Mini Marathon Part Two: Waco, TX

So I know we’ve gotten this question a million times, but why did we choose Waco, Texas as our first stop on the mini marathon tour? Well we chose Waco because we really wanted the women of Fort Hood to have this awesome experience. We searched and searched for many days on where we should go for our first mini boudoir session, finally we all agreed that Fort Hood would be the perfect place!

Now that we knew the area, we needed to find a place to stay! We chose to forgo a typical hotel and find something on Airbnb that was the perfect place to stay for the weekend. We looked at hundreds of places, spending countless hours looking at the photos, descriptions, and messaging multiple Airbnb hosts. We could not find that perfect little place in Fort Hood so we decided, lets just go to Waco, Fort Hood is only about a forty-five minute drive away from Waco so we felt that would be a perfect spot considering we were still very close to the Fort Hood area. That’s when we found, “The Main.” The Airbnb immediately caught our eyes, this stunning little home is nestled upon several acres of land for a private, out of the city feel. Once you walk in, the photos do not do it justice, it is stunning! Typical farmhouse feel with white bare walls and dark wooden accents and also windows surrounding you for constant natural light until the sun sets. It also features an adorable winding staircase that takes you to the most cozy of areas. One of our favorite features was the dining area that had windows completely surrounding it and was also a perfect place to shoot!

Why did we decide on having a mini marathon tour based on military wives? We are constantly having boudoir shoots with military wives. It is probably one of the most popular request we have and it is also one of the most rewarding! After doing several of these photoshoots several times a month we decided, lets just have a special marathon shoot dedicated to military wives.

After the hard deliberation on where to go, we needed to get the word about that we were coming! Our marketing team put together a multitude of different social media ads on Facebook and Instagram. They included the sponsored ads, boosted posts, and videos. Within a couple of days we received over fifty inquiries from military wives all over the Fort Hood area, we never expected to receive so much positive and exciting messages. We ended up choosing eight amazing women to share this first time experience with us. Every woman who was interested in this once in a lifetime opportunity had to fill out a form on the website. It was very hard to narrow the women down to just eight, every single one had an amazing story that we just fell in love with and touched our hearts. So once the eight ladies had been chosen we let them know, every single one was head over heels with excitement and most were a little nervous. We were in constant contact with the eight women from the moment they booked until even several weeks after, any questions they had regarding wardrobe, directions, what to wear before, or even what should we do after in Waco.

So before our team could even travel to Waco we first needed a few items, thats when we all stopped by the local costume shop near Ashlee’s studio. This costume shop is amazing! It has every item you could ever think of. We called ahead to let the owner know that we were doing a military themed shoot and that we needed some super awesome military pieces. Upon arrival the owner had picked us out tons of pieces; jackets, coats, corsets, and the most amazing pair of six inch studded army heels. After spending countless hours picking out the most perfect items we were finally able to pack up and head to Waco!

Once in Waco, we decided we needed a few snacks and beverage items before we could get our weekend started. We stopped by the local H-E-B for all the goodies. When leaving the store we had handfuls of snacks including yummy cheeses, mini cinnamon rolls, crackers, and Michael’s favorite powdered donuts and also some white wine, red wine, tea, and plenty of water. We also couldn’t leave the store without getting champagne and orange juice for mimosas!

One the day of the shoot we arrived to the Airbnb ready to go we had our snacks ready, drinks were getting chilled, music was playing. We were so excited.

Upon each and every client’s arrival Tanya greeted them and introduced them to their amazingly talented hair and makeup artist for the day, Candice. While this was all happening Ashlee and Michael were in other parts of the Airbnb getting some amazing shots of the woman previously. While each client was getting her hair and makeup done Tanya made sure each one had a mimosa in her hand and casually talked with them to make them even more comfortable.

Before each shoot started Ashlee and Michael met with the client to go over outfit choices. Each woman had a forty five minute shoot with Ashlee and Michael with many outfit changes and multiple different rooms including the bedroom, the cozy upstairs, in the amazing kitchen window, and even outside. Once each client was completed with her shoot and feeling like a million bucks we had a small table set up full of products. Since the client’s live so far away from our studio in McKinncey, TX we wanted the women to physically be able to touch and feel each product. This also helped the clients get an idea of what great goodies they absolutely must have. So after about ten days from the Waco weekend all eight women’s pictures were ready. We had a one on one video call with each client, they were all blown away by their photos. Each client was stunned and some even shed a few tears, but they were all so excited. We have ordered every product for each woman and cannot wait for these deserving ladies to receive their amazing gift items!!

This was such an amazing opportunity and we cannot believe the positivity we received from military wives from all over the country.