Flowers and Idea: Sonja de Graaf (FunkyBird Wedding Design)
Organisation : Roos Van Der Wielen (Trouwen in Toscane)
Model: Sonja Vogel (Sonja Vogel)
Makeup and hair: Caterina Pelosi (Oh My Blush)
Photography: Milos Dokmanovic (FunkyBird Photography)
Location: Forest near Florence, Italy
Text by Sonja de Graaf (@funkybirdfirenze)
Working as a wedding florist today means we have a lot of work all concentrated in a few months of summer and then the preparations for the upcoming year during winter time. These off-season months are perfect to get new ideas and create fun and inspiring images that don’t necessarily have the more common ‘wedding look’. When I started working as a florist about 15 years ago, I was also a student at the Academy of Fine Art in Florence Italy. My studies were mostly painting, photography and of course art history. For this shoot I got inspired by the famous painting ‘Bacchus’ by Caravaggio, the still live paintings from the Dutch masters and the woodlands that surround Florence.
I still have my own wedding dress and thought it would make the perfect base for a fairy tale like costume. The original gown was custom made by Thandora bruidsmode in the Netherlands and all the lace on it comes from a heirloom night gown dating back to the 1400’s. Since the lace turned a bit yellow after hundreds of years we decided to bathe it in tea thus enhancing the antique aspect of it. The gown is champagne coloured and has chocolate brown accents in it, as does the top. For the shoot I wanted to make the gown bigger and more dramatic so I used strands of dusky pink and copper brown fabric to create another layer on top and created a floral headpiece from silk flowers I bought wholesale. Making the headpiece was so much fun! I found a tutorial on Youtube for the base and then just started playing around with shapes and colours. At the moment of the shoot in November all of Tuscany turned yellow, orange and red so I wanted to use this beautiful fall palette for the set-up and use lots of seasonal fruits and veggies. Apples, grapes, pomegranate, cactus fruit, butternut squash etc..
It had rained all week incessantly but while we were preparing the set up in the woods the sun came through giving us spectacular light fall and warming up the atmosphere. To add a bit of a gloomy mysterious feel to some of the images we used a smoke bomb which was hilarious because we had never worked with one before, trying not to choke our wonderful model and our former bride Sonja Vogel (or set her on fire) She was such a dream to work with, patient with all our ideas, never complaining about being cold and carrying this heavy flower piece for hours on her head. She is an active blogger and instagrammer in the Netherlands (@sonjavogel_) and we are super happy she came on board with us. Another big thumbs up for Caterina (@ohmyblush) who worked with me on the headpiece and helped me out a lot, but who also did the stunning hair and dramatic make up. Roos (@trouwenintoscane) as always was my partner in crime helping out on al fronts. But the final and biggest word of appreciation must go to Milos (@FunkyBird_Photography). Oh My God !!! I had pictures in my mind of how I’d like the final results to be, but he absolutely smashed it. I know everyone believes their work is the best, but I am stunned by how the photo’s ended up. I hope everyone enjoys this magical story we’ve created.
