What can I say about this amazing shoot featuring my headpieces along with Clarie Pettibone’s romantic gowns shot by Stephanie Williams of This Modern Romance. It was based around the Film Bright Star about the romance of John Keats & Fanny Brawne.

 What a day it was, trying to get live Monarch butterflies to do what we wanted. They were the most gentle & friendly creatures. They arrived by post in coolers from Swallowtail Farms & I baby-sat them for 3 days until the shoot. In the following days after the shoot, I spotted the beauties flying around my neighborhood. Although I know they were happy, I was sad to see them gone after taking care of them & worrying they would not make it for the shoot while they rested in gentle slumber in the cooler.

My only regret, was that the beautiful hand made stationary that Josephine from Vintage Invites handmade especially for this shoot, did not make it on the Green Wedding Shoes Posting. She even wrote the original & true addresses of John Keats & Fanny Brawne on the stationary along with the hand drawn butterflies.

I would like to pay special thanks & tribute to Vintage Invites for their talent & incredible contribution to this shoot.

My standard reply is that I make all of my pieces from high-quality, expensive fabric; hand-executed techniques with extreme attention to detail that are often very time-consuming.

After many years of owning & running a wholesale production wedding accessory house, I grew tired of the limitations & restrictions that come from designing for a wholesale line. I always longed to work with higher quality materials that open up a more couture look to my collections. Now that I am running my own smaller studio, I am able to spend the time hand sewing the finishing details to add richness & depth to a headpiece or veil. In order to do this & run a profitable design house, the prices must reflect the quality.

I have seen many brands misuse the term couture or abandon their original handmade standards to get a higher return. I am working in reverse, having already been the high production route. I lost all creativity & joy in my work designing with price in mind to allow for a retail markup. Now I am back to my original roots creating the way I was meant to.

Please take a moment to browse through my new collection Look book photographed by the amazing Stephanie Williams.

Many thanks,

Erica E Koesler

Ophelia French Lace Skull Cap

Stephanie Williams Photography

Gown Claire Pettibone

KC Whitkamp Makeup

My silk Gossamer Butterfly Vine & Constance Garland with English net veil are shown here on the precious Anjelina.

Many thanks to with Claire Pettibone for lending us her elegant Sonnet & Peace gowns for this extraordinary shoot.

Hair & makeup by the gentle & kind KC Whitcamp.

That was it! I had remembered how much a loved this film & off we were planning to shoot my new collection of accessories around this theme.

Shown here a few sneak peeks from my phone with the enchanting Anjelina as our model who bore our scenes with a feisty lamb & live butterflies with out a single complaint.

I cannot wait to get the images from this shoot! Stay tuned.

Many thanks to Stephanie Williams for her endless energy & creative insight, Claire Pettibone for lending us her beautiful gowns,  KC Whitkmap for hair & Makeup, Peony & Plums for florals, Sweet & Saucy for cakes, Found Vintage Rentals & everyone else behind the scenes that help make this happen. But most of all, I want to thank the weather Gods for giving us the gift of a beautiful day. It rained the next day.