It’s that time of the year where things starts to get a little bit dark and a little bit spooky on the blog!

Featuring members of our festival wedding directory, today’s dark and textured Halloween inspired styled shoot was put together by the wonderful Thyme Lane Photography and features a fabulous line up of wedding suppliers, including the stunning outdoor wedding venue Horsley Hale Farm. It comes with rich vintage vibes, a black, gold and purple colour palette, wild, untamed and textured flower installations and subtle ideas of incorporating the spooky season into your wedding theme. It also boasts Autumnal feels with shades of burnt orange paired with antique brass items throughout the decor which we are personally loving, especially at this time of the year when the world outside is turning beautiful shades of orange. I just adore the warmth that comes with an Autumnal colour palette – there is nothing quite like it.

We also love the sustainable approach this shoot has and it’s desire to encourage couples to reuse, recycle and work with second hand items and charity finds as Naomi of Thyme Lane Photography explains…

I wanted to inspire all couples to dare to use darker décor and moody vibes on their wedding day and also dare to incorporate Halloween elements without looking tacky. I also want to inspire couples to be brave and to reuse, recycle and work with items that have just been hanging around for ages! Go to charity shops and car boot sales, not everything has to be shiny and brand new on a wedding day.

In a world where over consumption is reaching an unprecedented high, it is time we all started to play our part in reducing waste so any shoot that encourages us to reuse and recycle gets a massive thumbs up from us.

Naomi talks us through her ideas for the shoot and the wonderful suppliers involved.

Black, Gold and Purple…

I loved the space at Horsley Hale Farm with it’s drafty, slightly industrial looking barns, dark rusty metal surfaces and leftover old items. Our colour palette was black, gold and purple and to achieve a more rustic, autumnal feel we added shades of burnt orange paired with antique brass items. I wanted the whole shoot to ooze moody feels so we shot fairly late in the evening and we were very lucky to have rain and wind on our side. Check out the wording on our invite – the mood is set straight away!

Dramatic Florals and Engraved Acrylic…

We had a huge hanging floral cloud installation with hanging black corn cobs to create a dramatic, slightly gothic feel. For the dinner table we used an old table found on the farm and dressed it with a black runner, gold tableware with black napkins tied with purple velvet ribbons and calligraphed torn paper with a touch of gold for place cards. We also had candlesticks with dripping wax and festoon lighting in the background. Our menu was hand engraved acrylic which looked very different from the traditional menus in front of a candle or the fire.

All our florals were beautifully wild, untamed and had amazing deep colours and textures. We also had a cast iron firepit lit so instantly had some warm light and hazy smoke filling the barn.

A Vintage Bride…

The dress was a real vintage find and with long lace gloves it was a complete flash back to the old bride. The dark tones of the makeup and hair styling and the handmade burnt orange macramé statement earrings also helped in creating a very strong look. Our headpiece was a beautiful, fully handmade, bespoke piece. For the second half of the shoot we used a huge, very dramatic flower headpiece.

Our groom was wearing a slightly different outfit from the usual – just a subtle nod to the cold, dark weather – black roll neck with a tie instead of a traditional shirt.

The whole bridal look was fully reflected in our black and gold four tiered cake.

Coloured Smoke and Sustainability…

For more mystery I used black, purple and white smoke around all our setups.

The vast majority of our items were real vintage, recycled, handmade, bought in charity shops or found on the farm. A large amount of our flowers were sustainable foraged.