Bridal Portraits

About 6 months ago I got an email from a vendor I met at a bridal show. Shocker, I know. This one, however, was holding a contest for brides to enter for free bridal portraits. She had a venue that doesn't have any wedding photos to show brides and wanted some test brides to do a test shoot at. After sending her a picture of my oh so beautiful dress and a headshot (what, you don't have one of those on handy at all times???) she selected me as one of the two brides to shoot!

After going back and forth for a long time, we finally settled on a date. May 5th at 8am at the beautiful Garrett Creek Ranch in Paradise, TX. Here's why I freaked out. 1) I just got my dress a few weeks ago and haven't even tried it on yet. It needs hemmed but luckily, that's it. 2) Hair and makeup. I haven't selected this vendor yet. 3) Makeup I can do before 8am (in an effort to save costs) 4) A hair stylist willing to do my hair at 5:30 am 5) The fact that I have to be awake at 5:30am 6) No shoes, jewelry or bouquet picked out or purchased.

After a mini panic attack I realized how fortunate I am to have these done for free and settled down a bit. The average bridal session with our wedding photographer is over $350 so this was a nice surprise! I am currently scouring websites looking for hair inspiration and makeup looks. I am having a mild dilemma though. Do I try and find my wedding day 'do now and try to recreate it for portrait so it's more traditional? OR Do I let loose and have fun with this since it's not something I originally planned to do?

I think I am going to blend both by having fun shoes and props but keep the overall look about the same. Here are some hair and makeup inspiration photos!





I love the loose curl look but I think I may end up with something like the last picture. It feels more formal to me. And here are some makeup inspiration photos!

All of these ladies are beautiful even when they're not made up but I love how their makeup accents their best features, looks "bridal" and yet, still has a dramatic look to them.

So now that I have some looks pulled to show the hair stylist, I feel a little better now. And I even found someone to do my hair that early in the morning without charging me 3 months salary to do so. So now I just have to find jewelry, shoes, get my dress hemmed and make a bouquet between now and then. The bouquet will be nice practice since I plan on making my own on wedding day as well.

Time is flying by it seems at this point and I can't believe I'm already planning my bridal portraits!!!