Forces of Nature: Adventurous and Romantic Portland Bill Elopement Shoot

Eloping allows more freedom when it comes to get married in an extraordinary location and the natural surroundings in this shoot are incredible. Real life couple Vanessa and Josh modelled and looked gorgeous against their stunning backdrop. The dress is giving us adventurous Disney princess bride vibes! Lily Jones of Run Wild Elopements tells us about the inspiration and planning behind the shoot.

Theme and Inspiration

The theme is love! We want to celebrate love without all the bells on! The Jurassic Coast of Dorset is one of our absolute favourite places to elope to! With stunning coastlines of rocks and cliff formations, it is the perfect romantic place to watch the sunset with your loved one and we were so excited to create a beautiful elopement styled shoot here with Vanessa and Josh, a real-life beautiful couple who have so much love for each other!

Location

One of our exclusive venues is Portland Bill Lighthouse on the Isle of Portland which has been standing majestically for the past one hundred and eleven years, guiding ships through the English Channel. It is a simply stunning location along the Jurassic coastline and perfect for lovers of adventure.

The Couple

Vanessa and Josh are such an amazing couple, with Vanessa working as an A&E nurse through the Covid-19 pandemic, we wanted to give her and Josh a day of pampering and a moment away from the madness of the world to be in each other's arms, laugh together and get some once in a lifetime photos and so this shoot was born! We styled Vanessa in a stunning dusky grey gown from Together Forever Bridal and gorgeous handmade hairpieces from Ritz & Sass and Josh wore a dapper emerald green suit and had far too much fun sporting his Michael Jackson-esk fedora hat! We ended what was a fantastic day with a bottle of champagne as the set over the horizon!

Planning

Elopements aren’t anything new; but with the restrictions that 2020 brought, it is a style of wedding that more and more couples are starting to think about. At Run Wild Elopements we LOVE a good runaway wedding! They are intimate, romantic, and always beautiful because they are just about the two of you and celebrating your love. Elopements these days can be tricky; there are lots of rules in place about where and when you can get married and they sadly are not ‘runaway into the sunset’ moments anymore because of this. So, for a stress-free beautiful elopement, we would definitely recommend using an experienced elopement company such as ourselves. We know all the rules, how things will work, all the logistics and everything you will need for your day (planner, photographer, hair and makeup, videographer, celebrant) comes as a whole package!

Photography

For me it’s really important to showcase the epic couple amongst epic scenes in nature, there is literally no better backdrop. We are super keen to show that your wedding can literally be whatever you want it to be, want to climb rocks? Want to go for a sea swim, do it! It’s your wedding day and it should be about what you love doing the most! It’s also really important to me to shoot when the light is at its best, this happens to be just before sunrise/sunset and the hour after it goes, we call this blue hour and it creates such moody atmospheric lighting, I love it!

Bridalwear

It’s no surprise that this stunning silver dress from Together Forever Brides stole the show! This dress featured a structured ruffled skirt and a fitted bodice with ruching and sparkle, and showed that even elopement dresses, which are usually considered to be simple and sleek, can be a huge showstopper! The ruffles caught the wind on the cliffs perfectly and made Vanessa feel and look like a princess!

Flowers

For this shoot we wanted to capture the wild and rugged nature of the Jurassic Coast and bring out the purple and silver tones of Vanessa’s dress. Using purple and blue thistles gave this bouquet a wildness vibe and we paired it with lilac eucalyptus foliage, fern leaves and gorgeous baby pink Tintagel Leucospermum, all hand tied with cream vintage lace, for the truly adventurous bride.

Hair and Make Up 

For Portland Bill, the look was striking and glam, the sun was absolutely beaming that day and so I used those warm red, gold, bronzes and browns to not only compliment Vanessa’s skin tone but absolutely glisten in that warm sunshine. Vanessa’s hair was styled in 3 different ways, firstly a beautiful soft vintage wave complimented with a stunning red hair accessory and finished with a strong red lip to bring all the colours together and showcase that stunning grey dress. On location we also swept Vanessa’s hair into a soft updo and finally as sun was setting we let her hair loose and free to flow in the windy sea air.

Accessories

For this shoot we used a gorgeous handmade red and bronze hairpiece from Ritz and Sass which complimented the red and orange tones of Vanessa’s makeup and added a bit of sparkle to her look.

Suppliers

Run Wild Elopements are unique because we are the only company that offers a full package for everything you need for your elopement. That means that our team is already together and works brilliantly together.

CONCEPT & ORGANISER | www.runwildelopments.co.uk 

PHOTOGRAPHER | www.leoniemayphotography.com 

PLANNER & STYLIST | www.lilyjonesevents.co.uk

HAIR & MAKE UP | www.sjbhairandmakeup.co.uk 

MODELS | Vanessa & Josh

BOUQUETS | Lily among the Thorns 

DRESS | www.togetherforeverbrides.co.uk 

HAIRPIECES | www.ritzandsass.co.uk

From Brides, With Love xo