Styling at Copsegrove Farm - A Branding Photography Case Study
As a wedding photographer I work with a wide range of other suppliers. From make-up artists and cake-makers through to magicians and large party bands. Whilst photographing a wedding I aim to capture an overview of everything that is included in the special day but my main focus is the happy couple and their guests. I therefore tend to only photograph the end product provided by all of the suppliers. For example, on a wedding day, I take photographs of the final cake but I don’t photograph all of the hard work that has gone into perfecting it - the original design, the baking, the setting up and adding all of the decorations.
Alongside weddings, another photography service that I offer is branding photography for small businesses. Using my story-telling approach I can delve deeper behind-the-scenes and document all of the hard work and processes that generally go unseen.
I love working with creative businesses to help them tell their business story so when Sandra from Fabulous Functions asked me to join her whilst she was setting up the flowers and decor for a wedding at Copsegrove Farm, I was excited to be able to document a part of a wedding day that I usually don’t get the opportunity to see!
The brief
Sandra asked me to join her at Copsegrove Farm to document the flowers and styling that she was providing for a recent wedding. This included the ceremony set-up, styling for the wedding breakfast and also a broken flower arch outside the main barn to welcome guests into the reception.
In addition to photographing details of the different set-ups, Sandra had also asked me to capture photographs of her and her team “in action” using my story-telling, documentary approach.
The shoot
Essentially, my aim was to stay out of everyones way (they had a very important job to be getting on with after all) and candidly capture photos as the team went about their work.
I arrived to find Sandra and the team deep in concentration creating the broken arch whilst juggling the rest of the styling tasks - laying out arrangements on the tables in the barn, adding the finishing touches to the bouquets and buttonholes and completing the set-up of the outdoor ceremony space. Sandra’s unique approach is to use a combination of real foliage and flowers combined with silk flowers to add extra colour and depth.
The Final Gallery
Following the shoot, I headed back to my office, downloaded the photos and proceeded to pull out the best images that documented the set-up. Once edited the photos were uploaded to a private gallery so that Caroline could view, download and share the photos as she saw fit. The final gallery included more than 150 images but I thought it would be interesting to share a handful of my favourite photos below which features a mixture of detail photos and action shots.
Are you a creative working in the wedding industry? If you’re interested in commissioning your own shoot then please get in touch to discuss how we can make it happen!
