A Modern Photo Shoot at the Loading Dock in Stamford, Connecticut
At the beginning of April I flew back into the US from Paris fired up about the incredible shoot I had collaborated on with Robert and Kathleen Trenske and Beth Chapman. I had a few days to switch out my luggage from cute Parisian clothes to long, flowy summer dresses as we geared up for our trip to Costa Rica! In between, we planned a Style Me Pretty Inspiration to Reality shoot. Yeah, I know– are we nuts or what?! In fact, we left the Style Me Pretty shoot and headed straight to the airport for Costa Rica!
I’m so excited to share this shoot with you, which was featured on Style Me Pretty in three separate posts which you can view here: part one, part two, and part three. It was an honor to put together this modern, sleek, minimal, citrus inspired shoot for our friends at Style Me Pretty. The caliber of shoots that they feature are incredible and we are so grateful to be among them! The inspiration board for our shoot was designed by Style Circle member Lena.
I love this board– mostly because it is such a departure from my own personal style. We all loved the minimal feel of the board, the citrus and bold colors. We took that as our main source of inspiration and set out to design a shoot with our incredible team! Speaking of, here are the talented and creative folks who made this shoot possible:
Photography: Carla Ten Eyck Photography
Flowers: Datura: A Modern Garden
Event Design: Jubilee Events
Event Planning: Jubilee Events with help from 14 Stories
Model Styling, Dresses and Accessories: The White Dress by the Shore
Reception Location: The Loading Dock
Hair & Makeup: Dana Bartone & Co.
Catering: Jordan Caterers
Cake & Confections: Ana Parzych
Invitations: Gus & Ruby Letterpress
Shoes: Zappos
Furniture Rentals: Taylor Creative Inc.
Ring Bowls, Place Cards, Ribbon, and Thank You Notes: Paloma’s Nest
Edible Champagne Flowers: Wild Hibiscus
Tableware, Glassware & Chargers: Party Rental Ltd.
Our color story ranged from bright white to orange, green, yellow, with hints of pink. We were inspired by the chandelier at The Loading Dock and integrated some of that sparkle in beautiful details and accessories– like the gorgeous jewelry and accessories from The White Dress by the Shore. Dana Bartone, inspired by the sleek makeup and styling of the model in our inspiration board, created a beautiful bun for our bride Kate. I love how her hair is so defined and slightly retro! The bouquet hanging in the chandelier and held by our bride, Linsdsay, was made of white miniature phaelonopsis orchids with lily grass.
Paloma’s Nest created wooden thank you cards for our couple that doubled as favors. They were tucked in glass line envelopes! Our bridesmaid, dressed in a lemon shantung frock from Chic by the Shore, carried a bouquet of trachelium, aspidistra and fresh cut limes , created by Datura: A Modern Garden.
I had SO much fun designing this tablescape along with Tony of Datura. It was a real challenge for me, personally, but I absolutely love the crisp and modern outcome! We used a ghost table from Taylor Creative Inc., as the basis of our design. Tony created a STUNNING centerpiece of curly willow branches known as “the cyclone” that grew out of the table and into the ceiling of The Loading Dock. It was accentuated with shades of orange clementines, blood oranges, and sweet valencia oranges. Tony wove in eucharis orchid’s into the tablescape for a touch of femininity and a pop of white. Each place setting had an orange glass charger with white frosted place settings. We submerged white frill tulips into the champagne glasses (one of my favorite details!) and also used them to top our clementine place card holders, which were created using wooden rings by Paloma’s Nest.
The paper suite was created by Gus & Ruby Letterpress. They decided on a clean, minimalist design that made use of the bright citrus color palate and hard, architectural lines of the industrial venue in white, orange, and grey with a hint of green. The paper suite was completely letterpress, including the cute citrus elements that we garnished our drink display with!
Tony of Datura created a citrus garland for our brides made of clementines, blood oranges and limes. The second bouquet, carried by Kate, was made of wedding belle daffodils with aspidistra. The menu cards on our table, also by Gus & Ruby were letterpress in orange ink and noted the delicious menu, as crafted by Jordan Caterers.
The ring bowl, an intrinsic part of the inspiration board was also by Paloma’s Nest. It was edged in gold and had our couple’s initials inscribed on the face. Our maid, Kelly, switched from a papaya colored jewel necklace by The White Dress by the Shore and into a custom designed necklace by Datura made of green hypericum berry, amber and minature phaelonopsis orchids.
The white leather couch was from the furniture collection at Taylor Creative, Inc. Ana Parzych created the White Tahitian Vanilla cake layered with Passion Fruit mousseline. It was finished in swiss meringue buttercream and vanilla fondant. Ana created fondant-molded pearls and hand-sculpted sugar lilies.
