I am obsessed with ethereal styled photography, lovely white light in images and this quiet beauty of wedding photo shoots in the desert. My heart always skips a beat when I land on beautiful websites and find out that they are right here, in Dubai. And that’s exactly what happened when I found Lace in the Desert.  We are so bombarded with everything that’s exuberant, flashy and over dramatized,  that its such a breath of fresh air when you see a simple, clean and organic styled blog by Jessica Roberts.

I met Jessica over coffee and wedding stationery and we chatted and gushed about paper for more that 2 hours. We hit it off right immediately, Who wouldn’t? there was fresh baked buttered croissants, jam and stacks and stacks of letterpress stationery.  We couldn’t  wait to collaborate on our next project together.  Jessica, the talent behind Jessica Roberts Design, a Dubai based boutique event planning company focusing on a clean aesthetic with a hint of romance + whimsy. What I’m truly excited about is  her new venture, The Supper House she has a knack of making anything he touches stylish and oh,  so beautiful.

I couldn’t have been more excited when Jessica wanted me to design the wedding stationery for a new styled shoot that she was dreaming about. The wedding vendor industry in Dubai is a tight knit group of talented artists, a majority of which, I’m honoured to say are young and successful women.  And just to highlight what kind of magic we can create when we work together to design somebody’s perfect day, take a look at this beautiful botanical and raw styled shoot featuring some of the leading wedding suppliers in Dubai.

Jessica wanted a look that was verdant but at the same time industrial, because the shoot was to happen on an vacant unfinished floor of the Media One hotel. There was a lot of greenery and exposed concrete and industrial finishes. I decided to use a botanical theme, but keep it very monotonous in greys and white. The suite we designed featured a custom cut invitation, with a hand written style font. The envelope was lined with a custom pattern to match the invitation. Of course the suite had to include our most sought after,  custom  Pret a Papier wedding map.

The edgy handwritten font printed on the envelope is a step away from traditional calligraphy and saves a lot of time compared to handwriting each envelope. The custom botanical pattern followed through on the RSVP card and the back of the invitation.

The seating chart was inspired by leaves and foliage. Each table name was a plant name and were shield shaped plant sticks in potted plants from Concrete Candy. The place cards were paper swirls wrapped daintily around the cutlery. The menu also featured a ragged torn edging and added to the raw character of the shoot. Our paper goods complemented the tableware from Lace in Desert styling rental inventory perfectly.

The cake had this smooth faux marble fondant texture, what could be more perfect! Our real life couple Brittany and Ryan looked so in love, and were captured beautifully by Abbi.  And as Jessica so rightly put it, “This shoot demonstrates that beautiful textured greenery and a simple but elegant vision is sometimes all you need to transform a venue….and the help of some of Dubai’s best wedding vendors of course.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself, Thank you to all the wonderful vendors that made this shoot so beautiful.

Stationery: Pret a Papier | Dress: House of Moirai |  Groom’s Bow Tie: House of Moirai | Groom’s suit: Ted Baker | Hair and Makeup: Angelique Turner | Flowers: Firenze Flora | Silk Ribbons for Bouquet: Lancaster and Cornish | Table Plan Potted Plants: Concrete Candy | Ghost Chairs and LOVE sign: Party Social | Cake: Sugarology | Tableware: Styling with Lace in the Desert