Like most of my clients, Julia felt both excited and nervous for her first boudoir session. This experience was out of her comfort zone, yet she knew she wanted to do something special to celebrate herself in a unique way, and boudoir felt like the perfect gift idea for herself. She was drawn to plan a photoshoot as a way of showcasing and honoring a different side of herself that she doesn’t get to see every day.

How Julia planned for a boudoir session

In the months before her boudoir session, Julia created a Pinterest board that she shared with me filled with boudoir inspiration and outfit ideas. While it’s definitely not necessary, for some folks creating a Pinterest board or saving images on your phone can be a helpful and fun way to think about how you want your boudoir pictures to look and feel. Some folks also find it helpful to explore my Illuminate Boudoir Pinterest page and notice which types of pictures they resonate with most.

When I look through the style boards and images folks create, my goal is not to recreate the pictures you’ve saved as if we’re making a checklist of poses to capture. Instead, I love to notice what themes, moods, and photography styles you are drawn to so that I can incorporate those emotions and types of boudoir photos into your session. For instance, do I notice that you tend to love pictures of clients smiling and laughing? Are you drawn to more modern feeling, black and white images? Or do the pictures you’ve saved depict lots of confident, powerful energy?

Julia’s Pinterest board included a blend of black and white and colorful images, and it featured a lot of modern feeling images highlighting figure details and artistic lines of the body. It also featured a number of loungey, luxuriating photos of folks stretching out and taking up space in a powerful way, which Julia said felt like “Ophelia vibes.”

Julia also decided to incorporate flowers into her boudoir session. Peonies were in full bloom here in Minnesota just in time for her photoshoot, and I love the creative, fun, and atmospheric energy they brought to her portraits.

Julia shares a positive review of my Minneapolis boudoir studio

After her boudoir session, Julia shared such moving reflections about her boudoir experience. She wrote: “After years of feeling insecure and down about myself in photos, I was nervous about this photoshoot experience. Alyssa made me feel immediately comfortable and confident in her studio. She does an excellent job at creating a space that feels safe, warm, and fun!

Doing this photoshoot with Alyssa boosted my self confidence and helped me feel beautiful. On days where I don’t feel confident, I have reminded myself of how I felt during and after the photoshoot and I can’t help but smile.”