Olive & Belle on Styled Shoots

Happy Monday Timeline Geniuses!

Whether referred to as Inspiration Shoots or Styled Shoots, you’ve seen them on every popular wedding blog. The vendors involved are usually not getting paid for this work, but do it to display their creativity and inspire their community. If you’ve never put together a styled shoot but are considering it, here are the gals from Olive & Belle Events, sharing some insight from the set of one of their beautiful shoots.

TG: Styled shoots look like a lot of work! What are some things that make it all worthwhile?

Styled Shoots are a great opportunity to connect with vendors and showcase your style. By showcasing your style, you better attract the type of brides and clients that resonate with your style and will be overall more satisfied with your work for them. Creative Vendors are appreciative of a professional planner organizing a Styled Shoot and pulling together a cohesive vision because it makes it more successful for all parties involved. Building those symbiotic vendor relationships are the cornerstone to a healthy wedding planning business.

TG: What are some of the biggest challenges in putting together a Styled Shoot?

One of the most difficult parts, and the most common pitfall, of a Styled Shoot is thinking through an end-to-end marketing and submission plan. You can have the most beautiful images, but if you don’t have a locked-in publication and thought-out marketing plan, the images will be lost in the wedding industry clutter. Creating a marketing plan is difficult and time consuming, but worth it to get the best return on your time and money (a lot of both are put into a Styled Shoot). Plus, your contributing vendors will be that much more thankful and eager to work with you again.

TG: How do you start the process of planning something like this?

This varies shoot-to-shoot, but usually it starts with an inspiration or a concept. For example, this Styled Shoot was inspired by Eliana Bernard’s Marbled Collection plates. The rest of the shoot came to life around her artistic vision. It is also a good idea to consider Seasonality. If you are shooting a summer Inspiration shoot in August, you may have less likelihood to be featured because most blogs are preparing for the Fall Season. Timing is everything.

TG: What was the concept behind this shoot?

The concept behind this shoot was Contemporary Italian Romance. The initial idea for this shoot started with the venue. I mean, what is not to be inspired by at The Contemporary at Laguna Gloria?! The whole property is piece of old history romance tucked away in the middle of central Austin, Texas. In my own styling, I like mixing bold colors with neutral space, and southern charm with a dash of modern minimalism. We played with the gold, grey, and navy palette. Like anything “styled”, a vision can easily change with each new piece you find. And that was definitely the case when we stumbled across Eliana Bernard’s beautiful Marbled Plates Collection on Instagram. She is a local artist, and an insanely talented one at that. When we came across her collection, we knew we had to incorporate it into the shoot. It was just too perfect. Her bold navy marbled plates slightly changed the direction of flowers, so we chose a more neutral palette for floral with those pops of giant golden roses. I am convinced the Gypsy Floral team are magicians because the flowers looked painted, they were so perfect. Anyway, when all is said and done, inspiration evolves and couldn’t have come to life without each of the contributing vendors showcasing their amazing talents.

TG: What are your favorite elements about this shoot?

Impossible to choose. We are obsessed with the whole vendor team in this shoot. The vintage rentals, the stunning venue, the marbled plates, the floral artistry, the film photography…missing any one of these pieces, the shoot would not have been nearly as gorgeous.

TG: What advice do you have for planners who might be intimidated by taking on a Styled Shoot?

Practice makes perfect. Even this Styled Shoot, we learned things we want to do differently next time. Just jump in and enjoy the opportunity to let your creativity flow.

We think the whole team knocked it out of the park with this shoot, and with their answers! We hope you’ve picked up some useful tips for your next styled shoot – in the meantime, here are more images from Olive and Belle’s shoot to feast your eyes on: