Alternative Britannia Creative Bridal Shoot — You Have Been Warned!

This is a wed­ding indus­try shoot which stands out from the crowd of red, white and blue-bedecked blog fea­tures. And while I might sam­ple a cup­cake and wave a bit of bunting come jubilee week­end (I’ve moved back to a lit­tle Cum­brian vil­lage — my Dad will make me!), inside my heart this is the Bri­tan­nia I can relate to. The story behind the shoot is just as inspir­ing — over to Mat to tell you more.

Alter­na­tive patri­otic wed­ding inspi­ra­tion — Britannia

Back in Feb­ru­ary, my good friend and design col­lab­o­ra­tor Ann McK­avney and I began plan­ning an idea with the whole Dia­mond Jubilee/Britain/ Olympic theme in mind. What we didn’t want was an image that would be instantly for­get­table with flags, bunting and cup­cakes. We came up with the idea of Bri­tan­nia after Abi­gail James Her­bert spoke with Ann at the Tat­ton Park Wed­ding Show where we were all exhibiting.

Abbie was sport­ing her usual beau­ti­fully coiffed mohawk hairdo and exud­ing her own unique style. Instantly the idea of Bri­tan­nia, who has con­tro­ver­sially been side­lined in British cul­ture and removed from our coinage, was born. We thought it through for a week or so and asked Abbie if she’d like to be involved. She agreed, thought we were mad, and before she knew it was being mea­sured for a spe­cially com­mis­sioned dress by bridal cou­turier Erica Stacey.

Clare Arden from Harry Jon came on board to pro­vide some crazy hair and makeup and Damian Hall was the man who was going to cap­ture it all on film.

Another Bank Hol­i­day in Man­ches­ter was book­marked for the shoot and know­ing our luck with the weather the deci­sion was made to shoot it all in my unit in Hyde. This build­ing houses all kinds of indus­trial machin­ery and would pro­vide the per­fect back­drop. As we are all from the North of Eng­land, it was right and proper to go with an indus­trial, cre­ative vibe using all the raw, unstaged and ran­dom equip­ment as our props.

A ban­quet­ing table, fit for a Queen, was set up with a Union Jack hastily spray painted on the wall behind. As a flo­ral and venue designer I indulged all my favorite plea­sures, masses of flow­ers, crys­tal, glass, can­dles and as much detail as I could fit in with the Bri­tan­nia theme com­ing through.

Abbie rocked it as a strong war­rior princess, rul­ing the north­ern waves. Clare used Mad Max style hair exten­sions, lip tat­toos and a vari­ety of dif­fer­ent looks through­out rang­ing from Boudica to punk to rock star. British bull­dogs made an appear­ance and a Bichon Frisee came along as a nod to our mul­tira­cial society!

Ann designed two head­pieces and a sev­eral items of jew­ellery includ­ing a bracelet made from old six­pences, drilled and hung from a British ster­ling sil­ver chain. Bri­tan­nia stood resplen­dent with a designer silk gown, joke shop tri­dent and a dust­bin lid shield, heav­ily cov­ered with flow­ers, of course. Sev­eral themed bou­quets were made with sea­sonal flow­ers, red leather barbed wire, offi­cial Min­istry of Defence Jubilee rib­bon and old 50p pieces, the only coins left in cir­cu­la­tion with Bri­tan­nia still on them.

Abbie and her hus­band Dar­ren con­structed an amaz­ing Bri­tan­nic white choco­late cake, with hand painted detail and Damian and his wife Char­lotte used some very clever light­ing tech­niques to add to the mood of the day.

As a cre­ative col­lec­tive, we made a great team and hope­fully put Bri­tan­nia back in the picture.

Cre­ative shoot by Man­ches­ter wed­ding suppliers

• www.redfloral.co.uk Red Flo­ral Architecture
• www.damianhall.com Damian Hall Photography
• www.butterfliesandangels.co.uk But­ter­flies and Angels Chocolatiers
• www.eleventhheaven.com Eleventh Heaven head­wear and styling
• www.harryjon.com Harry Jon make up and hair
• www.ericastaceycouture.co.uk Erica Stacey wed­ding dress designer