Constructed Nature at Elmore Court

Tell me you’re inspired by nature and passionate about highlighting sustainable practices in the wedding industry, and I’m already there. But when you pick a venue (a super cool, incredibly inspiring, eco-conscious one) and base your whole shoot around their sustainability ethos and rewilding efforts, I’m all ears (and eyes!). But when you then turn that theme into a modern, minimalist, achingly cool editorial combining fine art and documentary photography styles, well, I’m done.

This shoot is everything. What are you waiting for? Get scrolling…and pinning!

Abigail says…

Dating back to the 13th century, Elmore Court is traditionally a family home built to host and entertain guests. This tradition continues today, focusing on exclusive hires for weddings and events. Upholding an environmentally friendly and sustainable ethos, Elmore’s focus on ‘rewilding’ the estate’s surrounding land became a natural focus for our ‘Constructed Nature’ wedding editorial.

Inspired by the ‘rewilding’ ethos, this organic theme uses natural materials to play with the idea of manmade beauty vs the natural rhythms and processes of letting nature ‘rewild’ itself.

Focusing on photography that combines fine art and documentary styles, we wanted to capture authentic, tender moments between our couple. Through this editorial, we have created a wedding story, from the wedding morning preparations to reception celebrations and romantic post-wedding day wild swimming at Elmore’s spring-fed swimming lake.

A warm palette of stone, blush, peach, orange and brown hues has been used. Traditionally chosen for autumnal weddings, these colours were inspired by the warm tones of the estate timber and rammed earth wall construction used to build the Gillyflower reception room.

While getting the ceremony ready, Cecily wears the Arianna Bespoke Emmeline Gown with a rose satin camisole and short set designed to easily slip off when changing to avoid disturbing your hair and makeup. Designed to be worn beyond your wedding day, they fit perfectly within our sustainability brief.

Charlotte from Wilden London creates luxurious, handmade, romantic designs. Here, Cecily wears the ‘Priscilla’ dress, incorporating two key 2022 bridal trends: bows and oversized puffed sleeves. Featuring modern elements and a babydoll style shift pattern, the dress combines the modern with the traditional (much like Elmore itself).

For accessories, we paired the Priscilla gown with a bespoke cathedral-length veil from Rebecca Anne Designs. Specialising in personalised veil designs, Rebecca embroidered the quote ‘Find someone just as wild to run with‘ within the veil to incorporate our ‘wild’ theme. To complement, K.Fines Jewellery provides statement gold accessories, including natural gemstones such as clear crystal quartz and freshwater pearls. Pearls are also found within the beautiful champagne shimmer suede platform heels from Jimmy Choo.

Our groom, Joshua, wears a made-to-measure timeless and classic black tux from Suit Yourself tailors.

Juta Zorubiene created a hair design with a high-end editorial feel but a very achievable style that is easy to wear on your wedding day. Specialising in romantic, modern makeup, Josephine Way Makeup Artist created an understated and fresh look to complement.

Using sustainable floristry methods, large and transferable floor installations of bronze grasses surround the table design to represent the rewilding of the land. By contrast, the table uses varying minimal and structural designs along the centre, with the mechanics of floristry deliberately exposed – recomposing nature’s natural beauty. Neutral linens create a base for the warm colour palette, and handmade, botanically dyed napkins add further textural detail.

We placed earth-coloured, traditionally hand-dipped, taper candles from Smith and the Magpie at either end of the table, helping to balance the design. At the top end, raw sienna pigment is used as a base for the candles to stand on, creating a feeling that they are growing from the earth itself. Warm orange and pink tones are also found within the physalis fruit, stone-coloured marble vessels, Himalayan salt and tall tangerine geums. Large stones are used on the table to add natural textures and tones.

Influenced by the use of natural stone and marble materials in the table design, Joanna from The Orchid Kitchen created showpiece cake designs in the shapes of raw stone that feel like works of abstract art when displayed on the white plinths.

Sticking with the sustainability theme, Helene from Smitten with Ink used recycled paper from paper cups and biodegradable foil for her modern stationery designs. Bold and minimalistic fonts are used, with subtle texture created through blind printing monograms and place settings. A venue illustration is added to the invitation suite, creating a personalised element to the design.

I (Abigail from AR Weddings) and Rebecca from A Thing Like That always had Pearl from Millefleur in mind when putting together the style and mood board for this editorial. Using sustainable floristry methods and sourcing most of her florals from her own wild meadows and country garden, Pearl is passionate about using seasonal and British florals, which we knew would mirror Elmore Court’s self-sufficient principles. Her passion for creating hedgerows and meadow-inspired seasonal designs perfectly fits the ‘rewilding’ emphasis on the designs. Using meadow boxes of bronze grasses to represent the rewilding of the land, Pearl then created structural arrangements, using Apricot Lisianthus, Cappuccino Roses, delicate Brownie Sweet Peas, Quaking Grass and Black Lace Elder foliage. The addition of tall tangerine Geums helped pull together the hints of orange hues used across the scheme.

The lead-up to the day and the days after can be as important as the wedding day itself, allowing you to create wonderful, lasting memories with your friends and families. Working with an exclusive hire venue such as Elmore Court allows you this time and space to enjoy the run-up to and after the wedding celebrations, so if you want a pre or post-wedding day wild swim, then planners like myself can make this happen for you!