Photography
Venue – Chirk Castle
Wedding Planner – Fabulous Day
Video – Marry Me Films
Dress/ Groom’s shoes/ Veil: Boda Bridal
Dress – Danbury from Enzoani by Benjamin Roberts
Suit – Cameron Ross
Hair and makeup – Liz Griffiths
Stationery – Pink Sherbet Designs
Cupcakes – Cupcake Revolution
Florist – Frog Flowers
Owls –Flying The Knot
Accessories – Rocks for Frocks
Canapés – Fine Dining Company
Models – Megan Howell and Ashley Lucas
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Brides Up North UK Wedding Blog – Images © 2012 Caroline White Photography
Fabulous Day is a Brides Up North Featured Supplier, but this is not a sponsored post
Contact Brides Up North to submit your business as a Featured Supplier
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