Behind the Scenes of a Styled Shoot + An Interview with District Bliss
It’s always awesome when the Sara(h)s get to work together and this styled shoot was no exception! They gathered a group of fabulous vendors that Sara + Sarah got to know through District Bliss.
Recently, several of our District Bliss vendors got together for a styled shoot. We wanted to share some of the behind-the-scenes photographs. It takes a great deal of work and support to make a styled shoot happen. Each vendor has to pull their weight and everyone has to just trust that it will come together in the way they’d imagined. When it works, it’s like magic!
An interview with the Sara(h)s
How did you come up with the idea for this shoot?
Sara: Well, we were going into wedding season and totally overwhelmed, so obviously we thought it was brilliant to add something else to our plate. Sounds totally reasonable, right? HAHA.
Sarah: Sara asked me and before even really knowing what she had in mind, I said yes! Typical, but I knew it would be awesome!
Sara: Katie, our model/my Photos from the Harty teammate, was sick and dress shopping out of boredom. She sent that dress to me and said she loved it and wanted to do a styled shoot with it. I sent it to Sarah and the conversation sort of exploded out from there.
Sarah: So, basically we start brainstorming, a little Pinteresting, endless video chats, and well, we came up with something pretty amazing!
Sara: Somehow we landed on an ombre tie-dyed dress. I’m not sure, but I think Sarah said that she’d love to do an ombre dress and I said, “Well, I can make that happen!” never having done anything like that before, of course lol.
Sarah: Haha Something like that.
Sara: Next thing I knew, we were doing the styled shoot on the only free day that we both had in 2.5 months. Seriously. We’re kind of crazy. It’s a Sara(h) thing!
How did you select the vendors who participated in this styled shoot?
Sara: We, or at least I, met them through District Bliss. I think Sarah may have known some of them from past events – or at least knew of them because she recommended inviting them to our first Vendor Social.
Sarah: I met one of our vendors through District Bliss and the others I knew previously. When Sara and I discussed the styled shoot, it was important to us to work with vendors we both knew personal and knew that their style would work with our vision. It is much easier to accomplish something if you work with like-minded vendors that you can trust. So, we reached out to a handful of our favorite vendors – who obviously said yes haha – and like always, it turned out amazing!
What were your impressions of working with Sarah as a coordinator/designer for this shoot?
Sara: Haha, well, Sarah‘s super organized, which is awesome. We’ve obviously worked together before and really encourage each other’s creativity. It sort of makes us spiral out of control, which is how we landed on the ombre tie-dyed dress – and that I immediately committed to dyeing it.
Speaking of the dress… Oh, man…HAHA! When Sarah arrived at my house to get ready and saw that I was still tie-dyeing the dress – which I’d committed to doing weeks in advance and just not started… She stopped mid-sentence, mouth open, and stared at the dress sitting with the bottom three inches in a bucket of pink dye. It was probably two seconds, but it felt like a solid 45 to me as she slowly turned to me and said, “Are you seriously still dyeing the dress? You know it needs to be finished like yesterday, right?” HAHA
In all fairness, I’d tested out the drying time and I knew it would be more than ready by the time we needed Katie to slip it on. That’s the photographer part of me; I fly by the seat of my pants and gamble that it will work out in the end. So far, it always has, but that doesn’t mean that the super-organized part of Sarah doesn’t want to deck me during the process! HAHA!
What were your impressions of working with Sara as the photographer for this shoot?
Sarah: Well, that’s an easy question. Sara does great work, is super fun to work with, is very open-minded, and comes up with great input. Oh yes, and man can she tie-dye a dress! I’m a HUGE a DIYer – I couldn’t have done it better myself, so that was impressive.
Sara: You’re being far too kind to me here – or you forgot what it felt like when you arrived at my house to see I was still dyeing the dress! HAHA! The feeling is mutual, lady! <3
How did you feel about the overall shoot?
Sarah: I loved it! Everything couldn’t have been more perfect. We had a beautiful day, got to work with some fabulous vendors.
Sara: Well, I was pleased with the way the photographs came out. We’re being featured on Swooned, which is pretty awesome.
Sarah: After a hard day’s work (fun, but still hard haha), it’s pretty freaking awesome to be recognized and published by Swooned!
Sara: And, I thought it was a great time. It’s fun to work with Sarah because we really push each other; not just creatively, but we also force the other one to accept things that are “scary” for us.
Sarah: Right. Haha
Sara: Sarah had to accept that I was still dyeing the dress when she imagined everything would be packed – and that it could be a disaster. When it worked out, she was obviously happy, but taking a risk like that is scary for her. She forces me to stay on track with my creativity and not go in 100 different directions at once. That’s really hard for me. I like to spit out ideas and then just keep jumping higher and higher. She keeps me within sight of the ground, I guess, which isn’t really natural for me. I’m easily excited and get swept away in my enthusiasm (never take me to Ikea!) haha. I guess that’s why she’s a good partner for me. She keeps me kind of centered, but lets me be myself and do my thing – she just pulls me back before I go too far off track. It’s odd; it’s rare to find someone who is able to do that without stifling me.
Sarah: Sara is always a great, hence why she is my business partner. We have fun – and it’s never a dull moment!
Behind the Scenes Photographs of a Styled Shoot
Photos from the Harty ı Photographer-Photos from the Harty | Signage, backdrop, lollipop labels-Capital Society | Flowers-Highway to Hill | Lollipops and dipped Oreos-Capital Candy Jar | Models-Katie Lingan & Arthur Reinaltt | Hair-PSC Hair Artisty | Cake-The CakeRoom Bakery | Makeup-Izzy B Makeup | Coordinating, Design-US!
