Dark Shadows Wedding Shoot ~ Harrogate Wedding Photography - TOAST

Weddings. I love em. They come in all shapes and sizes. Vintage one, classic ones, cool contemporary ones and occasionally something that makes me catch my breath. But despite all the loveliness that I shoot on a day to day basis, sometimes it’s nice to have the time to be a little more creative, work with fabulous wedding suppliers and really get my teeth into something. Which is why I decided earlier this year to organise a styled shoot with a bunch of wonderful vendors who really pulled out the stops.

And so off we went armed with soft boxes, lights and many a camera to Rudding Park in Harrogate, to shoot in their drop dead gorgeous chapel. It’s beautiful in there. Fabulous architecture, lovely lighting and of course, surrounded by landscaped grounds. Helped by a fantastic team of hair, make-up, floristry, event styling and even a paper cut artist, we had a belter of a day shooting some very unusual wedding images.

The shoot is inspired by the old 70s TV series and new Tim Burton movie, Dark Shadows – lots of vampire, ghosts and things that go bump in the night. Not an easy subject to shoot, because let’s face it, we could easily have gone over the edge and started draping cobwebs over everything and dripping blood from the altar. Instead we went for a sophisticated gothic approach with amazing Ian Stuart dresses and headwear by Hat Therapy – this is not your average wedding that’s for sure.

A big thank you to everyone involved for all their patience and understanding (and cups of tea). To my wingman Paul at Paul Joseph Photography for holding lights, hugging me when I was on the verge of collapse and for the odd slap when I was being ridiculous! to his lovely wife Kelly, who was the most amazing tea lady (she’s also a pretty good lighting gal) and shot lots of behind the scenes footage, to Hayley at the Bridal Collection in Harrogate, who begged Ian to loan us his frocks and then helped out getting the girls into them, to Sarah and Sarah at Vision for producing amazing hair, to Charlotte for smokey make-up, not to mention holding a mean reflector, to Lynne at Stems Design who produced all our fabulous floristry including all the bouquets and lovely candles, to Rachel at Simply Vintage Events for doing me proud and taking my vision of a table scape and producing something that knocked my socks off without the use of skulls! To the amazing Victoria Made for creating gobsmackingly beautiful cake – everyone was in awe! To Tatty Devine, who loaned us some of their latest collection (and let me tell you, we all wanted the parrot necklace!), to I Am Nat for beautiful paperie invitations, to Chrissie at Hat Therapy who always thinks outside the box and gives me moral support along the way, and to the wonderful Two for Joy who’s delicate paper cape was for me the highlight of the shoot. Hugs all round to our models who were all amazing, to Jay for making me smile (and also being a wicked chauffeur and photographer) and to Lee at Shutterbox who brought his box of tricks to film it all. I THANK YOU!!!! Really, I don’t have enough great words to say about you all. Thanks for bringing my vision to life.

And so, without further ado, here are some of the images from the shoot. I’ll post a few more on Sunday. I’ll also be featuring Lee’s amazing film in the next couple of week so don’t forget to call back and catch it. Hope you enjoy it.