When the late summer Texas heat keeps you indoors, and social distancing measures keep you home, it’s the perfect time to take on a project that’s a little more complicated.

The Inspiration

I’ve always known I’d end up doing a vintage moon themed photo shoot, and the over-the-top theatricality of it makes it the perfect pairing with dramatic flowers. Between 1910 and 1940, this genre became popular at carnivals and photo studios. People posed on benches set up behind cardboard cut-out moons and the photos were printed onto postcards.

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The Process

“How hard can it be to make a moon?” I asked myself. Actually pretty hard! Making a perfect circle was attempted and abandoned. I used foamboard with a cardboard backing and then used tissue and layers of paint to make it a moon-like texture.

The next hurdle was wardrobe; nobody is just *giving* us a dress so I ended up using a corset I had made for an earlier shoot and made a skirt with layers of fluffy netting. I had made the star crown in April when I had plenty of creative time (as I’ve mentioned… I love making crowns). Results:

As always I was grateful to know my way around a camera – and this was the first time I’ve done photos wearing a mask. I have so much respect for wedding photographers!

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I was thrilled with the outcome. My beautiful friend Haley came to play dress up and she never disappoints. What a beauty – inside and out. She did her own hair and makeup, going off of a few inspiration images I sent her and she was perfect. I did the flowers for her own wedding about this time last year!

The Flowers

Since the dress and moon were mainly in the tones of silver and gold (which I love to use as neutrals), and I knew I wanted to use pampas grass (gold) (for the drama…), and the background would be a dark navy, I chose mauve and taupe tones for the flowers. I used Cappucino roses and mauve lisianthus, two of my faves, and some beautiful oakleaf hydranges and smokebush. Some fun dried textural elements like lunaria, scabiosa pods, maiden grass and copper beech kept it seasonal, wild, and natural.

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It’s been a month-long project, from inception to the final edits, and it may be the last time I take on this much alone! But it was all worth it to create this little fantasy world where the summer moon shines on a beautiful girl and beautiful flowers.

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