Southern Weddings

As many of you know, Lara and Ari are expecting a baby at the end of July (hooray!). While our print photo shoots usually take place in May, June, July, and August, this year we decided to slide everything up a few months to better accommodate Lara’s maternity leave. So far, we have been LOVING our new, earlier schedule, and have been rewarded with beautiful, warm (not hot) shoot days and glowing (not sweating) models! Lisa and I are also totally tickled that it’s only the beginning of May and we’ve already put three editorials in the books – totally different from last year, when our second shoot was in June!

Though we’ve been sharing all along on Instagram (follow the #MakingSouthernWeddings hashtag), we wanted to catch y’all up on the blog, too. Here’s a peek at where we are so far with V8!

Since we were starting so much earlier this year, we knew our first few shoots had to be wayyy down South, where it gets warmer and greener earlier! Lisa and I had the pleasure of traveling to Texas in March for two back-to-back projects. Our first was in Houston with Heather Hawkins behind the camera. We had a whole host of Blue Ribbon Vendors on hand to make the magic happen, including Christina Leigh Events, Tamara Menges, Tracy Melton Artistry, and Bourbon & Bloom Vintage Rentals!

Even more fun, since Houston is Lisa’s stomping grounds, we got to stay with her family while we were in town, and her mom came to help out the day of the shoot! It’s a family affair at Southern Weddings :)

From Houston we took a mini road trip through Texas Hill Country (complete with blue bonnets!) and landed in Austin. We lucked out with another gorgeous day for our adventure with Kristen Kilpatrick, Without Wax, Katy, and BRV friends Southern Fried Paper and Jen Dillender!

We were working with a very different palette but another super fun crew at the coolest venue (Star Hill Ranch). Y’all are going to DIE when you see this one – Lisa says it’s her new favorite Southern Weddings shoot ever! :)

Our most recent shoot was in our backyard, out in rural North Carolina. We were working with the prettiest shades of pink and purple and a HUGE crew for this one, spearheaded by Blue Ribbon Vendors Nancy Ray and Hey Gorgeous Events. A whole host of other BRV friends came out to play, including Heartstone Films, Ashley Cakes, Lula Hair & Makeup, and Paisley & Jade.

The weather was so nice that day our shoot almost felt like a picnic instead of a work event!

Despite all of those smiling faces you see up there, the highlight for everyone was undoubtedly Gumdrop the pig. Yes, there was a pig in the shoot, and everyone patiently waited for his or her turn to take a portrait with him!

Three down, four more to go! I love seeing these shoots come to life for so many reasons, but the top two are getting to work alongside talented vendors (I learn something new every time!) and getting to meet our sweet reader models. We’ve worked with more than 25 guys and gals already, and I can’t wait to see where our last four shoots take us!

P.S. Vendors and creative friends, want in on the action? Our ad pages are filling up fast, but we’d love to reserve a spot for you! We all agree this is shaping up to be our best crop of advertisers ever! Fill out this form and Marissa will be in touch lickety-split.

Written with love by Emily