Magnolia Pond | Wedding Workshop – Styled Bridal Shoot

Collaborating with other vendors is one of my favorite parts of wedding photography. In general, you meet so many wonderful people who are trying to give the bride and groom the best day of their life. Occasionally creatives will get together to try new ideas without the stress of a paid shoot, we call these styled shoots. We put together a styled shoot this year for our annual wedding photography workshop. We had creatives from all over Atlanta bring in props, flowers, dresses, models for a great shoot! Students came in from multiple states. Normally we cap the workshop off at 15, but this year we made it a bit smaller with 8 photographers. It was the best decision. Traditionally we’ve made connections throughout the year and a real wedding venue will welcome us to their property on an ‘off day,’ Monday’s. This year we teamed with Dan Kelly of Magnolia Pond to help spread the word of this beautiful private property available to photographers and filmmakers for renting, perfect for a styled bridal shoot.

To get started we kicked off this wedding workshop with a customized lecture session. Prior to the workshop date we asked students to send in the questions they wanted answered at the workshop. We then tailored our classroom portion to those questions. The questions this year varied from how to pose older couples or a bride that’s taller than the groom to lighting questions handling bright sun, shooting on the beach, and when to use artificial lighting. Since Moreland Photography has been in business for over 30 years we had plenty of examples to show the students for each question. While we were answering questions and talking about the business side of wedding photography, our models were busy getting hair and make up done so they would be ready for the hands-on portion of the workshop. We had several visions, the most prominent was the vintage theme. Magnolia Pond assembled an antique chandelier for our outdoor private meal set, as well as a vintage couch that would later be used for a bride in low lighting.

After the classroom portion where student’s eyes were opened regarding the work required for photographing a wedding, we started our styled bridal shoot! Our models were looking beautiful and were ready to go. We started inside with beautiful window light. These portraits are mother’s favorites as well as the groom! Brides glow with a correctly exposed window light portrait. After presenting the students with several lighting situations and challenges we changed the scenery. Outside was calling our name to the beautifully staged table setting by Karen Casey. We planned ahead for two different settings, formal and more modern bohemian. After shooting for a while with one set, we had a model swap and a set change and continued shooting.

When the lighting was just perfect we moved the class to the front of Magnolia Pond where Wyatt of Classy Cars had arrived with his gorgeous 1941 Packard Formal Sedan. This was a real treat for many of our students, as well as for us! We’ve worked with Wyatt several times in the past and their service and cars always amaze us! Every car is in perfect condition!

With two last sets of the night we were fighting for daylight, but we pulled off gorgeous low light romantic scenes. The students shot under a menagerie of lighting situations to help them prepare for whatever a real wedding could through at them. We had an amazing turn out and couldn’t have done it with out all our vendors. A huge thank you and shout out to everyone who helped pull this styled bridal shoot off. If you’re looking for certain vendors, feel free to contact us as we have many we would recommend. Here is a list of the creative collaborates for this wedding workshop:

Location: Magnolia Pond
Hair: Armegan Anderson
Make-up: Naja Alston with Ultimate Model Management
Floral: Carithers Flowers
Dress Shop: Wedding Angels
Vintage Dress Shop: Vintage by Judith
Antique Car: Classy Car Limo
Staging: Karen Casey Events
Models: Ultimate Model Management
Linens: Graceful Tables
Champagne Set Furniture: Chalk It Up Norcross