Halloween Inspired Wedding in Payson

I do not even know where to begin with this blog post; all I know is that I’m smiling so hard thinking about this wonderful day. I want to share this experience with so many different people, so here I am, writing about it to post on the blog. Five days before Halloween, no less!

It all started maybe a month ago (or so) when I decided to start watching American Horror Story. The only season I had ever seen before was Coven due to my brother harassing me about watching it years ago (he loved Emma Roberts). The moment I saw the scene from Murderhouse of Tate going into the school in skullface and leather, I had an idea.

I immediately texted my photography friend Kali (@kalimphotos), and then a groupchat we are a part of on Instagram with a few other awesome photographers. One small spark of inspiration turned into something so much greater. Soon we were talking of putting together moody florals, leather jackets, and flowy wedding dresses.

I’ve always heard about how styled shoots to build your portfolio and feed your creative soul are encouraged. But I was always hesitant to plan something so elaborate. Me, a photographer with a small following on Instagram and big dreams. Not going to lie, the idea of reaching out to some of the vendors was an intimidating thought, because I had seen their work on so many large shoots and was thinking negatively. I need to be better at self-love and confidence in my brand, because they all responded to me and said they LOVED my idea and vision.

I’ll backtrack just a little bit now that I’ve mentioned my idea and vision. An essential piece to planning a styled shoot is to have a mood board. This is just a compilation of photos you drew your inspiration from. I put mine together with a photo of Tate from Murderhouse, a black wedding dress, a leather jacket bride, a smoke bomb, and a Halloween styled head table at a wedding. Yes.

I used this mood board when we started to market about the styled shoot. Kali and I hopped on an Instagram live video initially to discuss the styled shoot and our plans for it. We answered questions and tried to gauge interest from other photographers.

I could go on and on about the planning process of this styled shoot, but I won’t take up too much more of your time, especially because there is so much more about the actual day I want to write about. If you have questions on how to plan your own styled shoot, feel free to comment below or send me an e-mail!

So the day of approached, and there was a chance of rain in Payson. What the heck, Arizona? Rain in late October? Not cool. Honestly we did not expect this at all, but still we proceeded onwards. So much planning had come to this day and we could not stop at this point.

When we first got to the shoot I had a chance to meet Tracey from Foxtail Rentals and she has to be one of the sweetest humans I’ve ever met. She told me her rental company started after her daughter’s wedding when they had a ton of chairs/etc leftover that they bought. What an awesome way to kick off a business.

All of the photographers arrived right as the first few signs of a storm started to appear. Thunder and lightning were cracking in the distance and I knew we were fighting the clock. The head table and dessert table were now fully set and the other photographers immediately took control with posing the couples and getting detail shots. My heart was so freakin’ full at that moment to see that we started to pull the dang thing off.

As the first few sprinkles of rain started to come down, I told Tracey we could start tearing down the tables and I’m sure glad I did. Five minutes after the light sprinkle, we were all stuck in a torrential downpour and I thought we’d get washed away. We all scrambled to get our equipment together and run towards our cars. The rain was coming down so hard it was starting to flood in some places. I threw my camera in my backpack, ran and picked up one of the containers from the rental company, and booked it for the car. Many of us sat inside waiting to see if the rain passed so we could shoot again. After all, it was supposed to go until sun down and we had even brought smoke bombs and candles to play with. But as most of life tends to go, the unexpected happens and you just have to roll with it.

Since the rain would not pass, Kali and I jumped out of the car, ran to each photographers’ car and let them know it was okay to leave. We asked if they got some good content and I was so happy to hear everybody did, even in that short period of time.

We are still hoping to plan another shoot to make up for what was cut short, and I hope we get the chance to work with such an amazing vendor team for the next one. Speaking of, here they are:

Skull face:

Coordinated by: @kmtphotos_ / @kalimphotos
Florals: @setthemoodfloral
Rentals: @foxtailrentals
Cake: @raeyesbakes
Tux: @nicksmenswear
MUA: @madmakeupandbrows
Hair: @bladeshair
Invitation Suite: @joeyfisherdesign
Signage: @etchingsbyemma
Models: @tblades90 & @tylerpainton