I had the most breathtaking day EVER photographing a styled shoot on October 23rd in Pemberton, with Carin Smolinski from Whisteria Design and Rentals! Carin took care of all the details through her other company Whistler Pop-up Elopements . We decided to use one of Carin’s good friends to model for us- Rachael Clare, as she was incredibly unique looking, full of tattoos, and bald! Which was a great contrast to the clean cut male model from the Reel Athletes Agency, Jean-Sébastien Lavarack. Rachael did her own hair and makeup as well. Isabelle’s Bridal let us borrow two dresses, one was a grey lace overlay number with a back to die for with buttons attached at the back, for the day time look! Secondly a gorgeous burgundy sequinned gown with a crisscross back for the night time look. 🖤❤️
We photographed at someone’s home for the first look, at these unique small cottages. Carin made this cool metal arbour with flowers on it, that formed into a point that echoed the breathtaking mountains in the background. She also had a Moroccan carpet and long white candles encased inside glass. Carin also made a super moody set as well where she had a wooden table setup and burnaby candles and a flowers setup with a couple of burnaby chairs too. I experimented a lot with different angles with the couple. That’s one of my favourite setups for sure! She also had a third setup before we changed dresses, which had a lot of black candles all beside each other and a small white love seat with brass detailing, and a small bar with champagne and a cow hide rug. We did a lot of gorgeous photos of her with the veil over Rachael’s face, and then gradually it was taken off by JS. After that was finished she changed into the burnaby dress and Carin had a vintage blue car we decided to use and we also used a smoke bomb as well which definitely gave the autumn foliage and mountains some moody vides. It was pretty sunny that day so it was well needed! It was very fun as well as the couple was making all these silly faces, dancing, and having a ton of movement in the photos. Rachael had her black hat on with flowers on top which I love with the burnaby dress! After that the very last setup we did was on a rocky beach with trees and mountains in the background. It was such a great contrast with the set, made it really pop! There was a beige arm chair, wood table, a floor lamp, a vintage telephone, the burnaby candles, and a gold blanket on the floor. We used another smoke bomb-this time a grey one which ended up working it very well!
The hand written calligraphy stationary was by Kim Patrocinio. The beautiful autumn bouquet of my dreams and decor were done by Ariel Harwood, of Within the Flowers. Her and Carin did an amazing job of placing the flowers on incredibly unique spots like on top of her black hat, and on an intricate flower crown placed on Rachael’s head. When she put on the long blond wig, and then Carin braided it and put red flowers perfectly spaced apart from each other.
Everything came together so perfectly! It felt like a dream! It had the presence of a movie set with all the hard work everyone did! It resembled what Carin and I had envisioned from the start, a super moody and alternative shoot for the fall season. 🖤❤️
If you’re dying to see more please check out the Same-sex styled wedding I photographed in Squamish!
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