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French chinoiserie styled shoot wedding table

April 3, 2021

A romantic, French countryside-inspired blue & white wedding styled shoot at The Pinner House in Suffolk, Virginia, during November.

The Pinner House Styled Shoot

Inspiration

You know that feeling when a nugget of a dream in your head becomes reality? It’s a surreal feeling. My first styled shoot was one of those “pinch me” moments.

I knew that a styled shoot was in my immediate future when I started taking steps toward branching off and owning my own wedding planning company. What’s a styled shoot? Essentially, it’s smaller scale pretend wedding where vendors can collaborate together and explore new ways of creating the visual aspects of weddings through makeup, hair artistry, table settings, and so much more. Hosting one felt critical to my upstart as a wedding planner; it was a chance to flex my creative side, organization skills, and collaborate with vendors that I admired.

The Styled Shoot Vision

Since I planned to have this shoot make up a lot of my future website, I decided the theme of the shoot would match my branding. The incredible Rachel Krier Design developed my branding to reflect both a coastal and southern vibe. It prominently features blue and white, namely in a unique chinoiserie pattern formed into a crest around my business name. From there, I incorporated a romantic, French countryside atmosphere to the styled shoot mood board that I shared with potential vendors.

The Styled Shoot Planning Process

To be honest, I thought no vendors would agree to work with a new wedding planner that didn’t have a portfolio of her own. There were days that I almost talked myself out of drafting that first email inquiry. Luckily, I already had Carrie Michelle Photography on my side. She was the boost of confidence I needed that one vendor out there believed in me without preamble. One day, I took a deep breath and hit send to my first hopeful collaborator: The Pinner House. A dream venue for a European shoot.

From there, things took off. I met the incredible team at The Pinner House, settled on a date for the shoot, and went down my list of vendors I was itching to work with on the shoot. Each “yes” reply thrilled me to my core.

The End Result

In the end, the shoot went well beyond my wildest dreams. The team worked seamlessly together to create a mood both in response to my shared plans and in reflection of their own unique styles. At the time, I was eight months pregnant, so the efficiency of the day was also a kindness to my tired body. Additionally, that November day was a rare sunny and warm; the weather itself was on our side.