BOW TIES ARE COOL!

Rose Tinted Photography

I'm liking the fact that my very handsome (and extraordinarily dapper) husband has been sporting the bow tie as of late. He's made one all by himself on the sewing machine, and my mother has made a few as well using different patterned fabrics. I must say they look great on him Doctor Who style with his tweed blazer.

OLIVIA & SIMON'S WEDDING RECEPTION STYLING DETAILS

Rose Tinted Photography

I still can't over how incredible this barn was as a Wedding Reception venue! On all the major wedding blogs, there is always amazing wooden barns that just don't exist here in little New Zealand. They are only accessible if you know someone who owns a private residence that holds one. Olivia & Simon were so blessed to have the use of the horse barn at Sonshine Ranch! It held both sentimental value and a great aesthetic for their dream day as this is the Ranch where they met and now live and work together.

The style for this was rustic with a feminine touch. The tables were decorated with pearls, lace covered jars with tealights, and vintage china teacups turned into candles. Hessian table runners and the jars held the floral posies of pale pink gerberas, babies breath and fragrant freesia. There was a lot of wooden elements to keep with the rustic vibe of the stables, but there were many touches of elegance such as the candelabras in cream to contrast with the wood. Romantic lighting with tealights in lace wrapped  and fairy lights was key to set the atmosphere for the evening.

The beautiful cake was made by Olivia's very talented Mother who decorated it with lace and iced flowers. It was placed on a large slice of tree trunk which was prepared by Simon and his brothers/groomsmen. The gorgeous wall art using vintage lace doilies was made by the maid of honour's mother who also supplied the freesias from her own garden. She also ran the set up on the day and was a massive blessing, always going above and beyond to help make the day amazing.

Olivia's sister Jess designed the wedding stationery including the invitations, seating charts, place cards and favour packaging. The favours were home-made again by Olivia's mother who made rocky road wrapped in plastic and topped with a pearl decoration. The typographic & illustrative signage was hand drawn by yours truly. Many of the decorative elements were from my collection such as the suit case stack, blackboards and mirrors, crates, world globe, some of the lace fabric and the white candle lanterns. The fabrics and table linens were supplied by a family friend.

So many wonderful family and friends of the couple helped clean up the barn and set this all up. Special mention to the bridal party who worked really hard in setting up and help organise the event. Seeing it all come together was amazing! I just love how weddings bring people together. They say a community raises a child but I also think that is true for couples as well. It takes a lot of model relationships, advice, good friends and mentors to grow a relationship. A wedding is a perfect example of all these people coming together to contribute in any way that helps. Whether it's greeting people at the door, preparing food, doing dishes, making something crafty, singing a song, helping with the organisation. For me it is such a blessing to use my creative eye to conjure ideas and pull looks together.

My dear friends Stephan & Nakita did her wedding photography so be sure to keep an eye on their brand new website to see the amazing images of the day! Their photograph's tell stories and I just love the moments they choose to capture. Not to mention how talented and genuine they are as a couple doing what they love. I can't wait to see the magic they captured of Olivia & Simon! You can view their engagement photo's here.

OLIVIA & SIMON'S WEDDING CEREMONY STYLING DETAILS

Rose Tinted Photography

I'm very excited to share these images from the beautiful wedding of my friend Olivia to her beau Simon! If you remember this post featuring the style sheets I put together for Olivia & Simon's Wedding, you would know the Ceremony was meant to be held outdoors on a paddock, but due to rainy weather it was forced indoors.

However it was still a beautiful setting bringing the outside in with the most amazing alter made by the Groom out of tree branches and covered with sheer fabric. Tree stumps lined the aisle with jars filled with posies of pale pink gerbera's, freesia's and babies breath. Instead of the lace covered haybales, these cosy picnic style love-seats made a brilliant substitute. There were lace details and the occasional horse shoe for an ideal Ranch wedding.

The couple's friends and family really pulled together to make this a beautiful day they would never forget. The attention to detail was so well thought out. It was really amazing to see the initial idea's I spoke of with Olivia just after her engagement come to life. There were so many wonderful contributors who put so much effort into this wedding and it was wonderful to be a part of it. 

Keep an eye out for tomorrow's post about their stunning reception which took place in a barn usually occupied by horses...

