Years ago, I was in an extremely toxic relationship with a man who tore me down to the smallest form of myself. He would bruise me, belittle me, call me names, comment on my weight, and worst of all he isolated me away from my friends and family. He took every ounce of confidence I had worked so hard to gain through high school/college and destroyed it all in the 2.5 years we were together. Here I was nearly 10 years later, still feeling like I was basically nothing and hiding a lot of who I truly am in order to please others out of fear that they would respond with hatred. I always followed Missy’s work along with other boudoir photographers on social media. I adored and envied the confidence and absolute beauty that I would see throughout my feeds. For years I wanted to be those girls. I wanted to look and feel beautiful, hot, and sexy. I wanted to have even a fraction of the confidence their photos radiated.
I have known Missy since my first summer job when I was 16. I have watched her grow her beautiful family and I have watched her grow into the truly amazing woman that she is today. I have always admired and looked up to her in so many ways. This woman strives to improve not only her own life and but to also help others in so many ways. She supports small local businesses, provides a safe place on social media for women to connect, and is constantly finding ways to improve herself and her business in order to help those that come to her. I told my husband when I first seriously considered booking a session that Missy had to be the first photographer I would book with, even if I now live nearly 4 hours away. In my eyes, there was no better choice.
I was honestly most nervous about how my outfits would look and fit (sounds a bit ridiculous I know). I ordered all my items from Amazon about 1-1.5 months ahead of my shoot and felt happy with them all when I first tried them on, but on the day of the shoot I was so worried that they were going to be complete crap even though I knew Missy also has an amazing collection in her client wardrobe. I was also nervous that my glue on nails (and toenails) were not going to hold up through the session like Missy warned me they might not, but my job makes having any form of nice nails absolutely impossible.
My favorite part is actually two things:
1. The absolute fun I had being my true self in front of someone other than my husband and best friend (even though Missy and I have known each other for years.
2. The way Missy and I could basically read each other’s minds or bounce back and forth ideas to come up with some of the poses that helped my session become even more amazing!
Now that I've completed my session, I feel incredible! Before my session, when my husband would tell me that I looked beautiful or that I was “so sexy”, I would always brush it off and respond with a laugh and an “okay”, “whatever”, or “yeah right”. Now, I have more confidence in myself than ever before and I completely understand now what my husband sees every day. My session has helped me to push myself out of my comfort zone and be unapologetically my true self that I have been hiding for all these years.
Missy goes above and beyond to give every client the session that they truly deserve. She makes you know that it is your time to shine and that you are beautiful, stunning, sexy, and so much more. She takes time to get to know you and what you want and expect from the day. She sits down with you and lets you vent, cry, casually chat, laugh, or just bond with her in a way that allows you to feel safe and loved in a way that you may have never felt before. She creates such an amazing atmosphere in her studio that for me somehow magically changed from a calm safe space during hair and makeup to an atmosphere that made me feel like I was a queen version of Poison Ivy living in a mansion and I cannot explain how good that felt! Missy continued to bring that “you’re the hottest shit ever!” atmosphere during my reveal over Zoom. I felt so amazing and could not believe that those photos were all truly 100% just me killing it like the badass that I am.
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