Several weeks ago I thought it might be a good idea to have a site visit with our Renewal in PA photographer Kara Walsh of Dreamcatcher Photography. The Cottage, the location of our PA renewal celebration is a unique place and has so much to consider, so a pre-party visit seemed smart. Kara was all for the idea and one crisp Sunday morning we met to scour the 100+ year old summer home. Being that my latest obsession is tablescape styling, I considered the renewal celebrations as the perfect opportunity to flex my creative muscle and dive into a project with my style and sensibilities at the very core.
I asked Kara to being along her equipment so she could capture some test shots of sorts to first, help me gain a better sense of all the color decisions I had been making over the last year and second, to give Kara a chance to become familiar with the space and light.
I love this old buffet at The Cottage. We plan to stuff the lower shelves full of flowers, some trailing to the floor even. Mom and I are creating all of the arrangements with the help of FiftyFlowers.com (more on that later). The linen pictured is just one of the many I have to adorn each guest table. I purchased two basic bouquets at a grocery store to again, get a sense of what was really going to work in this space. It was a toss up, between all white blooms and a mixture of white, yellow and peaches. I really fell in love with the white, peach and brown mix pictured above. I’m sooo happy though to have done the trial run because I was seriously leaning towards yellows.
Collecting vintage glassware and linens has become a bit of an obsession over the last year. Because we needed so much, I had to shop around and grab deals where I could. For the trial run with Kara, I chose one of my favorite pieces, a richly amber-hued glass pitcher with an elegant shape and graceful stature.
Meeting with Kara outside of her studio was enlightening and was yet another good reason to stage the trial run. So much of creating a successful event is about ensuring there is good chemistry amongst everyone involved. Sometimes good chemistry just happens, sure, but it also can grow from a mutual understanding of expectations aka “being on the same page”. Right?
Did you or your wedding planner stage a trial run with your photographer? Was it helpful?
