Ever wanted to know what goes on at a magazine? Wedding Ideas MD Rachel Southwood gives you the low-down on what it takes to do the Wedding Ideas covershoot.
Working on a wedding magazine is a dream job but with four-weekly deadlines, the Wedding Ideas Awards and keeping up with crazy show season, it’s busy and at very occasionally a teeny bit stressful.
So, our shoots are a chance to remember who our readers are and work with models to make sure we are creating cover looks that you can aspire to, and actually achieve…
Styling the wedding ideas covershoot
One thing we have learned is that the hair and make-up for our girls has to be perfect.
During the wedding ideas covershoot we often use Rachel Louise. She is one of the best bridal hair stylists in the UK who is booked for weddings almost every week of the year.
For yesterday’s shoot we worked with Ashley Gamble and the legendary Nick Malenko from Royston Blythe. I’ve had the pleasure of working with Nick for over ten years. I launched and edited two of the UK’s biggest hair magazines and often worked with Nick then.
Ashley and Nick are a power-pack of creative genius, specialising in wonderful soft curls and sleek updos. Hair with va-va-voom!
We keep the bridal make-up subtle for the wedding ideas covershoot, understanding that most brides want to look fresh-faced, natural, glowing and to accentuate their eyes.
Our make-up artist Sarah does this brilliantly.
Editor Rachel Morgan chose dresses from some of your favourite manufacturers, including Justin Alexander, Maggie Sottero, Trudy Lee and Enzoani. Rach has such a great eye for what will work on camera, as well as suit the models’ shapes.
She’s being doing these shoots for seven years now, and I always say that no-one knows wedding dresses like she does – she can tell us who designed a bride’s dress on first sight of the pictures – awesome!
The little details
Details editor Sophie is in charge of accessories and works with Rachel and Andy Allen (art director) to style the Wedding Ideas covershoot.
For this shoot she chose accessories from Chez Bec, Flo and Percy (including Una Healy‘s EXACT headpiece), Tantrums and Tiaras, Sweetheart Vintage and Julieann Beads, and we were spoilt for choice.
Nick Malenko told us that almost all of his brides this year have worn statement headpieces, and we had a table full of goodness to choose from.
We always work with Sabine from GLily for our bouquets.
Sabine is right on top of the game – a big name in the industry with some huge celebrity weddings and venues in her portfolio.
She knows that we love colour, but she also couldn’t resist creating us a terribly trendy ‘all white’ hand tied posy.
Check out the next six issues for flower inspiration from the gorgeous Sabine.
The Models
Our models we used for the Wedding Ideas covershoot were two blondes and two brunettes – included one of the original TOWIE members – the Essex girl with a brain, Laura Ziepe!
We try to keep the mood of our photoshoots fun, friendly and I always try to create a delicious picnic style lunch. It’s a highlight of the day for me!
We also have a playlist created especially to get everyone in the mood, and well, it’s a WRAP!