Jordan Caterers created a menu based on our inspiration board with sea infused menu items such as seared tuna, shrimp, scallops, lobster. They infused citrus in both color and flavor of the entrees and our cocktail bar, made up of key lime martini’s and passion fruit prosecco. We submerged edible wild hibiscus into some of our cocktails, too!
The AMAZING silver shoes with flower embellishment are from Zappos.com… our absolute FAVORITE website for shoes!
And a few behind-the-scenes images of our lovely and delightful photo shoot crew! Thanks to all for your creativity and hard work. It was such a pleasure collaborating with you!
xoxoxo
Costa Rica: Behind the Scenes Part II
Our first day we landed in Costa Rica in the late afternoon and were welcomed by our hosts, StayInCostaRica.com and MMH Marketing with a cocktail and some delicious food– which was cooked up all week long by our man, Jose. To say we were exhausted would be an understatement! I must put this into perspective for you– the day before we put together an awesome photo shoot for Style Me Pretty and literally left Stamford, Connecticut to head to the airport (and wait 5 hours for our midnight flight!). With a 5 hour layover in Mexico City (which added to the delirium) we finally touched down around the time we wrapped up our photo shoot the day before. Weee!
The hospitality of our hosts really got us ready for the next day, which was a full day of shooting and scouting for locations. We met up with our photographers who got up to watch the sunrise and photograph our models surfing in the morning. The spot for our first shoot was where Larry of StayInCostaRica.com and our models Michelle and Alejandro surf every morning– Playa Hermosa . It’s a black sand beach with gorgeous views. It’s also where the International Quicksilver Surf Championships is held every year in August. We decided that for our beach shoot, the parking lot would be our ideal spot. A parking lot — I know. Even Larry said, I can’t believe we’re shooting in the dump where I park my car every morning!!! But seriously– it was so beautiful and had every element we were looking for. And to be quite honest, we can make ANYTHING look good.
After chose the beach, Carla, Mike, Tony and I went on a Costa Rican adventure to find the rain forest location for our second shoot… wait until you see it! Shout out to our friends The White Dress by the Shore and DD Nickel who were also part of our scouting adventure.
Calling all New England Couples: Inspiration to Reality Inspiration Board Challenge!
Jubilee Events is proud to be taking part in a SPRING themed Inspiration to Reality shoot for Style Me Pretty! This is the chance to have your wedding designed by an amazing group of vendors!! We’ll be working with Carla Ten Eyck, The White Dress by the Shore, Datura: A Modern Garden, and Dana Bartone along with MANY other amazing wedding professionals from Connecticut to put together a Photoshoot inspired by YOU!
All you need to do is create a user account at StyleMePretty.com. As a member of their “style circle”, you the ability to create amazing inspiration boards using their inventory of images.
Create a SPRING inspired inspiration board and save it with the title, “Spring Inspiration Board Challenge.”
Tune into our blogs on February 15th as we choose the winner, whose board will be interpreted for an upcoming Photoshoot that will be featured on Style Me Pretty.
Jubilee Events featured TWICE in Style Me Pretty this week!
Just thought I’d share the total awesomeness that is happening around here with our feature on Style Me Pretty this week!
View the feature on Dagney and Michael’s wedding from a few weeks ago as photographed by our friends, Robert and Kathleen Photographers: part i, part ii, and part iii.
Remember my totally awesome Trash the Dress by Eric Langlois of raw photo design? Well his work was featured yesterday! Check it out here! They also spotlighted a bunch of the amazing people who contributed to my trash the dress!
Things We Love, Vol. #2
Yesterday I totally fell in love with the real wedding of Kelly & Chris, featured on style me pretty. It is so visually STUNNING, no detail being forgotten. Makes me want to do a yellow mod wedding, stat!
Ritzy Bee posted a gorgeous, frilly, feminane pink baby shower that has to be mentioned… I love when so much care, consideration and design is put into a party!
These DIY paper vase packaging from Once Wed is so crafty, fun, and unique. I love it! Definitely on my DIY to-do list.
Loving these beautifully dress beds from the style files…. makes you want to rush out and redesign your boudoir! I could design an entire event around that first photograph!
I love chandeliers. LOVE. And I really love these gorgeous Marjorie Skouras Chandeliers from Apartment Therapy… We’ll be renting some fabulous chandeliers like these for an upcoming event, so be sure to check it out!
