A Wedding in the Wasteland – Mad Max Styled Shoot

February 6, 2023 | Misc.

It’s no lie that I use a wedding styled shoot as a creative outlet. I obsess over them for months, sometimes years! They live in my head as I visualize every single detail. A lot of my inspiration comes from literary sources, such as “Alice In Wonderland” or “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”; but a lot of them come from movies. I love movies – the way they’re shot, lit, written, and especially the costumes and makeup.

I am a huge fan of hot rods, motorcycles, fire, and behind the scenes special effects…especially when they use real props over CGI. So it’s no surprise here that as I sat down to watch “Mad Max: Fury Road” a few years ago, I was hooked from the opening scene. I watched the entire movie in awe… Something that no one else has even come close to attempting before. Something totally unique to all the pretty little things in the all-things-wedding world. Something badass. That’s when I started to marinate in the theme as it applied to weddings…

I couldn’t help but think “This would be a RAD wedding styled shoot!”

This shoot had to have all the elements from the movies….had to. Skulls? Check. An old hot rod and possibly a motorcycle? Check. Fire?! ABSOLUTELY. Leather, sand, and a bride who mimics Immortan Joe’s wives, with the perfect wedding dress? Yes, please. Enjoy these photos of this very cool styled shoot, and thank you to everyone who helped bring it together!

We had some challenges along the way of course, as they all do, but nothing we weren’t able to overcome. The dream location would have been the Great Sand Dunes in southern Colorado, but it’s a National Park and they couldn’t say “NO” fast enough (no cars/motorcycles/fire allowed). However, they were the ones who suggested the North Sand Hills Rec Area up by Walden and it was perfect! Getting the car up there was the other challenge, but thankfully my friend Kevin helped us with that obstacle too.