Women of Steel - An inspiration shoot

Hello lovely readers.  Today I'm really pleased to bring you our gorgeous inspiration shoot, Women of Steel.  Last Autumn, I got together with photographer, Jess Petrie, and created Women of Steel - a styled wedding shoot which contrasts Sheffield’s industrial landscape and heritage with the ultra feminine and glamorous look of the late 1940s and early 1950s - providing vintage inspiration for our lovely local Brides.

The gritty beauty of the Kelham Island Museum’s interior and grounds was the backdrop which hosted a really talented team of Yorkshire based suppliers and a host of fantastic fellow creatives.  Shortly before our inspiration day, Kelham Island Museum had received a licence to conduct weddings and so were absolutely thrilled to be featured.

The original vintage dresses included a full-length 1940s white satin gown and a classic peach prom-look dress with floral brocade from the atmospheric Glory Day Vintage . Victory rolls, loose curls and statement red lips, designed by our amazingly talented hair and make-up artist, Victoria Farr,  provided the perfect contrast to the industrial setting.

Floral Trends - Cascading Bouquets

You might have seen us predicting new floral trends recently on the lovely So You're Getting Married blog  and in particular talking about our vintage inspired, cascading wedding bouquets. Here's an extended version of what we wrote for anyone who missed it...

As 2013 shapes up to be a really exciting year here at Campbell’s HQ, it struck me when working through our bookings for this year, that styles of wedding bouquets are really starting to change. Hand-tied designs are still very much the order of the day, however, we have definitely moved away from more compact designs towards a much softer, more random, lovely unstructured style which suits our ‘just picked’ look perfectly. 

Think gorgeous textures combined with wayward foliages ‘doing their own thing’. Colours combine soft peaches and apricots with dove greys and luscious succulents. Or, purples, lilacs and lavenders still feature strongly this year. Pretty meadow-inspired bouquets using herbs, wheat and barley are also popular – especially in brighter more jewel-like colours, in fact all colours work equally well in this relaxed style.

I've dubbed this new slightly elongated style 'The cascading bouquet' and I'm really happy to say that quite a few of you have chosen this pretty, romantic and feminine style to work with a whole range of really stunning wedding gowns. 

Here are just a few of our most recent designs and I'm so excited to tell you there will be quite a few more this year ... and the year after!

DIY Tutorial - A Spring Wrist Corsage

We were really pleased to be featured on Plans and Presents blog recently with this very simple tutorial, here it is again for anyone who might have missed it ...

Campbell's Calendar - Lover's Paradise!

Hello all

I've had quite a few of you asking recently where Campbell's Calendar has got to!  I'll be honest, I've been a bit snowed under of late meeting lots of lovely brides and preparing quotations following all our consultations, so it went a bit by the wayside!  I promise to try and change that and keep you lovely readers a bit more up-to-date with what we've been up to, so here's this week's news ...

Monday 11th

Spent the morning at a Business Blogging workshop along with some fab industry friends - Jess Petrie, Jenn Edwards and Jane Stammers.  Jane had a great idea of how we could all help each other out by sharing our business experiences, the idea is in it's infancy but think we might rope in a few others - just love a collective!

My Secret Wedding - A story of elopement

Hello lovelies, I'm so delighted to bring you this amazing story of the most wonderful Sophie and Matt who eloped to Sydney in mid-October last year.  They were married, in the company of just two close friends, in complete secret, outdoors in the brilliant Australian Summer sun, by Sydney Harbour, opposite the Opera House.  Ah, the romance of it all!

Here are some of their DIY photos from their day ...

Wonderful Winter Wedding Flowers - What's in Season

In case you missed it recently on the lovely Boho Weddings blog, today I bring you some ideas for seasonal, vintage-inspired wedding flowers which you're likely to find if you’re a winter bride.

I think winter weddings are gorgeous, to me they conjure up images of fur stoles, rich gorgeous colours, open fires, candlelight and can even combine magic of Christmas or New Year’s Eve with the biggest day of your life.

A word of caution though to you romantics out there, Christmas is a peak period for the floristry industry which can dramatically affect prices.  Everything is more expensive, the auctions in Holland can rise to almost double the usual cost a florist might expect to pay her wholesaler and whilst I am a staunch supporter of British grown, the choice can be a bit limited in the depths of winter.

However, there is still plenty to choose from in terms of flowers and foliages which are available commercially all-year-round and choosing lots of textures and wintery whites or berries will create a gorgeous impression of seasonality.

Here are a few ideas which might provide inspiration:-

Willow

Using both twisted willow and pussy willow in designs is great for texture, with the pussy willow in particular, lending a really lovely silvery, velvety sheen to designs.  I used both in a wedding between Christmas and New Year, in the Bride’s and Bridesmaids’ bouquets.