Earthy American Boho Luxe Wedding Inspiration

Afternoon Peeps! I hope you are all having a lovely day, well as lovely as a day in lockdown can be. Sun is shining where I am and the birds are singing so I’ll take that as a win.

We have some wonderful American inspired bohemian wedding vibes to share with you all today with western fringing, bridal hats, amazing peachy florals and pampas and a golden earthy colour palette that is setting my heart on fire.

Inspired by everything they love about the wedding industry, award winning hair stylist Kelly Hanks and award winning makeup artist Natalie Kate, wanted to create attainable inspiration for brides that explores non traditional wedding themes and colours…

We all see lots of the same things so we just wanted to do something a little different, get our creative vibes going and create a real WOW look! We wanted to completely get away from the traditional pinks and pastels and show brides that there is so much choice out there.
Kelly and Natalie

We love the ‘wild and thrown’ style of the flowers by Stems Design and the way they work in perfect harmony with the exposed brick work of Hirst Priory’s basement, and the colours of the decor. We also adore the sun kissed glow of the model’s makeup with her bronzed eyes and lips.

Natalie and Kelly talk us through their gorgeous shoot and all of the suppliers involved…

American Boho…

Yorkshire ‘wedding hairdresser of the year’ Kelly Hanks and ‘wedding makeup artist of the year’ Natalie Kate decided that after winning their aforementioned titles for the second year running at the ‘Wedding Industry’ awards 2020, it was about time they actually put their combined skills to good use and finally work together.

A date in the diary, countless ideas and inspiration chats later they decided to put together their very own shoot showcasing the things that they really love about weddings.

“We contacted some of the best suppliers in Yorkshire to help us on our journey, these guys know their craft so it was really important to us that we let them do what they wanted creatively.”

We all see lots of the same things so we just wanted to do something a little different, get our creative vibes going and create a real WOW look! We wanted to completely get away from the traditional pinks and pastels and show brides that there is so much choice out there.

We absolutely love the burnt oranges, rusty browns and the natural colour schemes. When it came to flowers we wanted wild and thrown together, nothing too finished but lots of gorgeous texture. Dresses had to be simple yet unusual.

With influences from America where they not only have amazing scenery such as vast deserts and mountains, but a love of the fedora. Who doesn’t love a cool hat!!! We wanted to showcase that you can create that look right here in the UK (obviously we don’t have the deserts) but we do have beautiful landscapes and incredible venues across the UK to make that dream a reality!

Our basis around the whole shoot started with the hair and makeup, initially for us this was all about a beauty shoot. Bold orange eyes, strong orange lips, fresh freckles and glowing skin. The hair worn down with gorgeous voluminous beachy waves. So many brides are now opting to wear their hair down going for a much more laid back and relaxed boho feel. We really feel as creatives that you can actually choose a wedding style based on how you WANT to look, rather than having to match the colour of the napkins.

For the venue we decided to go over the border, only a little way outside Yorkshire of course and that’s where we found the amazing award winning Hirst Priory in Lincolnshire. Hazel the owner was an absolute dream and gave us total free reign to do whatever we wanted. This place is truly stunning!! A complete blank canvas for us to work with. Rooms with high ceilings, white walls, chandeliers and wooden floors to turn into anything we wanted. They also have a basement called ‘the vault’ dark which is where our shoot was based. Intimate for smaller weddings, exposed brick walls create a dark and moody atmosphere and with the right amount of candlelight you could create the most beautiful ambiance. All these things fitted our brief perfectly.

Feather Motif Lace, Tassels & Boho Details…

This look is all about the Luxe boho vibe. About the bride who wants to feel unique, herself and oh so different. The Shikoba Payton two piece with on trend feather motif lace, stood out as emulating these feelings, creating a relaxed boho vibe for the bride who knows what she wants and that is fun fun fun! The sisters of bohemia collection from Shikoba is all about being unique and the scenes shot showcase a bride at the heart of the wedding look, with a carefree and adventure seeking feel.
Claire – The White Yard

It’s all about the tassels with this look, shimmy, swirling & soft lace hugs the figure in such a flattering way. The cute train works perfectly on the skirt, hugging those all important curves.

The table styling was created by Emily K weddings to showcase the mix of eclectic boho details with the elegant and opulent crockery and glassware from Whitehouse Crockery. Pockets of details and clusters throughout the table design were included to add interest and show couples that those little details all add up to create an impact.

The mix of textures including flowing fabric and pearlescent charger plates contrasting against the natural stone plates and concrete accents added a natural feel to the tablescape. “I wanted to showcase an ethereal boho style with those lux details for a more elevated and aspirational style.” To compliment Emily’s look Typical Type UK provided us with their amazing Edison canopy tables.

Our incredible flowers were put together by Lynn of Stem Designs in Huddersfield. The incredible texture she created by using pampas, bulrush and other dried grasses mixed with elegant orchids, anthuriums & roses to name but a few.

The shoot day itself was incredible, what can we say other than what a team! We have to give so much of the credit to our amazing photographer ‘Tiptoe with Eve’ This girl is just so talented!! Her photos are dreamy and moody, everything we wanted our shoot to be. She has the most creative vision and direction and worked our brief to perfection! Not one to just use the camera, using clever gadgets to create stunning reflections she was able to create that etheral, dreamy look that we fully envisioned.

“What a day! I had so much fun. We had multiple versions of looks based on our aesthetics brief. The day was directed around the natural light we had around Priory Hirst, so we started with our close ups in the midday light, using 1 or 2 reflectors to bounce back light in darker areas of our model, capturing those catch lights in her eyes, and having the burnt orange eye makeup really pop! As the day went on softbox lighting was used to flatten the light and really focus the light on the model. We also used a fan for hair movement and a prism to add some intriguing reflections. I really feel we created something truly magical, it was a real honor to put my creative head on with such a talented bunch of people.”
Eve – Tiptoe With Eve

It was really important to us that our bride wasn’t a professional model. Someone not just pretty but curvy and a real woman! Someone that would appeal to anyone out there as a look that was achievable for them.

As a group of suppliers everyone just really got it! All professionals and experts in their own fields, our brief to them was pretty basic other than this is the colour scheme and these are the styles we love. These incredible girls and guys just provided us with the most amazing dresses, flowers, venue dressing etc and we couldn’t have asked for more. Each and every one of us (we like to think) classed it as our favourite shoot of all time.