Wild + Natural Midsummer Nights Dream Inspired Bridal Elegance, with a Jenny Packham Celestial Cape

When Sophie of Sophie Duckworth got in touch to ask if we would share these images I jumped at the chance.

I don’t know if I happened to have mentioned it before, but I adore Jenny Packham (I was  JP bride myself). I love Jenny’s ability to produce timeless designs but and yet refreshingly modern collections every year. And I love how elegantly her designs have been incorporated into this beautifully styled setting (oh the styling, it’s utterly dreamy).  Handing over to shoot stylist and art director, Lauren of Bluebird Creative to tell you more.

“This shoot is based around the story of ‘A Midsummer Nights Dream’, by William Shakespeare. I wanted to create something truly magical in a wild setting featuring an abundance of flowers and natural colours and materials where possible.”

Photography by Sophie Duckworth

“Choosing a colour palette of earthy tones including ranges of mossy and olive greens and greys and pairing them with some dusky pink tones alongside touches of gold and silver, we set about creating something very ethereal.”

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged cupid painted blind – William Shakespeare

“When it came to creating the tablescape there was no better place to have it than the outside terrace in the gardens of Hampton Court House. The area is surrounded by greenery and plants and looks out across a beautiful garden, featuring a pond and an old grotto covered in moss and hiding something pretty spectacular inside.”

“Trying to feature wood and natural elements where we could, we decided on wooden trestle tables to feature the tablescape and wooden cross back chairs, both from Academy Furniture Hire. There were two tablescape set ups. One was a set up for just the bride and groom. Featuring a beautiful chandelier hanging above their table, touches of gold from the gold plinth laying sideways and the candles sticks that were displayed across the table featuring candles in a mix of earthy shades.”

“A beautiful display of flowers from Nordic Twigs sat upon the plinth with cascading grapefruit flower tendrils, billowy pale peonies, thistle, dried bunny ears and even beautiful cotton to name a few. We used moss to create a more natural look across the table as a running. Making it feel as thought the table had become part of the woodland.”

“We selected the beautiful new range of graphite plates from Couvert, which were the perfect earth tone and lay them on thinly sliced log chargers. We matched them with their new grey cutlery with touches of gold.”

“The textured moss coloured napkins lay in the centre of the plates and on top lay the stunning place names that consisted of a layer of pink water colour, with a velum overlay, featuring gold calligraphy and a muted gold tassle.”

“A small floral bouquet sat in the left corner of each setting as well as a mini bottle of gin with a green ribbon to tie everything together. We decided on gin as the story features around a poison.”

“The guest tables had a very similar set up, but with the gold plinths on their ends creating height. The floral displays hung down creating a real sense of romance. Then the hand calligraphed menus hung inside the plinths for guest to see. They looked as if they were just floating in the air. It was put together so that guests could still see each other across the table and take in the setting created for them.”

“The stationery created for this shoot was by Lou Paper. She did a wash of pink watercolour and featured gold calligrapher, to give a sense of ethereal romance and a touch of luxe. The menu featured small gold stars, which tied in with the shoot nicely.”

“The dresses are both from the Jenny Packham, 2019 collection. We had the stunning embellished tulle ‘moonflower’ gown, with the accompanying moonflower and meadow embellished cape. The beading work was beautiful and really caught the light, which we felt really captured the magic of our shoot and theme.”

“Our second dress was ‘Indigo and Acacia’, which is a combination of a grey/silver slip and glitter tulle cape, with beautiful billowy arms. The cape created such softness and had wonderful movement.”

“Sharon Roberts cleverly created a real period style up do for the hair. It featured some stunning pieces from Miss Clemmie Bridal accessories that were adorned with stars, again tying in with a midsummer nights dream theme seamlessly. Melissa Oldridge created a very natural look with the makeup, enhancing our models natural beauty and stunning skin tone.”

“With the story featuring around a feast and a poison, we decided it would only be right to include these in our shoot. Caper and Berry created a set of beautifully presented canapés featuring salt and pepper tuna, Charlie’s trout, truffle welsh rarebit and jambon iberico all presented on wooden boards and adorned with floral touches and foliage.”

“The display featured onto of a wood bar from Mixmasters who created a delicious cocktail finished with an edible flower. The bar had a floral display around the front featuring tall foxgloves and huge pale peonies It felt truly wild and wonderful. Above the bar was a magnificent moody lighting display of hanging bulbs from Lumianire events.”

“With some beautiful soft furnishings from Surrey Wedding company we created a seating area in the gardens outside the magnificent grotto. It is an old cave featuring a large old wooden door, with lots of beautiful moss and greenery all around. In side the grotto it is completed adorned with shells.”

With a little mood lighting from some lanterns and add touches of the stunning flower arrangements these photos are just beautiful. Even the photos of just the models in the stunning dresses in this setting are something pretty special.”