Natural Beauty

So only a few months late (!) - here are the photos from a styled bridal shoot I did in December. Hope you like them!
I've been so busy recently that both my blogs have been sadly neglected so I'm going to try and catch up with posting shoots over the next few weeks.
In other exciting news my website has just gone live today. You can check it out here: www.abigrayfashionstyling.co.uk 

 

Photographer: James Robinson Images

Model: Amanda Santos

Hair and MUA: Leanne Maddock

Flowers: The Little Flower Shop Norwich

Styling/Props: Abi Gray Fashion Styling 

 

This dress was picked up by me in a charity shop and as it's quite short I knew immediately that I wanted Amanda to wear it in a styled bridal shoot. It's quite an old fashioned style (I can't help but wonder about the person who owned it originally) so I asked for bright flowers to make it a bit more modern. The beautiful bouquet was kindly supplied to us by The Little Flower Shop Norwich.

 

I was more than a little inspired by Disney for this shoot. I knew I wanted a side plait I couldn't find a picture of exactly what I wanted anywhere until...I went to see 'Frozen' with my husband and daughter and one of the main characters had the exact sort of hairstyle I wanted. Leanne is incredibly clever and created this amazing style on Amanda.

The birdcage and birds were part of my wedding décor over 3 years ago and this also reminded me of Disney as Amanda had a little white bird on her finger and as we know all Disney princesses have an animal friend!

Norfolk Brides behind the scenes

 

All photos by Mike Chivers of Rebel Heart Photography.

Hair and MU: Hairaid Shelter

Location: Sedgeford Hall

Models: Rosanna (40s), Amanda (50s) and Heather (60s)

Flowers: Flower30

Car: Wedding Wheels-next-the-Sea

 

This was my first stint as Artistic Director on a shoot for Norfolk Brides magazine. I had a meeting with the editor, Dalia, where I pitched the idea for a 'Brides through the eras' piece which Dalia gave me the go ahead with. My aim was to show how vintage (or at least vintage style) dresses can be worn today by anybody and still look on trend and fashionable. For example, I put Amanda , who was our 50s model, in a pair of her own skyscraper platform, gold, sparkly heels and it looked great to add a modern twist.

 

Dalia found a fantastic location, got a fantastic hair and MUA artistry team on board, a florist, a cool car...I had great fun choosing the bouquets and chatting with the ladies about the hair and make up looks I wanted for the different eras. We had beautiful dresses lent to us and styled by Vintage Deli, veils from Pure Brides, and jewellery lent from Aurum Jewellers and Melissa Morgan designs. We went with 40's, 50's and 60's and each model I picked suited her era so well. Rosanna, who was our 40's model, even made the cover! I also wrote an accompanying article for each look and researched the 'Get the Look' pieces which was all new to me.

 

You can read the whole article here, from page 31 onwards.

 

The Team

 

 

I made a friend. This dog spent most of the day photobombing us!



The Finding - Pt 2



As promised, here are some more photos from the photoshoot I styled a couple of weeks ago. These are by the second photographer, Rob Dodsworth and I just love them.

 

I've had two more photoshoots since then so will have some more pictures to show you soon.

 

Photographer: Rob Dodsworth

Models: Elle Harris, Heather Spanton, Amanda Santos, Ell Davis and Nakita Grady

Hair/MUA: Missy Vintage

The Finding

 

The Finding

 

Photographer: Adrian Farr

Models: Ell Davis, Elle Harris, Heather Spanton, Nakita Grady and Amanda Santos

Hair/MUA: Missy Vintage

 

Last Friday 5 models, 2 photographers, 1 hair and makeup artist, myself and my 4 year old all headed off to a farm in the middle of nowhere. The shoot was a experimental one called The Finding. Photographer Adrian wanted to try out a new lens which created blurry, slightly out of focus and mostly black and white, photos. The brief style wise was for black, classic looks that weren't too fussy. I took with me a few pieces of my own, along with a lot of accessories, and the girls brought anything they thought might be suitable for me to look through.

