It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Whether your stockings are hung by the chimney with care or you’re feeling like the Grinch this year, these six Christmas-inspired shoots are bound to leave you feeling merry and bright. We at Rocky Mountain Bride are wishing you a happy and healthy holiday season!
Sinocan Winery – Langley, British Columbia
Ashley and Graeme met and were friends in high school. After Graeme graduated, he moved to Kamloops to work with family and they lost touch. Eight years later he moved home and reached out to Ashley on Facebook. They made plans to reconnect over coffee, and have now been together six years.
November has always been a special month for them, as that is when they began dating. They knew they wanted to honour that with their wedding date as well. Winter, and especially Christmas, has always been a favourite time of year for Ashley – and had helped create many amazing memories between the two families in the past. It only seemed right to take inspiration from their favourite time of year for their cozy and intimate wedding.
Santa baby said it first – a ring! Is there really a more romantic time to get engaged than the holidays? Jiajing thought she and Chris were getting some updated fancy holiday pictures, only to find out that Chris had a plan all along to get down on one knee! Planner, Belle Bodas Events, designed this picture-perfect moment, complete with a custom velvet green dress by the one and only Natalie Wynn Design.
Nothing could have made this day more perfect or magical than the gentle snowfall we were graced with off and on throughout this Winter shoot! Real couple Ashlee and Christian braved the elements to capture these intimate moments at the beautiful and expansive Spruce Mountain Ranch, cozying up to the large stone fireplace when not taking in the mountain views from the snowy pasture. This blush pink Brooklyn Grace gown with intricate beading on Ashlee tied in gorgeously with our pink and rose gold palette, lending itself to the modern, yet classic, Christmas theme. Hints of the mountains and pines were dispersed throughout the decor from our invitation set, to the stunning mountainscape displayed on the cake with gold edging. Additional details lending themselves to this pink Winter Wonderland included evergreens and berries in the bouquet, holiday inspired cocktails, ornament-shaped cookies as the place cards, and a hot drink bar to keep everyone warm and toasty. We just can’t help looking at these images and being swept up by the incredible landscape, or feeling the warmth from the festive table set in front of the glowing fire.
Every year for the last 4 years I’ve run Christmas Mini sessions in November. Each year they’ve gotten bigger and bigger but by the end I am spent creatively. To combat that I brought my favourite vendors together to create our own piece of holiday magic! I think it is so important to create with your fellow vendors, when I work on styled shoots I love when we all bring something to the table and feed off each other’s energy. The models are a real life couple who just got their first puppy (Leo) together so I knew I had to include him in the shoot. The wardrobe was created with pieces in my client closet – we wanted to showcase a variety of styles from your rock and roll bride outfitted in velvet and leather, your boho sweetheart bride wearing lace & the statement piece, the non-traditional mauve tulle skirt bride. Fern and Frond always creates the most perfect bouquets – a lot of the colour palette we pulled from what she made for this shoot. So grateful as we planned this in just a week! Ginger Turley Artistry is my go to makeup artist in Kamloops – this natural glam look she created for Emily was one of my favourites to date. Amy from The Blondes Brunette brought us a romantic half updo that still allowed for movement. The rustic arch from Event Rentals Kamloops was perfect – I’m so grateful they brought it in for me! Everything came together just as I had hoped and I’m always so excited for our next collaboration together.
I actually saw Laneige Bridal post a picture of the Turin dress by Justin Alexander Signature line and I just knew she deserved her own special shoot! I wanted to incorporate this dress into a different, uncommon stylized shoot. After partnering with Erin from Dreamer Events, we dreamed up the most magical Christmas Bridal shoot. The aesthetics of a magical Christmas party, combined with a bridal twist and the partnership of all of our amazing vendors produced this fantastic shoot! Jodi (bride in Turin) and her two best friends were our amazing brides.
We met online and had our first date in October 2013. However timing is everything and went on another first date in 2014. Timing was off again so we had our forever date to December 2015 and have been together ever since. Third times a charm! When William looked at her profile, the first words he said was “I’m going to marry her.”
