You’re excited! You’re ready. You took the plunge and booked a boudoir session. Only, you kinda wanted to do something creative with the images, but aren’t sure what that means. It can be hard to think of how to be creative with your session. Do you want to do a theme? Do you want to do a traditional boudoir session, but maybe gift them to your significant other in a cool way? What if you’re just doing a boudoir session for yourself? How do you enjoy the images in that scenario?? So. Many. Questions.
Lucky for you, boudoir pictures are always a crowd pleaser. So there really is no pressure to be extra creative-you in lingerie is enough! I’ve certainly never had a client come back to me after a session and say, “Ya know, he just wasn’t really into them.” You can absolutely shoot a traditional boudoir session and print/deliver them to him any way you choose, and he’s guaranteed to go nuts over them! However, through the years my clients have shared with me their ideas and there are definitely some pretty incredible ideas. Here are some of best ways to enhance your boudoir experience for you and your significant other.
1.) Cater your boudoir session to show off your awesome personality. This is a wonderful way to capitalize on the many sides of you that make up who you are. Here’s an example: I actually did this for the boudoir session I did for my husband as his groom’s gift. My boudoir session revolved entirely around the many sides of me he was marrying into. Some of the images were sensual and intimate (because that’s a special part of me that only he gets to see.)
Some images were more specific/funny. For example, I LOOOOVVVVE CHRISTMAS. Seriously. I love it so much that anytime I type the word “Christmas” in on my phone, it autocorrects and puts the entire word in caps. True story. Thus, I decided for one shot of my boudoir session, I would “gift wrap” myself Christmas style! I know. Adorable, right?!?!
Other shots were more about our individual talents or differences. For example, Matt was a chef at the time, so I donned his apron and some heels because I can’t cook to save my life. See the irony? It was a great picture to include in the collection. This is definitely a session that involves more planning/outfits/props/etc. than the traditional boudoir session. But if it’s something you’d love to do, we can definitely collaborate and come up with something incredible that you and your partner will get to enjoy for the rest of your lives. This is a wonderful way to be intimate, sexy and lighthearted at the same time.
A great option for: a wedding gift for your significant other, an anniversary gift, a Father’s day gift.
2.) Make the images a kind of scavenger hunt of your body. This option is great for the couple who enjoys the heat of their relationship, or would like to rekindle it. How this works is you decide on a certain number of your body parts you want to highlight in the scavenger hunt based fun facts about your relationship. Then I’ll shoot them in a beautiful, enticing way and you can put together one amazing scavenger hunt for your significant other that is both sensual and thoughtful.
In case you’re not tracking with me, here’s how it breaks down. You use clues like “where was the first place you gave me a hickey”, “if I had a tickle button, where would it be”, or “how did I get the scar I got when I was in high school?.” And we’ll have already shot a series of amazing, corresponding images for each of these questions that you can hide in different places throughout your house. For example, if where you’re most ticklish is your neck, you can slip one of the images in your jewelry box next to your necklaces or by your perfume in the bathroom. You could do this for his birthday by leading him throughout your house to answer all the clues until he finally gets to you-his official prize. Or, if you don’t want to hide the images, you could simply email him one clue a day leading up to the big occasion and only send him the image once he correctly guesses the clues. Fun, no!?! It certainly will be for him!
A great option for: a birthday, anniversary or celebrating a big milestone.
3.) Write a letter to your future self. I have to confess. I get a little girl crush on every woman who comes into my studio to do a boudoir session for themselves. It’s awesome. However, because you aren’t gifting the images to anyone, you won’t actually have an option to use the images in a more meaningful, creative way, right? WRONG!
I’ve come across many clients who have decided to have a repeating boudoir sessions throughout their life. They have one done once every 5-10 years or so simply as a way to document the changing roadmap of their body. Heck, I’ve even decided that I want to do that. I mean think about how much a woman’s body goes through. This year they had a C-Section. Ten years later, they beat breast cancer. A woman’s body is a visual representation of her life journey. Her laugh lines. Her age marks. Her scars. It’s all such a beautiful display of who she is and where she’s been.
Here’s where the letter comes in. How cool would it be if every time she has a boudoir session, she also writes a letter to her future self. A letter that she can’t open and read until she is also viewing her most recent boudoir session. That way she can honestly look at the images of herself while she reads her past hopes/goals/fears/insecurities/triumphs. How. Incredible.
A great option for: the woman who wants to celebrate herself.
4.) Do a boudoir session and celebrate just because. Most of my clients come to me because they have a specific occasion in mind they want to celebrate. They are doing a boudoir session for a Birthday/Father’s Day/Anniversary/etc. However, I had one client get images done “just because” she felt her husband was pretty awesome on a daily basis. She then printed the images and left them in super-mundane places where she knew her husband would be daily. She taped one up in the shower, but one in the toaster, and stuck one on the orange juice in the fridge. If you don’t want images of yourself sitting in random spots throughout your house, you could always spread this out over the course of a week/month/year and hide one every now and then as a fun surprise. Maybe you ask your husband to go get the mail knowing you’ve already stashed a sexy picture of yourself between the magazines and bills. Or, you ask him to fold a load of laundry, knowing you’ve placed a racy picture somewhere in the heap. Wow. As I’m considering all of this, I realize this may be the answer to how to get your husbands to pitch in at home. *mind blown*
Maybe your significant other has just gotten a promotion. Or he’s being an amazing new dad. Or maybe he’s been extra supportive lately. This would be such an incredible way to reward him. Or maybe he’s being deployed and you want to be able to email him a gorgeous image when you’re missing him most.
A great option for: significant others you want to do something special for just because they are such amazing people, even if it doesn’t coincide with a major holiday.
5.) You have a big anniversary coming up this year. One of my client’s had boudoir pictures taken of her to celebrate her ten year anniversary, which is already awesome. But then she did something even better.
She purchased a 30 image album for her husband of the images we shot together as well as 12 individual images. Why? Well, for their tenth year together she wrote him a letter to read on the last day of every month. She also sent a gorgeous photo of herself with every letter. Then, on their actual ten year anniversary, she presented him with a final letter and the album.
I think this is so creative and amazing, I could cry over it. For anyone celebrating an anniversary, you should totally consider this method.
A great option for a: couple celebrating a big anniversary.
I have more ideas for you all! Stay tuned this week for Pt. 2 of this article!
meaganophotography.wordpress.com 