Mathers Social Gathering - A Luxury Styled Shoot

First comes bumble, then comes marriage…at Mathers Social Gathering.

Each of our styled shoots is an opportunity for us to showcase an aesthetic that will inspire couples as they envision and design their dream wedding. When coming up with the vision and concept for a new styled shoot we often draw our own inspiration from several places. For example, with our most recent styled shoot, “American Honey” we leaned into the venue, the couple, and the upcoming fall season.

The Venue – Mathers Social Gathering

Mathers Social Gathering is an upscale, historic cocktail lounge in downtown Orlando. We previously designed styled shoots at Mathers’ sister properties the Robinson Room and The Wellborn. All three properties are unique, impeccably designed and beloved by local patrons. When we met Ashley, the partner at Avenue Event Group, who manages the three venues, she expressed that they were hoping to start promoting the spaces as event venues. Needless to say, we immediately began brainstorming ideas for styled shoots as a means to market the spaces to potential clients.

Over the past year we’ve created three unique concepts for shoots at each venue. For colorful, vintage inspiration head to our post about the Art Deco inspired shoot we did at the Wellborn with The Experience Workshop!

We wanted this styled shoot to embody the rich history, eclectic decor, and high end reputation of the venue. Mathers Social Gathering is full of art, chachkies – like stacked vintage trunks, candelabras covered in melted wax, and the giant american flag that hangs as a focal point at the center of the space, and tufted leather sofas. The vaulted ceilings with exposed ductwork and beams tell the story of this vintage furniture store, one of the oldest existing buildings in Orlando. Using all of this as inspiration, we set to work designing the vignettes for this styled shoot.

The Vision – American Honey

Along with the venue we also love to draw design inspiration from special details about our couple. In this case our models, Cati and Danny, met on the dating website, Bumble. As an ode to this we decided to incorporate tiny hints of bumble bee and honey accents throughout the design of the shoot. This in combination with the American Flag focal point in the venue, were the driving factors behind the design – hence the name “American Honey.”

Drawing further the American Honey theme, the rich textures and colors of the interior design at Mathers reminded me of the classic american brand Ralph Lauren. The Ralph Lauren brand exudes all of the same characteristics we were imagining for this shoot – luxury lifestyle and timeless design.

We pulled from all of these sources of inspiration and created our vision board.

The Shoot

For this shoot we created several vignettes trying to incorporate as many features of the venue as possible. Our favorite from this shoot (aside from our gorgeous models!) is the custom seating chart that we created. This was of course inspired by our American Honey theme – The honeycomb patterned tiles which could be reflected by using the same tiles as place cards, mini honey drippers cascading from the top of the sign, and the cheeky saying at the bottom, “Find your Seat, Honey” created a fun custom accent.

We absolutely love to create one of a kind pieces for our couples. It is an opportunity for the couple to express themselves, tell their story, or incorporate something special from their relationship into their big day.

Feeling inspired? What should we do for in our next shoot? We’d love to hear from you, Drop us a line in the comments below!