Tag Archives: Hippy

Bohemian Family Cookout Wedding: Tyler & Kristen

October 24, 2012 in Wedding | Written by

Tyler & Kristen were married at Camp Sky Ranch in Boone, NC. The inspiration for their day was a ‘bohemian family cookout’ with nods to the ‘flower power’ and ‘peace & love’ vibes of the 1960s. The barefoot bride wore a simple dress from Rosa Clara with vintage jewellery and a flower garland in her hair.

“I really wanted our wedding to evoke a feeling that our guests could sense as soon as they walked through the door”, explained Kristen. “I wanted them to know how much we loved each other and our beautiful son Jude, and how important this day was for us: we were finally taking the final step in solidifying our family. I think once I committed to conveying this and stopped worrying about what I thought I was supposed to do, I really had so much fun planning the wedding. The 1960s were a big part of my inspiration. I love the bright psychedelic colors, the vintage band posters, and of course the flower power hippies. I really tried to take this and give it a thrifty rustic twist.”

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Hippy Luxe at The Photography Farm

July 23, 2012 in Styled Photo Shoots | Written by

As the fourth Photography Farm drew near Lisa and I sat down with Hannah, stylist extraordinaire, to plan the shoots. I always look forward to this epic 3-day wedding photographers workshop as I know I’ll learn new things, make new friends and have a hell of a good time in the process. We do two styled shoots on the first day but the second, a bridal shoot, is always the most exciting and experimental. I’m so excited to come up with a new concept and work with the Farm dream team to make it a reality.

We first start by deciding on our model. After umming and ahhing over the people we could ask for a while (we prefer to use ‘real’ girls over professional models), it came to me – what about my sister Rachel? And yes, before you ask, we did name our cat after her!

With her long dreadlocks, nose ring and ginormous Disney princess eyes she has a really unique look… and hello? She’s effing beautiful to boot. The girls were really excited about working with her so we set to coming up with ideas to suit Rachel’s own personal style. That’s the great thing about planning shoots for The Farm. The sky’s the limit with what we can do, but we also like to start with the model and work outwards. It’s super important that whatever we come up with links back to the girl in the middle of it all, only that way does something so special and authentic result.

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Peace, Love and Marriage: A 1970s Inspired Wedding Shoot

March 30, 2012 in Styled Photo Shoots | Written by

The 1970s is an era we’re starting to see represented a lot more in the wedding industry. For a while it was avoided, with the 50s and 60s being the most popular decades for brides to emulate on their big days. However I’m thrilled that the tides are a-changing, especially when this resurgence in popularity lands pretty inspiration like this on my desk!

The shoot took place at Mercury Hall, Austin and was set up by photographer Jessica Monnich. “Mercury Hall was the perfect backdrop for this particular shoot as it is a gorgeous white cottage (on the inside and out) with colorful stained glass windows,” she wrote. “I have seen this space transformed in many different ways and I thought it would be perfect for our needs as the layout and design is simple.”

The bride wore a dress which Jessica bought on etsy and customised herself. “I dyed the dress with an ombre effect to give it a little bit of a modern hippie look. Our model created the beautiful feather earrings as well. The jewelry was borrowed from my Mom’s jewelry box and were authentic 70s pieces. The shoes she wore for most of the shoot were from Forever21 so nothing was super expensive but her foot tattoo really helped these shoes pop.”

“We really strived to create a ‘Peace, Love and Marriage’ feel throughout the shoot,” Jessica concluded. “Visual Lyrics created some amazing florals for us that had a ‘fresh picked out of the garden’ feel to them mixing high end flowers with typical 70s flowers like baby’s breath. The same owners of Visual Lyrics also started a new vintage rental company called Vintques so they brought all the beautiful couches, chairs and table and set up a table scape that complimented our theme perfectly.”

“They created a lounge scene outside that would be perfect for guests to wander to if they were all danced out. They also set up hookahs out there where guests use while lounging outside.”

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A Relaxed Southern Wedding: Anton & Megan

March 13, 2012 in Wedding | Written by

I’m so excited to share the incredible warehouse wedding of Anton & Megan with you today. I just know you’re going to love it! It’s simple, beautiful and just the kind of celebration I’d love to be invited too!

“Anton and I have been dating since my senior year of high school,” Megan wrote to me. “We met in February 2006 at a show his band O’brother played. Neither of us expected to be those people that are highschool sweethearts but now we both feel really lucky to have found each other so soon. We can enjoy being young and married – something that doesn’t seem so common anymore – as we grow old together.”

“I’m certainly the planning, left brain person in our relationship,” she continued, “arranging and attending meetings with vendors and making the 10 phone calls a day that are required when you’re planning a wedding. Anton is the creative, right brain 100%. He made our wedding invitation that is actually a stop-motion video we sent out to our guests (which you can view here). He also created all of our centerpieces – vases filled with synthetic and paper flowers with pictures of us, friends and family from the past years attached to looming bamboo. Everyone appreciated these personal additions, and the pictorial reminder that their presence and support is important in our relationship.”

The wedding was held at The Cotton Warehouse in Monroe, GA. As soon as the couple found it they knew it was perfect. ”We looked at a lot of beautiful wedding venues but didn’t really find ‘us’ until we came to The Cotton Warehouse. We were both raised predominantly in the southern United States and wanted to incorporate this, but we didn’t want to play up any artificial elegance or ‘Gone with the Wind’ persona that comes with an antebellum mansion. That’s not the south we know and love. The Cotton Warehouse embodies the simple, sweet happiness that goes along with having the ceremony in a small town, serving whiskey & coke as your signature drink, and dancing with your 79 year old grampa and 100 closest friends to Miley Cyrus’ Party in the USA.”

