HOUSTON BRIDAL BOUDOIR

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I offer boudoir sessions of all kinds, but today I’m talking specifically about bridal boudoir. To see my boudoir portfolio, click here.

A bridal boudoir session is never a bad idea, in my mind. In fact, it’s a pretty standard inquiry I get these days with wedding clients. More brides are interested in these portrait sessions as a wedding-day gift to their betrothed.

A boudoir session is a portrait session where we capture you scantily clad (or not, depending on your preferences) as a gift to present to your future spouse. We chat about all of the details beforehand such as clothing (or lack thereof), location, hair and makeup recommendations, time of day, shoot date (which usually happens about 3 months before your wedding) and final product delivery. The most popular product option is an album to hold your photos in, and I think that albums are the perfect way to give the gift of boudoir sessions. Refined, timeless, and discreet.

For this particular session, the bride ended up booking some of my favorite Houston wedding vendors to be a part of her bridal boudoir team: Adorne Artistry for hair and makeup and The Creative Chateau (I’ve talked about this lovely place before) for the venue. She booked a full session, which allows for 3-4 outfit changes, so she opted for a bodysuit, a bridal panty set, her veil for her upcoming wedding day, and a simple silk slip. When in doubt, K.I.S.S (“keep it simple, stupid. Great advice, hurts my feelings every time” -D.K. Schrute). You don’t want to overdo your boudoir look with too many accessories or frill, which ends up distracting from you.

A bridal boudoir session is a super chill experience, and it truly has to be in order to result in great photos that really show off your personality. 99% of brides will bring along a groovy playlist + a bottle of bubbly to calm the jitters, and by the end of their shoot they’re practically an underwear model.

I love boudoir sessions because they’re beautiful, sultry, and empowering as heck. I love hearing feedback from brides telling me how much fun they have at their shoots, and how easy it was to get into the swing of things once they were in front of the camera for a few minutes.

Photographer: Christine Gosch | HMU: Adorne Artistry | Venue: The Creative Chateau | Film Lab: The FIND Lab

HISTORIC GALVESTON SUMMER WEDDING

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So thrilled to finally share this love-filled, understated, glorious wedding day with you all. Nate + Jenna were amazing clients with excellent style. Before I hand over the mic, I just want to say that if every wedding was in a historic town, with clients this awesome with taste this good, and with speeches this hilarious, that’d be alright with me. Their Galveston Island wedding was featured on B.E Publishing, so I’m going to leave the wording of this post up to them:

Nate and Jenna’s wedding is exactly what we look for in wedding submissions. What are the qualifications, you ask? Beautiful imagery that is true to color—or close to it—and a strong sense of chemistry and love between the couple. Below is our digital interview with the two, and their answers are bound to put a smile on your face.

How did you meet?

We have technically known each other for 11 years. We met our senior year of high school, but we weren't anything more than classmates. We ran into each other 9 years later on Clear Lake, and the rest just fell into place!

Can you pinpoint when you knew you would get married?

We both agreed, within about 4 months of dating. I would say there wasn't a "fall," we just hit a moment when it became very clear that this love was easy. There was no forcing it, and it felt as natural as breathing.

 Did you read traditional vows or write your own?

We married in the Catholic church, so we used the vows that are said in a traditional mass. We loved it, because we meant every word in it! But we did write each other letters that were exchanged before Mass that were everything we wanted to say to one another, just not in front of the crowd!

 What were your favorite moments of the day? You know, the one’s you’ll remember 50 years from now.

Nate: Our first look/prayer time together, walking into the reception and showing Jenna off, and our first dance together.

Jenna: Getting to receive communion and worship together at Mass, our first look, and eating our dinner together in the bride's room before the reception. I think the moments when we were mostly just alone together were my favorite.

 What were a few meaningful details—specific to the two of you— did you in your wedding?

The songs we picked for Mass were personal. We also carried each others' rosaries-his in my bouquet and mine in his pocket. We arranged for time to pray together int he church before everyone arrived.

Our cake topper was my favorite. It was just two wooden rocking chairs on a blank white cake. We always talk about growing old together in our rocking chairs and the porch is our favorite place to talk. 

We decided to take out the "traditional" things that didn't really seem to matter to us. We skipped the bouquet/garter toss and didn't have a groom's cake. It felt like it left us more time/energy to have fun & dance! It kept things simple.

Is there anything else you’d like to note about your love story?

Nothing really. We feel like we're pretty simple people, and we feel stupid lucky that we found each other. It's kind of funny that we were right under each others' noses the whole time & it took us almost 10 years to meet again. But we're best friends, and it was worth the wait!

Tell us about your go-to date night.

We love to try out new restaurants, but even if we hit up an old favorite, we always try to end the night at a coffee house, or somewhere with a porch/patio. That's where we really get to talk and unwind.

We both love going anywhere around Clear Lake because the variety is great and so is the seafood. It's also where we were both living when we met, so many of our best dates & conversations happened around there.

I am a school teacher, and a game I play with my students is called "Rose/Bud/Thorn." You take turns sharing different parts of your day; Rose-the best part, Bud-something upcoming that hasn't happened yet, but is "budding" and you're looking forward to it, and Thorn—your chance to share a negative if you have one. I told Nate about this game when we were first dating. Being that he worked out of town a lot and we spent many nights on the phone, he started asking me to tell him a Rose/Bud/Thorn each night; we would share our day that way.

To see the feature on B. E Publishing, click here

Thank you for scrolling all the way to the bottom of the post. Y’all have a wonderful week!

Photographer: Christine Gosch | Planner: Haylee Handley with Water to Wine Events  | Music: Royal Dukes Band  | Church: Sacred Heart Church in Galveston, TX | Reception: The Bryan Museum Conservatory  | Flowers: Flowers by Rosemary  | Catering: Chopin Mon Ami Catering | Invitation Suite: Sincerely Emma Designs | Calligraphy: Wofford Calligraphy | Programs & printed material: Christene Luong  | Hair & Makeup: Sunny Hair & Makeup | Dress & veil: Made by bride's cousin | Suits: The Black Tux  | Bridesmaid dresses: Azazie & Kennedy Blue