Happy Crimbo, Everyone!

It’s 8.30 on Saturday morning and the windows of the car are still frozen around the edges despite the heater having gone on full blast for the drive here. I see some leftover frost glinting on ferns and moss as some faint rays of sun make their way through the dense trees. It looks beautiful. Dammit. No torrential rain, no awful location. That means I have no reason whatsoever to turn around and go back to bed. Instead I actually want to get out of the car and start photographing.

Some eight hours later I am back in the car. I can’t feel my face anymore which may be because it has frozen or simply because I have laughed so much it has gone numb. And the best thing? We get to do it all again on Sunday.

In early November I got an email from a girl called Lauren. Little did I know that Lauren would become my favourite person ever. She is one half of Grace and Gable, a bespoke wedding planning company based in Birmingham and we met at the designer Vintage Bridal show in October. Now I had an email from her saying that she would like to do a photo shoot together with me. The words Christmas and Forrest and Vintage were thrown about, a moodboard on pinterest was linked to, lots of glitter and fairy lights were promised and I was hooked. There would be models, stylists, hair and make-up, generators and a trailer to warm up in. Was I interested? Hmmm. Let’s see. Was I? YES!

I have a hard time to put into words how much I enjoyed the weekend and working together with all these wonderful people. It was a hugely ambitious project to shoot outside for two days a week before Christmas. I am still amazed how Lauren and Nina and Sonia from Invitation Only managed to come up with everything and made beautiful sets appear out of thin (cold) air and barren trees. It really was incredibly cold but a constant flow of hot drinks, snacks and a blissfully hot trailer made it possible to pull this off. And pull it off we did.

There are too many to name individually but I am so grateful for everyone who helped and made this possible. I’m putting a big list of links for everyone involved at the end of this post.
The biggest thanks goes out to Lauren for everything, really. And to Marco for being my second third fourth hand for this shoot, I could not have done this without you. (He is also the secret genius behind all my branding and webdesign, so let him know if you’re in need of any of that kind of goodness!)

The beautiful people over at Rock My Wedding were so kind to feature this shoot on their blog. Hooray! Have a look at some more photos and Lauren’s whole story there.

I feel like I made a truckload of new friends this weekend – and what could be more Christmassy than that? On that note I’d like to wish all of you a very merry Christmas, too. May there be lots of sparkle and laughter for you! And no go and feast your eyes on this Vintage Winter Tale.

And another thing! The awesome Simon Clarke was there with us to shoot a behind the scenes video. Have a look at my little beaming face in that giant winter coat and then imagine how cold poor Emma in that wedding dress must have been.

Everything: Grace & Gable

Styling: Invitation Only

Make-up: Jade Crean

Hair: Georgia Morris

Flowers: The Flower Appreciation Society

Cakes: Caroline’s Cake Company

Bridal Dresses: The Wedding Club

Headpieces and jewellery: DC Bouquets

Glitzy Headpiece: Cherished Vintage

Crockery and Cutlery: Wedgwood & Arthur Price

Candelabra: Candelabra for hire

Lanterns: Lombok

Stationery: Mae Mae Paperie

Christmas Tree Favours: Thomasin Gautier-Ollerenshaw

Mistletoe and Christmas Tree: Bill White’s Nurseries

Accessories: And so to Bed | House of Fraser | Westley Richards

Videography Simon Clarke

Models: Emma (Bride) | Dave (Groom) | Thomasin and Imogen (Maids)

Location: Wyre Forest