Thursday evening’s don’t come much better than this! It’s very nearly the beginning of a bank holiday weekend and to top that, we’ve got an uber-gorgeous styled shoot packed with wedding inspiration to share with you. Ladies, it’s time to let down your hair, fill up your glass (with bubbles, we hope) and feast your eyes on this bridal beauty.
Lead by award-winning Sheffield florist Tracey Campbell, of Campbell’s Flowers, this shoot is the work of a talented team of South Yorkshire suppliers who relished in the opulent ‘fine romance’ brief.
True to form, Tracey created some truly breath-taking designs, which were complemented by the stunning choice of bridal attire, hair, makeup and details.
The backdrop of the misty Peak District hills adds to the romantic tale, and we are thrilled to see a little cameo appearance from some rather gorgeous greyhounds.
With images by Shelley Richmond Photography. Models: Jessica Fletcher and Jessica Leatherday.
tracey says:
The big idea behind the shoot was to really visually explore the growing trend of floral wedding designs moving away from the meadowy, just-picked look so dominant in recent years, and towards a very opulent, luxe look. It’s an incredibly romantic look, so we worked with the shoot title ‘A Fine Romance’.To create that style, I used lots of textures when crafting the floral designs, and maximised contrasts, by juxtaposing more traditional blooms, like amaryllis with exotic flora, such as King Protea.
Much of the inspiration came from the wonderful Marilyn gown by Sassi Holford, particularly in terms of the colour palette, which featured silvery grey eucalyptus and pinks in a range of hues from soft, baby blushes through to some magnificently vivid magenta. The stunning gowns for the shoot, including Marilyn, were provided by Sheffield-based bridal boutique, The White Room.
When it came to the shoot location, we decided on Losehill House Hotel and Spa. We’ve long been fans of this superb venue, and as preferred suppliers we adore working with them. For us, its incredible location is hard to beat as the rolling hills of the beautiful Peak District will always hold a very special place in our hearts; constantly inspiring us and drawing us back.
Losehill also perfectly matched our theme, as the whole place is brimming with luxury details and feels very special. We also love to collaborate with other businesses who share our ethos, and Losehill really does, particularly when it comes to insisting on quality and supporting local artisans and suppliers, for example, the lounge and restaurant furniture was all hand crafted to their design by a nearby company.
To create our romantic, high-end look with our flowers for the shoot, we focused on a contemporary classic look that was all refined elegance with a muted, soft and incredibly feminine colour palette, which we then contrasted with vivid colour pops like cerise. We also incorporated rich colours that were reminiscent of oil paintings, such as a deep emerald green as seen in the simple ivy crowns.
Texture was key, so in one of the bouquets we used lots of different textures but minimal foliage so that the flowers really stood out as the dominant feature. We also crafted an asymmetric, free-flowing bouquet, with huge blowsy roses, silvery foliage and King Protea.
As the luxe-look is also a great way to make bold statements we also injected supersize elements, such as the giant white amaryllis in the fresh flower headpiece, and created the rings of ivy and golden gothic crown as different ways of approaching floral hair design for brides or bridesmaids.
The hair and makeup by the fabulous team from Jenn Edwards and Co, really added to the impact by using lots of vivid, rich colours (another nod to those oil paintings we were inspired by) and strong brows. For lavish looking locks we opted for intricate fish tail plaits and up dos and flowing Botticellian tresses.
Our beautifully detailed cakes were provided by talented designers and bakers, S J Cake Studio.
As final flourish on the stately theme we also adorned some gorgeous greyhounds with floral garlands, which we absolutely loved! The majestic dogs were from Greyhound Gap sanctuary who re-home ex racing greyhounds. We made a donation to support their amazing work with these beautiful animals.
Shoots are always all-hands-on-deck and lots of hard work, but we think the images Shelley captured are more than worth it. We are really happy with the end result and hope it provides lots of inspiration for fearless brides who aren’t afraid of making a statement (or three!) with their dress, flowers, venue, cakes and makeup. When it comes to bridal, you don’t have to water things down – more definitely can be more!
