Under the Spotlight – S8 Films

Kat

March 22, 2010

When I received the initial email from Roland of S8 Films I was blown away. Not only did I instantly adore their work but I was delighted to discover they are London based (in fact right around the corner from my soon-to-be-part-time 'day' job!) The Super 8 format has been growing in popularity over the last few years. From it's grainy texture to it's raw, 'real' appeal, it's easy to see why brides all over the world have fallen in love with it. In fact if we had made the decision to have a wedding film made, I know Super 8 would have been the way we'd done it.

500 Days of Summer

Kat

March 22, 2010

Inspired by the movie, Aaron and Kassee's engagement shoot had that perfect retro, kooky and quirky feel. The pair even went to some of the iconic locations in the film including Angels Knoll park and Los Angeles Union Station.

Classic Vintage with a Twist of Awesome

Kat

March 21, 2010

I am really starting to fall head over heels in love with Matt Johnson Photography...and I'm not afraid to admit it! His images are subtle, unobtrusive and captures beautiful weddings with all the justice they deserve. Elodie & Greg's wedding was one I fell in love with as soon as I saw the first frame. Her amazing vintage-inspired outfit, jewellery and so-now white lace gloves make me smile with glee and his rad groom style puts every other groom to shame! The no-jacket/waistcoat look is totally Rock n Roll and looks way-too-cool when matched with his boys in braces. The details of this wedding are to die for - from the birdcages, the white heart motif, the retro 'admissions' sign, the outdoor chandelier. Awesome.

A Vintage, Rustic and Uber Chic Yorkshire Wedding

Kat

March 21, 2010

One of the greatest things about my job as a blogging maestro is all the wonderful people I get to meet...and it's even better when we get to meet in real life! The delightful Emma Case is down in London for a few weeks and so emailed me and suggested we meet up go out for Sushi. Now, those that know me will be well aware that I'm not one to say no to Sushi! We met up last Tuesday and immediately hit it off, talking non-stop about wedding planning, photography, blogging, husbands, proposals, flowers, music...you know the drill! I was particularly excited to hear about some fabulous weddings she's shot over the past few weeks and lucky for you I got first dibs on sharing them all with you (score!)

Channelling Steve McQueen

Kat

March 17, 2010

When Christina & Mitch turned up to their engagement session with their beloved '68 Corvette in tow, photographer Clayton Austin was instantly inspired and channeled Steve McQueen as the idea behind the shoot. As a little bit of a petrol head myself, I can totally relate to how Clayton described the day.

Perfect Picnic Wedding

Kat

March 14, 2010

Sarah & Kevin's darling backyard wedding took place in a friend's back garden in Arlington, Texas. The vintage-inspired theme with robin egg blue touches made for the perfect, personal picnic wedding. The day was styled by Revolution Garden and several of the wedding accessories (including the invitation, all hair accessories, the sign-in painting, and the decorated hat box) were hand-made by them as well. The whimsical bouquets made of all off-white and vanilla flowers and the boutonnieres were created by The T Shop. The bridesmaids wore dresses from Anthropologie and the bride's dress was put together with thrift store shopping including Buffalo Exchange.

White Album Wedding Chapel

Kat

March 13, 2010

Norma & David's wedding was all about the individual retro touches. In love with the art deco vibe of the 1920s and 30s, the pair used this as their inspiration - choosing to be inspired by and go with the flow of the theme rather than being restricted by it. "We wanted a vintage feel, as I am in love with art deco, 20's and 30's music/style/art/film" Norma told me. "As an artist the visual 'flow' was more important to me than being "matchy matchy", or sicking to a theme. We like an eclectic look and things with character...we were hoping to create an elegant, whimsical, romantic, sensual feel."

