This event designer took us to Africa with this Safari-inspired wedding shoot and we love everything about it!

It’s all in the details. From the African print beads on the candle holders to the stationary designed liked luggage tags, Rebecca Hoeckele drew on her experience during a trip to South Africa to design this gorgeous wedding shoot at The Monestary in New Orleans, Louisiana. Hoeckele, of Honeysuckle Events, says she imagined a couple meeting on an international flight and falling in love after discovering a shared passion for adventure and travel.

“I wanted to create a dreamy, ‘Out of Africa’ feeling,” Hoeckele said.”I also wanted to capture the romance of travel in the early part of the 20th century, with Save the Dates styled as luggage tags, hand-sketched biplanes tying the stationery suite together, and a leather-bound travel journal used in lieu of a guest book.”

To complement the safari-inspired theme, Hoeckele chose a color palette of rich, earthy tones like, deep olive, merlot and caramel and then brightened them with shades of coral, pink, apricot and blush.

“I also had fun with the juxtaposition of textures: gold-rimmed china on rattan chargers, guinea feathers tucked into linen napkins, and spiky Protea (South Africa’s national flower) side by side with lush roses, old-fashioned ranunculus and delicate pieris japonica,” said Hoeckele.

The designer also included some family heirlooms of her own into the styled shoot.

“I loved incorporating…my grandfather’s circa 1919 accordion-style camera and leather-wrapped binoculars. ‘I Married Adventure’ from my husband’s family, a copper giraffe with a gorgeous verdigris patina from our more recent trip to Camp Jabulani in the Kapama Reserve. Another nod to that amazing trip was naming the tables after some of the private reserves we enjoyed so much: Timbavati, Sabi Sand, Kwazulu Natal and Thornybush,” said Hoeckele.

As for the gown the model wore, Hoeckele chose a Valyn Paige dress for its “simplicity and timeless, romantic quality.”

“I wanted her to look equally at home posing for an elegant portrait or strolling across the savannah with her skirts looped over her arm,” said Hoeckele.