Carnival Wedding Styling at Ufton Court

Back in June we featured a Vintage Afternoon Tea Wedding Shoot at Pincents Manor, created by members of the Berkshire Wedding Community. In August they joined forces again to create this stunning carnival styled wedding shoot, which took place at Ufton Court in Berkshire. It was a shoot of “bright colours and lots of fun”, captured beautifully by Jo Richards Photography…

“When I think of carnivals I think of lots of colour and quirkiness, so I wanted to reflect this in the flowers. Luckily, pompom dahlias are the perfect shape and are available in a number of bright colours, so they were a definite! Sunflowers are so bright and cheerful that they had to be in there, and celosia is a very bright and quirky flower that looks a bit like coral or brains! Then I had to get some blue in too, so I chose eryngium for texture and got the bright blues in using ostrich feathers, and more quirkiness with peacock feathers. I introduced even more colour to the flowers by using jellybeans in the tall vases and covering jam jars with balloons, and finally, kept my children amused by getting them to stick brightly coloured tissue paper to some tall bottles!” Andrea Fearon of Andrea Fearon Floral Design

“The carnival themed shoot was a joy to work on as it gave every one of us an opportunity to step away from the usual pastels associated with weddings. We knew the impact had to be big, and colour was the name of the game. For the bridal belt I decided to keep it simple but impactful, and the harlequin style ribbon weaving lent itself to this perfectly. It provided a great contrast to the delicate lace of the gown and added the pop of colour we were looking for. I also added a coloured net underskirt to match the shoes. Simple, coloured flower frills added colour and texture to the table settings.” Jo Richards of Indigo Sage

“My hair creations for the shoot were inspired by the Carnival theme itself; fun, big, bold decor and bright colours. With all of the ideas coming together for the shoot I could have created something a bit crazy and wacky, but I really wanted to show brides you can have a big, bold, fun hairstyle which can still look beautiful and not look out of place for a wedding day.

“For my first hairstyle I wanted to create something big and beautiful with a sense of elegance about it; this style really shows brides that a bigger updo can really look stunning, and give a wow factor to a finished look without looking overdone or taking any of the attention away from the wedding dress. I felt this style complemented the dress, the model and the carnival theme, the fresh flower clip which Andrea created was beautiful and gave it the colourful detail needed for the theme.” Sarah Fuller of Sarah Fuller Wedding Hair

“I have seen an increasing amount of brides opting for fun, bright colours recently, and so I took some of my inspiration from them. Strong eyes, along with enhanced lashes and brows are certainly popular at the moment, so I wanted to incorporate these into our model Laura’s look for the photo shoot. I then chose bright blues and teals on the eyes, inspired by the colours in peacock feathers. Lashings of mascara and false lashes finished the eyes perfectly. This was teamed with a gentle berry lip gloss to give a hint of pink and balance the eyes. Although there was a much greater use of colour than brides usually opt for, I still had to remember that it was bridal make-up! In all my bridal make-up work I just enhance the natural beauty of the client; it’s important to still look and feel like you on the day.” Emma Rivers of Emma Rivers Bridal Make Up

“Sweets are still part of a lot of weddings, and we have seen trends from Sweet Trees to Sweet Carts/Tables. For the carnival shoot I wanted something big, bold and different ! The Sweet Mural was great fun to make, and I love that every mural can be truly unique to each wedding.” Kelly Bridle of Sweetalicious

“When we first discussed the idea for a carnival shoot we decided we should try to use four main colours, red, blue, yellow and turquoise, so when we bought everything together it didn’t clash. I was very excited to be able to go a little ‘wild’ with a very bright, quirky cake that represented these colours. With the addition of circles, diamonds, stars and stripes my cake was done! To add to the overall picture we felt that the shoot wouldn’t be complete without the addition of jelly, but not just a single jelly flavour, but strawberry, orange, blackcurrant and lemon jellies interspersed with milk jellies in the same flavour. The result was very appealing sparkling layers of colour! Cake pops are always popular so I squeezed a few in, decorated with bunting, again in the four main colours. As a fun touch I also made some cupcake ice creams, which children seem to love. All in all, the bursts of colour were important and I think we certainly all achieved that.” Jane Howell of Iced Gems By Jane

“It was great fun to use such bold, daring colours and fonts to design the carnival range of wedding stationery. The die cut collection includes a 3 ticket save the date notification, a ticket style wedding invitation with a perforated tear off RSVP, ticket style order of service, ticket place cards and table number, a big top table plan, ticket bunting, mini bunting and gift tags. I used the carnival ticket as the basic shape to work my designs around; it is a distinctive shape which epitomises the theme and it worked really well with all the different items of stationery. We coordinated the colours for the photo shoot but they could be changed to match any colour scheme.” Clare MacDonald of Digital Paper Studios

“For my second hairstyle I really wanted to show off a pretty, quirky, fun style. I wanted the hair to look similar to a fascinator which had been placed to the front side of the head.

“This is a fun hairstyle which shows brides you can try something different without it compromising your wedding day look.” Sarah Fuller of Sarah Fuller Wedding Hair