A 1940's gangster-themed wedding inspiration shoot

Back in December 2012 I was the photographer for a bridal shoot with a good friend of mine in the wedding industry. Gwenda from The Vintage Floral Co came up with the concept of a 1940’s Gangster themed bridal shoot. Here is what happened on the day in Gwenda’s words :)

“Back in early December, I coordinated a styled shoot with a 1940s Gangster Glamour theme. I’d heard about the Gangster Squad film due to be released on January 11 2013 and I’ve always had a soft-spot for the genre – moreover, I have always been rather taken with the classic femme fatale role!

It was a dream to put together (maybe this should have rung some alarm bells!) – everyone I approached said an immediate ‘yes’ to joining the team. However, this shoot was to have a dramatic story line of its own. It started a week prior to the agreed date – both models had to pull out due to work commitments. To my relief, a young male model (the son of a friend) and his girlfriend were ready, willing and able replacements, so everything appeared to be back on track…but not for long. The day before, the girlfriend pulled out – a Facebook and twitter campaign netted us a replacement – she had a long journey to get to the Kent coast, but she was keen to be a part of it. The morning of the shoot arrived and so did the snow – but we were not to be deterred by a touch of white stuff! Having endured a somewhat slow and hazardous drive through the countryside to the home of Ciara (Dita Florita) to pick up our fabulous vintage frocks, I was finally Folkestone bound.

The schedule was already looking like it would have to be thrown out of the window, when a message from our female model confirmed that her train had been delayed due to the weather and that she’s missed her connection – in short, she wasn’t coming. Desperate times call for desperate measures. I approached the ladies in the Box Office with what I imagined was one of the oddest requests they’d ever had – did they know of a girl who was 20-25, not too tall and about a size 8-10, who could drop what they were doing and come play model for the day? Believe it or not, they did! I was led to the room for the Marketing Department, in which I was to find the unsuspecting Nikki, who graciously agreed to became our Gangster’s Moll.

Having introduced our ‘bride’ to our ‘groom’, the only other person we had been waiting for was our hair & make-up lady. Following a flurry of text messages, the outcome was that she had broken down on the M25 – in short, she wouldn’t be coming, either. By this point, we had come too far to give up now. Nikki’s colleague volunteered to help – a pooling of our make-up resources and the sending of another member of staff home to get her straighteners later, we were finally in business: lights, camera, action!”