Pregnancy Announcement Photoshoot

My secret is out! What a crazy feeling. For the past 5 months I have kept my pregnancy hidden from social media. My family and close friends knew, because I can not keep secrets, especially something this special. I won’t go into great detail about my pregnancy journey in this post, but stay tuned I promise to tell you all about it! For this post, and my first in the past 5 months, I wanted to take the time to talk about my pregnancy announcement shoot. 

Since I can remember, I have always loved visuals. I had dreams of becoming a photographer, music video director, makeup artist, anything visual I was all over growing up. I have been lucky enough to creative direct projects of my own and others, and have had fun with amateur photography. I had planned on doing a photoshoot with a friend of mine for a while now and once I found out I was pregnant I thought it would be perfect to just use the photoshoot as my announcement.

Location

I knew that I wanted to do a shoot outside, but not on the beach. Faith, my photographer, and I scouted out a few places and were having little to no luck. We both had a visual in our head and wanted the location to be perfect. One night I was scrolling through wedding venues, because at some point I do have a wedding to replan haha, and started to think about using a venue for the shoot. I eventually landed on Middleton’s website, which was originally our number #1 choice for our wedding that we had planned before but decided against it because of the distance from the hotels our guests were staying at. Anyways, it was literally the most perfect choice for a shoot. I sent a text to Faith, she loved it and we got the location booked! 

Outfit

I had an idea of what I wanted myself to look like the day of the shoot, but bringing that vision to life was so difficult. I wanted to have a similar outfit as Dezi Perkins, when she announced her pregnancy. I looked ALL OVER THIS PLANET for a white maxi skirt, that was ruffly, and flowy, and oversized, and perfect…...could not find it. So then I just started looking for white dresses and did find a few but still was not satisfied. I finally landed on Petal & Pup and ordered a bunch of stuff, cause their collection is SO cute. I ordered a white two piece that I hoped would work. I had planned to wear the skirt below my belly, however, it was a zipper and the skirt had no stretch whatsoever for me to bring it down below my belly. I loved it anyways so I went with it and LOVED the way it turned out. 

Makeup

As I said before, I wanted to be a makeup artist growing up. I used to love playing with makeup and taking selfies in high school, and somewhat still do when I have the energy. I have not done a full face of makeup this year, so I was pretty nervous about my abilities to really master the look I wanted. I was going for a more natural glam look, almost like an airbrush feel. I went to Ulta to see if they could suggest any foundation that was good for humidity and heat, because... Charleston + outside = a disaster. The girl showed me Face Tape from Tarte and swore by it. I purchased the small bottle of foundation which was like 10 bucks or so, and I purchased the pressed foundation as well, to be able to touch up my makeup throughout the shoot. A few days before the shoot I did a practice round with the new foundation and played around with my eye makeup. I instantly realized that I loved the way that the foundation matched my skin and the breathable coverage it provided. I felt pretty confident after my “fun run”.

The day of the shoot, I did my makeup and absolutely loved the way it turned out. Just for context, the morning of the shoot it rained up until about 10am which meant more humidity and yuckiness. The rain cleared up by our 1oclock shoot, which brought a bright sun and blue skies, with 100% humidity. I was really nervous my makeup would run or look blotchy. Throughout the shoot I kept my face dry and touched up when I needed to. I noticed immediately that my makeup had not budged and it still looked good as new. At that moment I knew I had found a secret weapon to beauty in Charleston. I 100% recommend Tarte Face Tape for nice coverage and an all day wear. 

The Shoot 

The shoot was simply magical. I have worked with Faith before for events and she took our engagement party/going away party pictures, so I trusted her from the beginning. She did an amazing job with the props for the shoot and was way more prepared than I had even imagined she could be. Middleton Place is over 1600 acres of land and we had access to it all, did we utilize it all, that would have been impossible to do in the amount of time we had, plus the heat, and me being pregnant. We did take our time and used as much scenery as we could find. Faith had an eye out for everything and I am so grateful for that. 

Overall, the shoot went better than I expected and the content that came out of it was amazing. I loved every picture, 300+. I hope that you enjoy the pictures and video as much as I do! And if you ever need a photographer check out, PhotosByFaith.