About a month ago we decided to create a garden party shoot with our friend Arlene from AD Artistry, who is coincidentally an awesome florist and who provided us with the beautiful flowers for our wedding day almost 2 years ago. Arlene and I wanted this shoot to be different from other styled shoots we had seen - by having real guests eat at and enjoy our a creative abilities and enjoy a great meal. Our completed work hopefully inspires those who might be looking for ideas for their event or wedding reception table. After this initial meeting I called my friend Jess from Jaffa Cat designs to see if she was interested in contributing to the stationary for the shoot - and she said YES! I gave Jess the colour scheme and a bit of information for the menu and invite and she did the rest. She is quite a talented lady and did a great job in designing our stationary for this styled garden party shoot.
I had the pleasure of documenting Arlene's creative process, and I think this was a good chance to show her off a bit as she would usually work behind the scenes. Photographing Arlene at work, doing what she loves, and bringing awesome outcomes for her clients, hopefully gives a face (quite literally!) to the talent behind AD Artistry.
At about 2:30pm we were getting our first inklings that there was a massive storm coming :O So after moving the table and chairs under cover and protecting all our gear, we waited the storm out in the hope that we could plough on ahead as planned. Well the rain didn't really stop but it did ease to a drizzle. After borrowing a friends gazebo we managed to place the table under it keeping everything dry and continued our styling work. We had originally planned to have our styled shoot under a tree in my back yard so we could hang lights and more flowers from the branches, however because we ended up being rained out we had to modify our plans somewhat. Arlene used lace trimming to tie the flowers to the chairs - not an easy job as every chair was different. We hung hessian from the table, held in place by wood slices I had made, and on which the plates sat. The flowers were arranged across the middle of the table and we made sure they didn't block any guests talking to each other. Arlene used olive tree branches for the base of the flowers - I just love the way they stretch the length of the table. Pink hanging berries made for a lovely touch of colour and brightened up the entire table.
After we had over-dosed on photo taking our guests started to arrive and the fun really began! It was awesome to see our guests enjoy themselves in and around our styled table setting. We had cold press and lemonade drinks on standby as well as cheeses and biscuits for nibblies. As the sun set (or really it just got darker because of all the clouds and rain) we turned the lights on and this changed the look of the table from a pretty styled table to a real party venue guest could enjoy.
A true friend is hard to find, difficult to leave and impossible to forget. - Anonymous
Thanks to our good friends that came to celebrate and socialise with us. Thanks also to Arlene + Jess for your spectacular abilities and love for what you do that made our garden party a possibility. I really love working and collaborating with other high quality vendors, and feel blessed to have been able to create a styled shoot that is unique and fun! Enjoy -Anna-
Vendors
Floristry: By Arlene @ AD Artistry
Invitation + Menu design: By Jess @ Jaffa Cat Design
Table + Chairs: Brandition, Brisbane.
Cutlery: Lillypilly Hire, Brisbane.
Glassware, crates, drinks table, flower vases and urns: Willow Tree Creative, Brisbane.