Urban Garden Styled Shoot

Here’s something you probably already know about me: I really like to garden. Big or small, urban or country, I like gardens. I’ve always wanted to put together an styled shoot, so when I finally mustered up the courage to do one the theme was obviously going to incorporate a garden.

What is this styled shoot I can hear my mom wondering? I try to explain it like this: a styled shoot is way to put together a group of images based on a theme or style that you want to explore. It’s also a way to work with other wedding professionals for the sake of creativity and trying new things.

Hence the urban garden styled shoot was born. I decided to approach the shoot from two perspectives:

1) To create a group of images that would be beneficial to everyone who contributed and available to use right off the bat. This group of images are the images featured in this post.

2) I also wanted to create a group of images that could be submitted to wedding blogs showcasing an urban garden/farm wedding. There is a sneak peek of this group of images at the end of this post, but you’ll have to wait to see the rest of those. 🙂

I was lucky enough to work with a STELLAR group of people on this shoot. Seriously, it wouldn’t have happened without them.

The first person I knew I wanted to work with was Erin from Glitter & Grit. I LOVE what her business stands for and wish it had been open when I was wedding planning. Glitter & Grit provided the dresses for the shoot, and she is super lovely to work with.

After dresses came a location. Preferably a garden. Enter Garden Dreams Urban Farm and Nursery, a small piece of heaven in Wilkinsburg where chickens and kale grow next to abandon looking houses. Walking into Garden Dreams is like walking another world full of peace and asparagus – both things I love.

Next up was flowers. The first person I thought of for flowers was April from Mocha Rose. I attended one of her flower arrangement classes last year and have wanted to work with her ever since. April took the urban garden theme and ran with it, like ran a marathon with it!

With the basics covered, next I needed something to pull everything together — some ambiance if you will. That’s where Shayne from Soiree by Souleret came in. She is an event planner and had everything I could ever need and more. What styled shoot would be complete without a little dessert, right? Mini cupcakes from Vanilla Pastry Studio hit the spot and looked great.

Sadly, this post doesn’t showcase much of the work of Shayne and Vanilla because their work was for the images being submitted to wedding blogs. But I promise you’ll see them sometime soon, and I wanted to acknowledge their help in pulling the shoot together.

Lastly, a big thank you to my wonderful models (Lydia, Charity, Jenna, Morgan and Andrew), stylist friend (Alison), and equipment mover (Joe). You all make my world go around!

Okay I’ll stop talking now, just enjoy the photos.

I just couldn’t get enough of this bouquet April put together. It. was. awesome.

Everything in this bouquet was locally sourced in Pittsburgh’s East End.

This was the more traditional bouquet out of the four that April provided. It smelled as good as it looked.

These last two are the sneak peek of the second group of images I mentioned above. I’m really excited to share more of these! Look closely at that bouquet and take note of all the veggies. 🙂