When Should You Schedule Your Boudoir Photo Shoot?
Today, The Adore Girls’ Nashville boudoir photography team is going to explain the best times to book your boudoir session if you are planning to make a boudoir gift for a special occasion, if you are pregnant, if you are having a surgical procedure, or even if you have no deadline at all!
Planning to Give Boudoir Photos as a Gift
While we always stress that a boudoir session is, first and foremost, the best gift you could ever give yourself (whether you initially realize that or not), we do have a large number of clients who book their sessions with the intention of also giving their gorgeous photos to a loved one as a gift for an upcoming special occasion, such as a wedding, birthday, or anniversary. Whenever this is the case, it is important to make sure you schedule your photo shoot far enough in advance to allow plenty of time for the Image Debut & Ordering Session to take place approximately 1-2 weeks after the photo shoot, and for your order to arrive prior to the date when you need it in-hand.
In regards to the amount of time it takes for an order to arrive, there are a couple of factors that will affect your order’s delivery date:
Full Payment Vs. Payment Plan - If you pay for your boudoir order in full at the time of your Image Debut, then you will receive all of your digital products (digital images and/or Mobile Gallery App) that very same day. If you order a boudoir album or wall art and pay for the order in full at your Image Debut, we will place the order for those products right away, but they can take anywhere from 1-6 weeks to arrive, depending on what you order. (See more about this below.)
If you finance your order through PayPal or Affirm, those companies will actually pay for the order on your behalf in full at the time of your Image Debut appointment, and then you will simply make payments directly back to whichever company you chose over time. However, the good news is that, because these companies pay us upfront, we can then process your order as paid-in-full (exactly as described above), and you do not have to wait for an extended period of time to receive your order.
If you choose to finance your order directly through The Adore Girls’ studio with an In-House Payment Plan, we cannot release ANY products to you (digital or physical) until the entire order is paid in full. Therefore, your delivery date will depend upon how many payments you need to make. (Please feel free to contact us for full details about any of these boudoir payment plan options.)Physical Products Ordered - The Adore Girls have chosen to work with some of the best and most reputable professional printing companies who continue to provide our clients with premium quality Designer and Luxury boudoir albums and top-of-the-line Acrylic Wall Art. However, the turnaround times for each of these companies varies. Generally speaking, after an order has been placed we can expect a Designer Boudoir Album to arrive in approximately 1-2 weeks, a Luxury Boudoir Album Set to arrive in 4-6 weeks (because these are handmade and shipped from Portugal), and Acrylic Wall Art to arrive in approximately 2-4 weeks. (If you are not able to pick up your order in person and need us to ship it to you, please allow another 1-2 weeks for delivery, depending on where you live.)
In summary, if you need to have your digital boudoir photos and/or physical products in-hand by a specific date for a special occasion, a good rule of thumb is to try to book your photo shoot around 6-8 weeks prior to that deadline if you plan to pay in full or finance through PayPal or Affirm. If you plan to set up an In-House Payment Plan, however, you should aim to schedule your boudoir session up to 6-12 months prior to your deadline (again, depending on how many payments you plan to make). These suggested guidelines will allow for plenty of time for the photo shoot and editing process to take place, the Image Debut & Ordering Session, and for the production/delivery time of any physical products ordered (such as a boudoir album).
Planning to Have a Boudoir Maternity Session
A woman typically chooses to have a boudoir maternity session because she wishes to document the incredible and beautiful changes her body has undergone during pregnancy with gorgeous photographs that are more revealing, intimate, and artistic (such as our Artistic Nude Bodyscapes) than traditional maternity portraits.
The question is, during which stage of pregnancy should the photo shoot take place? After all, you don’t want to book your boudoir maternity session too early, or else your belly could more bloated than pregnant. However, you also don’t want to be so far along in your pregnancy that it is difficult for you to move around, let alone pose, during the photo shoot without tiring easily and feeling miserable in general.
With all of that in mind, it has been our experience that the “sweet spot” for scheduling a boudoir maternity session is approximately 28 weeks into the pregnancy, or around the 7-month mark. If you decide early on in your pregnancy that you’d like to have a boudoir maternity session, we highly recommend booking the photo shoot as soon as possible, as our schedule has been known to book up several months to a year in advance.
(Please also see our blog, “Postpartum Boudoir | How New Moms are Finding Their Confidence Again.”)
Planning a Boudoir Photo Shoot After Surgery
If you happen to have a surgical procedure of any kind on the horizon, then it’s important to take your recovery time into consideration when planning for a boudoir photo shoot. Not only is visible bruising, redness, and/or swelling around the surgical site a possibility, but depending on the type of surgery you’re having, your range of motion might be limited afterwards, which could make posing rather difficult during your session. We also don’t want to risk causing any accidental re-injury or interfere with the healing process in any way.
Therefore, it is extremely important that you consult with your doctor for his or her opinion of the optimal amount of recovery time needed for the specific surgery you will be having. Then, plan to schedule your boudoir session for some time after the end of this recommended recovery period. (You may even want to consider waiting another week or two longer, just to allow for any unforeseen complications.)
It is important to note that, while we are able to fade the appearance of some surgical scars though the editing process (upon request), some larger and/or deeper scars cannot always be faded or edited out of all photographs. Please speak with your photographer or request a pre-session consultation to discuss your specific scars if this is an area of concern for you.
Planning to Book a Session Just for Yourself
Words cannot express how much joy fills our little boudoir photographer hearts when a client tells us that she booked her session 100% for herself! It is our favorite thing to hear because we truly believe that EVERY woman should experience a boudoir session at least once, and you do NOT need to have any other reason besides, “I deserve it!”
If you’ve decided to treat yourself to a fun and confidence-boosting boudoir session, then you may not have any specific deadlines that you need to plan your shoot around. However, you might still be curious if there is any certain month or time of year that is the most ideal to have a photo shoot at The Adore Girls’ luxury boudoir studio. If that is the case, we are happy to offer the following two bits of information for your consideration:
Early May - Late September - If you are interested in being photographed on our private outdoor patio set, these are the months (subject to weather) when that set is available.
Mid-Late October - Early April - During these cooler months, when the leaves have fallen from the trees in front of our studio’s south-facing windows, we are able to remove the artificial window lights that are utilized during the Spring and Summer months and shoot with the gorgeous natural light instead. (We still sometimes use artificial window lights in the Fall and Winter months, if needed, during dark/rainy days.)
With all of that said, please keep in mind that we are able to create beautiful photographs on each of our five unique boudoir sets within our two-story, 3100 sq-foot studio all year round. So, rest assured, there really is no bad time of year to schedule your boudoir photo shoot with us, and the ideal time to book will always be AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!
We hope we have been able to provide some guidance regarding the best time to schedule your boudoir photo shoot based on your own personal circumstances. If you have any other questions about this subject, or anything else related to your upcoming boudoir session, please do not hesitate to contact us. We are always happy to help!
We cannot wait to have YOU in the studio!
Contact our office Monday - Friday, 9:00-5:00, via call to 615-336-4256