Maple Meadows Farm Wedding Venue | Styled Bridal Session

This styled bridal session at the Maple Meadows Farm wedding venue was stunning! The Niagara & GTA wedding vendors that came out absolutely rocked it from start to finish. Make sure to read the full blog post and make it to the bottom to see who participated and the links to their websites!

I had never done a styled “Bridal Session” before but the thought of doing one totally intrigued me, having the opportunity to unleash my creative mojo and to have complete control over a bridal session, it was going to be amazing!

You know when you have a big idea and sometimes it get’s to be so big that it seems so far out of reach, well that’s what happened to me. As my clients know, I don’t like to half-ass anything, so after conceptualizing this great idea last November (2017) I kept putting it on the back burner, thinking, the weather isn’t perfect yet, I need the best vendors on board, I have no time to organize this, where will I get the models, the dress, the location, etc. I also wondered how I would accomplish this amongst my already packed schedule. “I’ll have to do it later” became my mantra.

After parking the idea for a couple of months, a lightbulb went off, I reached out to one of my fabulous bridal clients (Brittany Carovillano) who also happens to be an incredible wedding planner (Event Life Entertainment). I asked, she said yes and we began our journey to what became a magical and incredible session.

After a few planning sessions and reaching out to Maple Meadows Farm, we finally had a stunning location, date, a baseline concept, and a plan in motion! Brittany worked on getting all the vendors in line and I found us the perfect couple through a social media model call that I put out. Everything was coming up Millhouse, until two days before.

Red Light, Green Light or Yellow Light?

I had just purchased a fancy new Sigma Art Series 85mm lens that I could not wait to use for this session, as I was calibrating the focus I got a text from Brittany. “Can we talk?”….ugh oh. She called and explained that the hair & make-up group she had on board backed out at the last minute because of staffing issues and the weather forecast was not looking so good for us, “maybe we should re-schedule?”…. My heart sank, we couldn’t re-schedule, I had been putting this off for so long and we were so close! After talking it through we decided the show had to go on. It was now like a regular wedding with everything already in motion, there was no stopping this train. So with fingers crossed, a couple of prayers to the powers that be, we were a Green Light.

June 6, 2018 (Day of the shoot)

I woke up to a cold, gray, rainy, miserable day, feeling a little bummed but kept positive thoughts that the weather would change. I headed out to the farm around 3:30 pm, Jessica Sanchez from Boutique Linen rentals was setting up with Brittany and the other vendors had started to arrive.

We had two main “scenes” staged at opposite ends of the event area and I planned to also use some of the sweet garden locations around the property. Everything was coming together, all of the ideas and shots that I had dreamed about were about to become reality and I was elated!

Everyone was in good spirits and happy to be a part of this collaborative experience, most of us had never met before. I met Amy, our last minute hair and make-up hero as I was dropping my stuff off in the main house. We introduced ourselves and I learned Brittany had found her online the day before, she had driven all the way to our Port Colborne location from the GTA to work with us! She too had always wanted to be a part of a styled session and saw it as a great opportunity!

5:15 pm, I get a text from our “Bride” “running late- stuck at work!” AHH! There was already not much time for Hair & Make-up as we were working to start shooting by 6:30 pm to capture the golden hour and I didn’t want to rush through the shoot! They arrived around 5:30 and even with only an hour to do full hair and make-up, Amy rocked it!

While everyone was chatting and getting ready, the amazing Monica from MyMotif arrived, Brittany and I had tossed a lot of requests her way for this shoot, hoping she could accommodate with just a couple of arrangements, she showed up with EVERYTHING that we asked for! She went ABOVE And beyond! Monica is seriously my fave floral artists, and that is truly what she is, a floral artist!

6:30 pm (Show Time!)

As our gorgeous models, real-life, hella-hawt newlyweds Laura and Jon Martin, we’re just about ready to rock I looked outside and started doing a little happy dance, THE SUN WAS OUT! This day that seemed like everything was going to fail was now completely magical, all the vendors stayed for the shoot to help tweak, set, primp and help out as we seamlessly captured all the beauty around us.

I learned a lot from this session, the biggest one is to never hold back from trying new things! I loved doing this styled session and can not wait to do another one with these great vendors in the fall! Vendor links and more information below.

Big special thanks to Laurie Pye of Maple Meadows Farm for having us use her amazing event location, her warm and incredible hospitality, for having the cutest puppy on site for snuggles and all of her hard work helping us set-up and tear down. If you’re getting married in 2019/2020 get in touch with Laurie, their soon to be built re-furbished barn is going to be THE best new wedding venue in Niagara!