Ethical vegan weddings are definitely my kind of thing.  I decided to go vegan almost a year ago, mainly for health reasons, I’d started jogging which made my joints ache and I read somewhere about it being linked to dairy so I thought I’d try and give it up for a bit.  I didn’t eat much meat anyway so it wasn’t too hard for me and I’ve never looked back!  I feel so much healthier and it’s made me think so much more about where our food comes from and how much animals are made to suffer for our taste buds!  Because that’s really all it is these days, there’s so little (if any) health benefits to eating meat or consuming milk & dairy that it just comes down to what we fancy eating and I choose to no longer eat something that another living being has had to suffer to bring to my table.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m no lettuce eating angel, did you know oreos are accidentally vegan!! 😛  This then lead me to think about the cosmetics I use and although I won’t throw anything away I already own, I will now only buy products that are not tested on animals.  I love the “B” range in Superdrug and most of Tesco & Sainsbury’s own are cruelty free too which is a bonus as they’re usually the cheapest as well!

Anyway, back to the ethical vegan weddings shoot…. I met the lovely Carrie from CARRIE STARBUCK CRUELTY FREE HAIR AND MAKE UP whilst doing a little search on instagram for cruelty free make up artists in West Sussex.  We instantly hit it off over drinks and our visions for the shoot were so aligned it was perfect!  She wanted bold and sassy (and you don’t get much more bold and sassy than steam punk and a David Bowie mural painted by local artist Chloe Dowsett let’s be honest!) and a more earthy boho bridal look too and wow did she achieve that and more!

Lucy from THE FLORAL ARTISAN was a bride of mine from a few years back who now has her own fabulous floral design business.  We’ve worked together a couple of times since her wedding and she’s also been booked by current brides of mine to do the flowers for their weddings too which is great as I know they won’t be disappointed!  For this shoot all the flowers Lucy sourced were locally grown & British.  All I said was oversized please and the wonderful Lucy came up with the rest and we couldn’t have loved them more!

The fabulously friendly Emma from BEAU BUTTONS supplied the non floral bouquets and weren’t they stunning too!  Vintage inspired, ethically sourced and solar wood bouquets couldn’t be more up our street if they tried!

The other Lucy on this shoot was none other than my own niece who is studying photography at Falmouth University.  I’m totally in awe of her work and to see how far she’s come is such a delight.  Check out her own photos from this shoot HERE and give her a follow on INSTAGRAM too if you’d like!  Her editorial street style photography is some of the best I’ve seen!

Our amazing models were Lyra & Zach.  I met Lyra at a wedding once and she then convinced her brother to book me for his big day last December and Zach is a friend of Lyra’s who was roped in too.  Kudos to him for owning that floral suit on the pier!  Man he looked good in it!  They were both so much fun to work with and sooo beautiful & handsome too!  I want to do shoots with them every week so we can just hang out after and drink more vegan baileys together!

The long floaty “Bardot” dress was something Carrie found for the shoot, a beautiful bamboo silk vegan wedding dress from LUNA BRIDE who hand make all their ethical wedding dresses for the modern bride… we were so grateful to be loaned this for the shoot.

Zach’s suits were from Asos and BooHoo.  Lyra’s other wedding dress was in fact the florist Lucy’s dress that she bought online from GRACE LOVES LACE for her own wedding and the tulle skirt and sparkly top combo were Asos again. The black gothic dress was from a second hand stall (what a find!)  Shoes were Irregular Choice, Joe Browns, Oxfam, Converse & Topman.  No leather required!

We all had the best time on this shoot and achieved so much in so little time – I’m chuffed to bits with the photos and I really hope you all like them too.  If you want to collaborate with me on a shoot please get in touch as I do love to get creative with other suppliers in the industry…!

AND NOT FORGETTING THE ‘A’ TEAM!

P.S I’m no longer vegan – sorry!