Honey Lane is a passionate, spirited and unique bespoke wedding and event styling and hire studio. Creative Director and Owner, Lara Beesley, adores everything about Honey Lane. Her main desire is to give everyone the opportunity to throw amazing, creative and most importantly, stress-free celebrations for their loved ones.
Honey Lane is based out of the gorgeous Northern Beaches of Sydney. However, they love nothing more than taking the show on the road and working in gorgeous venues in some of our beautiful regional locations such as the Hunter Valley, Central Coast and beautiful Mudgee.
The hire side of Honey Lane was launched after realising that beautiful styling items were hard to come by and many brides had no choice but to purchase these items that would later have no use for. Or worse, settle for out-dated pieces! And now, growing their collection of props has become a slight obsession. They pride themselves on sourcing items that are very much interior design inspired in an attempt to think outside the 'wedding box'.
We spoke to Creative Director and Owner, Lara Beesley, about what inspires her and Honey Lane.
Modern Wedding: Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Lara: My name is Lara Beesley and I am the owner of Honey Lane. If course, I love everything about what I do and feel extremely blessed to be working in such an amazing industry with and incredible team beside me.
Outside of Honey Lane, I have three wonderful little ones – Jordy, Lexie and Billie who are 4, 3 and 1 so certainly have my hands full! But it’s all fun…most of the time! I have a love for interiors which of course compliments my event styling work and after just completed my first home build I can’t wait to do another! Travelling, cheese and wine…three of my other loves!
Modern Wedding: How did you get started as a stylist?
Lara: I got married back on 2011 in Bali and as such, I needed to have a wedding planner..it wasn’t really an option not to. As a result, my planning process and engagement journey was such a lovely one.
I, of course got involved in the styling aspects, menu tastings, cocktail tastings…all of the fun stuff! And all of the logistical planning items were left to our lovely wedding planner. This all meant my husband and I were just able to sit back and enjoy everything coming together. Some of my friends on the other hand attempted to do it all my themselves. They were getting stressed, overwhelmed and frustrated which made me sad as it wasn’t meant to be like that! After jumping in and helping several friends with their weddings and events I knew I had such a passion for not only helping couples but also creating stunning celebrations that were truly unique to each bride and groom I was working with. And that’s how Honey Lane was born.
Modern Wedding: What colours and colour palette combinations do you love for next 12 months?
Lara: I am definitely loving true emerald greens paired with soft blush and brass accents…but I am also loving layered neutrals to give a softer, tonal and very interesting look!
Modern Wedding: What are your favourite new styling trends for 2016/2017?
Lara: For me it’s all about texture…and lots of it. We are constantly looking at the way guests of our events experience the celebrations we create…and touch is a main part of that. Three textures we are loving for 16/17 are leather, velvet and linen.
Modern Wedding: What are your five favourite styling elements to work with right now and why?
Lara: Linen – Beautiful linen table cloths and napkins cannot be beaten. If budget allows they provide an amazing textural element and also allow you to use these often-overlooked items as a styling feature on your day. They are also amazing to the touch and guests will notice the difference!
Florals – The florals for us is such an important part of the day and it’s all about creating bespoke designs with our florists for every client that we work with. We are spending more and more time with our florists to think about interesting ways we can display florals, create stunning ceremony backdrops, and designing creative installations.
Fabric – We are starting to experiment more and more with fabric signage. Again, it’s just another way you can introduce a soft texture into a wedding and create a point of difference in the styling.
Modern Wedding: What are your top 3 tips for brides wanting to create unique wedding style?
Lara: Be true to you – you want to make sure that your wedding truly reflects you both as a couple in an honest and authentic way. You want your guests to feel the both of you as soon as they arrive at your ceremony and this should flow through to your reception.
Pinterest is your friend – Use Pinterest as a wedding planning tool. And when you have finished Pinning, try to tease out a common theme and colour palette which you seem to be drawn to the most. Pinterest can be confusing with so many ideas on there so you need this important step of narrowing it down to a single concept.
Get help! – This may seem a little biased coming from me, however ask any bride and I am sure they will agree that having experts on your team who do this every day is going to help with all aspects of your engagement journey and on the day. You are tapping into experience which simply cannot be matched.
Check out more of Lara and Honey Lane on Facebook and Instagram.
Stylist: Honey Lane / Photography: Serena Jones Photography / Hair & Makeup: Vescada Hair and Beauty / Celebrant: Victoria Schuberg / Bride’s gown: LUV Bridal / Groom & Groomsmen’s attire: YD / Bridesmaids’ gowns: Etsy / Wedding Planner: Amanda Floro / Ceremony & Reception venue: Novotel Northbeach Wollongong / Florist: Becca Caves of Flora Folk / Bomboniere: Kayter Co / Love Letters: Bridal Bling Sydney