OTADUY & GLORIOUS BY HEIDI FOR A STYLED WEDDING SHOOT AT HEATON HOUSE FARM

LOCATION

Heaton House Farm is known as a rural wedding venue, enjoying sweeping views of the Cheshire countryside and an iconic oak tree that appears in many golden hour wedding photos, but less well known is its enchanting woodland.

Charlotte and I fell in love with the natural clearings that invited intimate table settings, and the jewel-green mossy hillocks that looked like something lifted from the pages of a Tolkien novel.

We were hoping to find a natural altar where our celebrant, Sally, of Toast Celebrant Sally, could conduct a marriage ceremony for the occasion, and were delighted to discover that the majestic Scots Pines within the woodland provided just that.

Mick Heath, Director of Heaton House farm, explained to Charlotte and I how important it is that photographers chat to the management team at a wedding venue, so that they can be directed to the ‘hidden gem’ locations, where couples can escape with their photographer to capture beautiful, memorable images.

STYLING

We worked from the woodland’s natural palette for this shoot, creating a mood board around three tones of green and a subtle, blush pink as the accent colour. The pink was chosen as the colour of fallen pine needles as they lie on the forest floor fading from green to brown.

Hayley of Bramble Lane’s intimate woodland table was set with stoneware vases, tonal glassware and rustic rattan table mats to work in harmony with our natural setting. Bramble Lane offers bespoke styling and prop hire with a bold, colourful, luxe edge for the style conscious couple.

Claire, of Myrtle Fox and Maude, focused on providing floral arrangements for the shoot that used British flowers such as Sweet Pea, Lavender and Geum, meaning that the delicate arrangements smelt as good as they looked and kept to our celebration of British landscapes and all that they offer. She took the vision and inspiration of the mood-boards to create florals that incorporated British flowers styled in a way that emphasised their natural shape, line and form, to compliment the wild, natural setting of the shoot.

Lisa of Urban Cakehouse offered us a delicious array of treats, dipped in a pastel palette of pretty pinks and greens with edible British flowers pressed into the icing, and a wedding cake with the most delicate sugar paste blossoms adorning her work.

The simple, elegant, stationery suite designed by T.Ink had delicacy and class, inspired by the outdoors elements provided in our mood-boards.

ATTIRE

Helen, owner of Rock the Frock Cheshire chose the Sia silk dress with the Harlow cape. The Sia dress is an ultra feminine design, and the Harlow cape offers statement shaping. These stunning pieces are both by Otaduy who design and hand make their beautiful free spirited pieces in Barcelona.

BEAUTY

Due to the Government imposed restrictions on makeup artists, we weren’t able to use a professional at the time of our shoot. Luckily for us, our model Holly was game enough to bring her own brushes and makeup bag, and with a bit of guidance from our hairstylist Jen, of Wildflower Hair Company, Holly painted her own face beautifully!

Luckily, restrictions for hairstylists had been lifted in time for The Wildflower Hair Company to style an elegant, contemporary bun. This hairstyle provided the perfect foil for some delicate, hand-beaded hairpins, designed for the shoot by me, Glorious by Heidi.

I wanted to design accessories that referenced the enchanting, intricate woodland, introducing contemporary pastel colours to lighten the look.

This look would appeal to brides who don’t want to look ‘overdone’ on their wedding day. They’re probably quite outdoorsy, enjoy walks in the woods with their partner and perhaps a dog or two. They’ll have a relatively relaxed day-to-day style, but when it comes to their wedding day they want it to be obvious that they’re the bride and all eyes should be on them!

RESULTS

This shoot is the most challenging I have ever undertaken, but it’s also a strong metaphor for everything that those attempting to plan a wedding during a worldwide pandemic have been through! A small band of resilient, determined, wedding industry business women – driving towards our goal in the most testing weather conditions – is a perfect analogy for the strength and spirit that we wanted to show in this shoot.

Far from this being as Charlotte and I had imagined; a warm, sunshine filled, mid-summer shoot, this was instead a full day of sideways rain tearing through our woodland clearings, with barely six minutes of dry weather to shoot in. A day of relentless gusts of wind that saw us all determinedly hanging on to styling elements to keep them in place until our photographer, Charlotte, yelled at us to run out of shot so she could capture the perfect images you see here. A day of being soaked to the bone, of sharing laughter and sarcasm, and doggedly supporting one another as we prepared the most idyllic woodland setting for our couple to celebrate their union in.

Charlotte says: The weather did not defeat us and I now remember this day as my most fun and memorable shoot to date! So, if you are worried about the Great British weather on your wedding date, my advice is DON’T, it can’t be helped but when you have an awesome team of people and a whole lot of love, magic will always happen!

Although delayed this year the new collection from Glorious by Heidi will be released late autumn 2020.