Hey guys! Well I promised a blog about our amateur photoshoot, and today I am delivering! I wish I could tell you that everything went exactly as planned, but we did have some obstacles along the way, and it's always fun to share what actually took place behind the scenes! So let's get into it, shall we?
First of all, being a business owner is not always glamorous. Actually it's far from it! And when you're a small business owner, you'll find yourself doing a lot of odd jobs. For example, I didn't think I would be mowing grass the day of our photoshoot, but Hurricane Harvey completely adjusted our schedule, and that's exactly what I found myself doing!
Here I am standing in our Photoshoot location
(As you can see, the grass covers my feet entirely, so we had no choice but to mow!)
I wanted to leave the tall grass in the background, so I just mowed a half circle, and it turned out perfectly :)
Tada!!! Picture perfect.
Just enough space for our furniture and beautiful models :)
What I loved about this location is that it was just a mile from our house. When I saw it earlier this year, I knew it would be the perfect place for our photoshoot, and thankfully the owner of the property had no problem with us being there! When I called him for permission, He said yes and he even apologized for not mowing his field in a while. I thought that was really funny (and so sweet), because who would apologize to a complete stranger about your own land not being mowed after a hurricane? Only in fabulous Texas. But I am so glad he wasn't able to mow it. You wanna know why??? Because this beautiful photo would never have happened...
Do you see that beautiful long grass? I mean, I couldn't have asked for a more lovely scene. I also love that awesome faint sunbeam to the left (can you see it?), because I just know it's God smiling and shining down on us! Anyways, I bring up this long grassy photo because a few days later, the owner did have a chance to mow and here's what that same field looks like now...
Can you even believe your eyes???
Heres a better before and after...
(Everything looks brown and dead! I mean, what a difference right?)
So to say that I'm grateful there was no mowing going on (except for the little bit I did) would be a complete understatement! Haha.
Besides mowing the grass, I also had to stage the photoshoot. I knew I wanted my white French sofa and my glass coffee table as a center piece, but I wasn't exactly sure how to place things on said coffee table. So a few nights before the photoshoot I went around my house collecting every little frilly trinket I had, and played with my table set-up. I placed tea cups (the ones I found in Toronto), pretty books, jewelry, pink cookies and tons of flowers (real and fake) on the table. I tried so many different things before I finally settled on this:
Table set-up
but I honestly didn't know how good things would turn out until the next day. I just hoped and prayed for the best!
Table set-up at photoshoot location
Seriously, when I saw this I couldn't believe my eyes. It was so pretty, and exactly what I was wanting! Praise God!!!
Another photo of the table and staging...
(Needless to say, it turned out perfectly, and I wouldn't change a thing!!!!)
P.S.-The pink cookies in the glass jar are frosted animal crackers, and oh my gosh, they are so good!!! I totally recommend!
So besides mowing and staging (which is pretty sweaty work!) I decided to model too. I really struggled with this decision (going back and forth on it) because I was like, "Should the designer also be a model? Is that weird?" But after discussing it with my husband Andy and my friend Kara, I had peace and decided to go for it. We really wanted this photoshoot to be special and we also wanted to portray beauty, friendship and love. This vision led me in my decision to model and to also ask my beautiful friends to join me, instead of hiring professional models.
Jessica (blonde hair) has been my friend since the 2nd grade, and my number one cheerleader for this business. To have such a close sweet friend be super excited for you is rare, and Jess has always been there for me! It was only appropriate that she be in my first photoshoot for our new company. Plus she's beautiful so really it was a win win!
Andy snapped this one of Jess when she wasn't paying attention..sooo pretty!
Our second model is Bliss (green dress) and she's a newer friend of mine that goes to our awesome church here in Houston (shout out to Victory Christian Center!!!) When I first met Bliss, I was like "This girl is GORGEOUS," and later when I was praying about who I should ask to be our other model, Bliss kept coming to mind. I was like "Okay God, I'll ask her..." not really knowing if she would agree to a photoshoot, but she did, and the rest is history!
This photo of Bliss was one of our last photos of the day!!! Amazing!
(Bliss is also our featured model for our first dress being released Oct. 18th, so you will get to read more about her and her amazing testimony soon. She loves God and is sooo talented! I can't wait!)
Now last but not least, I want to talk about our photographer.....Andy! That's right guys! Andy (my sweet wonderful husband) took all of these photos. Again this was another decision we were not sure about because photos can make or break a website and Andy is not a professional photographer, but we decided to go for it anyways (and pray a whole lot too! Hahaha!!!)
Andy adjusting the camera settings
Andy did his research and bought all of the expensive camera stuff we would need for our photoshoot, however taking good photos was a lot more difficult than we expected. The parts we found the most challenging were taking outdoor photos with the sunlight and getting all 3 of us to pose perfectly. There were many photos where one of us was blinking or looking the wrong direction, and when the mosquitoes started attacking, getting a good photo felt impossible!!!
Jess and I fighting the mosquitos!!!
(Hahahaha!!!! Yes this photo is terrible (I look like I have buck teeth!) but it makes me laugh so hard, I just had to throw it in here! Poor Andy...we made his job extra difficult...)
And Honestly, there were moments where we were looking at the photos on the camera screen and we were feeling disappointed because we weren't seeing any shots we loved. I remember driving back to the house after we had wrapped things up and Andy said, "I hope we got some good photos." But despite what I had seen on the camera, I replied, "God wouldn't have let us come out here and do all this work, to not get some good photos."
And boy, was that statement correct. Father God is so good right? He promises to bless the work or your hands and although we were amateurs, and didn't get as many usable photos as we would have liked, we got exactly what we needed and for that we are so thankful!
This is my favorite photo from the whole shoot!
So that's how our amateur photoshoot went down guys! Lots of work (and hoping and praying), but everything turned out amazing in the end!
I hope you enjoyed today's blog, and we will be in touch really really soon!
Bye Lovelies!!!!
-Melissa