West Coast Cali meets North West England in today’s Beverly Hills themed styled shoot with a flavour of Hollywood luxury, a colour palette popping with greens and pinks, and loads of luscious botanicals.
When Preston-based photographer Emily Robinson discovered Whitworth Locke in Manchester she was immediately transported to the luxurious, classic Cali cool venue, The Beverly Hills Hotel. And we can totally see it. With the pink tones, all the palms and plants and that amazing curved glass atrium ceiling, it’s not hard to imagine yourself in the 90210 postcode.
This shoot’s got it all; industrial chic, city romance, botanical trends. Yes, yes and yes! From that downright HAWT shot of the couple caught in a steamy embrace on the mean streets of Manchester, to the snaps of the bride’s girl tribe in the midst of getting ready for the main event. The stunning silk of the awards show worthy gown, the glossy, bouncy Hollywood hair and flawless makeup. There’s also a gorgeous focus on the little details; those earrings and hair clips are just adorable. Let’s catch up with Emily and find out more.
With images by Emily Robinson Photography
CONCEPT
Emily says: I stumbled across this absolutely stunning and unique venue with a beautiful colour scheme of yellow, green and pink running throughout when I was looking for Manchester wedding venues. As soon as I went to visit it in person and saw all the lovely plants everywhere combined with the colours, it reminded me of Beverly Hills Hotel. There are industrial elements running throughout the hotel so that’s when I came up with the concept of Beverly Hills Hotel meets industrial Manchester.
LOCATION
It was at Whitworth Locke, Manchester. The entrance to the building has a glass curved ceiling atrium, which is a real showstopper element, with a gorgeous spiral staircase out the front. This is why we decided to really focus on curves throughout the whole design and styling process. Whilst using the curves that were around the building, we used curves on the stationery and the pink backdrops.
STYLING
To follow with the Beverly Hills Hotel theme, we used the colour scheme of green, pink and yellow with an emphasis on plants and curves. Flowers were by Blooms With Grace from Bolton, and confetti came from Preston-based Dollz Confetti.
Typing and props was done by UNVEILED Network Member Stories of Events in Lancashire. Sarah’s styling of the six seater table in the private dining room was stunning, with a tropical table runner, gold palm tree candle holder and a shelf filled with plants. Grace made the most perfect tropical centre piece to compliment Sarah’s styling, finished off with the stunning menu stationery made by Stacey of Love Paper Co from Scotland.
Sarah made the most perfect pink curved backdrop which teamed up with Stacey’s pink curved welcome sign. We placed it under the curved atrium so we could have this as a backdrop, and scattered the lovely plants around the chairs, which we sourced from around the venue. We opted for cocktails over cake for this shoot as it fitted the intimate small wedding theme of six guests. Stacey followed the colour scheme through the stationery, and even took inspiration from the pattern in the curved atrium entrance and used this on the invites and welcome sign.
ATTIRE
I knew what I wanted from the dress; I wanted it to be modern with a high slit but still looking like a traditional wedding dress. Jayne at UNVEILED Network Member Foxglove Brides, reworked a Wtoo by Watters dress and added the slit up the front to ensure we achieved my vision. The bridesmaids were in pink slip dresses. I chose these as I wanted a dress the girls could then go partying in after the wedding and have it not look like a bridesmaid dress. These were both from Silk Fred and teamed with the beautiful earrings from Rachel at Alabaster Dream. Maxine from Emme Elle Esse provided the eye masks, facemasks, bride’s bracelet and pink round earrings worn by the blonde bridesmaid. UNVEILED Network Member Roisin Reuss provided the stunning bridal party robes
For the groom, I wanted to incorporate the green so we got him a silk green shirt with a velvet striped black blazer, both from ASOS.
BEAUTY
I wanted the hair to be quite glam and bring in the Hollywood element of Beverly Hills, so the bride had Hollywood curls and then the bridesmaids both had bouncy blows, which were turned into pony tails for the evening do! We teamed the updos with clips and scrunchies from Emme Elle Esse. Hair was done by Hair Creations by Colette.
We went for glamorous makeup too, with false eyelashes and gold eyeshadow, but still kept it soft and bridal. These overall looks would appeal to the bride who wants to glam on her wedding day, but not too dramatic, keeping the colours and tones light. Makeup was by Lauren McCabe of I Am Bridal UK.
RESULTS
The day went amazingly! I love a well organised shoot and provide a detailed shoot pack for everyone involved. Before the shoot, our original two bridesmaids had to drop out because they had vulnerable people at home and wanted to make sure they were safe. We managed to find two more models just two days before the shoot! On the day everything ran so smoothly. We started shooting 20 minutes behind, but managed to fit all the looks and locations in that we’d planned and wrapped up the whole shoot only 30 minutes behind.
I found an alley on the walk from the carpark to the venue that instantly reminded me of New York, so I knew I had to go back to that spot with the models. It turned out to be a wind tunnel, and although it was very windy and cold, it was like we had our own wind machine and the pictures came out looking amazing.
The team we had on the day was incredible, we worked so well together and everything went so smoothly. Everyone commented on how well organised the shoot was and how fun the whole day was, and this was coming from models that do shoots all time, so that was a pretty proud moment!
The aim was to pull off the vision and theme I had, and I think we achieved it so well – much better than I even expected! And I connected with some truly amazing suppliers, who all had me in awe all day.
