A Real Life Photo Shoot

The first time in my life that I ever received an email that started with "Hello Models", I almost laughed.  Who'd have ever thought I'd get to be modeling beautiful wedding gowns on a runway...in front of people?!

Not me!

But I am so thankful that I get to be a part of something so fun. I've been doing it since September of 2011, so about a year and a half - and have walked in about half a dozen shows. I've also gotten to meet some amazing friends, as well as a few celebrities (Randy Fenoli, Monte Durham, etc).

My next "almost laughed" moment, was when they asked me to be on Today Live, the morning news show in Pittsburgh. Of course I said yes to that too!  I mean who gets to do that?!  (Soooo fun - and I was nervous!)

So this is now my third "almost laughed" moment.  Mary Beth, the owner of Koda Bridal, asked me to model their new 2013 dresses for their website.  Let me clarify this means a PHOTO SHOOT!  As in, a real life one - with cameras, proper lighting, a couple photographers, and a backdrop.

Holy cow, yes, sign me up!  (Except I feel like I was more calm - something like "oh yes, that sounds like fun").

Anyway, the photo shoot was a week ago today, and it was a blast!  Here's a shot of them setting up the bridal salon...



See?!  Real life photo shoot stuff!



One of my best male friends, Mike (commonly referred to as "Teacher Mike") was my faux groom for the day.  Thankfully we're such great friends that we're very comfortable around each other - some of the poses we were in, made us stare at each other about 2 inches away for about 5 minutes!  And no, we couldn't laugh...that was the hard part!  But I'm pretty sure now we know where each freckle and wrinkle is on one another's faces. 

This day made us better friends.

(Even though we were looking stunning, wearing wedding rings lol).

It felt very legit (slightly scary).  The photog's even had us pose where we showed off our "rings"!

Plus, now I know what men (or A man) thinks looks good on me in terms of wedding dresses.  His reactions were priceless - "now THAT is a dress" or "oh wow, that's like a princess dress" or "lady in red, does that come with a garter"?

Hey now...I didn't say we were professional, just fun LOL

I modeled about 20ish dresses I'd say - and Mike modeled 2 different tuxes (and looked studly in both, I have to say).  Here's a shot with our hair and makeup done, before we got all wedding'd up...

Jenn Vu did such an awesome job on my hair! THANK YOU!

And here's an iphone shot that we had Mary Beth take for posterity's sake.

I think we look pretty darned amazing!:) 

I found it very complicated to actually BE a model. I felt bent into a pretzel for different poses and kept wondering how these pictures were going to turn out well?! (Body to the right, all your weight on your back leg, look left, smile, arm behind your back, and slightly turn to the right - WHAT?!)  But they insist they look fabulous and I can't wait to see!  We don't have final images back yet, but when I get to see them, I'll of course pass them on. I'm hoping in another week or two - depending on how busy they are for the holidays.

Anyway, I never thought I'd add "bridal website model photo shoot" to my reportoire of things-I've-done-in-life, but I'm so thankful I can!

It was a really fun day!  After 5 hours of getting dolled up and beautified, we went out for sushi and hibachi, and then I took a nap. I'm not sure what Mike did (but I'm guessing the same).

And on that note, this fairy tale modeling story comes to an end, and it's my bedtime. I've got a slammed week before heading to Princeton to be with my family for the holidays! I can't wait :)