What’s the deal with styled shoots anyway?

Q: Why are the wedding industry peeps doing styled shoot sand what are they really?

A: Styled shoots are a collaboration of wedding suppliers to create a small, staged wedding or aspects of one. Some wedding professionals love getting together to collaborate and create amazing inspirational work. Sometimes they plan with the goal of getting them published on a wedding blog or in a wedding magazine, and sometimes just for fun.

Here’s a few reasons why we love participating when time allows:

  1. Styled shoots give us a creative outlet

So many of the vendors in the wedding industry are deeply creative people who are always thinking, dreaming and aspiring to continue to push themselves further in creating their art. While we LOVE working with our clients to carry out their dream, the truth is, we have dreams that we would LOVE to see come to life. Shoots are a great way for us to get our ideas out of our head and into the world

2. Styled shoots let us practice your craft

How do you get stronger at something? You keep working at it, tweaking the process, testing new ideas, pushing your boundaries. The wedding industry folks want to continue gaining knowledge and obtaining new insight so we can perform even better for our couples.

3. Styled shoots are great for networking

Getting together to laugh and play with our “freindors” helps build our connection and relationships. It gives us a chance to learn from one another and in a more controlled environment than the busy hustle of the wedding day.

We also love taking this opportunity to work with vendors we haven’t had the opportunity to work alongside yet. It gives us the chance to get to know them better and how they operate. Selfishly we love meeting new people but it’s great for being able to make the right recommendations to our couples. We now know their personality traits, their work ethic, and what types of couples they are a better match for.

4. Styled shoots can attract clients

Sure it gives us the ability to put some beautiful and creative work out there that we have been unable to create just yet. We love to draw in couples who’s style is a great ach for us. Maybe that’s exactly the design and style a couple is looking for and woah there’s your ideal vendor team on display and ready to chat with them all about it.

5. You can expand and diversify your portfolio

***Note: This is really, really, oversimplifying a very important topic and should be an entire blog all on its own. For brevity here we are being fairly simple and clear on this complex ideal. I’m just going to drop this word. INCLUSIVITY Yep we need more of it. The wedding industry has been notorious for only promoting very “traditional” “Barbie and Ken” looks. A trend that is really starting to fade and we can’t be more relieved. Styled shoots create an atmosphere where we can work with people of all races, cultures, ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, shapes, and sizes. This is a great way for us to show that everyone is beautiful in their own way and to work towards showing more inclusivity in the editorials and blogs so all types of couples can be represented.

There you have it why you will keep seeing us popping in more and more editorials. Keep checking in on the behind the scenes blog here as we showcase more and more pretty little details

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Featured on H&H Weddings

Our vendor friends who made this whole thing happen:

Venue: Lakotas Farm
Catering: Suburban Kitchen
Planning = Styling + Design: SBM Event Co.
Layflat Styling: YTK Photography
Gown: Elisabetta Polignano From Something Bleu Bridal
Shoes – Bella Belle Shoes
Earrings: Mignonne Gavigan
Rentals: Total Events
Photography: YTK Photography
Florals: Blooms Floral Design
Makeup + Hair: True Beauty Company
Cake: Cake by Alyssa
Stationary + Calligraphy: Cartoleria Studio