Boudoir Anyone?

Wedding photographers offer several services for couples who want to immortalize their wedding journey in thousands of photos. These shoots include prenups, post-nups and even trash-the-dress sessions. But now, a new genre of photography is slowly making waves in the wedding industry and is especially popular among brides: the boudoir session.

What exactly is a boudoir session? The term boudoir is derived from the French verb bouder, which means “to be sulky”. Literally, a boudoir is a women’s private bedroom or dressing room.  Now a boudoir shoot involves taking sensual or sexually suggestive photos of brides (or sometimes even couples) wearing lingerie or even nothing at all! This may seem scandalous for some, but more and more brides are warming up to the idea, which is why many photographers now offer this kind of service.

A boudoir shot

I have to admit, I used to frown on the thought of doing a boudoir session. No, I’m not being a conservative manang; I'm just not comfortable of bearing my skin in front of strangers. I have so many flabby body parts! Plus, I don't have any nice lingerie to wear. Batang Soen kasi ako eh.

But when Tine, a fellow bride, asked me and another friend if we wanted to do a group boudoir session with her, I just couldn’t resist. Sorry naman, mahilig ako sa pictures eh. Haha. Seriously, I guess deep down, I just wanted to experience it before I get married. Just so I can show my future kids that I was once a sexy, young woman. In short, may asim pa ang mudra nila. Hahaha!

So why the sudden interest in doing a boudoir session? Here are my reasons:

1. It can be a wedding gift for Mox. Most brides would do boudoir shoots so they can give the pictures to their grooms as a wedding present. Mox is not really a fan of the whole scrapbook thing, but maybe a photo album filled with pictures of me wearing lingerie would change his mind. Haha.
2. More pictures, more fun. I'd love to have more pictures durintig the whole wedding preps thing, and a boudoir photo shoot would be another remembrance of these stressful yet happy times.
3. It will give me the confidence that I badly need. This is actually the main reason why I decided to have one. I am not in love with the body that I have. In fact, there are times that I downright hate it. During my bouts with low self-esteem, I would wear frumpy clothes because I thought it would cover up my flaws. But I am amazed how women, sometimes even those who have a bigger frame than I do, can pose sexily without any inhibitions. I want that kind of confidence. I also want to feel sexy, and I want the whole world to know that I'm sexy! (Well, maybe not the whole world. Siguro si Mox na lang. Haha.)

And so I agreed to do the group boudoir shoot with my friends. And not only that, I even bid for a boudoir session with Mad Hatter Studios, which I won. Oh diba, aayaw ako kunwari tapos biglang dalawa pa lang boudoir shoots gagawin ko. Haha!

This was actually a surprise for Mox, but I couldn't help but tell him about my plan. At first, he was so against the idea. I guess he didn't want me to be posing around in lingerie, especially since Mad Hatter has a male photographer. He kept on telling me that I didn't have to do this for him. In reality, I'm actually doing this for myself. The gift to him is just an added bonus.

So now, I'm already searching for pegs and thinking of possible outfits to wear to my boudoir shoots. I'm feeling nervous yet excited about this! :)