A Vintage Picnic Love Shoot

My sister and I have been talking about pursuing styling, well..engagement styling in particular, as a means of expanding our market for our online vintage clothing store. So as soon as my friend Darlene agreed to be our first customer, we started with the planning ASAP.

Here's a sneak peak

I never really thought that engagement shoots were this labor intensive! We were also lucky that our bride-to-be was very hands-on and did the props for the set. All we had to do that day was assist them with their clothes change, show pegs to the Make up artist and set up the picnic area. And I thought is was that easy, specially when it started to rain so hard after we had set up! waaahhh!

Oh the challenges that we went through that day, good thing we were surrounded by very supportive people.

We were also very lucky to have the opportunity to work with the couple's young and creative team, Ruffa and Mike Photography, Marvin Barbarona and Khite Bautista.

Here's what went on that day:

The boyfriend (the much needed muscle in our team) and I arrived at the location at about 11am, there were  already a lot of people having photo shoots within the park. 

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The couple brought their adopted puppy daughter  "Inday" :) I'm sure this super cute dog will have a lot of fans because of her special appearance in their photos

My very supportive boyfriend talking to the groom-to-be Robert while Darlene's getting made up

Hair and Make up Artist, Ms. Khite Bautista, doing her magic on Darlene's face.

We all had our lunch first and then started on the engagement video, instead of waiting for them to finish, the boyfriend and I started to set up the picnic scene on the other side of the park.

yes that's my haggard looking but happy face with Nards :)

Nards doing some finishing touches

We then set up their colorful picnic using Darlene's vintage artifacts and colorful DIYs that were the envy of all onlookers! :)

That's me, fixing and making the set imperfectly perfect :)

DONE! and so all we had to do was wait...but notice those gray skies on the left?

As soon as the couple arrived for the "picnic scene" it drizzled and then the rain fell down so hard! Nards, myself and Darlene's relatives hurriedly packed up the set because most of them were made of paper!

Oh yes, it was that dark..

We (nards and myself and Inday) then took refuge at the nearby amphitheater, waiting and praying for the rain to stop

and after a few minutes the sun came out and it was just drizzling. 

As soon as the rain stopped, we claimed our location again and set up the picnic WITH A VENGEANCE! buwahahahaha!

Darlene's uncle managed to find long sticks for the bunting flags and we added more of Darlene's projects that made the set complete.

FINALLY!!! :)

Mike and Marvin in action

Marvin was very nice and approachable, he was open with the couple's ideas and also worked well together with the photographers.

Ruffa and Mike as usual were very nice :) this was the first time that I have actually worked with them (and they told me this was the first time they have worked with an engagement stylist too), they were so down-to-earth, my boyfriend even asked me if I've known them before, hehe..bait nilang lahat promise!

We had the perfect location, don't you just love that lake?! the trees and the sky's reflection and the sunset made their photo a bit more romantic too.

But because of the time constraint (the guards instructed us to leave the park at 5pm) so instead of wearing 4 outfits, the couple just got to wear 2 :( 

There were no lights as we walked out the park but the team still decided to shoot the final photos and video frames using a car's head lamps. Talk about rising up to the challenge! I'm sure the outcome would still look as elegant and creative.

We all got very tired physically but were extremely happy because of the experience. I can't wait to see the final outcome!

teaser photo taken from Ruffa and Mike's site

Credits:

Prenup Styling: Christine and Midori Banayat
Darlene's Clothes and accessories: Ombre Vintage
Hair and Make up: Khite Bautista
Photography: Ruffa and Mike Photography
Video: Marvin Barbarona