Love Elements Trompe l'oiel ~ floral pattern, dahlias, strawberries

For the latest installation of our Love Elements series, Allison, of Late Fete, and I wanted something simple, happy, and bright! It's this time of winter when Spring might technically be closer, but it feels very, very far away. We thought it would be fun to play with color and pattern, and the results are so shiny and colorful. It makes my heart sing, to see such happy colors.

From Allison, "This is that time of year where we long for the warmth of sun on our faces, flowers as far as the eyes can see, juicy strawberries and color - lots of it! We truly believe, as Audrey Hepburn said, "happy girls are the prettiest girls" and this was the case with our beautiful and sweet model Alex Pynes. She embodies happiness. For this collaboration, we wanted to do a "trompe l'oie"and layer fabric and bright floral together because really sometimes we are surprised by a love that has been there all along, right in front or our eyes."

I think I love these pictures even more, knowing that it was snowing and freezing, hahaha! And we made a last minute background change, literally 5 minutes before the shoot. The best laid plans...

florals: La Fete, Model: Alex Pynes

Evergreen | Utah Christmas Photography

Love Elements Evergreen ~ Snow ~ Winter Crowns

I'm going to be 100% honest here, this shoot was intense! Sometimes, somethings, throw you for a loop, and this happened to be one of them. It was cold, it was snowy, it was dangerous driving, there were equipment malfunctions and dead car batteries. And despite all the crazy, there were four beautiful girls, and four beautiful hair wreaths, three cold mama's, who were worried about the cold babies, and a whole bunch of Christmas Tree Lot Dude's, who thought we were absolutely nutsos.

Sometimes that's just how life goes, and I'd like to say I always weather that storm with clear eyes, and a peaceful heart, but truth be told, my mind goes a million miles per minute, my heart starts beating even harder, and I might get a little flustered from time to time. But despite it all, I think this is one of the most satisfying shoots. There's something to say for being proud, when your vision needs to change suddenly. Like that cute, vintage sled I had? Yeah, we scrapped that. Hot chocolate, soon became cold chocolate. Life happens, sometimes in the middle of a shoot. BUT, Allison, who as always, completely wins with beauty and awesomeness, made the most beautiful wreaths, was my rock, when I needed calm, and ran back and forth providing blankets and warmth and love. And her beautiful words (which you should read over here,) convey the truth of our intentions and the magic, I'm proud to say, I think we still accomplished.

A huge thanks to Sophie, Chloe, Zoee and Nora!

Merry Christmas Everyone! I hope that if this season has been a bit hectic, crazy, and not exactly as planned, that we can all enjoy with our families these precious days, and enjoy the magic that is the season!

Florals: La Fete, Allison Baddley

Gather Editorial

Sometimes you get lucky enough to meet a kindred soul, a la Anne of Green Gables style. I'm so lucky to have met Allison Baddley, owner of La Fete Floral and Events. Allison is an amazing talent, and we have been collaborating together on a little project called, Love Elements. The premise is simple. We want to create simple, beautiful inspiration, based off of three elements. For our first shoot, we wanted to focus on wheat, persimmon, and gold. Allison says it beautifully below. A huge thank you to Laura Miller, of You Doll Design for the calligraphy, and Beckie Winston, of Maison Confisserie and Boutique for the beautiful jewelry. Read below to read Allison's eloquent description.

For our first Love elements collaboration, we were inspired by the word “Gather” and wanted to showcase autumn’s natural bounty.  We liked the idea of gathering a big bouquet of golden wheat straight from nature, so obvious to us our first element was going to be  - WHEAT.

From there, we decided that we would like a natural looking model with wheat colored hair in a simple wheat colored dress. We liked the idea of using her natural beauty with a pop of orange red on her lips and darling orange booties. Our thoughts again went to the rich colorful fruits of the season and our 2^nd element came to mind - PERSIMMON.

Even though the model is a natural beauty, we still wanted to add some sparkle to our shoot and we looked to Beckie Winston, the owner of Maison Confisserie & Boutique for something delicate and pretty that represented the gold found in autumn.  She donated the simple, yet amazing earrings and bracelets for the shoot and we decided that they represented our last element perfectly – GOLD.

The love element story – Everything about our story was inspired by our 3 Love elements. We decided that the Utah Mountains were the perfect setting because the backdrop is breathtakingly stunning this time of year.  Also, we instantly thought of the sweet and beautiful Elizabeth Pynes to use as our model.  She has never modeled before and has such a sweet quality about her because, believe it or not, she has no idea how beautiful she is. The story follows the simple path of a young girl in love.  She is out for an autumn stroll with the intent of gathering nature’s harvest.  Along the way, she gathers a bountiful bushel of golden wheat and also makes an autumnal bouquet and adorns her hair with flowers.

Credits: Florist: Allison Baddley/La Fete, Calligrapher: Laura Miller/You Doll Design, Jewelry: Maison Confiserie et Boutique