CRYSTALS // ROSE TINTED ILLUSTRATION

(c) Rose Tinted Illustration by Maree Worrall-Bader

Model : Rebecca Frogley

I loved working on this illustration! The more challenging, the more intriguing. I loved illustrating the beautifully coloured crystals with all their facets, and Rebecca's gorgeous red hair. Such fun!

I arranged the composition first on Photoshop to get an idea of how I wanted it too look. I used an image of Rebecca from a photo shoot I did last year for Rose Magazine. I next placed the crystal images as I saw fit and then proceeded to illustrate the image using this arrangement as a reference.

HELLO CHOCOLATE LOVERS...

Whittaker's is a New Zealand company that makes the best chocolate! They've recently created the delicious milk strawberry flavour in support of The New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation. Such a wonderful cause. They even used science and design to create the image for the packaging by using a MRI scanner to capture those strawberries. It produced such a beautiful image full of the most lovely colours. If you would like to watch the process of how they created this great flavour, you can see the video here.

DREAM A LITTLE DREAM // FASHION SPREAD FOR BRITISH VOGUE

October Edition of British Vogue

Photography : Venetia Scott

Styling : Bay Garett

Model : Georgia May Jagger

Just love this "Dream a little Dream" fashion spread for British Vogue with the gorgeous Georgia-May Jagger. It is all very reminiscent of The Secret Garden and the English countryside. I love all the pretty lacey garments, perfect for S/S. How regal is that white horse?

I like how it is both whimsical yet I can easily relate to the notion of running around gardens and fields in pretty frocks as a child. There is an innocence and youthfulness to this spread which brings many memories of growing up and running free. But I also love that it is a grown up take on that idea, reminding me that my wardrobe is now my dress up box.

I MADE A WEDDING DRESS!

Wedding Dress : By Maree Worrall-Bader & Sandra Snook

Flower Crown : By Maree

Photography : Rose Tinted Photography

To follow on from this weeks posts about my beautiful friend Jessie and her fiancé Jed, I finally can share with you the images of the wedding dress I made for her with help from my mother. They recently got married with a gorgeous wedding in Nuneaton, England! I couldn't be more excited for her, what a stunning bride!!

The ivory dress is a combination of a full skirt with soft layers of tulle, and a delicate bodice embroidered with lace appliqué. It has tulle straps that become invisible so it appears to be a strapless dress. But our favourite part was the back. We love how the tulle straps cross over, wrap round the waist and tie into a bow over a sheer lace back.

The design is based on a Grace Loves Lace dress which she instantly fell in love with, however the price tag was a little out of reach. Considering they were getting married in England where her family resides, most of the expense went towards the airfare. I knew of her struggles and of how cheesy/awful/tacky inexpensive wedding dresses can be, so I offered to make her dream gown. We kept the design elements that Jessie loved, but altered it to make it her own. She didn't wish to wear a traditional bridal veil, so I crafted the flower crown using pastel tones of pinks, purples and soft yellow to complete the look.

We set out with a budget of approximately $100 NZD for materials and I knew it could be done. We spent a day visiting the best fabric stores in Auckland and found everything we needed except the piece of lace for the back. The funny thing is I had a night dress given to me by my Mum who had never worn it (because it's a little bit on the dated side). I actually joked with Jessie when I showed it to her saying, " I made a start on your dress!" Her expression of shock/horror/politeness was priceless! But actually the night dress was a blessing. We used the skirt as a petticoat, and it had the perfect amount of pretty lace for the back!

If you remember, I also designed Jessie & Jed's wedding invites which you can see in this post. I also took some of their engagement photos in a styled shoot and put together their save the dates. I was pretty devastated that I couldn't actually attend their wedding, especially since I was so involved with helping out in the planning process. But I can tell you from the pictures that I've seen that it was a beautiful wedding with a gorgeous couple.

As for the making of the dress, it has a lot to do with the fact that I've grown up with an amazing Mother who is incredible at sewing. Most of the important garments I've ever worn including my wedding gown, engagement dress, 21st dress, school ball gown etc. have been handmade by us together. I'm so blessed to have her as a Mum, and I couldn't have done this wedding dress without her wisdom & knowledge. Sewing can be very stressful, and she has the patience of a saint. So when I would be super worried and frustrated when the overlocker keeps un-threading or when it wasn't quite fitting perfectly, she would be my calm. She always had the solution to any problems that arose. The thing with sewing is it always seems to be one step forward and two steps backwards. This is probably why I don't enjoy the sewing process so much, but I love designing garments, choosing fabrics and the final product! Plus seeing the joy & happiness Jessie felt when she had her final fitting made all the hiccups worth it!

