STYLED SHOOT: HEAVY METAL WEDDING INSPIRATION

After Australian sun, cliffs of Cornwall, sunny barn weddings today something totally different. A wonderfully styled, kick ass, heavy metal inspired shoot styled by Michaela of Clear Hearts and photographed by Paola de Paola.

This couple are strong, daring, madly in love and blissfully married. They’re ready to rock, do shots and dance the night away into eternity.

Their colour choices are a gorgeous winter palette of black and purple, with a hint of silver from intricate patterns of piercing studs.

From a tattoo artist creating matching tattoos, to synchronised headbanging to their favourite song, this shoot is a kick-ass statement that women don’t have to be sugar-sweet to be bridal. Your day is your day, and love is love!

This shoot comes from a desire to represent women and femmes in wedding media as bold yet bridal. It’s important to me as the founder of Clear-Hearts – a completely inclusive alternative event planning service – to show that you can be a real princess on your big day, just by being yourself. Even if you don’t fit into the stereotypical “bride” mould. Moulds can be broken, and it’s okay to paint them black.

I wanted to create an original and exciting day of tattoos, Jack Daniels (instead of champagne, obviously) and capture the enjoyment of their love and their friends celebrating at their dream reception.

The models definitely had more fun than anyone else on the day. They’d never met, but are both incredible Bosses in daily life, so naturally they clicked straight away.

Hannah is the founder of Void Hair Extensions and Sal is is the Director of The Centre, a training organisation based in Shoreditch.

Through research and industry networking, I was able to hand-pick all the suppliers based on their company ethos, originality and style. Social media and wedding events are a great place to build relationships and business partners, and once these companies started sending me pictures and creative briefs, I was even more inspired.

Both models have lots of tattoos, which were brought to life by the incredible bespoke dresses from Legend Bridal and the beautiful jewellery by Hex Cavelli to add extra sparkle. You heard it here first, the future is bridal dresses with tattoos, chains and shining studs.

The model’s shoes are made by your’s truly, to correspond with the already knock-out ensemble; whilst the signage and stationery come from Cellar Door Calligraphy, made with a unique mix of traditional script on a painterly background.

The makeup was strong but still feminine, designed by Rachel from Makeup in Orangeries, she suggested the elegant dewy base to brighten the look, as we didn’t want to go too sinister. Rachel even made the tattoos look real, which is such a hard thing to do.

Complementing the makeup are veils by the ever-cool McFayden Millinery, who took the brief and ran with it with astonishing results.

Trinity Bar in Harrow was the perfect venue for this sassy shoot. Featuring a pentagram on the ceiling, it hosts all kinds of cool parties and gigs every night of the week. This vibe, coupled with the beautiful light-up letters from Doris Loves, made a classic back-drop for a heavy metal reception. My venue styling reflected this theme with reds, purples and blacks – using strong focus on the table setting and balloons.

Naturally, there was a lot of DIY, with some of my own handy-work on the old china and milk bottles, sprayed black for a gorgeously gothic cake table.
A vegan baker was a must, and Tiny Sarah Cakes was one of the first companies we had to ask.
Sarah immediately understood the brief and made the sumptuous all-black chocolate cake using purple florals, fitting the colour-story beautifully.

There’s tongue in cheek humour with coasters from the hilarious A Braw Wedding, and the flowers are from Wild Renata Flowers, wildly beautiful and non-traditional. Just like our marriers, the perfect winter bouquet for a metal-lover’s wedding. Remember, it doesn’t always need to be dark colours and funeral florals for alternative-themed wedding days.

The Jackets are from Born to Thread, lightening the mood and adding style with fun and unique designs.

Our photographer was Paola de Paola, my first choice for this setting as she has had her stunning work recently published on the front cover of Your London Wedding with an enchanting same-sex couple. Her work is incredibly honest and real, I wanted this shoot to support women without over-edited or airbrushed nonsense.