A Luxe, Holiday Styled Shoot

Photo Credits: Victoria Isabel Photography

The pressure was on with this one when we got the request at 9:15 AM to collaborate on a styled shoot which would be starting at noon that very day. The florist who was booked for this shoot had to suddenly cancel due to illness, leaving this vendor team without flowers. Fortunately for us and for our collaborating vendors, we had absolutely nothing on our plate that day, so we said "yes" to the challenge!

The floral design process for us as an event designer always begins with a thoughtful study of our customer's vision. What is the overall aesthetic to be achieved? Is there a color pallet? And so on.... We study pinterest boards, sometimes full inspiration boards presented by wedding planners, and we gather a collection of our own images that portray a style we favor and would love to design. Of course these must also embody our customer's vision. Flowers and foliages are carefully pinned and gathered into a collection of favored blooms based on their seasonal availability as well as style and color. Edits are made multiple times as we work further with our customers to really fine-tune the design concepts. All of these steps happen months before we even begin our work the week of the event.

When we were asked to jump into a styled shoot without any time to prepare or equip ourselves with the materials to suit a particular vision, I had to ask myself whether we could take the risk. Do we have the right flowers on hand? Can we pull this off? I knew how empty our cooler was. It was bleak... just a few buckets of aging foliages and a vase of used fuchsia ranunculus. I also felt a bit unaccommodating when I so quickly responded to the coordinators of the shoot who were sending me inspiration images, informing them that I would not have time to consider their vision. I just had to gather what I could and get on the road. It was a hard response to send, but it was the honest truth.

It was like being in one of those shows where they tell you to make something fabulous out of whatever you just happen to have on hand. Kaitlyn and I went on a hard and fast hunt around the workshop, in the cooler, and in the basement. We snagged things from any shelf, our house, the corner of the back barn, and grabbed anything we had that we loved most.

The rich cranberry tones of the ranunculus nestled among all of the interesting textures were a fun addition to the bouquet, making the whole thing pop. My favorite part of the bouquet was the huge peach peonies which really anchored the whole bouquet. Peach peonies aren't a flower we would normally work into our bouquets since they are faux, but these ones were such a high quality selection that unless someone told you they were artificial, you likely would never guess.

When were in hot pursuit that morning, gathering everything we could find that we had on hand that we deemed worthy of our cause, we came up with these components:

1)artificial peony blooms from my personal fall dining tablescape,
2)dried oats
3) pampas grass
4) dried kangaroo paws left over from a past wedding in downtown Columbus, OH
5) some clippings of Christmas greens from the bottom of the box that we just had left
6) scotch broom remainders from our Christmas decorating projects
7) a mix of other greenery types from our cooler including camellia, italian ruscus, and eucalyptus
8) hot pink ranunculus that we had happened to save from the vases that we picked up from a wedding the week before
9) preserved tinted eucalyptus that had been waiting on our shelves for a couple of years for their shining moment
10) curry that we had cut from the garden weeks ago before the snow hit
11) all of the silk ribbon by The Lesser Bear that we had on hand

We love the this next photo with the soft afternoon light shining through the window and the charcoal furniture by Aiden & Grace Rentals too!

We stood in the workshop, Kaitlyn and I, staring for a brief moment at all that we had just gathered wondering how this was going to turn out. As hard as it is to visualize sometimes, I believe there's a lot of truth to the idea that a curated collection of items that you love will come together beautifully when put together in the right way, even if it doesn't seem like they really go coordinate. This is a beautiful example of that thought.

Our team was on the road by 11 AM with all that we had gathered, and we are so pleased to share the results with you!

Our clients are often seeking unique and artistic ways to achieve a ceremony backdrop, and this is a cool option that doesn't require any flowers and projects a natural, easy style. We have used this concept in a handful of weddings in the past, but each one comes out a bit different. This one featured greenery selections and components that we normally wouldn't have thought of, since it was a random collection of things from our stockpiles of either dried, preserved, fresh, or gently used foliages, and we love the way it turned out! The gold arch structure was supplied by Aiden & Grace Rentals.

Kaitlyn and Lisa arrived at about noon to Aiden & Grace Specialty Rentals, where the event was to take place and began their design work on site. We normally design everything at our floral workshop and then arrive with finished arrangements, but there was no time for such a luxury on this day! I have to say, I am truly blessed to have such a talented team who can really work well under pressure, creating extraordinary results weekend after weekend for our event clientele! Our lead designer Kaitlyn and senior bridal consultant Lisa had zero time to think about the design process on this one and immediately got to work making the magic!

It was nothing but intense focus working to achieve all that we set out to do that morning in such a short amount of time, but I would say it was well worth the risk we took in saying yes to this tall request. Our hearts were dancing as soon as we received all of these lovely photos back the very next day!

We were very thankful for that moment… for the invitation to be a part of this, for the fact that it couldn't have come on a better day, and for the opportunity to put our capabilities to the ultimate test of coming up with a design and executing it from scratch in just a couple of hours.

Vendor highlights:

Coordination: @victoriaisabelphotography + @luxereduxbridal

Photography: @victoriaisabelphotography

Dresses & Accessories: @luxereduxbridal @lamourbycallablanche @tara_keely @saragabrielveils @tonifederici

Venue & Rentals: @aidenandgrace

Florals: @madisonhouseflowers

Hair: @denise_theblowoutbar @thebridebar @yagirlfergie

Makeup: @e.eigensee @thebridebar

Cake: @fromscratchcupcakes

Stationary: @lostartbylisa

Ribbon: @thelesserbear

Models: @lsjang @colorandcutz

For more photos of this lovely styled shoot showcasing our styled wedding flowers for the Columbus Ohio area and other gorgeous details, click here to view the entire portfolio: https://victoriaisabelphotography.pixieset.com/luxeholiday/