Romantic Fine Art & Pink Florals

At RMW HQ we are lucky enough to receive lots of beautiful inspiration shoots and inevitably, some appeal to me personally more than others. I have to admit that this afternoon's just happens to be my idea of wedding heaven. Wedding and Events planner Natalie Hewitt has got everything just spot on. Lots of feminine colours, an abundance of florals, stunning wedding dresses. And not just any wedding dresses either, these are gowns taken from the brand new collection by Caroline Castigliano, launching later this year. Natalie also happens to be one of our hand picked recommended wedding suppliers (see more on The List) so if you're looking for a planner who has serious style as well as organisation skills - she's your lady. Enjoy this one lovely people, it's simply beautiful and just bursting with inspiration.

The Inspiration

Natalie Hewitt | Wedding & Event Planner explains her inspiration behind the shoot: My role as a wedding planner doesn’t limit me to just dealing with paperwork. Planning weddings is an intricate process; from creating an initial design concept, mood boards, sourcing quotes and organising suppliers to ultimately delivering a perfectly balanced and timed wedding day. Putting together a beautiful design concept is one of the key elements in planning a perfect wedding and something I love! I’m constantly looking for new ideas and not just on Pinterest, in blogs and magazines; inspiration can come from anywhere and anything! The family home I was brought up in is covered in wisteria and earlier on in the year I had a moment of inspiration for this shoot. There was a slight breeze and the sun was glinting through the trees and all I could picture was a dreamlike, slow motion image of a bride with her veil being caught in the wind. I wanted to create this romantic, light-filled image I had in my head so I started out by putting together a few mood boards. Once I was happy with the overall look I created a ‘shoot’ mood board, and then one for each supplier to really give them a feel for the look I wanted to achieve. The next task was easy – handpicking my suppliers. I get to work with and meet some amazing and very talented individuals with my job. It was amazing that everyone I asked jumped at the chance to work on this shoot – not only because they loved the design concept, but they knew the day would run smoothly and the team I had pulled together really complemented one another. So after liaising with all the suppliers about their particular input, I created my schedule of the day; it was really important that, like a wedding, I planned the shoot so everyone knew when and where to be...

The Suppliers

I knew I had to use a fine art wedding photographer who shoots on film so Amy O’Boyle was the perfect choice. I absolutely love her romantic and light filled style and she’s amazing to work with. I knew she would capture the feel of the shoot perfectly but she’s absolutely surpassed my expectations. The next task was to find the fashion for the shoot; Caroline Castigliano is one of my all-time favourite designers. Her gowns are exquisite and as her atelier is just down the road from my office I had to ask! Luckily I timed the shoot really well as Caroline had just previewed her “Love Is In The Air” collection on the New York runway. Not being launched until later on in the year, we were able to feature a few of the gowns straight from the atelier; the Bisou and the Babouska are stunning. Ella, from Blake Models looked amazing in the gowns and the grand veil finished off her look perfectly. Reiss provided the grooms look. I didn’t want to dress John in a typical wedding suit so as soon as I saw the Tate B jacket on the rail I had to grab it. Although this lent itself to a more relaxed look, I could envision the overall effect of the pink jacket with the pink flowers and it worked really well. I’m biased but I think my daughter is cute, so when I had a thought of a flower girl holding on to a teddy I had to get her down and force her to model! Her dress and shoes are from The White Company and her bunny is a Jellycat.

The Flowers

Flowers were probably the main focus of the shoot so I roped in Rachel from Catkin. She’s an artisan florist growing many of her own flowers in a walled kitchen garden in Lincolnshire. For this shoot she used British grown flowers from her cutting garden which included lilac, clematis, stocks, gueldar rose, ranunculus, peonies, aquilegia and sweet peas. I really wanted the flowers to be big and Rachel didn’t hide her excitement when I told her she had free reign to create whatever she wanted. I love the asymmetrical look of the arrangements and bouquet – although they look like they’ve just been picked, I can assure you creating such as look is an art. She also created a flower crown for my daughter to bring in the colour pallet and compliment her pink bunny.

The Details

The details were just as important as the key pieces and pulled the look together. Sophie from The Confetti Cakery designed the cakes and confectionary; I wanted to show a new wedding cake trend; so keeping with the popular naked cake look, we iced one tier and drizzled the top. Rachel created a flower crown for the bottom tier, again pulling the colour pallet through the whole look. Cake tables are in, so we created a few mini cakes, macarons and marshmallows too. Nicola from Rose Press specialises in letter pressing and hot foiling. I love her work and she actually designed my logo so I had to ask her to come on board. She created a really elegant range for this shoot; to add to the high end look we created menu cards for each of the place settings which had the guests name on the top rather than using a separate name card. Cut crystal and candles were a must so the girls at Save the Date Event Stylist dressed the top table. The final look was amazing and the ghost chairs loaned by Mitchell Johnson Furniture and accessories complimented the crystal perfectly. I am a sucker for diamonds so I wanted to get some shots of a bride with an engagement ring and the groom looking super cool with a stylish watch. Scott from James Usher came down with an amazing collection of jewellery – I won’t lie, it was a huge distraction for all of us girls there!

The Beauty

Last, but by no means least, the multi-award winning hair and make-up team were essential to finishing off the models look. Jenni from Make-up By Jenni created a romantic, dewy makeup look with emphasis on the eyes. She used soft and pretty warm hues with a hint of definition to enhance our models great bone structure. James White created a really soft up-do, perfect for showcasing a grand veil and diamond earrings.