Recent Styling Work: Country Living

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Garden parties are at the top of my list for entertaining. Everyone is more relaxed and outdoor dining tends to make even simple fare seem sumptuous.
In this months July/August issue of Country Living, I had the chance to style a whimsical garden party filled with botanical inspirations. It was a great collaboration with the team in NY, and is filled with easy to do, affordable decorations and menu ideas.

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A funny behind-the-scenes story from the life of a stylist….We needed nasturtiums for the salad in this story and the week of this shoot, they were out of season. But that’s no excuse to hold things up, and the search was on. No stone would be left unturned. There were stops at garden centers, nurseries, local restaurants, farmers markets, a friend of a friend’s garden, driving up and down neighborhood streets looking for the possible random sighting. Nothing. Finally, a cafe owner told me about a local mountain and said he’d seen them growing on the backside. Off I went. Driving up and over the mountain to the south-west side and….nothing. So I relayed my eventful day to my editor and said we’re going to have to use pansies, impatiens or marigolds, all of which I bought earlier at the local nursery as back ups….

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Later that day, our Style & Market Director went on a hike and guess what? She came back with her pockets filled with nasturtiums. At first I thought she was joking, (because she’d get a kick out of that) but there they were, crumpled up in her hands.
Proof that apparently, I had left one stone unturned.
But as they say, All’s well that ends well. 😉

13 Responses to “Recent Styling Work: Country Living”

  1. Sabrina

    The nature inspired garden party was one of my favorite things in this month’s issue!! And who know nasturtiums would be so hard to find?! 🙂

    • Heather Bullard

      Thanks so much Sabrina! Glad you loved the feature. Maybe I should start growing them for future scouting trips! 😉

  2. Katy Noelle

    How fun is that, now??? Like magic that she found them – I can only imagine the moment she sighted them! =D And, of course, the details matter as we all know and love…. =D

    Glad it worked out – what a beautiful theme!!

    • Heather Bullard

      I guess it was meant to be! Fate that she found them!

  3. Donna Baker

    How beautiful. The butterfly nets are perfect. I might try that; only to catch grasshoppers that are taking over my farm. Perhaps I should put a bounty on their heads are invite all friends and kids over.

  4. Sandra Lee

    Just love this setting and so happy it all went as planned! The fern fronds look so great between the plates.

  5. Karen

    I loved this feature too. I was especially interested in the faux mushrooms since I had just made several clay ones for styling a ladies event. I was particularly into mushrooms or some reason. If I had seen this article before my event, I definitely would’ve incorporated those adorable cookies, among other things!

  9. Kristin

    I loved this! Especially the tree stump chargers, and the beautiful three-tiered drink dispenser.- I’ve got a garden full of nasturtiums this summer! You really should grow some…they’re super easy, and then no more worries about finding them for a future shoot :-). My favorites are a pink heirloom variety I found…so gorgeous.

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