Wedding Day Details

 

Last weekend my high school best friend had a small, informal wedding to celebrate her marriage with a great guy.  It was lovely to see her and her bridesmaids in the gowns from our shop, and I am proud I could be a part of helping them celebrate the day.  I have been busy training a new assistant and preparing the final stages of moving out of our "too little" condo so editing has taken a while, but here are some of the cute little details and moments from that day.

New Beginnings

Gowns provided by:
Weddings By Armando

Congratulations to Steven & Lorina Gray.  

It was a beautiful wedding,
and we all wish you a wonderful married life.

Why Boudoir?

Boudoir can be intimidating for many reasons; personal image issues with your weight or confidence, the fear that somebody would find the photos or that they will be plastered all over the internet to ruin your reputation, or the misconception that boudoir requires you to be pornographic in some way. Perhaps there is even the feeling that when you hand the finished product to your special somebody that they will be unhappy about the results, or angry that you allowed another person to see you in such an intimate way.

After hearing stories from many of my clients on how this was a huge step outside their comfort zone or how getting their photos back gave them a chance to really see how beautiful they are inside and out, I wanted to share their stories to let you all in on the not-so-secret.

Pamela

A few weeks ago I shared the story of my best friend and her boudoir shoot. She and I were college roommates and have similarly aged toddlers. She is a wonderful person and has a glowing smile, but really never has the chance to shine anymore between her work as a nurse and her work as a mom. I am so pleased she took the time to share her thoughts as her shoot has some of my favorite classic poses.

"Being a mom has given me a very different image of myself an sometimes it overtakes who I feel I am as an individual. For me boudoir was a reminder of that person I am and have always been. It's a way of showing myself I'm not just a mom I'm still woman and that is something to celebrate. It's fun and it's probably outside of a lot of woman's comfort zones (mine included) but the images afterward are incredible it gives you a glimpse of what others see in you not just the physical features."

Tanya

A stay-at-home mother of two that once had some serious self esteem and body image issues, she has had a long road to get to the confident and outspoken woman we see today. I feel blessed to help show off her big, beautiful smile in this surprise sitting done while her husband was out at work. This survivor of a truly unpleasant past is an inspiration for being so confident no matter what her detractors try to say.

"I feel it isn't so much about the modeling as it is about how the woman feels in their own skin. the fact that I have posed for pictures of this fashion says a lot of how I portray myself in my own eyes. Do I have some problem areas that need to be worked on? sure I do! do I have areas that I wish would never see the light of the sun and curse the eyes of others? maybe... but I am who I am, not one single person is going to change that and the ability to be photographed and show that personality, MY personality and my soul and inner being shines through. when I look at any and all pictures taken of me not only do I see body and soul and personality, I also see growth, as a person, and I also see the growth of the photographer. "

Charity

Charity has been featured here on our blog a few times and writes her own thoughts on working as a model in boudoir, fashion and fetish. She is always a pleasure to work with and talk to about many things. I often call Charity when it is time to do a study on poses or for a chance to practice with an experienced and flexible model before working with a client. She is happy to give feedback and honest opinions without overly praising or dragging out a negative when having a bad day. For this reason I respect her thoughts on boudoir as an art form and as a model.

"Boudoir shots for me are all about the setting and the mood. These shots are based on the concept of a lady’s “sitting room” where she would entertain visitors and lovers. They can include nudity and implied nudity but in essence nudity and being scantily clad is not a requirement. Boudoir for me typically uses lingerie and lighting. They can involve props and gloves as well as full body or just an arm."

Writing this and speaking to these ladies has given me the final push to put aside my own insecurities about my health troubles and lingering baby weight. In the coming weeks I will be planning and posing for a new boudoir shoot of my very own. I plan to share some inside images of the process and the results in an up coming blog later in June.

Thank you to every one of my brave and beautiful ladies for sharing this experience with the world. I hope they can inspire you to be brave and believe in your own beauty!  If you are located in the New Hampshire or southern Maine area and would like to book your own boudoir session, please contact our studio for more details.

Production Begins

Today is about the creative process of gowns.  This process all starts with an idea, usually one that pops into my head without warning just as I am trying to close my eyes for bed. Once they are in there I write them down and go back to it later for sketching.  I often peruse wedding gown catalogs and websites to make sure I am not copying something already on the market then go with modifications to really make it a custom design and be sure I am not copying a designer unfairly.

May favorite inspiration comes from classical art and walking around fabric mills when I get the chance.  Letting the lace or chiffon run through my hands allows me to think about how I want to sculpt with it.  

In general my work seems to have a tendency toward dropped waist and mermaid or trumpet gowns at the moment because that is the style I prefer for myself.  There is a theme of heavy lace detail and minimal beading but a little touch of feminine charm in each with a simple floral cap or lace edged veil and gloves.  

In the next few days I will make final choices on the fabrics to begin testing my concepts in the real world.  I have the ever wonderful Fox Affect working on a design for a headband.  She has an amazing eye for crystals and lace, far more skillful than I could ever hope to be with my clumsy photographer fingers. We have known each other since 2003 when we attended college together, and share a good deal of mutual weirdness.  This makes communication of otherwise very strange ideas about design much more simple.

I expect that production will start fairly soon on the first elements, and we can begin to the fruits of all this effort.  Until that point, I will share a few more rough sketches with my chicken scratch notes along the edges.

Weddings By Armando Model Search Applications

Nemo has come and gone.  We survived two days of snow that far surpassed all previous records in our area meant three days snowed in with the family.  We have dug ourselves out and dove back to Valentine's Day insanity as usual. 

Nemo's snow at our front door.

I clock in hours with my camera, at my regular part-time job at the cosmetics store, and a third batch of hours at a local florist shop handling their customer service lines for phone orders.  That means this Saturday was the first chance I had to look at my computer for myself.  Today's list of things to do starts with posting  applications for our modeling campaign that people have been waiting for...

The application is simple, but I wanted to remind everybody to go back to the previous entry and read over our categories for models and select carefully.  Remember that we only have a few spots open, and will be selecting those that best fit our needs for this round.  If you don't get chosen, we do keep people in mind when we know a fun shoot might be coming up that they would be perfect for in the future.

Once you have the required images and information, please send your application via email and we will store it until we start the selection process on the 1st of March.  

Please refer to this chart when taking measurements to submit in your application:

(Bust, Waist, Hip, Arm, Hollow to Hem,  Skirt Length)

WEDDINGS by ARMANDO Model Application

FULL NAME:

HAIR COLOR:

EYE COLOR:

SECTION(S) APPLIYING FOR:

DO YOU WEAR MAKE-UP OFTEN:

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SONG FROM A MOVIE & WHY:

SHOULD COMIC BOOK SUPER HEROES BE REQUIRED TO REBUILD OR PAY
FOR DAMAGES DONE WHEN THEY ARE DEFEATING A VILLAIN:

IF YOU COULD HAVE ANY HAIR & EYE COLOR WHAT WOULD YOU CHOOSE:

WHY DO YO THINK YOU WOULD ROCK AS A MODEL FOR WBA:

PLEASE INCLUDE THE MEASUREMENTS SHOWN ON THE CHART ABOVE FOR OUR REFERENCE WHEN CONNECTING A MODEL WITH THEIR CLOTHING SIZE. ALSO INCLUDE THE REQUIRED NUMBER OF REFERENCE IMAGES (2 HEADSHOTS, 2 FULL BODY IMAGES, 1 BACK VIEW) . ALL IMAGES SUBMITTED MUST BE OF THE APPLICANT ONLY AND BE CLOTHED.