Hey guys! So, you've finally taken the leap and booked a boudoir session, WOOHOO... or you are considering it.. (come on you can do it) but wait, now what?

Don't worry ladies, once you've booked your date you'll get an prep guide to help prepare you for your experience so you're not feeling lost, but I wanted to share our top 5 tips with you all! This is obviously geared towards an individual women's session. If you have booked a couples session, it may be a little different, BUT you get the point ;)

1. RELAX

Literally, take a breath and calm down! You're probably feeling nervous, excited, scared or intimidated but I promise you you're in the right hands! On the day of your session it's just your job to show up and relax. When you walk into the door you're getting pampered until the second you leave. It's not your job to take a good photo it is ours, pose or do anything other than follow our simple directions and come with an opened mind. We will take care of the rest. We can sip on a mimosa while you're getting hair and makeup done and after that, we got you girl 

2. COME READY FOR HAIR AND MAKEUP

All of our sessions include amazing hair and make up sessions or have the ability to add it on. TRUST ME YOU WON’T REGRET IT. It's super important to come with clean, dry, straight hair AND a clean, moisturized face. The makeup artist will be ready to go once you've arrived so having these two things done will make the process go smoothly! When moisturizing your face it's important to use a product that does NOT contain oil, as that causes the makeup to slip off and not stay in place. As for hair it's so important to have your hair DRY and straight. It doesn't have to be completely straight with a flat iron, but cleaned either the night before or morning of and blow dried completely. If you have naturally curly hair that you would like to keep curly, just let us know ahead of time and we'll just run some fresh curls through your hair if you'd like! Make sure to have your hair cut/colored 2-4 days before your session, if that is something you prefer. Our artist are here to dry style your hair.

Any other hair concerns, please just let us know before you arrive so I can make sure the artist is prepared! 

3. TRY ON YOUR LINGERIE

As most of you know we have a lingerie client closet, We encourage client’s to bring 1-2 outfits that they know fit them well as we can’t guarantee all sizing.. shopping for this is part of the fun and hey you can even wear the outfit again when you hand your special someone the gift… Just make sure to try on the pieces to make sure they fit well. We suggest bringing a variety of your own bottoms and 1-2 good fitting bras so we have something to work with. We will can also have some pieces of lingerie pulled for you from our collection if you'd wish to go that route.

FAVORITE PLACES TO SHOP

BOOHOO

FOREVER 21

HIPS & CURVES

SOMA

LANE BRYANT

TORRID

YANDY

4. GO COMMANDO

The morning of, please don't wear any tight fitting clothes. Come without a bra/undies if you can. They will leave a red impression on your skin that does not photograph well. Come in a button down shirt or easy pull-off dress to make things easier. We know it feels weird leaving the house "naked" underneath and no face make up but it will all be fine

5. STREEEEEETCH (and hydrate)

Seriously, stretch before and after your session. You are basically doing boudoir yoga and holding poses longer than you would normally hold them. Also you'll be sitting, bending, kneeling and arching for a couple minutes while we get various shots, so please make sure you are ready to go! TRUST US.. A LITTLE YOGA WITH ADRIENE BEFORE YOUR SESSION AND YOU WILL BE SET. Also, HYDRATE, HYDRATE, HYDRATE. Plenty of water will make a world of difference on your skin.

In our last post we talked about the benefits of having regular “Date Nights”, today we are going to look at a few of the statistics that are “Date Night” related 

The National Marriage Project called ‘The Date Night Opportunity’ confirmed the effectiveness of a weekly date night, for those who are in a committed relationship, living together or married.  Here are the 10 stats that to me, make perfect sense in regards to instituting a “Date Night” especially NUMBER NINE! 

If I am reading this correctly, I am pretty sure that this is a no brainer folks! BUT with the statistics of better communication, greater quality relationship, increased attraction, higher than average sexual satisfaction and increased individual as well as couples identity this seems promising.      

We all know relationships take work, “Date Night” is only one component in a much larger picture as we know relationships can’t always unfold beautifully and perfectly. We can however make some of that work we put into them FUN!?  I can’t seem to find any major draw backs and the upsides seems pretty damn good to me. It’s great to be content and comfortable, but there is something to be said for not taking a partner or relationship for granted and potentially having it become distant or boring. Oh gosh, I said the dreaded B word! 

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Photography by Preferred Vendor Modern Love Oklahoma

Personally, I’ve always thought of dating as something that happens when we want to meet someone, I’ve never really thought of dating the person I am in a committed relationship or marriage with and I am sure I am not alone in this. However, It seems that loads of Institutes and relationship experts are doing research, reporting stats and recommending we all jump on that “Date Night” train.

Recently on a sleepless and potentially frustrated night, I decided that some “Professional” 3:00 am research on the “inter webs” was necessary on my part in order to learn more and understand the social phenomenon of “Date Night”” I wanted to ascertain “What’s the deal?” and “Can it help?”.  So down the Google rabbit hole I went learning all that I could about this so called “Date Night” 

Turns out “Date Night” looks as if it can be pretty rad and healthy for your relationship. It seems (with some pretty convincing and fairly damn logical points and stats) that “Date Night” can reap substantial benefits for most of us! “Date Night” = A fun way to foster healthy communication and interpersonal goodness for people in all stages of relationships.  From the newly committed to the engaged, married or married with children. 

Honestly, I was more than a little overwhelmed with all of the information I found. I am going to try and break this down for you in a 4 part miniseries, yep bite size pieces babes!

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Date Night helps with communication. This is an essential element of an intimate relationship. But communication also involves the willingness to deliberately remove distractions such as children and career demands. Date nights offers couples the opportunity to discuss topics of mutual importance.  They can self-define, and dialogue about mutual aspirations. Communication is like a muscle. Sometimes you plan your communication work-outs. Gottman’s research, in particular, tells us that a “stress-reducing” conversation can help couples to stay current with what is actually moving through their intimate partner’s life.

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Couples typically experience a habituation, a “settling in” quality where both are more likely to take each other for granted. The symbiotic “we are a couple” can settle into an ordinary domestic routine. But new research indicates that a deficit in fun and novelty is toxic.  A balance of activities, interesting to both, which emphasizes novel and different experiences can help increase intimacy.

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Romantic love is that erotic spark, excitement, and an overwhelming sense of attraction to your significant other. But with time, the emotional and physical expression of erotic love tend to transcend for many couples.

Because Date Night allows a couple to completely focus on their connection, the erotic spark may be restored by the intentional pursuit of romance, novelty, and deeper communication. Date nights may not only rekindle the romance, regular Date Nights can be helpful in sustaining the fires of love over the long haul.

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Couples that have a regular “Date Night” maintain a connection through intimate conversation and emotional support. They also lower the stress on their own brains, as well as their partners. Fortunately, nature has endowed us with great resiliency in this area. We don’t always have to connect with our partner perfectly, but we do have to preserve and develop our capacity to pay attention and be fully present to our partners when they are stressed, and to be a solidly loyal and reliable friend.

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The benefits of creating time to date your partner seem to be pretty strong as well as motivating.  If you are looking to strengthen a bond, maintain a healthy relationship or do some damage control and re kindle romantic love I am of the opinion that “Date Night” is a pretty cool thing that can assist in any of the above mentioned.  

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