If you could see me right now, you’d know that I’m doing a full on happy dance in my chair as I prepare to hit the “publish” button on this DROP DEAD BEAUTIFUL inspiration shoot from Chelsea Nicole Photography. Inspired by the idea of being a Chinese-American bride, and how to honor both culture, this shoot will leave you brimming with great ideas. Choosing which photos to choose from was nearly impossible, and is luckily a problem I don’t mind having. Please do yourself a favor and make sure you scroll through the entire gallery!
From Juliet Douglas of Green Orchid Events: My inspiration for the shoot came from being a Chinese girl, born and raised in America. Growing up I was torn between my ethnicity and my nationality. Like so many Chinese-American brides, I feel that there must be a way of honoring our heritage while still representing our American culture. I found little inspiration out there for the Chinese American bride who wanted to incorporate both in a modern and stylish way. I’ve seen Chinese themed photo-shoots, bridal show booths, and inspiration boards that were neither authentic nor carefully done. For example, Japanese items would be used unknowingly or the Chinese characters would be turned the wrong direction. In creating “guidelines” for this shoot, I gave everyone involved some cultural information they may have not been familiar with. Some tips included the idea that inChinese culture the color white represents mourning and death so there was not to be any white flowers anywhere in our shoot. We did however, keep the American tradition of the bride in the white dress.
I wanted very obvious Chinese elements in the shoot – the color red, citrus oranges, the double happiness character, orchids, bamboo, lanterns, and parasols to name a few but with a more modern style and color palette. Red is the main color in Chinese weddings for its symbolism of love, happiness, and luck so we kept that. However, the bright red is just too old fashioned for my taste and for a lot of ChineseAmerican brides. I decided on some bold colors such as a deep red, bright orange, and eggplant purple (also a lucky Chinese wedding color) and worked with our floral designer, decor and rental company, stationery designer, and cake designer to come up with the perfect “east meets west” inspiration shoot!
From Juliet Douglas of Green Orchid Events:
My inspiration for the shoot came from being a Chinese girl, born and raised in America. Growing up I was torn between my ethnicity and my nationality. Like so many Chinese-American brides, I feel that there must be a way of honoring our heritage while still representing our American culture. I found little inspiration out there for the Chinese American bride who wanted to incorporate both in a modern and stylish way. I’ve seen Chinese themed photo-shoots, bridal show booths, and inspiration boards that were neither authentic nor carefully done. For example, Japanese items would be used unknowingly or the Chinese characters would be turned the wrong direction. In creating “guidelines” for this shoot, I gave everyone involved some cultural information they may have not been familiar with. Some tips included the idea that inChinese culture the color white represents mourning and death so there was not to be any white flowers anywhere in our shoot. We did however, keep the American tradition of the bride in the white dress.
From Emilie Chang of Pink Orchid Designs: I wanted to create paper elements that fit in with the Chinese theme, but with a modern twist. I chose to pair hand-glittered flower blossoms with a fresh script font for all of the stationery items, along with some added texture with satin ribbon and traditional frog buttons. For the bride and groom’s chair signs, it was fun to incorporate the flower blossoms into the script font itself so it looked like the letters were flowering branches.
From Tiffany Hicks of Peridot Sweets:
In my experience as a pastry chef, I have always enjoyed creating themed cakes, and having the opportunity to do cakes AND pastries was a double blessing! I consulted with Juliet on her color scheme, and we decided that one cake wasn’t enough, so I did 3! As for the designs, my style is very clean and elegant, so I went with styles that would complement the room, not distract from it. Of course, the “double happiness” character was pretty much mandatory, and the simple beauty of cherry blossom branches appealed to me. I did research, and decided to hand-roll the Chinese dress buttons. The Calla Lily cake was more American-inspired.
I made the cake base for the cherry blossoms cake a subtly shimmery gold, as I felt it would add to the Chinese theme without being gaudy. For the cake flavors, I chose both American and Chinese inspirations: red velvet and taro root, respectively.
As for the mini pastries, I went with what I enjoy making… the same things that I like to eat! My favorite was the “Twix,” I thought I could re-create the American candy/cookie bar in a gourmet fashion, with sea-salted caramel, buttery shortbread and European chocolate. The candied apples really flowed with the colors of the room, and I decided to use real twigs to complement the cherry blossoms cake. I decided on pumpkin whoopie pies, as one of the colors of the room was burnt orange, and pumpkin naturally has that color. The petit fours in mini bamboo steamers were Juliet’s idea, which I brought to life.
After countless hours planning, preparing, and executing the pastry side of this photo shoot, I can say that it was definitely worth the experience! The room was just gorgeous, and everything came together so beautifully. ( We couldn’t agree more! )
Callie | December 19th, 2011 | See all posts by Callie
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Thank you so much for the feature!!
Thanks for the feature Callie! I’m really happy you liked the shoot. :-)
Beautiful job Juliet!!
Such a fantastic time with a stellar team!
[...] photo shoot to life. We had an amazing team! Our inspiration photo shoot was recently featured in Occasions Magazine and I am so excited to finally share these photos with everyone! The concept for this shoot was to [...]
[...] Occasions Magazine featured the Chinese “east meets west” themed styled shoot I worked on with Juliet Douglas of Green Orchid Events! Shouts go to the incredible team: Platinum Hotel, Enchanted Florist, Your Beauty Call, LTevention, Peridot Sweets, Bella Bridesmaid, Lola and George, Dress the Drink, Chameleon Chair and Pink Orchid Designs. [...]