Have you ever wondered what goes into creating the party displays we share here and on One Charming Party? Well today we thought we’d give you a little glimpse behind the scenes for our Bali Birthday Party shoot at Z Gallerie in Scottsdale.
Let me start by saying that it is rare for us to go to a commercial location to shoot, but at times we just don’t have anything at our homes or a friends’ home that will provide just the right backdrop. After planning our Bali-inspired birthday party we were on the hunt for the perfect photo shoot location. Being in the Phoenix desert, a lush, tropical setting can be hard to come by.
Bettijo was shopping at one of our favorite spots called Kierland Commons and wandered into the Z Gallerie. Bettijo says she stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the beautiful, carved Pradesh Day Bed. She knew she’d found the perfect set for our Bali party!
We are forever grateful to Andre and the rest of the wonderful staff of Z Gallerie for being such great hosts during our shoot. Can I just tell you how amazingly handy it is to do a photo shoot in a store like Z Gallerie? With free reign of such a spectacular collection of well-curated accessories — we were in heaven! If you’ve never shopped at Z Gallerie before you simply must go.
We went to Z Gallerie about a week ahead of the scheduled shoot and picked out all the items we wanted to use in our set. You can see Bettijo above left trying out the footstool to see if it would be the right height for these shots. Did you know that Bettijo takes nearly all of our photos? There she is above-right in action. It was tough working with the lighting in the store, but we love how the finished images turned out. When we first started the blog Bettijo was truly an amateur photographer, but I must say she’s getting some mad photo skills, and she just keeps getting better and better! (Nevermind the pics in this post that I snapped with my iPhone.)
On the day of the shoot Andre had all of the items we’d tagged previously, back in place on the set. Then Bettijo and I added the knit vines and other decorative touches to complete the look.
We loved the woven Concentric coffee table which was the set for our fruit tasting portion of the shoot. You can see left how it looked when we found it — don’t you love the texture of all those pretty white accessories grouped together?
The Bali party models were Bettijo’s daughter Attalie in purple and my friend Tara’s daughter Gracie in white. Tara and her girls were such great sports. Although Supermom Tara is pregnant with No. 5, she was on set with us the whole time, and you even catch a glimpse of her arm holding the basket of leis in these shots. Bettijo promised Tara that you would only see her hand, but I don’t know why because she’s one of the cutest and most stylish pregnant moms out there! Tara’s other daughter Ava was with us as well, and I think she had fun exploring all the interesting items at Z Gallerie. I loved this shot below of Ava smelling the white allium blossoms.
That store looks awesome, I’ll definitely have to try it out! Thanks for the tip. Cool party idea too!
Heidi
Thanks, Heidi!
I love how you gals are so resourceful! All the projects with recycled t-shirts are great!
Thanks for kind words! The up-cycled tshirt crafts were my favorite, too.
Gracie had so much fun being a “model” :) You guys are awesome! Love all the great ideas!! Gracie’s fav thing was the t-shirt sandals! She wanted to wear them out ;) Love it all!!
oh I love that purple pillow!!