My Summer Cottage Garden Magazine Features

When photographer Jay Wilde came to my home last July to take photos of my cottage garden, I had no idea it would be featured in TWO national magazines. I can’t wait to share the details with you.

Disclosure

All Better Homes & Gardens Cottage Style Magazine AND Country Homes Magazine images were photographed by Jay Wilde. Better Homes & Gardens Cottage Style Magazine | Copyright 2021 Better Homes & Gardens. Country Home Magazine | Copyright 2021 Country Home Magazine

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Did you read my blog post last year about the day photographer Jay Wilde came to shoot my cottage garden for a Better Home & Gardens Cottage Style feature in their spring/summer issue? If not, you can read all about it here.

The Original Feature was for Country Gardens Magazine

The entire process was exciting but there were quite a few ups and downs. It all started on October 21, 2019, when Country Gardens Magazine reached out to me with interest in featuring my garden for their Summer 2021 publication.

I’m sure you can imagine how over the moon I was. This was such a dream of mine and it was finally coming true. Then in early May, I found out that the magazine would not be publishing any issues past the 2020 summer issue.

As you can imagine, I was devastated. I had bought all my seeds for my cut flower garden that would surely WOW the magazine readers (let’s just say I went a little overboard in the plant department). After days of feeling sorry for myself, I pulled up my “big girl panties” and was ready to move on.

And then something amazing happened. Seriously amazing! The editor of Better Homes & Gardens Cottage Style Magazine, Samantha Hart, called to say she was interested in featuring my garden in her magazine.

Yes, I know the exact date because I have never erased her message from my voicemail. And I probably won’t.

The Hottest Day of the Year – Magazine Photoshoot Day

Fast forward to July 17, 2020, when Jay came to take pictures of the garden. I think it was around 95 degrees F which is pretty rare for the Seattle area. Flowers were wilting throughout the garden.

The two pictures above are of Jay in the process of taking a picture of the pitcher of cut flowers. There were a couple of things working against us. First, the sun was shifting quickly, casting shadows on the garage door.

And don’t forget that it was 95 degrees out and the flowers were literally wilting before my very eyes.

Here’s the image BHG Cottage Style used in their magazine for the Table of Contents page. It turned out so much better than we had expected. You can see the white dahlia drooping from the heat if you look for it.

Better Homes & Gardens Cottage Style Magazine Feature

Here are some of the pictures from the spring/summer issue that was published in March 2021.

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Country Home Magazine Feature

Did I happen to mention that Samantha is also the editor of Country Home Magazine? She told me that they were rerunning the Cottage Style story in the summer issue of Country Home Magazine, which hit the stands this month.

Pretty amazing, right?

A Dream Come True

This was such an amazing experience, especially working with a talented photographer like Jay. I started out feeling stressed to have the garden PERFECT for the shoot. We ended up just having fun and trying different things to see if they would work for the feature. He was such a professional and truly has an amazing gift. I hope we can work together again.

Samantha and the writer, Samantha Thorpe were incredible as well and made this “once in a lifetime experience” one that I will never forget…IN A GOOD WAY!

If you haven’t already, I hope you have a chance to enjoy both the Better Homes & Gardens Cottage Style and Country Home Magazines. Let me know what you think!

I have another surprise coming in June. Any guesses?

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Other posts You May Enjoy…

• My Cottage Garden Year in Review
• Coastal Cottage Garden and Outdoor Spring Spaces Tour
• An Enchanted Evening Stroll Through the Garden

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