Formal Wedding Photos

With the actual wedding date at the movie studio quickly approaching, I seriously needed to take the formal wedding and reception photos. Naomi had always dreamt of a garden reception, and it was going to be held in Miho's garden (our backyard). It was already September and my garden wasn't going to stay looking good forever, so it was now, or wait until next year.

I dressed Baron and Naomi, and all my Fashion sized dolls and their families in their formal outfits. I needed a bright, sunny day, with the table setting in the shade.  In September the sun is low enough in the sky that much of the back lawn is in the shade from the giant chestnut tree overhead in the afternoon, so that would be perfect. I didn't want the fence around the patio showing up in the background, so on the morning of the planned photo shoot we moved the table to the middle of the lawn. Then we put a large, old counter top on top to give me a bigger surface. I covered it with my usual 'flooring' fabric, and arranged baskets of million bells around the outer edges...

I had wanted more architectural detail, so we had made a styrofoam arch to fit on the tops of my three Styrofoam pillars...

 They would make the perfect addition to 'Miho's garden terrace'.  But in the afternoon, the backyard wasn't quite as shady as I had hoped, and I definitely didn't want mottled shade, since it makes for terrible photos, so Jan volunteered to shade my set with our large beach umbrella...

Then I took all the formal photos - at the doll's eye level...

the Reception

After taking the formal photos, it was time to bring all the guests out for the reception. I would set up a scene with all the dolls...

Then take close up shots of the various groups...

Then I'd rearrange everyone and take some more....