Fill-In Model

Sorry for being a brat and leaving such a cliff hanger of a post this morning! I meant to conclude the post with a little paragraph about today’s activities, but I had to hit the road and rushed through the post.

But I’m back!

As I said this morning, today I did something very unusual.

I was the fill-in model for a bridal photo shoot!

Last week, my wedding photographer, Gina, called me in quite a bind. She and several other wedding vendors put together a mock wedding photo shoot for today and were worried because they could not find a model for the shoot.

A model I most definitely am not, but when Gina asked me to fill in for the shoot, I thought about it for a while and eventually decided to push my uneasy feelings aside and help her out because she’s basically the sweetest person on the planet and an amazing wedding photographer.

I honestly was pretty nervous going into today’s photo shoot because I am by no means a model and have basically one modeling look in my arsenal: The smile.

I can’t do serious looks, sexy faces, pouts or anything other than a standard smile but Gina assured me that she would coach me and make me feel comfortable.

After making the 2.5 hour drive to Sarasota this morning, I felt my nerves start to subside when I stepped into La Mariee bridal boutique.

How could I not be excited to try on wedding dresses!?

Gina and Anna Pohl, a fun and enthusiastic wedding and event planner, selected about five dresses for me to try on and pulled two to bring to the photo shoot.

(They ended up selecting the second vintage-looking dress for me to wear.)

Once we had dresses selected, I walked next door to get my hair and make up done at Ana Molinari salon.

We ran a little behind schedule with the hair, so I left with my hair up in pins.

I’m pretty sure everyone I saw at a red light en route to the Palmetto Riverside bed and breakfast where the photo shoot took place looked at me like I was a nut job.

When we arrived at the photo shoot, Gina and I took down my hair and pined pieces up under an awesome feather headpiece and took a bunch of photos outside of the bed and breakfast.

While Gina took pictures, MMD Designs set up a gorgeous table, ceremony site and wedding cake and Andy and Matt filmed.

I wore clip on earrings since my ears aren’t pierced and a layering of pearl necklaces. They really did it up!

(Photo from Andy)

Though I was completely out of my element, it was a fun day! Gina is planning on submitting the photos to magazines and wedding blogs and planned for the photo shoot to have a more editorial feel rather than a “real wedding” vibe. I’ll be sure to share some of the photos when she passes them along to me.

It was a really neat experience and I had fun playing dress up!