With a background in commercial styling and prop making in the photography and film industry, a move into wedding styling was an obvious transition for Holly Buckley (nee Otene), and she considers working alongside couples to help create and style their wedding day as a real privilege.
Holly's Auckland based business H.Otene is a high end, organic inspired event styling company which provides a full styling service starting from mood boards, details, custom bars and marquee fit outs. It also specialises in every aspect of wedding planning from location scouting to sourcing the perfect suppliers to fit the desired look and feel.
With design and customisation truly at the core of how H.Otene operates, your special day is guaranteed to be Holly's top priority.
We talk to Holly about how to create a beautiful looking wedding day
that both you and your guests will remember forever.
1. Why is styling so key at a wedding and how can a stylist help?
The styling dictates the atmosphere of a room. Everybody may not remember the look, but they remember how they felt in a room. The two go hand in hand, the look influences how we feel! As weddings are a once in a lifetime event (hopefully!), couples really want to perfect this part. Stylists help to set the tone and bring to life the vision that has been customised with the couple. If the design and planning process is too overwhelming, enlisting the help of a wedding stylist will eliminate the pressure because they are an expert in their field. They have invaluable experience planning and styling weddings, with a great number of connections in the industry.
2. How would you describe the H.Otene approach?
It is very personal. We customise our planning alongside an empathic design approach. Getting to know our clients, understanding them and what they value most, brings the emotional and creative process together. This is your dream day, so we work with you to create it.
3. How early do you need to book a stylist ?
The creative process starts at the very beginning, so book us in before anything else. We specialise in location and venue scouting and we will help you choose suppliers like photographers that fit perfectly with your aesthetic.
4. How do you work with your couples to come up with their look?
Firstly, we make sure our brides get off Pinterest (I know shock-horror)! We ask them to find a few images that are non wedding related, that sum up what they want their day to look and feel like. We then see which descriptive words, moods and feelings our couple relate to most. From there we discuss and create together to come up with the big picture, the smaller details then follow.
5. What is your favourite wedding style right now?
We love that brides are now opting to layer with texture rather than colour. When it comes to colour we love dusty pinks, white (of course) and rich wine reds. Contrast and juxtaposition will always catch our eye.
6. What do you love most about working in the wedding industry?
Every day is different, and each wedding is unique as no two couples are the same. We love the variety and it is a great privilege to work in such a beautiful country.
Images from
H.Otene.
