Behind the scenes: an editorial shoot

This past March I was lucky enough to be a part of a gorgeous editorial shoot at Bob Rumball Manor, here in Toronto. Editorial shoots are interesting things, wonderful opportunities that need to be carefully considered and managed. The main idea is that you get a group of creatives together to bring an idea into reality for a day, and then have a talented photographer get shots of it all. Then those photos get submitted to blogs and magazines in the hopes of getting a feature. There's no guarantee going in that this will pan out, everyone is working on faith. Everyone pitches in their particular area of talent and creative genius for free, and in return we all get to not only reap the benefits of any feature the shoot does garner, but we also all get to use the gorgeous images for our social media feeds.

BTS: Canadiana Styled Wedding Shoot from Summerfield Films on Vimeo.

 This particular shoot was on a rather chilly ( but frustratingly not snowy) Sunday. We gathered together at the Bob Rumball Manor on Bayview ave, feeling somewhat bleary at the rather early start. Wendy Lee, the event planner behind Asian Fusion Weddings and the powerhouse behind this shoot,  had given us all the brief of creating a Canadian themed wedding, but with the caveat that it should still be an elegant, glamourous affair, rather than too rustic. The colour scheme was red and white, to  match the Canada Flag of course, with black and silver as accents.


I struggled a bit at first, red and white is my least favourite colour scheme of all when it comes to flowers. But I've been learning over the past couple of years that I've been doing editorial shoots that it all works best when each vendor involved takes the brief and adds their own sprinkle of genius in there. I know as a floral artist that a straight two colour theme falls flat, it has no depth or richness to it. So I gave it a little tweak and organized myself with blooms in deep red tones with some dark plummy black and here and there the odd hit of rich hot pink. Just a little. No white in sight with the floral elements. A colour scheme doesn't mean everything needs to include those colours- there were plenty of other parts of the day that pulled in the white.


Wendy and I started setting up the main table, creating a headtable-scape with lots of added elements. The two models arrived and the team of makeup artists, hair artist, clothes stylists and accessories went to work getting them shoot ready.  Shirley from Shirley Sweet Creations set up her delicious dessert table, and all the while Matt from Hawley Crescent Culinary was in the kitchen putting together plates of charcuterie along with other dishes to feature ( including the best poutine ever!).


There's lots of milling about at times, it's hard to get timing just right, and everyone ends up pitching in- I spent a fair bit of time led on the floor in one of the upstairs rooms holding wrinkles down on a blanket being used for a flat lay backdrop for example. Eventually  most of the prep work was done and the photographer Anita (Rhythm Photography) as well as the cinematographer John (Summerfield Films), were able to get to work taking the shots they needed to get. All told, it was a full and long day's work by a fairly large team of people.


The models were great sports. Anyone who thinks they just sit around getting their photo taken and that their job is easy should spend a day watching a shoot. The outdoor shots had them freezing their butts off- what you don't see in the gorgeous photos is all the rest of us standing just out of frame , fully bundled up in our parkas in the subzero temps. Between each shot set up the stylist, Hilary, would race in to cover the poor bridal model with a coat to try to ward off the cold.


We've gotten some amazing press with this shoot, Wendy did wonderful work getting us featured. It was so hard holding off till now, but the timing worked so perfectly as Canada celebrates it's 150th birthday this week.


The full shoot is being featured on some amazing wedding blogs, and you can see the full catalogue  of the beautiful photos by Rhythm Photography of all the lovely details that Wendy included int he shoot on these posts-

Mountain Side Bride
Wedding Opera
Style Inspired weddings
Elegant Wedding Magazine
Aisle Society Blog


Here are the talented people involved in the shoot:


Bridal Stylist – Hilary Cameron
IG https://www.instagram.com/hilary.cameron/

with thanks to Anita of Rhythm Photography for the stunning images you see here, as well as John at Summerfield Films for the wonderful behind the scenes video.

Comments

  1. As always, your floral artistry always helps to set the "mood"!! Happy Canada150 and helping to showcase #CanadianPride #WeTheNorth #TrueNorthStrongAndFree #EH

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  2. Thanks Wendy! It was such a great experience, you put together such a talented team and I thoroughly enjoyed the day!- Jess

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