 

I had decided I really wanted to do a look with just black short shorts/knickers and a blazer. I had about 6 blazers to choose from but the first one I picked worked a treat and model Nakita had brought with her a tiny pair of black hotpants and, as she had legs TO DIE FOR, that was her look sorted. Accessorized with a vintage yellow cocktail ring I was given for my birthday, a real ruby and gold necklace (borrowed from a friend of mine) and high black heels.

 

 

Ell was the tallest of the girls, again with legs that went on forever, so I put her in a super short dress (which I believe was her own) accessorised with strings of pearls and beads, a silver bangle and her own anklet.

 

 

We had another Elle on set, this one a little shorter with an enviable chest so I put her in a plunging Calvin Klein number (also borrowed from the same friend I borrowed a lot of the jewellery from). My daughter had been messing around with the jewellery and had put this pearl necklace around her head and I thought it looked lovely. I had already given Elle a pearl bracelet (which I wore on my wedding day) so she was the perfect choice for the pearl 'head piece'. 

 

Amanda was one of the first models I ever worked with when I started styling and is one of the loveliest girls you could ever meet. She had worn this dress of mine on a shoot before so we knew it looked great on her. Worn with a chunky gold necklace I picked up in Primark and some gold bangles.



 

 

Beautiful Heather is teeny tiny so I put her in a skin tight black midi dress, which belonged to one of the other girls, to really show off her amazing figure. A gold bangle from Primark (I love Primark for jewellery, especially statement pieces for shoots) and a long gold necklace from Dorothy Perkins. Heather and my little girl have met a couple of times now and get on famously. I noticed a BTS shot being taken of them both sharing a bag of Jelly Babies which I'm hoping will surface at some point!

 

Kerry (aka Missy Vintage) worked tirelessly doing both the hair and make up for all 5 girls and I think she did an amazing job. The looks were all very dark with dark red/black lips, dark eyes and gorgeous hair that was 'a bit crazy' in my daughter's opinion.

 

There was a second photographer with us on the day, Rob Dodsworth, who was taking behind the scenes and pictures of his own. From what I saw on his camera on the day there are some beautiful shots coming from him too which I will share once I have them.

I had an absolute blast on this shoot, one of my absolute favourites ever, and hope to work with all the lovely people involved again.

 

 

 

That's a wrap!

 

xxx





Behind the Scenes: 1920's Music Video (April 2013)

 

On Saturday afternoon I got a text from my lovely model friend Amanda asking if she could borrow an outfit for a music video she had agreed to be an extra in the next day. She didn't know much about it except it was 1920's themed. I don't own anything that old (and if I did it would probably be too delicate to wear) but we did manage to put together an outfit which, although not 100% authentic, I was very happy with. I went down for a little while (they were shooting in one of my favourite local pubs, The Birdcage) but left before the action started. Amanda sent me a few photos though that I thought you might like to see.

 

Dress: Topshop (sale) // Headband: New Look (sale) // Earrings: Accessorize // Scarf: borrowed

I'd also given her long black gloves but they ended up on someone else (as you will see...)



The hair was done by the amazing Flamingo Amy and make-up by Laura Jane Sessions.

I have no idea what the final video will look like but I have seen a sneak peek of one of the leading ladies....

 

Photo: Ginger Koneko

 



 

I think it will be quite a while before we see the finished video but I'm looking forward to seeing it.

 

xxx

Styling: Southwold Beach (October 2012)

Copyright taberphotography.co.uk

I've got a really busy weekend this week so this is a cheeky scheduled post. 

I thought you might like to see these gorgeous photos from a shoot I helped to style a few weeks ago.Amanda, the model, came to me with some photos and she wanted a similar look for a shoot she was doing. The photos all featured these huge billowing dresses but I said unless it's designer/catwalk we would struggle to find anything with that amount of material so I put these looks together using the floatiest (am I making up words now?) dresses I had and a bit of trickery with some matching fabric. I think these photos are amazing and she looks absolutely beautiful!

Copyright taberphotography.co.uk

Copyright taberphotography.co.uk

Copyright taberphotography.co.uk

 xxx