Who Would Have Thought - Yellow & Blues

I was trying to decide if I wanted to do a blog post on this styled shoot since it got published in North Texas Wedding magazine, but my love for this shoot and need to talk about it some more won out! Seriously, who would have thought that yellows, blues and lemons being put together would make such a beautiful shoot. I knew going into this that I wanted to take something different and make something new!

Photographer: Courtney Lynn Photography

This shoot was not only a wonderful and beautifully designed shoot, but turned out to be such a great networking event and brought together so many wonderful vendors and community members. I began designing for this shoot back in January, and the shoot was hosted on April 19th at the start of the Spring season. The venue had just turned green and lush again, the weather was perfect, and we brought out so many fun vendors.

I cannot stress this enough, this shoot was a game changer for me. Now, this was my second styled shoot that I have had the pleasure of creating for, but with this shoot I had a lot more freedom since it was my baby that I created. This years Pantone colors are yellow and grey and I wanted to incorporate these to making a stunning Spring and Summer look.

I brought together a team of vendors that included several photographer, a videographer, speciality bar trailer, beer burro miniature donkeys, hair and makeup artists, a stationary designer, two dress boutiques, a local florist, tanning specialist, custom jewelry and cake designer, as well a group of beautiful models and a couple.

The overall vision of this shoot can be seen below, I wanted to bring in the yellows and blues, using lemons as a special accent, creating an atmosphere that is light and airy and just welcomes Spring and Summer.

Photographer: Jillian Grace Photography

The thing that I love most about styled shoots is not just getting to design a speciality vision, but getting to work with a new variety of vendors in the wedding industry. Styled shoots can be a simple affair, it can purely be getting a bride, groom and dress and suits and getting a photographer to take pictures, or it can be a complex event that showcases what you as a creator can design.

For me, this shoot was an opportunity to truly test myself and push myself outside of my normal comfort zone by bringing together a bigger set of vendors, having multiple models and photographers, several outfit changes and speciality items like the bar trailer and miniature donkey's. When there are multiple moving parts the event becomes more stressful and essentially more work, this wasn't something that I had done before, but luckily had a great team of experienced vendors who offered lots of support and guidance for me.

Not only was this shoot a fun experience for me it was a celebration of the main couple wedding. Brittney and Mark were able to finally take wedding pictures 10 years later. Not only did Brittney serve as our main bride, but she modeled a second wedding dress, and most importantly she was the mastermind behind all of the wedding florals including the tree arrangement , bouquets, table centerpieces and more. This shoot would not be nearly as successful as it was without the love and support of those that I had the pleasure of working with.

Photograpgher: Riley Wurm Photography

I just want to take up some of this blog bragging about all of the amazing vendors that I got to work with.

To set the scene we have our hosting venue Hidden Gardens Venue, where we were able to utilize the outdoor space for the shoot and the upstairs bridal suite. For the shoot we placed one of the handmade wooden tables under the patio, hung a centerpiece over it, used the arch on the ceremony site, built some floral tree pieces for a focal point, had a sweetheart table on the other end of our patio, and set up a sitting space down by our historical stone structure as a backdrop. Hidden Gardens is known for its lush ivy wall on the front and for it being the start of the season, it was beautiful and full already! If you are in the market for a classy, antique venue that is full of life and memories then H.G. is the perfect place for you. You not only get to get married surrounded by nature, but you have the pleasure of working with a local family that truly cares for their venue.

Photographer: Jillian Grace Photography

First up, Big City Farm, I had been wanting to work with them for SO long and finally we both had date available and were able to make this shoot work. Big City Farm has an amazing team and truly cares for the well-being of their two miniature donkeys, Frank Sinatra and Sammy Jo who stole the whole show. Michael and his team truly do treat these boys like members of the family, even when they weren't wanting to pose for pictures they still brought smiles to everyones faces. I cannot say enough good things about the boys or the Big City Farm team, but I can 100% guarantee that these stunning boys are head turners and will make any event that you host that much better.

Photographer: Riley Wurm Photography

All of our florals were designed by the amazing Brittney Ruiz, with locally owned and operated Lake Worth Florist, which also own the venue Hidden Gardens Venue which hosted this shoot! I cannot talk highly enough about working with the florist and Brittney, I can't believe all that she designed for this shoot.

