Prop Closet

Greenhouse Bridal Fashion Shoot - behind the scenes

Greenhouse shots styled by Robin Zachary. Photography by Luciana Pampalone.
Greenhouse shots styled by Robin Zachary. Photography by Luciana Pampalone.

We painted and propped a forgotton sunroom on a friend's property transforming it into a greenhouse location for a bridal fashion shoot. All of the plants and flowers were brought in and repotted into the containers you see here. Can you guess which flowers pictured are fake? Here's four pages of the story from Bridal Guide Magazine so you can see how the environment inside the greenhouse and outside on the property work together to create a backdrop for the floral gowns.

Art direction and prop styling by Robin Zachary. Photography Luciana Pampalone.

Birdcage Tablescape

I'm in love with this table because it reflects a side of my personality that connects with my mother, grandmother and aunt, 3 beautiful women that are all gone. My grandmother had a collection of tea cups and saucers, each one different and more beautiful than the next. I imagined her having an afternoon tea with her table set with mix and match patterns of delicate china. Keeping in the spirit of Grandma, my philosophy is that one should make a table fun to look at by filling it with surprises, props like little birds and non-matching glasses and flatware. The color story here is pink and ivory with a pop of green, tarnished silver and glass. This table has a girly, modern-day vintage vibe and would be perfect for a bridal shower brunch. The items I used here: pink dinnerware from MUD Australia, mix and match glassware and vintage flatware all available at ABC Home. The pearl metallic linen tablecloth and the textured floral napkins are from Nuage Designs. Denise Fasanello filled the white bird cage with gorgeous Clematis and garden roses. Laser cut place mats and place cards are from Ceci New York. Look at the original inspiration photo behind this design in my previous post here and see how the idea has evolved! 

Table designed and styled by Robin Zachary for the Ceci New York Paper Art Party on August 4th. Photos by Fiona Osborne.

 

Upcoming Event with Ceci New York

I've been a busy bee prop shopping for on a very special event for next week at the studio of the lovely Ceci Johnson of Ceci New York. Can't wait to share the details but it has to do with the table setting seen in this post here and collaborations with some very talented floral designers. Stay tuned!

Carefully Coordinated: Cakes, Flowers, Invitations, Accessories

Just released in For The Bride Magazine!! Palettes of black and white with one accent color tie all your wedding day elements together. My challenge was to pull in great talent and have them collaborate for this six page story. I introduced florists, cake designers and invitation designers and here are the results.

The opening spread is based on an invitation suite by Ceci New York. Ceci and I selected the robin's egg blue as our accent color. Jay from Lulu Cake Boutique was jazzed about working with the monogram and scrollwork design for his square 3-tiered cake. I searched far and wide for the square black cake stand which was sent from Sweet and Saucy Supply Co. in California. The scrumptious cupckakes and sandwich cookies filled out the dessert table.  

The color of green viburnum flower was the inspiration for the next spread. Flowers of the World and Elegantly Iced collaborated on their bouquet and cake with anemones, white spray roses and black jewels. Lindsay hand stenciled the black flowers on the 3-tier white cake.

The black lace shoe from Aruna Seth was the inspiration for the fashion accessory spread. Penny from Sugar Couture fashioned the lace in icing from a tiny photo of the shoe. Honeysuckle, Pantone's color of 2011 was the obvious choice for the accent. The pink fossil jasper necklace with vintage clasp from Elva Fields and floral hair band from Sara Gabriel round out the page. Shoe and hair band are available at Gabriella New York. I loved working with everyone involved and hope you follow the links to all their sites to view more of their gorgeous work! 

All photos in the magazine are by Anastassios Mentis. Produced and styled by Robin Zachary for For The Bride Magazine.

Here's a couple of behind the scenes shots from the shoot:

Behind the scenes shots are by Robin Zachary for Prop Closet.

Finally Spring

I was lucky enough to capture this tiny little early Spring moment. So inspiring! As you know, we have been battered by this winter and I hope it's finally gone. I'm so sick of my down coat. Photo by Robin Zachary.

Pink Elephant Jewelry Website - The Making Of

Penny Lee Wang describes Pink Elephant Jewelry as a niche boutique website offering high fashion, well made diamond pieces at affordable price points. Born out of the idea that shopping online for diamond jewelry can be a personal experience, she launched Pink Elephant in October 2010. Unlike the larger jewelry websites, her unique designs can often be custom tailored to suit her client's needs. Penny is no stranger to fashion—she's been in the jewelry business for 12 years—and thoroughly knows her market. When she was ready to bring her concept to the web she knew who to call (yours truly!). We met years ago at the Fragrance Foundation. It was her first job out of college and I was their freelance graphic designer. 

