The White Wren is a story of simplicity. In a few weeks, we will share the full shoot as a feature that was inspired by our brand concept and that you see scattered throughout this site – but I also wanted to share some of the meaning behind our name, as well as what inspired us to create this blog and hone in on it’s focus.
When my wife and I had this tiny egg of an idea years ago, we didn’t pursue it at that time because we literally didn’t have the bandwidth to run a wedding blog. We had always thought it would be fun to have a place of the wedding internet to call our own, to put our own vision out there for brides, and to tell stories in a new way. Last year Morgane came into our lives, and started working for one of our other businesses. We knew she was a very good writer (her original email to us was so creatively written that we knew immediately we wanted to talk to her about working with us!), and as the year went on, the idea of a wedding blog came up again. Morgane was interested as well – so we realized that it might just be possible to bring this idea to reality, with her help. Also through our photography business activities, last year it became even more evident that there was plenty of room for more blogs that focused on film photography or imagery with a fine art aesthetic, as many of the blogs that cater to this style were backed up with features for months out, and a lot of our peers were wishing for more options to get their work featured.
But while we ourselves adore the fine art aesthetic, and especially film photography, we knew that in order to thrive and set ourselves apart we were going to have to be more than just another ‘fine art film’ blog.
The core of our businesses has always been about relationships. In our wedding photography business, we have always promoted the idea that working on a strong marriage is more important than having a perfect wedding day. We decided to carry over that same value into a wedding blog. We wanted to focus on the important things – the love and emotion, the relationship that was being forged between two individuals, and to show brides that you don’t need to follow trends or have the most groundbreaking details to have beautiful, publishable weddings. We wanted to prove that simplicity and authenticity can be the most powerful detail and inspiration.
We also knew, from feedback with our peers, that vendors in the industry were wanting something more than just paying for advertising on a blog. They wanted to be part of a community, a movement, and a culture that promoted authenticity. It’s also always been my strong belief that the role of publisher/editor and wedding vendor is symbiotic. We both should benefit each other, and link arms together and become content creators. We believe strongly in supporting the community behind our publication. This is the reason why any original editorials that we create, will only be created by our White Wren Collaborative members, never outsourced.
We literally went through hundreds of name options, trying to find something that was unique and felt right. When we finally settled on The White Wren, it felt perfect, as it spoke to weddings and marriage in a subtle way (wrens mate for life, emphasizing our desire to promote not just beautiful wedding design, but also the concept of marriage). Wrens are also small, inconspicuous creatures that are often overlooked but beautiful in many ways, and we wanted our brand and the inspiration that we feature to be simple, elegant, and achievable
We took our concept to Ciarra at Silver Fox Calligraphy and Design to help us come up with a brand that matched our vision. We wanted a brand that felt restful and peaceful. She did an amazing job creating our logo and brand collateral which now fills the pages of this online journal. It is a perfect representation of the feeling and emotion that we wanted our viewers to experience!
Then, we took our brand ideas to our good friend Michelle Wright to design a photo shoot that would create the perfect visual representation of what we stood for. She and her team brought it all to life, and the images in this post are the first glimpse of that special shoot. A full feature of this shoot will be coming soon, but we are so grateful to our friends at Michelle Wright Events, Cotton Social, The Barn at Reynolda Village, Silver Fox Calligraphy, Greenhouse Picker Sisters, Michelle Clark Makeup, Trumpet & Horn, Alexandra Grecco, Gilded Bridal, and Girl and a Serious Dream for helping us with assembling this vital part of our brand image.
We love you all and can’t wait to begin this journey together!
Publisher at The White Wren and Bajan Wed, Award Winning Photography + Videographer at Live View Studios, Dad, 80s music lover, crunchy health advocate
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