Alumni Profile - Belathee Photography Featured in Martha Stewart Wedding

SCCA alumni Annabel Braithwaite and Dorothée Brand work as co-owners of Belathée Photography. Working from their two home bases of Seattle and New York City, they have traveled to over 14 countries shooting boutique wedding photography. Highly acclaimed, their style is described as a delicate and stunning balance between fine art, photojournalism, and portraiture. In the past they have been featured in Real Simple, PDN, Brides, Instyle Weddings and Town & Country. Most recently, their work was highlighted in Martha Stewart Magazine. We spoke with them about this feature and the incredible work they’ve been doing together since 2003.

Dorothée Brand and Annabel Braithwaite of Belathee Photography.

This isn’t the first time you’ve been featured in Martha Stewart Wedding, how does the process go and how do you establish what content to use?

In all cases we were hired by the couple to cover the wedding as well as by Martha Stewart Weddings to photograph certain details for the magazine itself. Therefore we have a pretty strict shot list and art direction for the “detail ” part and always ended up shooting an entire full day before the actual wedding.

There is also the option of photographing a wedding on your own and submitting it to the magazine after, one just hast to make sure they shoot a lot of the details, all natural light and pay attention to the styling they tend to like. We feel very honored that we had the ability to both represent the magazine and also shoot for the couple. Not many photographers get to do that and somehow we got lucky to get asked.

When you are working on a preparing to shoot a wedding, how do you establish and align yourself with the vision of the wedding?

When working for Martha Stewart Magazine the art direction is very clear and the story is pre established and the shot list is pretty extensive. If there is no magazine or publication involved, we generally always shoot a very nice mix of design details, the venue, food and of course lots of portraits. From the venue to the style of dress and so on. Its easy to tell what kind of client we have and try to capture everything in our style which we like to call a mix of fine art and photojournalism. We shoot most items in natural light but also enjoy using flash creatively when things get dark.

Of the shoots featured, what were some of the highlights?

The wedding we shot in Palm Springs was particularly interesting due to its location.. we both love the desert and the couple was very hip and unique and had a totally fresh take on decorating their wedding. Its likely one of our favorite weddings ever covered.

Edyta + Jared Get Married In Palm Springs

A dreamy desert ceremony and a fun poolside reception replete with synchronized swimming routine for entertainment brought this couple’s vision to life.