“So I guess our theme was complicated, mixing one part southern, one part Rock n Roll and one part earthy-wooden pieces. Understated, graceful and sometimes silly. Being true to what we like and being happy not to be doing the fancy, stereotypical, ballroom wedding. Enjoying our day our way, and the best party we would probably ever throw.”

Megan wore a J Crew wedding dress and Oxford brogues heels from Modcloth to which she added the blue ribbon herself. With their wedding being in February she wanted to make sure her shoes were not only stylish but practical!

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An Eco & Animal Friendly Wedding: Danny & Sandy

February 28, 2012 in Wedding | Written by

Being animal lovers, and with the bride’s Mother running an animal rescue sanctuary (where the couple actually met!) an eco and aminal friendly wedding was perfect for Danny & Sandy.

The bride explained, “We wanted everything to be eco-friendly and cozy! We stuck to bamboo plates and wooden utensils, and decorated with hay bales with burlap on top for seats, a bonfire, and mason jars with teelight candles hung in trees and lights draped throughout my backyard.”

After a ceremony at Sandhill Horticultural Center they had their reception in their own back garden. ”We chose the center’s gardens for the ceremony because they are a public venue, and so the fees we paid went exclusively to supporting the horticulture and art students at the local community college. They are the people who maintain the gardens. The amazing backdrop made our photos; and it was wonderful to be married in a place that was built by the community!”

“I’m a gypsy soul from the desert that’s been transplanted into a sweet old Southern town, and I wanted everyone to step into my world for a little bit. Hay bales for our guests to get cozy on, twinkling lights that reminded me of the amazing desert sky to wish on; and soups, pies, bread (and wine!) to fill everyone’s bellies. It was our style, all the way. No Southern Belles here.”

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A Burning Man Inspired Wedding: Christine & David

February 21, 2012 in Wedding | Written by

There’s so much about Christine & David’s wedding that I utterly adore - Christine’s Wai-Ching wedding dress, the metal-welding ceremony, the Burning Man inspired after-party… seriously, if you don’t love this wedding you’re bonkers.

“Well, we started off by not trying to be anything other than ourselves,” Christine told me. “The only thing I knew I wanted was my Wai-Ching dress and a gluten-free cake, and David just wanted a raucous party. Neither of us had expectations of what our wedding should be, so we just took the parts of the traditional wedding that we liked, ditched the parts we didn’t care about, and made some things up along the way.”

“A lot of our inspiration came from knowing that all but one of our guests was flying in from out of state. In fact our guest list included people from 24 different states and 5 different countries. We were so grateful that people would make the trip out to celebrate with us and we really wanted to make it worth it. Our wedding celebration was actually a multi-day extravaganza. Most people flew in on Wednesday and then Thursday was a trip to Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. Friday we went to the Orlando Science Center in the morning and then to Wekiwa Springs State Park (where we got engaged) in the afternoon for swimming in the springs and kayaking in the river. Friday night we threw our first party of the weekend at our house with a good ol’ Southern BBQ to welcome everyone to town. Saturday was our wedding and after-party and we wrapped it up on Sunday morning with a brunch at our house.”

“One of the big things we did differently was our ceremony as we wanted it to be personally meaningful. First off we chose readings that spoke to us: Charles Darwin on marriage, a quote about love from Tom Robbin’s ‘Still Life with Woodpecker,’ and an excerpt from Richard Feynman’s autobiography in which he writes about dating his wife. As for rings, I don’t think we ever even discussed them. I do have an amazing engagement ring, but I think we both assumed from the get go that wedding bands were not happening. All of types of ceremonies that we looked at, even the nontraditional ones like handfasting, unity candle, sand ceremony, etc – seemed forced as they meant nothing to us personally. We finally settled on including metal work in some fashion as I am a metal artist. We contacted a friend and artist who I lived and worked with last summer, Jon Sarriugarte, and he made us the amazing heart that we riveted together during the ceremony.”

“We had a lot of little touches,” the bride continued. “My cousin played the harp and a good friend played the trumpet for our ceremony. We had a ‘living guest book’  where guests planted a succulent. We had a coloring book table as a token to how we met (we met at the children’s coloring book table at a wedding in Long Island), complete with the picture I was coloring at the time. There was a table set up with pictures of us at Burning Man 2006-2011 (after we met at the Lond Island wedding we found out we were both going to Burning Man that same year so we arranged to meet there. We then ended up going back together every year after that).”

“Our after-party at our house was most definitely Burning Man inspired. We had set up our usual camping setup (a geodesic dome, a hexayurt, and five tents) in the yard for the 20 or so friends who camped at our place during the week. I surprised David at our entrance to the party with a tunnel of light sabers – his signature glow ornamentation at the Burn.”

“Body glow adornments were available as well as LED hula hoops and poi. Our hot tub was open. I set up a sculpture I made for Burning Man 2010, a honeycomb piece named Propolis. A fire pit was out by the lake with couches, s’mores (with local hand-made marshmallows of course), guitars, and a variety of percussion instruments. We set up a star projection in the dome with couches and blankets for a chill space. Grilled cheese sandwiches were distributed at midnight. Our neighbor put on a fireworks show for us during our royal kiss on the balcony and some good friends put together an acrobatic performance. And there was off course dancing until the wee hours of the morning.”

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