Incredible

Kat

Art of Her

March 12, 2010

We had been planning this shoot for months but just needed the right two people to do it" the guys told me. "As you can see, Adam and Mary were perfect for the shoot. We actually had the wedding dress made for Mary by a local seamstress for $100 (including the cost of the fabric). So, we loaded up and headed to Denison, TX. Our plan was to shoot at the Old Dennison Hotel, but when we got there we found some other amazing places to shoot as well. The town is so weird. It seems like it once was a booming little town (like in the early part of the 1900's), but then as it started to crumble, no one ever fixed it or tore down the old buildings; instead they just built all these modern structures around it. It just feels kind of forgotten, but it was really perfect for our shoot. One of the places we shot was this adorable little 50's diner and malt shop complete with old gas pumps, a juke box, and checkered floors! It's called Peggy Sue's 50's Diner and Ice Cream Parlor. As for the Denison hotel... Supposedly, this hotel burned in 1929 and when it did all of the people who were in it were killed in the fire. I have to say, it was a very creepy. Kind of reminded me of The Shining. Some of the rooms have been remodeled, but many of the rooms are still as they were after the fire. The owner was so sweet to let us use one of the rooms to do the shoot. As you can see in the pictures, the walls are black from the fire and what little furniture that was in the room was definitely old. The cat in some of the picture is an old cat with a glass eye who jumped up on the window sill just in time to be in this series of pictures. Mary was amazing. She has never modeled before but she knew how to position her body and we think she perfectly pulled off the vintage look we were going for (especially considering it was 25 degrees all day and she didn't have a whole lot covering her. All of the clothes (including the furry jacket) and jewelry (with the exception of the wedding dress), we brought from my mom's awesome little boutique called funky at heart boutique (which is in side her gift store called Cheerful Heart Gifts). We always use stuff from her store for our concept shoots! It really goes perfectly with our style. Adam actually brought his own clothes for the shoot. In fact, that's how he dresses on a daily basis. It's almost like they were born in the wrong era. They totally rocked this look...I think because it is a pretty good representation of who they are on a daily basis. I just don't think we could have found better people to do this. As for our inspiration for this shoot... I really wanted to do a shoot that I felt best represented who we are as photographers. I had seen a picture in a magazine one time and loved it and wanted to do something like it but with our own twist on it (hence, the amazing balloon picture that resulted). We basically built the whole shoot around this 30's-40's theme (with the added set from the diner which we just had to do when we found the place). I really love the glamorous look of that era and we really wanted to capture that in this shoot.

Faux Fur Retro Chic

Kat

March 12, 2010

Fashion designer Kelly & her fiance, Martin's engagement is a total joy of faux fur, retro chic! Their amazing-sounding Halloween themed wedding will be taking place in October this year and after Kelly told me she's not only making her bridesmaid dresses but her own wedding dress I was literally already chomping at the bit to see the results! In this, their engagement session, Kelly looks amazing in her red tights, vintage faux fur coat (from a Salvation Army store) and headband (a gift from her future Mother in law.) Congratulations guys!

Thursday Treats – 4th March 2010

Kat

March 4, 2010

♥ Snowy vintage wedding style ♥ Doze magazine is full of gorgeous photography - and turn to page 62 - 77 to see the amazing wonderland feature by Kirsty Mitchell ♥ Jane & Warrick's beautiful, personal cliff top ceremony ♥ Vivien of Holloway = swoon ♥ I love tattoo tuesday ♥ Gorgeous blonde ♥ Why is my clutter not so effortlessly chic? ♥ Katherine O'Brien always shoots the most perfect vintage brides ♥ Together we are beautiful ♥ Amazing whimsical, Santa Monica vintage wedding

Belgian Retro Chic

Kat

March 3, 2010

Melody & David are a super cool Rock n Roll couple from Belgium who certainly added that little bit of cool to their engagement shoot. They brought along things that really meant something to them to use as props and the result is a quirky, retro vibe to die for.

Quirky, British Fare

Kat

March 2, 2010

The couple chose The Hop Farm as their venue because, in their own words, "it had a certain britishness to it and being both born and bred in Kent we grew up with the iconic images of the oast houses and it just felt comforting and homely to have them as a back drop to the wedding." They didn't really have one theme per-say but they just came up with/borrowed ideas from many areas that inspired them. In fact the only stipulation they put throughout the whole of the process of planning their wedding was that they wanted to get as many people as they liked together to have a really good party, and the actual ceremony and marriage was just a small part of that.

Bowling Alley Rockabilly Bridal Shoot

Kat

February 26, 2010

This exceptional Rock n Roll style fashion shoot photographed by Jessica Monnich at Highball in Austin Texas hit me right between the eyes. I've fallen in love with the vintage 1950s rockabilly stylings, the gorgeous fashion, the stunning models, the bowling alley setting...well basically how damn cool the whole thing is! I'm so excited to share this shoot and all the people involved with you..you're gonna love it! "We went with a 50's theme. The location was very hip swanky 50's feeling bowling alley on South Lamar in a bowling alley here in Austin Texas called Highball. In keeping with the vintage theme we did a place setting in the color scheme of the shoot using fiestaware which was popular during that time period. We thought Wizard of Oz Pez dispensers would be fun as that was a popular movie during that time. We also had mock cakes made up for the shoot that had a very rockabilly feel to them as well. The "bride" carried a lotus flower surrounded by sweet peas and the "bridesmaids" carried a combination of flowers including pink sweet peas and poppies." Thanks to Jessica and the whole team for sharing these with Rock n Roll Bride Photography Credit: Jessica Monnich Photography Photo assistant: Gerry Hanan of Hanan Exposures

