A Retro Elopement Styled Shoot in Freo

A bride and groom stand in front of a breeze block wall, leaning on a vintage mustang. The bride wears a white mini dress and a big veil and the groom wears a velvet jacket

When I met Mariah from Love on Film, we instantly connected over all things retro. Mariah shoots wedding film on a Super 8 camera and I shoot digital – we thought it was the perfect combination of skills and wanted to work together. Next minute, we’re planning an epic retro inspired elopement styled shoot – basically our own dream wedding. But so many more things need to fall in place for a styled shoot to happen, especially one with a vision that goes against tradition and current trends, so let me tell you the little love story of this epic editorial shoot.

Having organised a few styled shoots before, I knew that one of the hardest parts was finding the perfect models. I have only ever worked with real life couples, so finding someone that was not only willing, but also had a retro vibe, was not going to be easy! I was fortunate enough to meet Shiloh from Happy Hub Co and her partner Tom at a wedding I was photographing. They already had that retro vibe and I just knew Shiloh, being an actress and a lover of vintage herself, would play the perfect retro bride.

Then Mariah, the Queen of connecting, got in touch with the incredible Louise from Nuku Couture who created a custom wedding mini dress for the shoot. She was already playing around with new designs for wedding minis as they had become popular with the hot Perth summer wedding trend. Louise is such an amazing designer, we totally trusted her with our vision.

And then finally, the icing on the cake, was when I discovered a new bar in West End Fremantle that was dedicated to vintage décor and only playing vinyl records. Ode to Sirens had just opened its doors and was willing to have us take over the bar for our shoot. It was the perfect backdrop, especially for a hot summer’s day.

From here we connected with Amanda from Amanda Galloway Hair & Makeup, who transformed Shiloh into that retro goddess with big hair and big eyes. Tara from Euka Floral Design created a retro inspired and sustainable dried bouquet featuring native daisies (to withstand the hot summer day). Forever Soles hooked us up with some amazing velvet shoes for Shiloh, and we got some great sunglasses from Shade Eyewear. Cake Love Perth provided us with an awesome retro cake, and Ocean Classic Cars provided the white mustang, which was the perfect final detail!

On the day, we had a content creator, Meg from Details by Meg, capture everything behind the scenes and Dilhari from Kiss Me You Fool was our Celebrant. We really wanted to be able to tell the story of a couple eloping, and Dilhari really turned it out by dressing up herself!

When all these things came together, it really felt like some kind of serendipitous love story. A bunch of awesome Perth wedding vendors who all contributed to a vision and brought it to life. I said to Mariah, “Is this what it’s like for couples planning their wedding? To see it all come together and your vision come to life?” to which she replied “Yes!” and we both shared an enormous smile. We couldn’t be happier with how it all turned out and we hope you like these images!