At Bari Jay we shoot our dresses twice a year professionally, sometimes more depending on our needs, but our two big shoots are for the fall and spring lines. We just prepped and shot our Spring 2019 dresses!
The prep for the shoot is a really big deal as we are limited on time and have so much to get done. We shoot each dress individually for the website including bridesmaids, junior bridesmaids and flower girls and the informal bridal collection (which we aim to shoot outside as the white background for the bridesmaids washes them out.)
We start by editing down the line and coming up with a shot list for the dresses in order and a shot list for ads which we try to do outside in the theme of a real wedding.
We then work on some concepts, pulling images we like of flowers and hair and make-up and we put together a selection of these for inspiration, similar to what you would do for a real wedding or engagement shoot. Once images have been pulled and collected we send our ideas out to the florist and hair and make-up as well as the photographer. We then try to get our inspiration pieces together, like our ladder we used this season. Part of our shot list for ads is inspired by real brides and bridesmaids, like our rose colored shot, we just recently had a bride with gorgeous mix and match rose dresses (click here to see!).
For flowers we found pictures of these large rings that had flowers on them, instead of a traditional bouquet. We also found small traditional bouquets that we asked the local florist, Johnstons Flowers, to put together. We are big believers in supporting our local stores, whether local dress stores, local florists or local décor specialists. Many of the things we liked were not in season so we swapped them out for something with a similar look. We wanted bushy wheat but we couldn’t find it on the east coast so we went with a different wheat.
For make up and hair we were looking for a very natural look, hair down or pulled slightly back and natural make-up. We opted out of flower crowns this year for something a little more modern with pieces from our friends at Richard Designs. Thankfully, our photographer Shane is super helpful with hair and make-up, so we have him confirm the hair and make-up team. We shoot spring ads outside so weather is a big factor and if we need to change the day we have to scramble a bit. We have shot fall in the snow and rain but for spring we really like the sun. This year we actually had to change the date and we scrambled but it worked out great! Like weather with a real wedding, we made it work!
Now the models, this is never easy because our biggest concern is fitting the dresses as we only have one of each dress and it is the sample size. We have our muse Anya who we have used in every single shoot for the last few years, she fits the dresses perfectly! This time around we also found two new girls, Irina and Marlee! Irina was a little too small for the dresses, we didn’t see her this go around and we had to pin some of the dresses on her, which slowed us down a bit. As for our flower girls and junior bridesmaids, they are kids we know locally, they love doing it and they have the best time ever. Most of the day they are asking us if they can change into a new dress or if they are in the next shot!
For props we had the ladder we planned to decorate with a mix of real and fake ivy and flowers which was all we needed. Since we were going for a rustic chic kind of look outside with wild flowers and wheat as well as greens, the ladder worked beautiful!
We also had a visitor while shooting ads this time, an adorable dog came and hung out with us during the shoot!
The end result was one of our best shoots ever! Click here to view all the dresses!