Art Deco Inspired Fashion Shoot

Kat

February 25, 2010

This Art Deco bridal shoot took place at Eltham Palace in London. The fabulous dresses including Valerie' by Sarah Arnett, 'Kristine' by Claire Pettibone and two dresses by Olivia Couture were provided by Blackburn Bridal and were all chosen to reflect the Art Deco nature of the building and the shoot. The flowers were sent by Veevers Carter. Photographer Sarah wanted to tell me all about her vision. "There were a few motivations for the shoot. I wanted to show off the Art Deco design of the Eltham Palace and I felt that our model, Victoria's look really encapsulated the decadent spirit of the 1920's which was perfect. The dresses were also chosen according to the venue with the exception of the the Olivia Couture swirl dress which was shot in an Italian style room adjacent to the iconic circular entrance hall. The soft, vintage styled bouquet worked well with all the dresses and the final shots with the black bobbed wig were an unashamed homage to Louise Brooks, the Art Deco pin up herself!" Thanks to Sarah for sharing these today

Sugabilly Bridal

Kat

February 24, 2010

There's a little bit of a story behind the finding of this fabulous shoot and I thought in sharing it's gorgeousness I could also explain how it came to land in my inbox. As many of you know, my husband Gareth is an IT wizz and works from home. As sad as it may be, we love to watch Working Lunch together when I'm not at 'the day job'. One such afternoon there was a feature on Emma Jones of Enterprise Nation who works with 5-9 ers - ie people who are mad like me, work a full time job and run their own business from home too. So Gareth turns to me and says "You should drop her an email" and so I did. Making this connection has been fabulous for me as not only have I been featured on her site, am being used a case study in her upcoming book (hell to the yeah!) but she sends me regular updates on awesome other 5-9 ers that she thinks I need to know. LeKeux Events was one of these companies. As soon as I landed on their website I knew we'd be a perfect match and after speaking to Lyndsey over email it turned out that she already reads my blog! Aaaaanyway, to cut a very long story short (er) I saw this amazing Sugabily bridal shoot on their site and just had to feature it....you're going to go nuts for it! The dress and petticoat were ebay finds, but Lyndsey tells me she swooned over similar things on Vivienne of Holloway (who I ADORE by the way). Enjoy! Thanks to Emma for putting myself and LeKeux Events together and thanks to Lyndsey for sharing these wonderful shots with us today

1920s Stylee Speakeasy Wedding

Kat

February 17, 2010

I've got a second British post for your today - and this time it's Miriam & Bruce's art deco/speakeasy/1920s-30s inspired wedding. The event took place at The Brickhouse, Brick Lane, London which is in the heart of the city's uber cool East End and was complete with monochromatic colour scheme, gambling tables and cheeky burlesque entertainment. Miriam & Bruce had a humanist ceremony in front of their guests before kicking off a night of unashamed debauchery! Female guests were treated to a black or white feather fan on arrival, and the gents mini bottles of Jack Daniels and chocolate cigars. Miriam wore a dress and ostrich feather shrug from the fabulous Joanna Fleming Design and birdcage veil from Jane Taylor Millinery. Credit: Eye Imagine Wedding Planners: Grant-Riley Weddings

Thursday Treats – 11th Feb 2010

Kat

February 11, 2010

Family Ties

Kat

February 9, 2010

Carnival Crazy

Kat

February 7, 2010

Dina & Gary's 1920's vaudeville carnival themed wedding makes me wanna squeal. I wish wish wish we'd done something as fabulous as this when we got hitched. The wedding took place at Asbury Park, New Jersey and the pair really went to town with their theme - from popcorn and candy for the guests, a sideshow performance, goldfish in bowls... in fact everything you might expect to find at a carnival! Dina wore a custom dress (made by a friend) and wore jewellery and carried a candy bouquet made by another friend Melissa Heid. Just. Wow. Thanks to Brandi for sharing this awesome day with us. Woooo!

Retro Pin Up Valentines Lovelies

Kat

February 6, 2010

With the day of hearts, flowers and lurrrve fast approaching, I have been inundated with Valentine's themed submissions, however this retro/pin up shoot from Jen Will may well be one of my utter favourites. The shoot took place in her own kitchen which was the perfect setting for the baking theme. "This is part of the reason I love my apartment." Jen tells us "It is the coolest apartment ever, and my love for it is part of the reason I have yet to join the adult world of home ownership. It has a bathroom that would probably rent out as a large bedroom in New York City and a classic stove that came straight from the original Be Witched TV show. No matter where I live in the future, I will always love this place. I am so glad I got to document it in such a special way!" I have to agree... and seeing these really makes me want to get my arse in gear and decorate our house! Thanks to Jen for sharing these.