This is such a pretty and preppy tablescape, via Party Perfect Blog
Ice cream sandwiches were one of my absolute FAVORITE snacks as a kid. I love these homemade ones featured on Head of the Table for a baby shower. These would be so fun at a wedding, displayed on a sweet station or passed as hor’dourves (quickly, of course!)
These gorgeous dresses by Sarah Seven featured on Something old, something new.
I love paper! And these graphic, creative, and FUN invitations from Allison & Mark featured over on Oh so beautiful paper are the reason why!
Pure White French Inspired Inspiration Board in Bon Jour, Old Lace, and Romance
This inspiration board is totally inspired by Kirstie Kelly’s showing at A Soolip Wedding (found via Junebug Weddings). The runway show and photographs are a throw-back to French style — which I absolutely love and studied quite intensely (side note: my absolute FAVORITE book to finger through right now is Elle Decor’s The Grand Book of French Style, published in 2001. I found recently at a yard sale).
I love the look of dramatic, antique furniture in a monochromatic look. All the colors used are varying shades of white. Believe it or not, all white wedding is really a hard look to pull off, but when done well, the effect can really be amazing!
From the top: White wedding gowns by Kirstie Kelly during a runway show at A Soolip Wedding runway show via Junebug Weddings; Crystal votive chandeliers from the Real Wedding of Kim & Alex featured on Style Me Pretty; White french inspired bedroom design from Apartment Therapy; White place cards with black calligraphy on an antique silver tray from the Real Wedding of Kristen & Charles via Southern Weddings Blog; White macaroons from Amy Atlas; White signature cocktail with white flag swizzle sticks from Amy Atlas; Black and white photograph of man reading a newspaper with two dogs from Robert & Kathleen Photographers; Vintage white lace and organza 1950′s cocktail length wedding dress via Vintageous; White french dining room design via Style Files; White floral arrangements in silver mercury vases from the Real Wedding of Kristen & Charles via Southern Weddings Blog; White candlesticks with vintage medicine bottle vases from unknown source.
A Preppy Spring Inspired Tablescape: Yellow, White & Black
Last month Abby of Style Me Pretty asked all her Little Black Book vendors to dream up and create a DIY capable tablescape for her readers. I love any opportunity to dress up a table and quickly went to work on a simple Spring design using common household items. This tablescape was featured here!
Yellow has become my new FAVORITE color. I’ve become so inspired by it and now have a ton of new yellow cardigans, shirts and dresses. It has even worked its way into the redecorating of my living room this weekend! I love is cheery disposition and ability to brighten every room. The color yellow was my inspiration for this design and I set out to find all the pieces!
I didn’t have to look far — I opened up my pottery closet where I store way too many platters, dishes, and glassware. I pulled out items that we all have — a white cake stand (by Martha Sewart), some standard household vases (no doubt purchased at homegoods), and some vintage glass coke bottles passed down to me by my mom (a flea market or tag sale find, I’m sure). Real simple stuff, nothing super fancy, expensive, or unique. I knew I wanted to use these items but didn’t know what to put in them.
I took a drive over to one of my favorite florists, Flore in Southbury and asked the owner, Lori, what she had chilling in her cooler. Here is what I purchased on the fly:
1 stem white hydrangea
1 stem green hydrangea
1 ½ dozen circus roses
1 bushel of fancy yellow tulips (5 total used)
2 football mums
3 stems white lisianthus
Total Price: $60 wholesale
On my way home I stopped by the local fabric store to find something for our table runner. I spied some really gorgeous eyelet fabric and walked out with three yards (which proved to be a bit too much, but excess is always best!). I also popped over to the craft store and grabbed some yellow 8.5×11 heavy card stock (for the “charger”) and lacy inspired corner punch. Last stop: the dollar tree, where a good bargain is hit or miss. Fortunately they had some pretty yellow pillar candles and I scooped up two.
I had previously designed the menu card, which you can see, once I had decided on my color scheme. My inspiration for the menu was certainly my kate spade black and white tidbit plates, which I also incorporated into the tablescape. I love those plates! I had the menu cards them from a 8.5×11 sheet of standard white card stock and used this particular corner punch to add a little femininity.
After I had purchased my materials it was only a matter of putting it together. No one ever comes home with all the right ingredients and has a perfect centerpiece — there was a lot of playing around, new ideas, eliminations, and additions. In the end, this is what I came up with in about 20 minutes after focusing my ideas. I love it! After I was finished photographing it in my home studio, it graced our dining room table for the week.
Our tablescape can translate into any event and would look gorgeous at a wedding, mother’s day brunch, bridal shower, baby shower, or any other special occasion. You can dress it up, down, and adjust the formality pretty easily.
