Oh, we do like to be beside the seaside!

Especially when you are on a photo shoot with some fantastic talented people from the wedding industry and are playing dress up in a load of wedding clobber!

I was approached a while ago by the mega talented Nicki of Nicki Feltham Photography as she had just seen my new wedding dress collection online. Having always wanted to do a styled photo shoot she thought my collection would be the perfect excuse to finally do one! And I jumped at the chance!

I too have always wanted to be involved in a styled shoot and sunk my teeth into the challenge of coming up with a story to go with it. I love all things colourful with a Tim Burton influence and am a massive fan of the photographer, Tim Walker. With all these influences bubbling around in my head, Nicki and I met up one day in the grounds of the beautiful Somerset House and spent the afternoon brainstorming over lashings of ginger beer. We were immediately on the same wavelength and batted ideas back and forth, the resulting imagery will testify to our unique and crazy styles, all we needed now were some like-minded people to make it all happen…

The story goes, four delicate and unattainable porcelain dolls set out one day to take a train trip to the seaside. Their lives were full of beautiful things but they just didn’t know how to enjoy them. They were terribly serious things!

When they had decided on their adventure little did they know how the day would turn out.

After leaving the train with their luggage in hand, they just didn’t know what to do next! As they sat about looking pretty but a bit lost, a great big dog suddenly appeared out of nowhere, startling the dolls! They thought the beast was delightful and he was soon followed by two sailor boys. The boys were enchanted by the beauty of the dolls and quickly ran home to dress themselves up. The boys were set on wooing these beautiful dolls!

After introducing themselves, the boys decided to change into their sailor gear and make themselves more comfortable. They bought the dolls strawberry milk, the most fantastic cakes they could find and all the balloons, sweets and bubbles the girls could possibly want, they even managed to get hold of a toy puppet! They set about serenading the girls with a bango and charming them with their stories of the sea. As the day wore on, they realised the girls had relaxed, they were enjoying themselves and were not the serious dolls they had come across! The smiles on their faces at the end of the day told the tale of how much fun they had had on their ‘Dolly Takes A Trip’ adventure and had even found love!

Nicki and I could not have done all this without the mega talented: Tess from Chatter Cakes, make-up by Naita Channer MUA, Hannah from BonnieBoo Buttons, Claire of Rosey Posey Creations, and of course the models: Naita, Lila, Me (!) Tarek, Andy and Helina.

We also had fantastic help from our second shooter who took behind the scenes shots to feature soon, Laura Mott. We borrowed props from Lucy Jane Ltd, additional flower bouquets from Fenella’s Flowers, shoes were from Irregular Choice and waistcoats from A Suit That Fits and of course a big thank you! to Catherine of Seabank for the location!

Thank you everyone involved, you were amazing! And Nicki, you’re energy, enthusiasm and excitement kept us all going!

Enjoy! x

You can take a peep at my dress collection here!