A Vintage Love for Something Blue

When interning for Kristen, there is a significant amount of knowledge we take away! The baseline for everything we learned is ultimately how to run a business. Of course that’s a never ending course but Kristen taught us the basics that are crucial for running a successful business! During the internship we have various tasks but our final project was to plan and execute a styled shoot. When Lindsey and I sat down to figure out where to start, our minds were going so many different ways. We started brainstorming our ideas separately. Lindsey was was thinking of a winter wonderland theme with a blue color scheme, while I was thinking more of a vintage Ralph Lauren vibe. After sharing our ideas, we had to find a way to combine our visions! For many generations, the classic saying something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue has been a wedding tradition. Using that concept we meshed Lindsey’s vision of blues and my vision for vintage! We mixed bold colors and prints to merge contemporary and vintage. Searching for a venue was a little difficult. We wanted to find something that was versatile and fresh! We were running out of options so we went to Gabby for a little guidance. She is local to Deland and remembered seeing a new venue that had just opened! It was called Villa Festa! It was the perfect place to capture the essence of something blue and vintage!

Villa Festa was originally an old family house that has been in the area for decades! It embodies spring with its great outdoor scenery and ability to capture natural light throughout the Villa. The feeling of this venue is bright and airy from the moment you step onto the property. Beth, who is the owner, was so sweet and accommodating. We had a phone call with her when we started planning the shoot and we were sooo nervous! Once the meeting started the nerves floated away, Beth was amazing at making us feel comfortable and was excited to see what we could create! When we arrived at Villa Festa we couldn’t believe how beautiful it truly was! 

Our model, Leah, was happy to be part of this shoot. Lindsey and I knew Leah would be a great fit since she had been photographed by Kristen before! We were also excited to work with her doing a wedding style because she was recently engaged.The hair and makeup artist for this shoot was Tiffany, who owns Bronze and Glow Beauty. We discussed with Tiffany what we wanted the hair and makeup to look like, and she went above and beyond with conveying that. Originally, we asked for an updo but we unanimously agreed that wasn’t the look for this shoot.

Tiffany quickly modified Leah’s look with a beautiful loose curl! We love how the hair turned out! A soft curl hairstyle with the front pieces pushed back to frame her face was the way to go. Tiffany then did a natural makeup look to enhance Leah’s features. When Leah was “model-ready”, Bridal finery brought the perfect dress designed by Ines Di Santo. This strapless A-line gown is a sleek modern look with silk fabric. Bri, our stylist, brought pearl earrings, a veil, and of course, Bella Belle blue heels to complete the look!

When we decided who we wanted to design our cake we came across Morgan Hunter Desserts and knew she would do a stunning job! We reached out to her and she was excited to collaborate with us. Morgan created a dreamy blue fondant four-tier cake with floral designs made from buttercream frosting. The cake went perfectly with the blue vintage theme!

Colleen, from Sweet Peas Design, was a big help during this shoot. After discussing exactly what floral arrangements we were looking for and sending her the inspiration, she sent a mood board that paralleled our vision. The arrangements used bold spring colors, such as peach and pink, but still added a speck of blue. When Colleen put the flowers on the dresser we knew it was going to be the most eye-catching aspect of this shoot. It created depth to the space and completed the overall look we were going for.

The most beautiful stationery was created by Paige from Two Peas Paper Co. She was so accommodating during the process of curating our ideas for this shoot. The beautiful floral with the touches of blue was the exact look we wanted. When we saw the deckle edge paper we were in awe! We love how her attention to detail, so she did not disappoint, and Kristen was able to capture some amazing images.

After confirming Villa Festa as our venue, we knew we needed rentals to decorate the space. It was the biggest struggles of the shoot since the it was the day after Valentines day. Event Works saved the day by letting us rent some beautiful pieces from them. They have such a wide variety of items that correlated with our blue vintage theme. Our lounge area and table setup was very important to us in this shoot, so getting these pieces was essential. Lindsey and I wanted statement china for the table! So, the funny thing about that is Gabby has these beautiful vintage blue plates and when she sent Lindsey and I the picture we about fainted! It was perfect and exactly what we were looking for!

When we were looking for a videographer, Kristen mentioned the newest KWP Master photographer, Casey, and her boyfriend also own a film company with her boyfriend called, Chelfrich Weddings! Casey and Zach created an astounding and unique video from our day in Deland! He truly delivered a beautiful video showing our styled shoot. Take a look!

Thank you to all of our vendors for helping us bring our styled shoot to life! This was truly an amazing experience and we are so appreciative of everything we’ve learned from Kristen, her team, vendors and the other interns!