Weddingbee Blog

Don’t worry, Cinnamon Buns. You’ll find out eventually. Just don’t ruin the surprise, please? This is probably the first post in a series about the same thing, so keep watching for this banner!

Now that he’s gone, let’s talk, ladies! We are talking about: boudoir shoots.

At first, when I started reading wedding blogs and saw mentions of boudoir shoots, I thought, “Why would people do that? Why pay for a photographer when you can just wear that same outfit for your fiance at home?” I have to say, I did not understand the point of spending all that money on:

• photographer
• hair
• makeup
• various waxing and exfoliating treatments
• mani and pedi (because no point getting everything else done and still having raggy nails!)
• new and fancy underthings

Then I thought about my assumption that all those garments in the photoshoots were new. Were they? I have to admit, I have bras and underwear I wear daily, and that’s it. No special-occasion stuff. OK, I only wear my sports bra on certain days (and those are exceedingly rare), but that’s even more boring.

Around the time I was thinking these thoughts, I got into a conversation with a friend who said that her bra and undies always match. What!? I mean, I know there are generally matching sets available, but I tend to buy new bras at one time and new undies at a different time. Even if I wanted to buy matching, I probably couldn’t. Said friend did say that she doesn’t need to wear the exact right set—if there’s black in her bra, black undies are acceptable and so on. Still, it made me think harder about underpants. Cinnamon Buns has never commented about my lack of interesting undergarments. The odd times I’ve mentioned it, he has said things along the lines of “Whatever makes you feel pretty, love,” “I think you’re gorgeous no matter what you wear,” and (his favourite) “It’d look better on the floor.” *leer*”

I was still feeling like boudoir would be something I wouldn’t do, when I found this post from our own Mrs. Jelly Beans.

Photo by Isnap Studio

Baking? Cute apron? Oooh, silicone spatula…

OK, so maybe I was interested in things in this photo that the lovely lady’s husband probably wasn’t, but it made me see that boudoir shoots could be more than just standing around in your underwear in front of a wall or rolling around under a sheet. This photo shoot put boudoir photos back on my radar, even though I’m still undecided as to whether I’d actually do one.

I’m still trying to wrap my head around how people keep it a surprise. Don’t fiances notice an influx of new undies? A random trip to the waxer? Mysterious mani/pedis (something I only do for special occasions)? Coming home with crazy eye makeup? I guess you could take the eye makeup off at the studio and get rid of the fancy hairdo. It’d be easy to get out of the house with a bag of clothes when he’s at work, but what if he suddenly doesn’t have to work that day? Do you lie? I can just imagine a fiance getting the wrong end of the stick—him finding the secret stash of underwear he’s never seen before, and then she goes out mysteriously one night and won’t say where she was, and it all goes downhill from there.

If you’ve done a boudoir shoot, I want to know! How did you keep it a surprise? Were all the undies new and exciting?