When I was approached by the ladies at Engaged! River Valley to do a Roccoco Rapunzel themed styled wedding shoot at the amazing wedding venue at Audobon State Park, I was 100% in! I had been binging the Netflix series Versailles and the architecture of the museum there is French chateau-inspired. Score! I knew binging on Netflix would pay off eventually! The only problem was that they wanted to use Rapunzel as our fairytale princess inspiration. Rapunzel, however, is a German fairy tale.

I put aside the problem of the German fairy tale and became super inspired by the Baroque period design and wardrobe elements, which was the style during the reign of King Louis XIV. Taking this period into consideration, I knew we had to incorporate lots of ornate gold and silver elements. While researching, I found that within the Baroque period was the Rococo period and ooooohhhhh, how I fell in love with this design style! Pastels, florals, and happy, soft hues galore!

Again, the issue of French architecture and design and the German Fairytale emerged and I just couldn’t resolve that issue in my mind (because I’m a total geek! lol!)

So I did some digging…

It turns out that one of the original versions of Rapunzel was a story written by a French noble who was banished from King Louis XIV’s court. It was called Persinette, meaning “little parsley.” and this telling of the tale is one version that inspired the Brothers Grimm story of Rapunzel we all know today. For an added bonus, I found out that Disney used Rococo period paintings as inspiration for the background art in Tangled!

Jackpot!

I could finally feel good about using Rapunzel inspired details in this shoot because, after all, it was a French tale first! Aaaaaaannd Disney used the same design period as inspiration! Talk about a dream come true and happily ever after!

The entire creative team and I had so much fun combining royal elements that would have come from the “prince’s” side of the family, with wild and organic elements that would have come from “Rapunzel’s” side of the family, into this styled shoot. I absolutely fell in love with the bouquet, which had a trailing vine as well as tiny heads of lettuce as a nod to our inspiration. Our bride even wore a lavender dress and her hair was perfectly styled into a modern-day coiffure! Plus, she even looks like the Rapunzel in the Disney version of Tangled (you’ll need to see it below to believe it!).

I am so thrilled with how this shoot turned out! It could be one of my all-time favorites!

Creative Team:

Venue: Audobon State Park

Florist: Zeidler’s Flowers

Table Scape/Decor/Arch: Just Your Style Event Rentals

Dress and Jewelry: Paparazzi Glamour

Hair and Makeup: The Hair Traveler

Menswear: Ella Park Bridal

Cake: Piece of Cake

Check out the full feature in the Summer 2018 issue of Engaged! River Valley magazine below!