{Featured Article} Wedding Style
As the stylist trend is make its way into the wedding market, we thought it would be the perfect time to share our featured article in Ceremony Magazine. Plus, we love seeing our hot air balloon photos from Caroline Tran again! In the article Wedding Style, couples are advised the best ways to utilize a stylist, why they are advantageous to any photo shoot, and specific examples of the innovative outcome of a stylist’s touch through pictures of my own anniversary shoot.
Wedding Style By: Rachel Anderson & Ngoc Nguyen Lay
When planning, anticipating, or even daydreaming about your wedding, you look at thousands of pictures to see exactly what your big day might someday look. Yet have you ever wondered how brides know to choose the perfect photographer who thinks of all these beautiful ideas? Or perhaps how brides seem to have time to orchestrate such elaborate photo shoots, executed flawlessly down to the last detail? Chances are, they didn’t.
One burgeoning trend in wedding and engagement photography is the use of a stylist: someone who “creates a cohesive look (through fashion and props) that will tell the client’s love story,” says Wilmarose Orlanes, a Stylist who recently partnered with Photographer, Caroline Tran and special event planner, Ngoc Nguyen Lay to create a one-year anniversary shoot for Ngoc and her husband. This hot-air balloon shoot illustrated how a stylist is essential to a creative and cohesive photo shoot.
“Anyone can go shopping and pull together a bunch of things they like. It’s making the styling look effortless that takes skill,” says Caroline. Because this type of shoot takes so much time and effort, it requires couples to thrive in creativity, attention to detail, and time (something often lacking in the wedding planning process). This is where a stylist is the perfect addition to your wedding planning team.
“Sometimes it takes only one thing to inspire an entire shoot,” said Wilmarose. “Small details, like finding out that Ngoc loved kids books… all sparked a fire that was as powerful and bright as the one that fueled our hot air balloon ride.” This is the role of a stylist, to contribute stylistically and conceptually to a photo shoot beforehand, pulling together props, ideas, the couple’s personality, and sometimes even locations to make the photo shoot; and the photographer, tell the couples story.
To be “hands on” during the shoot is also essential for the stylist, as an extra eye for every detail. Some couples worry that with a stylist, it becomes less “spontaneous” and thus less romantic. Yet the result should be the exact opposite.
“What’s romantic is the story that goes with the shoot,” said Ngoc, “if you can look at a picture and know something about a couple that you don’t actually know, that’s a good photograph. And that’s what the stylist helps do.” They create stories.
Photographer: Caroline Tran // Event Planner: Skybox Event Productions // Stylist: Lovely Jubilee // Book Design + Illustration: Jen Simpson Design // Jewelry: Leanna Lin Jewelry // Hair + Makeup Artist: Muse
Post Published on January 30, 2012.
