Hey everyone! Welcome to the all-new Boudoir International BLOG!!!!! We are thrilled to finally launch this baby. We wanted to get things started by answering a few FAQs that we’ve been getting. So in case you want to know a little more about us and why we created this website and blog, keep reading!
WHO ARE YOU?
Well, we are Marissa Boucher & Kimberlee West. Together we own a boudoir studio in San Diego, California, that has become pretty darn popular through the years. We are more than just business partners; we’re also really good friends. We are passionate about boudoir photography, we love being business owners, we’re entrepreneurs at heart, and we want to see boudoir become more and more popular around the world! We love our boudoir studio, and we love our amazing team of women who work with us there.
WHY DID YOU START BOUDOIR INTERNATIONAL?
We are blessed to say that because of the popularity of our San Diego studio, we get a TON of inquiries and phone calls from women who are interested in booking a shoot. In fact, our main website receives an average of 10,000 hits per month – and we receive an average of about 10-15 new inquiries per day. But the fact is a majority of those inquiries are from people who aren’t in San Diego and have decided that they don’t necessarily want to travel all the way to us for a shoot. Those women kept asking us if we had a referral for a photographer in THEIR area – and for many years we had to tell them ‘nope, we don’t – sorry!’. We hated having to turn those women away without helping them – and for that reason, we wanted to create a way for these potential clients to get hooked up with a reputable boudoir photographer in their city. And so Boudoir International was born!
WHY DO YOU LOVE BOUDOIR?
We are in love with SO many aspects of boudoir photography!
Just to name a few…
*Styling the wardrobe and finding amazing lingerie, accessories, and fabulous high heels for our clients to wear. We love being able to help our clients find the best lingerie and outfit for her particular body shape and style – to help accentuate her best “assets” – wink wink!
*The hair & makeup transformation – watching a gal get all ‘glammed-up’ and feeling fabulous during her hair and makeup session.
*The shoot itself! We are in LOVE with helping to coach our clients through the session, telling her how to pose and helping her feel relaxed and beautiful!
*But above all… we love, love, LOVE the way boudoir gives confidence to a woman. There is no greater gift than the gift of confidence.
HOW LONG HAVE YOU KNOWN EACH OTHER?
We’ve been in business together since 2006 – and the funny thing? We met through Craigslist. Yes, you read that right. And yes, we know, it’s not normal to find a business partner on Craigslist. 🙂
WHAT’S THE PURPOSE OF THIS NEW BLOG?
We love the way this website helps connect women with boudoir photographers from around the world. We’re so proud of Boudoir International, and we can’t wait to see this site continue to grow! But we don’t want to just stop with a referral website… we want this to be a place where women keep coming back for inspiration and eye candy!
We want this blog to be filled with:
*Beautiful REAL boudoir shoots. These are real women, shot by real photographers. These are BRAVE women who are willing to share their boudoir photos with the world – and more than that, they’re willing to share their story and experience.
*Sexy featured lingerie. High-end lingerie, and inexpensive lingerie, to fit into ANY budget. Whether you’re a Le Perla girl or more Frederick’s… we want to provide options and inspiration for you to start planning some possibly lingerie items for YOUR boudoir shoot!
*Our featured members. We want to showcase some of our amazing photographers who are members of Boudoir International. These are the boudoir photographers who have met the standards to be listed on our referral website, and we want to give them a little shout-out and let them share some of the spotlight on this blog!
*Fabulous hair & makeup tips for boudoir. Hair and makeup is such a huge part of the boudoir photography experience, and we hope to bring some awesome tutorials and tips from some of the greatest HMU pros out there!
*Gorgeous editorial boudoir shoots. We want to feature all of those creative photographers out there, and show off their beautiful boudoir work that they have planned and styled. Different than our ‘real boudoir’ section – this will be more for stylized shoots and we’ll be able to hear from the photographer’s perspective what they did to create the magic.
*Inspiration & Empowerment. We want this blog to be a reflection of our hearts and our passion for helping women realize just how beautiful they are. Ladies, we are all uniquely beautiful – and it’s time to let go of the negativity, and start thinking positively about ourselves! We want to post inspiration here to help uplift women and help remind them of their beauty!
HOW HAVE YOU SEEN BOUDOIR CHANGE THROUGH THE YEARS?
We started shooting boudoir photography a LONG time ago, back when it was super uncool. We used to tell other boudoir photographers that we were launching a boudoir business, and many of them actually laughed at us! It was just a thing of the past – something from the 80s, a la cheesy glamour shots. But we had a dream to bring boudoir to the masses, and to make it hip & cool again. We knew there was huge potential for this style of photography to be reborn – and we set out to try to make people see our vision. And now, many years later, we are so excited to see what has happened! Boudoir has becoming INCREDIBLY popular here in the US, and in many other countries around the world. In some areas we know it’s still new, but before long, we believe that every woman will know what boudoir photography is.
WHAT ARE YOUR DREAMS FOR THIS BLOG & WEBSITE?
Originally we just set out to create a really great website where women could go to find a boudoir photographer in their area – but if you know us, you’ll know that we won’t just settle. Once we saw the potential, we knew that we could make this even more than we originally dreamed. Not only do we want to help women find a photographer – we also want them to find inspiration for their boudoir shoot… to find awesome tutorials for boudoir hair & makeup… to get ideas for what awesome lingerie they can wear… to get some great resources in planning for their boudoir shoot… to hear from other women who’ve done a boudoir shoot before… and SO MUCH MORE. Will you help us in spreading the word about this lil’ blog? Help us take boudoir to the masses – and make women see that THEY can have this amazing opportunity to feel sexy and beautiful, in their own skin! Please share about it on Facebook, Twitter, or wherever! LET’S DO THIS!!!!!!!!
Kimberlee West& Marissa Boucher
