The Bridal Garden, a beautiful Seattle area bridal salon featuring elegant gowns from  high-end designers such as Melissa Sweet, Judd Waddell and Romona Keveza has a brand new boutique, and we are thrilled to work with owner Mary Ellen Tuttle to create artistic images to fill their walls – stop in and take a peek!
The Bridal Garden serves both the traditional and more edgy bride, and the selection of gowns offered reflects their commitment to a wide breadth of styles. I had a blast perusing the boutique selecting gowns for this shoot!  I LOVE styling photo shoots, whether it is with a live model or a creative table scape. Anywhere I can apply and feed my desire for design…I’m there! And a girl in a bridal boutique? Yes, beautiful textures, exquisite fabrics and frilly dresses = one happy  designer!
Being November, of course, I wanted to shoot outdoors (I am always a romantic, not always a realist!). I wanted something edgy, something much juxtaposed -I kept seeing images in my head of a big ball gown or flirty mod dress against an industrial background, {think Audrey Hepburn meets Avril Lavigne} and knew of the perfect spot!  An abandoned mill just waiting for us to capture the talent of local graffiti artists, and the beauty of nature and history adding a hint of elegance…breathtaking!

The day was misty in the beginning, full rain picking up mid-photo shoot, and the openings in the mill offered natural light, the sound of rain drops and floor to ceiling trees blooming through the abandoned concrete. We created a make-shift changing area, and worked with photographer Philip Meadows and Bella’s assistant to get the ball rolling! Fabulous model Hazel Cisneros looked stunning in the short and pleated Melissa Sweet gown (above), and when Model #2 did not appear, who else but myself donned the DREAMY Judd Waddell ballgown (boy oh boy, the things we do for our art – never thought I’d be posing in a ballgown in the rain in an abandoned building!)

Bright graffiti on the slate colored concrete offered a host of our favorite colors…greens, yellow, hues of red and other industrial themed color schemes. Although the rain was definitely NOT helping, it sure made for a cool shot; our brilliant photographer for this shoot, Philip Meadows, braved the elements and shot from outside the building (with our ever so helpful assistant Kelly holding both his laptop and the umbrella), and the perfectly positioned flash behind the gown made the raindrops illuminate ever so brilliantly – what a shot!

And here is a shot of the bouquet from the first photo, shot in the studio:

I loved the flirty colors of this bouquet, the chartreuse and yellow are so cheerful and happy, and went perfectly with the short Melissa sweet gown; we added a hint of yellow tulle, as the gown had layers of tulle at the bottom…

I am simply in love with green ranunculus, the chartreuse and yellow cymbidium orchids, and those deep yellow roses.

Thanks to all who made this shoot successful, and to braving the elements!