Grunge-Styled Autumnal Shoot with Wilderness Bride and Fletcher & Foley Florist. Northern Quarter, Manchester

6 Jan

Stephanie from Wilderness Bride contacted me and said she wanted to do a shoot.

"I'm thinking model styled like a grungy Marilyn Monroe...set curls, red lips, sunglasses and killer shoes. Quite a wild free spirit"

I immediately thought to myself, HELL YES! This was my dream shoot. The location, dresses and exactly the kind of style I would like to shoot.

I loved her idea so much and I then got to thinking about who would be able to model and if we could get any other suppliers involved.

Martha is a real woman and a model, independent , beautiful and has the perfect look. I say that because why do shoots have to use official models? I wanted a woman my future brides could relate to. She has an amazing vintage look (like Marilyn Monroe) and an ace name and more importantly had shown interest in doing a shoot with me before. I asked if she would like to model and she said she would love to. (Thank you Martha!)

Stephanie from Wilderness Bride also contacted Florence of Florence Wedding Shoes and she sent us some shoes over. Killer, gorgeous rose gold beautiful shoes. We sent them back with a secret instax photo in the box, I hope she liked it.

I also got Jo from Fletcher and Foley, the gorgeous florist to see if she wanted to be involved and I was so happy when she said she would send me an autumnal bouquet. IT WAS AMAZING.I think she had grown all the flowers herself. The wild and natural look is what I adore about Jo's florist skills.

We booked Martha in at Blow, the hair dry salon in Manchester to get her hair done and Stephanie did Martha's makeup. A fairly DIY grunge shoot. The best kind.

We picked the Northern Quarter in Manchester as we wanted the grungey/cool vibe and we could use the streets with graffiti. It was the best kind of light as it was bright but cloudy, which is actually really great as you don't get shadows.

Every part of what came together on the day worked so well, we had a fair few cups of tea in Manchester Craft and Design Centre where we used the toilets to get Martha ready for photos.

I love collaboration shoots and I have a few ideas with a few other suppliers, along with another with Stephanie. I really want to hire a daylight studio and do an iridescent shoot, you can see this pinterest board if you want to get involved. Its not necessarily a bridal shoot I just have this idea and want to experiment. Please email me if you are supplier and you want to interpret this iridescent shoot idea and be involved in the shoot, I would love to work with you.

All photographs were taken on my Fujifilm XT1, Instax Wide and Impossible project Polaroid film with my SX-70 Polaroid camera