Check out this one of a kind lemon bridal bouquet. Featuring lemons cut in half, billy balls, blue thistle, and other mixed greens, held in an antique bridal bouquet holder. When I saw this bouquet for the first time I about died, this was incredibly unique and just made me realize how lucky I am to work with such a special team.

Photographer: Riley Wurm Photography

Along with the lemon bridal bouquet, Brittney also designed this stunning cascading pale yellow and blue bouquet. This bouquet features yellow long stem roses, white roses, tulips, tweedia, straw flowers and mixed eucalyptus.

Photographer: Riley Wurm Photography

If you are in the market for a wedding dress, I HIGHLY recommend checking out Brides and Beyond Bridal boutique for a large selection of stellar gowns and Meena's Bridal for one of a kind couture dresses. For this shoot, I had the pleasure of getting dresses from in a variety of styles for different body shapes to model.

Photograpgher: Jillian Grace Photography; Men's Bridal Couture

Speaking of my models let me introduce them to you!

First up, we have our couple, Brittney and Mark Ruiz, married for 10 years now and parents to 2 beautiful children. Mark is a machenic while Brittney is a floral designer at Lake Worth Florist. Having them involved and as the main couple of the couple was an absolute must have and just made everything about the shoot that much more special.

Photographer: Courtney Lynn Photography

Next up, Lauren King, now this girl is kickass and an incredibly resent young women. Her tattoos help showcase who she is, introducing the creative, spkuny and artsy person, but Lauren is more than that. What you wouldn't know from seeing these beautiful pictures of her, is what all she has overcome the last several years and the person that she has since become. This young women is a business owner and creative mind that owns Babe Lord, which feature flipped vintage clothes. What you wouldn't know from merely looking at her here in these pictures is that several years ago she was in a major motorcycle accident that left her paralyzed in her entire left arm. Lauren has been resilient in her recovery and constantly proves what she can still do and how she manages her disability.

Photographer: Jillian Grace Photography

Next up, we have a long time school friend, Jill Rutherford, I have known this girl since kindergarten and been able to grow up with her and see her become the confident young women that she is today. This cute little blonde is incredibly passionate for Christ and is a teacher at our alma mater. When the opportunity arose for her to be a model for this shoot of course she jumped in and rocked all the dresses that she wore.

Photograpgher: Riley Wurm Photography

Jane is a professional model, knows all the poses and I met her through an online wedding group. Her experience in past modeling was evident is how she knew to pose her body and the kind words she offered to all the other women. I have seen a lot of the work that Jane has done and find it to be incredibly beautiful, I love that we were able to have her as a part of this team.

Photographer: Riley Wurm Photography

Finally, we have my best friend and college roommate, Andre Ujcich, who also made all the beautiful jewelry that is featured in the shoot through her business The Blueing Rose. I originally had another professional model that was set to be involvement in the shoot, but had to cancel last minute. Luckily, Andre was the same size as the previous model and able to step right into the dresses and the role of being a model and designer for the shoot. I never thought that I would have involved her in the shoot in the ways that I did, but I am incredibly happy that I did. She made custom pieces for the shoot and gifted them to the models as well, while you may think this is a small thing it is a fraction of what she really creates. Her pieces were not just featured in the shoot, but also able to be featured in the new bridal magazine North Texas bridal magazine. I have been able to watch and grow with Andre over the years, competing college together and moving onto our post-college careers. Having her be part of this shoot made things kind of come full circle, she knew all the hard work I had been putting into this event, but was also able to participate as both a vendor and a model.

Photographer: Jillian Grace Photography

About our hair and makeup team, I had worked with Melissa before on weddings and was so excited to be able to bring her and her team on board. I told them the style and my vision, but gave them complete creative freedom in what they wanted to do for makeup and hairstyles. I knew this wasn't my area of expertise and that no matter what they would make all of our models true beauty shine through. A few of our models and myself, were also tanned by Globox Tan which gave us stunning natural glows for this shoot!

Photographer: Courtney Lynn Photography ft. Melissa Tobias with Mela Makeup

What would any event be without the bar, a