On Monday, we teased you with a little challenge put together by Maine wedding photographer, Brea McDonald, and floral designer Dawn Kelly of Soiree Floral. Recently they hosted a workshop called Inspire.Collaborate.Achieve where wedding vendors gathered to learn how to network with “dream vendors” and the action steps for creating a photoshoot. And as a little take-away, the attendees were asked to design their very own photoshoot. The twist? They had to incorporate items from a very unique collection of things that Brea and Dawn gathered, and let us say that the winners blew us away! Now instead of us recapping the challenge, let’s hear from the winners: Autumn, Julie and Kate!
The Challenge
To take a gift bag full of random objects provided by Dawn Kelly of Soirée Floral and Brea McDonald of Brea McDonald Photography and use ALL of the items to create a unique design. Items may be altered i.e. spray painted, covered with sand etc. except for the items from Griffin‐vites which are always stunning and were a great jumping off point for us.
The Items
Here is a breakdown of the items in the challenge and how they are represented in the photos:
Marbles ~ covered in beach sand, placed among the stones and shells
White Plastic Julep Vase ~ covered in beach sand, containers for small floral arrangements
Tissue Flowers ~ fluffed and placed on chairs, they were the inspiration for the yummy pink icing on the cupcakes
Table # and Place Cards ~ Griffin‐vites Stationery which are fabulous as-is!
Driftwood ~ holding the place cards
Orange Paper Bouquet Holder ~ Covered with beach sand and used as base for floral centerpiece
Orange Wire ~ Wrapped around votive candles with twine and woven into birds nest
Green “Grass” ~ spray painted and woven into a birds nest
Butterfly ~ Nestled into the small floral arrangements
Bonus Item ~ WellWed magazine, placed on table, also a pink inspiration
THE RESULTS!
The Story
After brainstorming and spending an afternoon with our toes in the sand at Drakes Island Beach in Wells, Maine, Julie and I managed to turn some of the more “unique” objects into seaside treasures. With a little help from mother nature we were inspired by a nice collection of majestic blue mussel shells that filled our pockets along the way and we were off and running.
Next were the linens, flowers, tables, chairs, cupcakes and everything that might make the perfect shot. We gathered it all together and piled into the flour! studio early one morning.
Sharing laughs and lattes the scene began to come together…Kate arrived after a tough 2 hour drive in pouring rain ready to work her magic. Due to the wind and rain we decided to take some shots in the studio to be sure to capture all of the elements required for the challenge.
After some successful shots at the studio we packed it all up and headed to Wells Harbor where there is an amazing gazebo that would allow us to capture some great natural light from being outdoors but keep the rain at bay. Did I mention it was pouring ALL day?
We definitely underestimated the coastal breeze though and quickly had to move from the gazebo to a more sheltered location of the harbor. With just enough protection from the wind to allow us to set up but still keep us on our toes we managed to style the table and let Kate take over again. Moving quickly she captured many amazing images of the challenge items, design details and cupcakes…don’t they look good enough to eat!? Kate has prior experience as a commercial food photographer and it definitely comes across in these amazing photos! And yes, we did eat some…just to make packing up everything easier…sure.
The Cupcakes
Rich Chocolate Cake with Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Bean cream cheese icing with a fresh blueberry on top.
Moist Vanilla Bean Cake with Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Bean butter cream tinted pale pink adorned with custom white chocolate starfish and shells.
Cupcakes, custom chocolates and cupcake tower available from flour!
The Flowers
Hand tied bouquet of blue & mini‐green hydrangea, Esperance roses, blue bell eryngium and double pink lisanthus with bear grass and seashell accents; stems wrapped with Midori navy ribbon and a string of baby sea shells.
The centerpiece is blue, white and mini green hydrangea, Esperance roses, pink double lisanthus blue bell eryngium and blue delphinium with bear grass accents. Cylinder vase filled with beautiful blue mussel shells, wrapped with a band of Midori navy ribbon with a finger star accent.
The Thanks
We are excited to share these photos and story with you. A special thank you goes out to Dawn & Brea for the inspiration and opportunity to collaborate with Kate. It was an amazing day and look forward to many more in the future! The hardest part was definitely narrowing the photos down to the 10 required for submission, we loved them all!
flour!
Floral Design, Cupcakes & Styling ~ Autumn Poulin & Julie Rancourt
www.flourevents.com
p 207.251.0828
Kate Preftakes Photography
Photography ~ Kate Preftakes
www.preftakesphoto.com
603.899.5259
Griffin-vites Stationery
Designer ~ Sara Fitzgerald O’Brien
www.griffin-vites.com
207.361.4784
Thank you to Brea and Dawn for sharing this with the myKPW community!
Maine wedding photographer, Brea McDonald Photography, is a member of my Kate Parker Wedding your online wedding resource guide geared towards directing couples to quality vendors based on their price range and state.
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Great job ladies!!!!! I was thrilled to see the end results and how you really took the challenge and ran with it. Congratulations on a job well done