Birdwing Estate Styled Shoot {Central Minnesota Wedding Photographer}

I had the pleasure of working with some amazing vendors for a styled shoot in Litchfield, MN. I want to get my name out there in this area and central Minnesota and was given the idea to do a styled shoot. I had never done anything like this before. I was lost, but dove in and thought about what I wanted to shoot. 

My ideal wedding is: Outdoors, within trees. Lots of do it yourself decorations. Personal touches from the bride. Vintage. I am in love with all things lace and old. Ask my husband, my happy place is junk shops. At first that was my theme. Outdoor vintage classic. That was too broad. I needed to narrow it down. 

1940s. It was a simpler time, things were valued more. That was it. 

On to the venue. 

Birdwing was PERFECT for me. They hold their events outside, tented if need be. I LOVE working outdoors and weddings out in nature are certainly a favorite. Their location is right on the lake with acres of trails for endless photo opportunities. Amazing. They were game for this adventure so on to flowers. 

Dawn at Poppy Petal Florals was amazing to work with. Even during a very busy time, she put together lovely arrangements for me. Easy to talk to and I was so happy to have her on the team. 

Cake. Where do you go in Central Minnesota? Cold Spring Bakery of course!  Lynn was so accommodating and I knew she would have a beautiful cake for this shoot. I was not disappointed. 

Stationary. Now I didn’t put too much thought into this, to be honest, on my own wedding, so to find someone that made beautiful stationary was new for me. Katie Murphy was the first name to pop up in my search, and her work is amazing. It fit perfectly in our scene. 

Dress. Again, searching out of my realm for dress shops was harder for me. I was traveling two hours to the venue and wanted my vendors in reasonable distance from each other to be able to pick up and grab the items I needed as I traveled up there. Wedding & Tux Connection was so excited to be a part of this, I knew I had found the right vendor! Jen knew exactly the look I had in mind and let us use two dresses, and both were gorgeous. 

Make-up artist. I knew that my second shooter could work some impressive magic, and we wanted the model’s hair down for this shoot. But I wanted her to experience photographing everything. So, the search was on. Amanda was willing to drive over an hour for our shoot. That to me was impressive in itself. She was in. 

Models. Now, I wanted to have someone local so they wouldn’t have to travel far for the shoot. Luckily I had some connections and my models were friends with a friend of mine. Perfect. Sarah was willing to drive to the dress shop to get fitted for a dress. She was willing to be cold. Perfect.

So, we have all of this planned for months. The date was set. It worked out perfectly with spring break so I could drop my kids off with my in laws for a mini vacation. Everything fit that week. We had some super nice weather coming into March and I was confident that we would have a decent day. 

Oh boy. Did I forget where I lived? Minnesota is unpredictable. I watched the weather constantly every day for a week leading up to the shoot. First it said that it would be in the 50s, awesome! Then the storm talks started. Cold, snow, wet, all on our shoot day. The rest of the week was fine! Why oh why?

We were going to do this. Snow or no snow. We headed up there and were determined to make it a great day. 

We arrived at each vendor and picked up the cake, dress and flowers. We were ready. Then, poor Amanda got a flat tire. She was not deterred, she was on her way. 

Jenny, my second shooter, and I began with the details. We took a hike around the property and found a little grove of trees by the road that worked perfectly with our mason jar idea. The wind, oh it was against us, but we toughed it out and I think came up with some beautiful shots. 

Our models arrived on time and were so awesome. They were troopers and Jesse, the “groom” was a great sport. I don’t know many husbands that would go along with something like this with such grace. 

Amanda made it! While she got Sarah ready, we all stood around and chatted. I wanted to get photos for Amanda of her at work, and that’s what we did! 

 I’ll be honest, I started to get nervous. Our goal was to be shooting the models by 5pm, it was going on 6:30, but you can’t rush art and that’s what Amanda did, she made Sarah into a work of art. Perfection. 

We had to work fast to beat the failing light. We still hadn’t gotten any snow and I started to think this “storm” was a hoax. It was terribly cold, so we would have worked quickly anyway. Sarah was so gracious and took it all in stride. Jesse encouraged her from the side and I loved that. So sweet. 

Thank you THANK YOU to all of the vendors that participated in this shoot. I literally could not have done it without you! Thank you to my second shooter Jenny for being a rockstar and putting up with my crazy ideas. 

If you are getting married in the Litchfield area I highly recommend these vendors for your event!! They are awesome and you will not regret it! 

Dress: http://www.weddingtuxedoconnection.com

Flowers: http://www.poppypetalsfloralandgifts.com/

Stationary: http://katiemurphydesign.com/home

Cake: http://www.coldspringbakery.com/

Venue: http://www.birdwingestate.com/

Hair and Make-up: Amanda Longie-Niewsma motivescosmetics.com/amandarenee