1920's Christmas Wedding - Peaky Blinders meets Gatsby Glamour

On the blog today a real mix of Vintage styling and lots of 1920’s Christmas wedding glamour. This inspirational shoot is a beautiful mix of edgy and raw peaky blinders styling meets glitz and glamour of the great Gatsby world. With tailored tweed suits, beaded flapper dresses and fur stoles – a real treat that has got us all nostalgic and christmassy! Here we catch up with shoot coordinator and photographer Rebecca from Paylor Photography and the rest of the team involved who tell us all about this 1920’s Christmas wedding shoot…

1920’s Christmas Wedding – Peaky Blinders meets Gatsby Glamour

“Art Deco and the 1920’s are a popular theme at weddings and events at the moment, with the Peaky Blinders effect in full flow. As we’d teamed up with Dandy Threads, an old-fashioned gents outfitters, we obviously wanted to create something themed to the 1920’s. We aim to combine Peaky Blinders grit with Gatsby glamour. We were hugely influenced by beaded flapper dresses and glitter eye shadow, juxtaposed with strong tailoring and a gangster attitude. The 1920’s Christmas Wedding inspiration was born”

“The shoot took place at Preston Park Museum and Grounds. The Museum itself is a beautiful Victorian building with a resplendent red music room and original Victorian conservatory. The other jewel in the crown is the Victorian street that forms part of the museum. It’s an absolutely beautiful setting for any wedding, and perfect for the shoot we had in mind.”

Photography – Paylor Photography

“We love the candid approach to photography, so we kept our models looking slightly off camera, as though we’d stumbled across them. We kept our ‘couple’ close to create the cosy romantic feel, and tried to make sure they were always touching as this lends a sense of intimacy to wedding photos. With the theme being the 1920’s, we also kept them quite stoic and reserved, as they were in photos of the time. We kept the colours bright to show off the beautiful flowers and the makeup looks, plus it’s our style, we love vibrant wedding images.”

Outfits and Styling – Dandy Threads

“Two common loves between Dandy Threads Tailoring and Dandies & Dames is we adore the vintage aesthetic; the glamour, sophistication and sartorial elegance of a bygone era is something we specialise in. Romance, decadence, and poise are a few words that sprung to mind when creating the looks for this shoot.”

“We chose a classic ivory 1920’s-style beaded gown by Gatsby Lady, paired with
the most adorable little lace booties by Joe Browns Couture. The look was finished with a
complementing headband and pearl necklace. For the second look we used a slightly
unconventional blue 1920’s-style dress, also by Gatsby Lady. With this we put a delicate
butterfly necklace as a little nod to Preston Parks Butterfly world. We think all of the little
touches are the key elements in creating the perfect ‘20’s Look.”

1920's Christmas Wedding - Peaky Blinders meets Gatsby Glamour

“For our dandy gent we wanted to create a strong, luxurious look using layers that would
contrast with, yet compliment the dresses. For the first look, we chose a rich, burgundy three
piece suit, teamed with a striking olive tweed three quarter coat and finished with a stunning
mossy green floral tie & hankie set. The second look we opted for a dark navy check suit with
luxurious velvet trimmings and a classic penny round collar, worn without a tie. Achieving the
perfect vintage aesthetic is easy.”

Florals – Flowermaiden

“We created two different bouquets for this shoot the first hand-tied bouquet used traditional red roses, seasonal foliage of conifer and spruce along with pine cones, berries and lotus pods. I really wanted to bring in the conifer as it’s just a fab foliage, it smells amazing and is more readily available especially at this time of year.”

“With the second bouquet we wanted to up the style stakes and create a glam-luxe look which would have been synonymous with this era. For this we used peacock feathers and silk blue flowers in a cascading, hand-tied arrangement. As florists, we work with all kinds of mediums, often combining real flowers with foraged materials and silk blooms to create the ideal look our clients are looking for. The choice and quality of silk flowers has improved vastly and they really are a fabulous alternative when trying to source flowers out of season.”

Make-up – Beauty Retreat

“Beauty Retreat was chosen as the makeup artist to assist with creating a wonderful adaptation of a bygone era loved by many. I was given the brief “Peaky Blinders inspired” and my mind burst with makeup ideas including traditional, deep red lips that
are a statement look for this era with a twist of modern glitz and glamour by adding large fluffy
lashes and gold glitter pigments. I had the perfect canvas, which made my job a pleasure.”

“The model had a large eye area which worked perfectly for the vintage look, teamed with my
favourite Peaches and Cream pigment “Gatsby” it was very fitting for the desired look. I also
used one of my favourite brand of Primalash lashes “naughty”. This helped create a dramatic
1920’s look when being photographed, as the style of lash made her eyes pop. Every bride is
different, and I hold consultations with all my brides two to three months before the wedding,
so we can create something that matches their style, personality and expectations; whether
that’s dramatic, glamourous application or a more natural finish to enhance her natural
beauty.”

Hair – Contemporary Hair

“For our brides hair, we decided on a modern interpretation of the classic 1920’s finger waves. I used a styling wand to create the waves, applied L’Oréal mythic oil for beautiful shine (which shows up beautifully in photos!), and kept it all in place with L’Oréal infinium hairspray. We wanted to keep it simple, as brides need something easy to take them from day to night on their wedding day, with the least amount of fuss.”

Stationery – Darling Ivy

“Capture the elegant 1920’s style of your day through storytelling stationery influenced by Art Deco & Speakeasy style. Hand finished with luxurious embellishments and finishing touches such as beaded tassels to create a decadent and glamorous edge to your stationery.
The decadent invitation is printed on luxury cream Italian 300gsm board, and printed with
golden hues. Designed with speakeasy style typefaces, flourishes and scalloped fan patterns,
the hand finished elements complete the look with the finest attention to detail. Complete the
coherent style of your day with on-the-day stationery to match the stylish invitations. Take your guests back to the roaring twenties and immerse them in the story of you and your wedding day.”

“Your invitations and save the dates are the first insight into your day that your guests will see and couples need their stationery to be a reflection of their wedding style, and what they have
planned for their day. Create a paper story that reflects your style.”