 We talked for countless hours about the look for Pink Elephant's home page for the site plus the main pages for necklaces, rings, bracelets, earrings and bridal sections. Penny wanted the photography to have a very feminine, elegant feel. Pink was a given, but we decided to go with varying shades using fabrics and a polished wood surface for a timeless look. I brought tons of props to the shoot with Photographer David Lewis Taylor, including ribbons, tiny pillows, small dishes, fabric cocktail napkins, love letters, a bridal bouquet from Spina de Fiori, wedding invitations and vintage vanity items. It was fun shopping the trimmings district of NYC for this project! It is interesting to note that even for a small scale shoot, I brought three tables full of items which whittled down to a few select pieces. So you can never bring too much. Better to have more than be without something crucial. I introduced Penny to Kristin Sewell, web designer extraordinaire, who brought the whole vision to fruition graphically. Visit Pink Elephant Jewelry to see the whole site and indulge in her precious pieces! Photography by David Lewis Taylor. 

Kristin Chenoweth People Mag Shoot-Behind the Scenes

I  always love to tell the stories behind the shoots and this one is no exception! I was excited to work on this shoot from the moment I got the call from my rep James Taylor at Marnie Rose Agency. The shoot was going to feature Kristin's mom's pumpkin roll recipe. It was going to be shot at her friend's apartment in his kitchen and no one knew if it would be stocked with supplies or not so I had to get every utensil possible. It was at the very end of heat wave August and I had 3 days to come up with pumpkins and gourds, flowers, cutting boards, mixing bowls in 3 colors, platters, spatulas, napkins all within a fall color palette. As always it was a week or so before pumpkins were to show up on 28th St, so they needed to be special ordered. I ran back and forth between two of my favorite prop houses, Elephant Props and Prophaus to find just the right items. Here's some of my scouting shots below. In one of the photos you can see the pantone swatches I was working off of to get just the right shades for the shot. I picked up some fresh flowers in orange and yellow and some gorgeous fig branches the morning of the shoot and was on my way! After hair and makeup Kristin emerged, beautiful as always in a beautiful shimmery gold top perfect for the photo. She was totally sweet and it was a wonderful shoot with Photographer Peter Yang and his crew. 

And here is the finished photo shoot in the October 25th issue of People Magazine. It's interesting to see what ends up showing in the photos. I brought in the vase and flowers (arrangement close up above) and fruit bowl in the background, the yellow mixing bowl and orange spatula, the white platter for the pumpkin roll, another arrangement that was cropped out of the right side of the photo and various baking items on the counter in front that were obscured behind the type. You must always be prepared and not get too upset if all your props do not end up showing. Magazine Photography by Peter Yang, all others by Propcloset.

Pine Cone and Twig Xmas Tree Topper

I got a call in mid July during a heat wave from my good friend Audrey to create a rustic tree topper of all organic materials. One gets used to the Christmas-in-July theme if you have been in the business for as long as I have. I ran to my usual sources, one being Michael's where I was told that the good pine cones will be in next week, don't have any now. Some were found in the clearance section, on sale from the previous fall and luckily I had a personal stash of them lying around. I bought 3 large bundles of twigs and twine and went to work designing. I spent many labor intensive hours picking through and cutting down the twigs to the same size and then arranging them into a star shape. I sketched it out on a piece of newspaper to use as a guide and as each twig was put down I tied each of the 5 points with raffia. While heating up the mini glue gun I arranged the various sizes of pine cones into the center of the star. I placed a dab of hot glue at every contact point possible to hold them securely down. On the final day, I went into the 28th St. flower market to finish my star off with pine tree branches and hand delivered it to it's new owner. It took two weeks of a little work each day and I got used to seeing it up on my wall as it evolved. I really miss it. Here's the photo.

Eco-Friendly Table Bouquet

 

My pals at Bridal Guide Magazine ran this photo of my table bouquet in the November/December issue out now! You can decorate your reception tables with a handmade bouquet at each place setting. This one is made from dried tallow berries in an antique white burlap wrap. Japanese fiber ribbon winds around a tree branch button closure. Other berries and fresh flowers work well too. Easy to make, and doubles as a take home favor. Photo by Luciana Pampalone.