Here’s the latest instalment in my new Boudoir Series, focusing on some of the INCREDIBLE journeys my clients have faced and are facing.
I aim to share, inspire and celebrate their strength and touch on how their boudoir photoshoot with me had a positive impact on their journey.
Kat, you’re fab!
Kat’s story…
“After meeting my (now ex-)boyfriend after beating issues with my weight (read eating disorder coupled with a distinct lack of confidence…) and getting through my degree whilst working pretty much full-time, I thought I had it all.
I had bought a flat, had my life planned out and was happy to be plodding along.
Looking back, I think I was putting up a wall and allowing the idea of what my life should be be how everyone thought I was. I was fading away, and as a friend recently commented ‘was losing my sparkle’.
I was the glue holding everything together
Fast forward to the last few years, I was the glue holding my relationship together, at the expense of myself, supporting him through the death of an international grandparent and his subsequent breakdown, whilst managing to keep us afloat and the house running.
Six weeks before my favourite time of the year, Christmas, he blindsided me. In a coffee shop, he told me that he was done and wanted out, for at least the next six months.
The illusion of my perfect life came crashing down
The breakup hit me hard, but seeing him on the home security camera bring home a girl whilst I was away with work, not even a week later, crushed me.
Any sparkle I had held on to had well and truly disappeared. I was done and put the flat on the market.
After a brief stint modelling my life after Bridget Jones (think ice-cream and romcoms in bed), I signed up to online dating thinking no-one would be interested. But it was where I met my now-boyfriend who thankfully saw through all the baggage (and is still putting up with me!).
Roll on 2020, and the nation goes into lockdown.
It was a tough couple of months; the flat sale faltered and I was furloughed desperately trying to fill my days.
When I thought things couldn’t get any worse, I was notified that I was being made redundant.
I needed something to look forward to
Enter Johanna Elizabeth!
I got booked in and only told one friend of my plans. Leading up to the first consultation, I was a nervous wreck but after some coaching through it, I started looking at outfit options and poses, praying that just one photo would come out looking like the beauties all over the Johanna Elizabeth website.
I ordered some outfits and then put it out of my mind until the week of the shoot, just so that the nerves didn’t mean I cancelled.
On the day of the shoot, its safe to say the friendly faces of the Jo and the team were exactly what I needed.
I was up for the challenge!
Jo took the time to chat and get me comfortable, working through the poses I’d picked before asking me whether I wanted to take the plunge… photos wearing nothing.
Old me would have shied away, but the empowered me was up for the challenge.
I walked away from the studio that day feeling like I was six inches taller and that I could take on the world.
Seeing the photos, I was speechless!
The day of the reveal session rolled around and I’d made my peace with the idea that I wouldn’t like all the photos. How wrong I was!
Walking in to see my photos was unbelievable. I was speechless.
There was me, the curve-less woman in photos with curves and all. I loved them all!
I went home and presented my photos to my unsuspecting boyfriend who couldn’t believe the photos I was showing him or the fact that I’d kept the shoot from him.
Good things started to happen for me
In the week after my shoot, I was offered my new job role. The new confident me accepted the position with my head held high.
My photoshoot at Johanna Elizabeth couldn’t have come at a better point in my life. It gave me some much-needed confidence and was the perfect chance to tick something off the bucket list I’d joked about whilst at University.
The turning point that changed everything
We’ve all lived through the storm that is COVID-19, but it felt like my shoot was the turning point in my year, giving me back my sparkle.
My photoshoot gave me something to prove that I can be confident and beautiful and that no matter what’s thrown at me, I’ll get through it.
When I have a wobble, I’ve always got the photos to look back on until I can get back in the studio for another shoot.”
Congratulations Kat!
So inspiring Kat, it’s wonderful to hear how boudoir helped you! What a year 2020 was for you….so glad I made that difference for you. You ROCK!
Read more from my incredible Boudoir Series
You can read other inspirational client stories here on the blog. Don’t miss these!
- Kate learns to love herself
- Jane discovers she is enough through boudoir
- Diana reclaimed what was hers for her 50th birthday
To find out how a photoshoot experience can celebrate and honour where you are RIGHT now, click here.
Johanna
~x~
