French Inspired Photo Shoot

If ever there was a match made in wedding heaven, it just might be between Jill La Fleur and Jose Villa. With Jill’s insanely stylish approach to design and Jose’s flawless approach to photography, we simply can’t imagine it getting any better than this. Oh wait. Add to that duo a little bit of Joel Serrato’s cinema magic and voila…perfection defined. This next shoot that Jill crafted just for you guys, is all about the chic. French, couture, totally sophisticated chic. It’s exactly what I envision my dream French inspired wedding to look like with burlap details paired next to a ridiculously gorgeous black and white gown. Love, love, loooove. Click here to see even more.

see more of this French inspired shoot here!

http://joelserratoblog.com/frenchinspired_lafleurweddings_600x480.mov

It’s pretty obvious why I would want to do a French-inspired shoot…my last name La Fleur is French for The Flower and I have always felt a strong connection to all things French all of my life.  This was a very personal shoot for me as I felt it was a representation of me.  I have always loved Audrey Hepburn and was inspired a bit by the movies Sabrina and Breakfast at Tiffany’s.  I also adore French flower market stands!  But I wanted to add touches of the stylish Paris runways with the black lace gloves, the black and white stripes, the black net hairpieces and the Chanel-inspired jewels.  I wanted to pull all of these elements together but have them in a French-Provencal setting.  Sunstone Winery and Clairmont Lavender Farm were the perfect spots to capture the romance of the French countryside (especially since I live in an area that looks so much like it-Santa Ynez Valley, CA) with touches of Paris thrown in!

I also wanted to add some art to the shoot, as I always think of my favorite French artists when I think of France, and so I contacted the talented Karina Puente to do some pieces for me and added the feather masks as a theatrical touch.   We also wanted true romance to come through in these photos, so we found a couple that was engaged and obviously in love to model for us.  Regarding a couple of the details, I wanted to use burlap mixed with French blues and black and white toile (my office is filled with it!)  So, I created chair covers out of burlap fabric and tied them with the black and white wide striped ribbon…loved this DIY touch.  The black and white toile napkins were the touch I wanted to give the table a French feel and created a burlap and cameo napkin ring for them.  I found some amazing fleur-de-lis black glasses that worked perfectly with the table.  The “Love Notes” were an idea I had…guests could write a little love note on one of these darling French gift tags and place them in a terrarium filled with flowers.  I found toile and striped tissue paper and used it to wrap my baguettes tied off with some raffia.

I also used it to wrap Camilla’s beautiful bouquets for the guests to take away at my “flower-market” stand.  One of my favorite touches was the La Fleur Winery wine crate from the real place in France!   Camilla had the beautiful sofa and vanity that we thought would be perfect placed in a lavender field!  And I just had to have a black and white striped umbrella in here somehow!  I felt like this shoot was a true reflection of my style, my personality, my love of all things French and, of course, my name!

Design: La Fleur Weddings / Photography: Jose Villa / Video: Joel Serrato / Locations: Sunstone Wineryand Clairmont Farms / Floral Design: Camilla Svensson Burns / Invitation Suite: Ceci New York/ Linens: La Tavola Linens / Rentals: Table:Elite Party Rentals and Place Settings: Classic Party Rentals& La Fleur Weddings / Black Chairs: Picket Fences Solvang, CA / Dresses: Vera Wang from B Hughes Bridal Formal / Hair Pieces: Lo Boheme / Croquembouche: Decadence Wedding Cakes / Jewelry: Bib Necklace by Stella Dot / Hair & Makeup: TEAM Hair and Makeup / Vintage Umbrella: Bella Umbrella / Art and Sculpture Pieces: Karina Puente / Wedding Gown: B. Hughes Bridal

Marshmallow Inspired Shoot by Jill La Fleur + SimplyBloom

Jill La Fleur is a name synonymous with drop dead beautiful weddings and anything she has a hand in is so perfectly executed down to the very last detail. We are talking majorly spectacular. She recently teamed up with some rock star vendors including Camilla Svensson Burns, florist extraordinaire, andJoel Serrato, the end-all-be-all of wedding filmmakers, to produce a series of inspiration shoots and today they are going to make their debut on Style Me Pretty. Each one is so unique, so gorgeous, so full of that La Fleur touch and will provide endless amounts of inspiration for all of your fetes. We are absolutely sure of it.

We are going to get the ball rolling with Jill’s first shoot inspired by all things marshmallow. Think beautiful billowy fabric, soft neutral colors and tons of marshmallow treats. AH-MAZ-ING. The lovely ladies of SimplyBloom Photography joined the team to capture all of the beauty and man-oh-man their photography is spot-on gorgeous. To see the full shoot, click right here.

and as an extra super duper special bonus the GORGEOUS film from Joel Serrato…

http://joelserratoblog.com/marshmallow_inspiration_600x480.mov

From Jill La Fleur… With all of the inspiration to reality shoots that have been happening lately, I decided I wanted to put my creative talents to the test and jump on board. However, I had so many creative visions I didn’t know where I wanted to start so the thought came about to do a series of shoots with the same floral designer, Camilla Svensson Burns, showcasing how diverse our designs together can be. We also thought it would add a unique touch to do a film of each of the shoots as they were created and added Joel Serrato to our creative team for each shoot. I was so thrilled with what we created together and hope that everyone agrees! And as you will see in the following inspirational shoots, I am so lucky to work with such an amazingly talented and fun group of vendors in this wedding and event industry! I still can’t believe looking at the original inspiration boards I created months ago and seeing the images and films of the final product, how perfectly they all came together! They were exactly what I had envisioned and I just want to thank everyone involved for helping me create these beautiful shoots and bring them all to life!

I have been admiring the beautiful work of SimplyBloom Photography for a while now and thought it would be wonderful to meet them and create something together. They had a trip planned to California and contacted me to see if we could set up a shoot together. To give me an idea of their style, they sent me a few images of  what they had in mind and many of them included marshmallows! I was immediately intrigued and my head filled with visions of soft, billowy fabric, fluffy lamp shades, pillows and rugs, hot chocolate and s’mores and the tones of toasted marshmallows with touches of blush thrown in. I felt like this was the perfect palette for SimplyBloom’s romantic and airy photographic style and I just love everything about these colors, tones and details!

Design: La Fleur Weddings / Photography: SimplyBloom Photography / Video: Joel Serrato Films/ Location: Roblar Winery / Floral and Decor: Camilla Svensson Burns / Rental Table: Elite Party Rentals / Linens: La Tavola Linens / Lighting and Draping: Bella Vista Designs / Dress: Maggie Sottero Dress by Mary Linn / Hair Pieces: Lo Boheme / Cake and Cupcakes: Enjoy Cupcakes / Invitation Suite:CEVD / Place Settings: La Fleur Weddings / Jewelry: Stella Dot / Hair & Makeup: TEAM Hair and Makeup