Moody and Dramatic Autumnal Styled Shoot

“Every year I celebrate my business “birthday” by creating something fun, just for myself. After a busy season of making everyone else’s dreams a reality, it’s nice to take a vision of my own and bring it to life. Typically, I just make a bouquet and have a photographer shoot it for me. Then I make a business birthday post on Instagram and post all the previous year’s shoots. It’s such a fun tradition and a way for me to watch how my design skills have changed and grown throughout the years. This year marked 4 years of my business and I wanted to go all out. I’ve had this vision in my head for a couple years now and it was finally time to bring it to life. If you take a look at my logo, you know I love balancing and contrasting spooky, edgy looks with beauty and softness. I really wanted to challenge that balancing act with this shoot by taking a stereotypical Halloween witch and making it bridal. A little crazy, I know! For instance, witches wear capes, so our bride should have a bridal cape over her dress. Witches wear hats or hoods, so our bride should have a veil with a hood. Witches wear braids, so our bride should have a fancy braid in her hair. You get the idea. I styled every last detail on our models to reflect this contrasting balance of edge and softness, darkness and light. I didn’t want it to be too in your face, but if you knew the inspo, you could have the fun of finding the subtle hints and specific styling choices. For the rest of the styling and set up, I wanted to really draw inspiration from the changing of the seasons and all that nature offers during Autumn. All of the flowers and foliage were 100% local. I foraged the golden fern from the canyon and purchased all the dahlias for her bouquet, from local flower farms. While many of the trees and plants are starting to die during this time, there is also still such rich beauty in the Autumn colors. I wanted this represented in the contrast between the golden fern floor installation and her bright and rich bouquet. The tablescape was designed to mirror this same contrast but also highlight the beauty in simplicity. It was absolutely surreal to watch this idea and vision that was simply in my head, come to life before my eyes. Every single vendor who was involved with this shoot executed their part perfectly. I say this every year and will probably say it again next year, but this may just be the best birthday shoot we’ve ever done.”