Styled Shoots Elena Balkcom Styled Shoots Elena Balkcom

Fall Vintage: October Styled Shoot

Laurel Avenue organized, styled and hosted a fall styled shoot!
Hooray!

 

First things first.

Our vendors, y'all.

Ashlea Rosado, Make Up Artist

Madison Ties

Macon Bridal Consignment

Strong Tower Fellowship Church

Johna Castro

Davis Wholesale Floral

 

These vendors were the absolute greatest to work with. Beyond generous, punctual, grateful, enthusiastic....I could go on. Take a peek at the collaborative work we created!

 

Adding some sprigs of chocolate mint leaves from the backyard was a GOOD decision. The brides gets to smell it all day! Flowers styled by Laurel Avenue.

Adding some sprigs of chocolate mint leaves from the backyard was a GOOD decision. The brides gets to smell it all day! Flowers styled by Laurel Avenue.

And our two beautiful models:
Tierre & Maxwell.

Total stunnas.

Can you believe this dress is on consignment? You can go to Macon Bridal and get mint-condition dresses for a fraction of their retail price...like this size 8 Allure gown.

Fellas I know you're drooling over this handmade bow tie. Madison Ties is our girl. She makes trendy vintage bow ties like none I have ever seen. We were literally itching to feature her. She takes orders too, y'all.

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This stunning, natural make-up glow was created by Makeup Artist Ashlea Rosado. She was so versatile and willing to provide exactly what we needed for Tierre.

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Strong Tower Fellowship is the perfect place to get married. It somehow captures the darling chapel feel, but also has vaulted ceilings and stained glass. Absolutely consider having your wedding here.

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God was so good to us. We had an amazing Sunday. We got every shot we wanted and even ran right on schedule. It could not have gone any more smoothly. We were so blessed with beautiful weather, and no hold ups. So excited and thankful for His favor on our styled shoot.

Johna, my love, your photography makes the world look its most beautiful.

Wonderful work, everyone.

Thank you.

Show our vendors some TLC and like them on Facebook!

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Friday DIY Elena Balkcom Friday DIY Elena Balkcom

Friday DIY: Paper Flower Bride

Tuesday's post, {Trend Tuesday} was all about wedding flowers.

Take heart, DIY Bride, we have a post for you, my dear.

For the bride who is crafty or frugal or both I tracked my time and my costs so you can decide if this floral adventure is worth your while.

All you need are some skills and inspiration (as seen below).

...that's Indonesian blend (thanks Joel) with hazelnut creamer, and Ray Lamontagne singing sweetly to me in the background. 

 


Raise your hand if you've made tissue paper flowers before and been a little disappointed.

*raise*

Yeah, if you do this, you have to start with shopping. Here's the skinny on the Materials:

  • FLORAL CREPE

When I first read about floral crepe, I thought, "What the crepe??" (Couldn't resist). But really, it's just like birthday party streamers but it comes is a huge roll! 10 feet by 3 feet, actually. And guess how much each roll costs? $2.50. IT'S CHEAPER THAN TISSUE PAPER, PEOPLE. Just order it. Believe me, I looked at Target, Michael's, Hobby Lobby, Paper Source, JoAnn and Walmart and no one has it. (I know, right?!)
I ordered mine from Castle In The Air.  You'll have to wait a few days for it, but it's so worth it {bonus: their packaging is adorable}.

  • FLORAL TAPE

Floral tape is the weirdest. It feels like thin paper until you stretch it a little bit which activates the stickiness. It pretty much only sticks to itself, and boy is it swell for stems. I don't use any glue, I just wrap my leaves and petals into the tape. Works great.

  • FLORAL WIRE

18 gauge is the best. It's not expensive at

For the leaves on the left I used DOUBLE ply crepe paper. It's like thin cardboard almost. It's super thick paper and absorbs paint nicely. 

For the leaves on the left I used DOUBLE ply crepe paper. It's like thin cardboard almost. It's super thick paper and absorbs paint nicely. 

Foliage: 6 minutes per stem,
              approx $0.30 of materials per stem

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Poppies: 7 minutes per stem, 
             approx $0.25 of materials per stem

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Rose Buds: 4 minutes per stem, 
                    approx $0.30 of materials per stem

You can find lots of petal and leaf templates online. I definitely suggest purchasing a book of how-tos. Hopefully this post will give you enough info to experiment with, so if you decide to get serious you'll know if you want to invest in a crafty undertaking on a larger scale. Who knows- maybe you can get your bridesmaids in on it!

 

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I'm gonna be honest. These first two Peonies took me almost 30 minutes each. My third one took only about 15 once I got the hang of wrapping the petals. The time was worth it though, considering the materials for one peony total around $0.45 (compared to fresh peonies which go for SIX BUCKS a stem around here).

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OH, and by the way: if you try out this DIY, let us know on Facebook, share a pic, and we will send you a bag of goodies, compliments of Laurel Avenue.

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Happy Crafting!
 

Elena

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