Our Maternity Photoshoot

Our maternity photos taken at 35 weeks pregnant in the North Carolina mountains.

Tommy and I had a maternity photoshoot a few weeks ago and absolutely love the photos we got back. We wanted to get some photos before the baby comes to capture this season of life before it changes forever (in the best way, I’m sure!). And, of course, we’ll want to document it even more once the baby arrives!

I immediately knew that I wanted to use Hooman Bahrani of Vesic Photography for these photos. He did our engagement photos and our wedding, so it was only fitting that he take photos of this next phase of our life.

Our Maternity Photoshoot

Location

We chatted with Hooman about potential locations and landed on taking photos in the Boone and Blowing Rock area. Tommy is from Boone and I fell in the love with the area when I moved to North Carolina since I love the mountains and still miss the Utah mountains where I grew up. And now, Tommy and I love spending time together in the mountains so it felt like a perfect spot. Plus, it’s just beautiful up there and that makes for great photos too!

We started at Moses Cone Manor, and he shot photos along some trails there and in a meadow a short walk away. After a quick wardrobe change (thankfully the restrooms were open!), we went to Julian Price Park, which includes the river shots. The final shots, with the lowest lighting, were taken at an overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway. We started photos around 5:45 pm as the light was getting magical and finished the shoot around 8:30 pm, just as the sun was setting.

What to wear

I took my own advice on deciding what to wear for our maternity photoshoot. I went for neutrals so the focus was on my bump and us as a couple, rather than a bright or bold outfit.

The black dress in these photos is from Madewell and the shoes are black heels that I’ve had for a while. I wore black fringe earrings and my favorite gold bracelets (here, here, and here).

The cream dress is a Rachel Pally dress and I wore comfy flat sandals under it since my feet weren’t showing. And because they were oh-so-swollen by the time we got to the second outfit!! I paired the cream dress with simple diamond stud earrings that Tommy gave me for our anniversary last year (similar pair here, more affordable option here and here) and took off all my bracelets, except this pearl bracelet.

Underneath the dresses, I wore these High Waisted Mid-Thigh Pregnancy Underwear (a pregnancy must-have!) and a sticky bra. In some shots, you can see them so I be sure to test out some photos with your undergarments in advance – I didn’t! I took the tags off my cream dress about 10 minutes before we left for the photoshoot – oops!

Tommy wore his uniform, i.e. dark jeans, a button down and loafers. Easy enough! He wore something very similar for our pregnancy announcement photos!

Hair and Makeup

I kept my hair simple and styled it how I always do – loose curls. I kept my makeup simple, per usual, but added black liquid liner, a touch more blush and my favorite lipstick (the shade is B. Fearless). Again, the goal is that I wanted to feel like me — that’s always important to me in photos. I even did my own makeup for our wedding for that very reason!

I probably should have put some root volumizer in my hair and put some styling cream in it to tame the flyaways, but that’s okay! Again, the best photos are the ones that look real life! Right? Right.

Okay, let’s get into some photos!

I brought another dress that was a little different and LOVE how the pictures in it turned out. This white dress is from Rachel Pally. I love how flowy it it, the square neckline and the incredibly soft material!

A big thank you to Hooman for these gorgeous photos! He makes it so hard to decide which ones to print since we love so many! My mom also deserves a huge thank you, who was in town for these photos. She helped me change my dresses and shoes, which got progressively harder as the evening and swelling progressed, ha!

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