JED & JESSIE'S SAVE THE DATE // ROSE TINTED DESIGN

Rose Tinted Design (c)

Here are the Save the date designs I did for Jed & Jess using photographs from their engagement shoot. The funny thing is I got a lot of their American guests confused cause I did the date DD/MM/YYYY, instead of the way they do it as MM/DD/YYYY. People were like "doesn't this mean you're already married??" But they did figure it out fairly quickly. Numbers definitely look better than text in these designs, plus it made for a hilarious story!

JED & JESSIE'S ENGAGEMENT SHOOT

Rose Tinted Photography

Aren't Jed & Jess the sweetest couple? There is a lovely story behind how these two got together She is from Ohio, USA and he is from Tauranga, New Zealand (but is of Filipino descent). They met whilst working at a camp in Townsville, Australia and started dating 2 days before the end of camp. He moved back to NZ, and she to England where her family is living. They then worked on a long distance relationship for two years with many skype calls, emails and fb comments. Thank goodness for the internet and modern love letters right?

They are now married and celebrated a gorgeous wedding in Nuneaton, England at the Kings Lodge for YMCA. I enjoyed helping Jessie out with some of the wedding planning here in NZ by taking her engagement photos, designing her invitations & save the dates. I even made her gorgeous wedding dress with help from my Mother. There are more photo's to follow this week, watch this space!

1920'S PORTRAIT OF GLORIA SWANSON // PHOTOGRAPHER : EDWARD STEICHEN

Photography : Edward Steichen

Model : Gloria Swanson

This is possibly one of my favourite portraits of all time. It was taken by American photographer Edward Steichen in 1924 of superstar Gloria Swanson. I find it was a modern work for it's time. She is captivating, but also stares confidently into the lens. This demonstrates a more confronting image of a woman that wouldn't have been seen very much at this point in history.

Steichen is regarded as one of the first photographers to capture modern fashion photographs. In his career as a photographer, he worked for renowned fashion magazines, Condé Nast, Vogue and Vanity Fair. His forward thinking inspired a way to combine fashion and photography together as a fine art.

SPRINGTIME CHERRY BLOSSOMS // ROSE TINTED PHOTOGRAPHY : PART TWO

Photography and Editing : Maree of Rose Tinted

Model : Eloise of Jazz Lips & Tulips

Here is part two of the Cherry Blossom shoot, this time of the gorgeous Eloise! She is such a great model, don't you think? She's also a great sister-in-law and dear friend.

I'm in love with her floral romper, I reckon it's the best one I've ever seen. Plus how cute is her straw hat? It looks especially pretty with one of my handmade flower crowns around the brim.

Be sure to drop by her stunning blog, Jazz Lips and Tulips. It's honestly an amazing site that she has put so much hard work into. She's not only creative but also technically minded, so she has taught herself a lot about HTML and CSS. She has also been a wonderful input in helping me set up this blog and an inspiration to keep posting my work.

SPRINGTIME CHERRY BLOSSOMS // ROSE TINTED PHOTOGRAPHY : PART ONE

Photography : Eloise of Jazz Lips and Tulips

Editing : Maree of Rose Tinted

On a sunny Spring afternoon, I went on a little photography adventure with my sister-in-law and dear friend, Eloise. We found a beautiful forest of Cherry Blossom trees, and marvelled at the opportunity to shoot in such a pretty setting.

Spring is such a wonderful season with the most beautiful flowers all in bloom, and the thrill of knowing summer is around the corner. I like the aspect of new beginnings and the motivation to "spring clean" as I have been doing this past week. Also the beginning of a new season wardrobe! There's nothing like that first day where you get to wear a dress without tights underneath! This was that first day for me, bring on more floral, pastel and crisp white frocks!

I also took some stunning photograph's of Eloise who is just so pretty it's not even fair. You will see them next post I promise! But she will also be sharing them on her gorgeous blog, so keep an eye out!

LILAC LADY WITH FLOWER CROWN // ROSE TINTED ILLUSTRATION

Lilac Lady : by Maree of Rose Tinted Illustration

Following on with my love of lilac, and as always a good flower crown.