The Blog

Join me every month while I dive into sessions, show examples of my work in more detail and give advice to other aspiring boudoir photographers on my blog. What can you hope to achieve reading this blog?

An inside look into creative sessions

Each month I try to experiment with at least one session, these are discounted sessions for clients who are happy to share images and if you'd like to be considered for a creative session please do subscribe for updates. These creative sessions usually create amazingly different photographs unlike most boudoir photographers in the UK and I am always striving for a uniqueness that aligns with my clients personality and individuality.

Stunning Images from a Styled Shoot at Lillibrooke Manor

Updated: Feb 29

Introduction

At the end of November 2023 my makeup artist Stephanie Warren Makeup and I organised a styled shoot at Lillibrooke Manor in Maidenhead and with 20 small local businesses involved it was made both an incredibly fun and visually stunning.

Planning a styled shoot is a little bit like planning your own wedding in a way! I've left a little bit more info below on how this was all planned and carried out and hope you enjoy flicking through a bit of inspiration from this epic shoot day.

As a wedding photographer I do work with a number of suppliers on a regualar basis and always happy to give my couples reccomendations if ever you need them!

Lillibrooke Manor

The first element is of course securing a venue and we were lucky enough to be offered the stunning Lillibrooke Manor in Maidenhead. It's a rustic 15th Century barn setting with beautiful grounds and buildings and about a million places to take a gorgeous photo (it was so hard to choose which places to go!)

The Tack Barn

Lillibrooke Manor has recently refurbished it's prep room and it's stunning, a gorgeous small barn with enough room for the whole bridal party, places to hand dresses and have showers, everyone to have thier own lit mirror and seat and even a place to lounge. It's a dream getting ready space for any bride or groom.

Flat lay wedding details

The tack barn was a lovely light and airy place for me to set up the flat lay for all the details. Our stationer was Sorted Stationery Co and the goldsmith was Daniella.Wildeflower. I wanted to showcase both businesses in my flat lays. The backdrop, ribbon, boxes, plates and details are provided by me. I bring ribbon, boxes and details that fit within the wedding colour scheme for each wedding to ensure you get detail shots that are perosnal to you.

Planning the Wedding

A bit like having a real wedding my next job was to come up with a theme, I knew I wanted to do something fairly classic and chic because this fits with my photography style and I also looked at trending wedding themes and colours for 2024 that included:

Dark forest greens
Unique details

I wouldnt be me without mentioning Pinterest, I LOVE pinterest.

I have Pinterest boards with my Brides and Grooms so that I can clearly visualy see what my couples are imagining and it's great because we can talk about what's going to be possible or not and whats important to capture beyond the standard wedding photos. So I used Pinterest to make a few different boards and then Canva to export some of these ideas into a shareable PDF for my supplier.

Stephanie and I already knew a fair number of suppliers who wanted to be involved so once we were sure we had one of each element we reached out on social media and via email to a few additional suppliers who we wanted to be involved.

Organsing the Wedding

The key to a smooth running day is a rough plan, I say rough because of course nothing goes perfectly to plan on the day and just like with a wedding you all have to just go with the flow of the day. I provided an aimed timeline and shot list to everyone because we needed to ensure that every supplier got the professional content that they needed from the event.

My first goal was simply to get the flat lay detail photos and include details from our wonderful goldsmith, both the dresses and cake maker while our 'Bride' got her hair and makeup done. Once I'd finished flat lays (just like on a real wedding day!) I did my Groom prep shots in the grounds and then we got our Bride in her dress.

Then we ran the rest of the day a little bit like a real wedding, ceremony, dance, table, cake, portraits and in the mix we had a drone videographer come and capture a little bit of content!