Burke, Virginia Styled Maternity Session
This momma was the winner of a giveaway I did for my birthday in October, and I seriously couldn’t have imagined a more deserving winner! When she won the giveaway, her due date was still a bit farther away, but we got her on the calendar for a Burke maternity session in March. As we started discussing what dress she would like to wear, she asked me if it was ok for her to provide her own dress. First of all, yes this is absolutely ok for any of my maternity sessions! You are not required to wear one of my dresses, but they are here for you to borrow.
After some discussion, I convinced mom to at least give some of my dresses a try at an in-home dress fitting just to see. The truth is that you never know what the dresses will look and feel like once you have them on. You may see them in a photo on my website and think it’s the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen and you HAVE to wear that dress, only to find out at your dress fitting that you can’t stand the way it looks on you! But the opposite might be true as well! You may see one of my dresses and think “oh that’s nice, but I don’t love it” and then fall in love with how it looks and feels on you!
That’s exactly what happened with this momma! She ended up not liking the dress she bought for herself and fell in love with one of my dresses! It flattered her so beautifully in every way! Mom went on to text me that afternoon after her dress fitting expressing just how beautiful she had felt in my dress before ever evening getting to her actual maternity session, and it just brought me so much joy and reminded me once again that this is why I do what I do. Pregnant mommas deserve to look and feel amazing during their maternity session, and that’s what I set out to do for every single one of my moms that books me.
March is also one of those months where you never know what you’re going to get for locations. I have my favorite spots around Northern Virginia, but I spent some time driving around to a few spots to see what they looked like in March right before her session so we could make a good judgement call on where to go that didn’t still look dead and ugly. Well, we got incredibly lucky that there was a beautiful line of blossoming trees at Burke Lake Park in Fairfax County that we were able to use for some epic photos. So not only did mom look and feel gorgeous, our location looked absolutely stunning and complemented how beautiful mom looked as well!
Having been on the other side of the photographer/client relationship, I know how hard it is to wait to see your photos, and I always try to give moms a quick look at the back of the camera during the session. One, this helps them to see just how incredibly beautiful they look and really gives them the confidence to keep taking even more gorgeous shots. But two, it also gives them a little taste of what’s to come. I was so excited by some of the epic shots that we got from this session, that I immediately had to share a quick photo of the back of my camera screen online. Mom did not have to wait long for her sneak peek, even though it was unedited!
So fast forward to gallery delivery, and I couldn’t be happier with the end results. Mom loved her photos, and she had the sweetest things to say. In her review she said, “Like so many others, I’ve been struggling with self-consciousness and weight gain with pregnancy, but she made me feel like a goddess. The confidence she instilled in me during the shoot can be reflected in the pictures and I’ve received SO MANY COMPLIMENTS.” Once again, THIS is why I do what I do, and I hope that every mom walks away from a session with me feeling that way.
Burke, Virginia Styled Maternity Session
If you found this post because you’re looking for a Northern Virginia photographer, you’re in the right place! I specialize in styled maternity and in-home lifestyle newborn photography and would love to talk to you about your photography needs! I look forward to hearing from you!
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As a Northern Virginia photographer and fellow mom, I felt there was a need for a safe, supportive, and drama free space for moms and moms-to-be to come together and support one another through the crazy lives we live as moms. Come join us and chat all things motherhood, pregnancy, and more!
