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The Velvet Touch

Monday, March 07, 2016

I have been wanting to do a shoot with the beautiful and talented Velvet D'Amour for many years. She is known for many talents but I first saw her model for Jean Paul Gaultier on the catwalk while strutting her stuff in this iconic image that is ingrained in my memory for how stunning she is!

Her photography is beautiful and body positive. In her magazine Volup2 you will see all ages, size, shapes of people. I have been a fan of her work for some time and always said I would love to shoot with her and feature in her after seeing her work.

Volup2 is an amazing magazine that you can view HERE. I stopped buying magazines a long time ago when I realised there was nothing in them for me as a fat woman. If they are not shaming fat woman with beach body diets they are showing unflattering photos of celebs before and after dieting and praising how good they look now. I don't buy into that any more.

Volup2 is the first magazine I saw that shows woman like me and interesting bodies that you do not see in mainsteam media. I want to see every body represented in all media and Velvet is working her ass off to make Volup2 a place for every body which is why I love it so much.

Velvet usually does shoots in London and I have had commitments or just no money at the time so when it was announced she would be shooting in Manchester I jumped at the chance!

I made my way to Manchester from Sheffield on a very cold snowy day with a suitcase stuffed with beautiful outfits, glasses and wigs to shoot.

My slot was 3-4pm for hair and make up by Rachel Williamson. I had provided some photos of hair and make up I likes and she worked her magic and transformed me into a Glitter 50's Pin Up/Lucy of I love Lucy which I loved and now need to learn how to do it myself! I did not take any photos of myself on the day so we will just have to wait for the official photos. These are my inspiration photos for makeup and hair.

Velvet is larger than life in every awesome way. She instantly makes everyone feel at ease with her funny and down to earth personality. If you have thought about doing a shoot with Velvet but have been worried about meeting a stranger please don't! Velvet and Rachel are just lovely souls and you will feel like you are with old friends.

I will share my photos from the shoot as soon as I get them!

.review.

Interrobangart X Lolly - Midi Skirt

Sunday, March 06, 2016

.review.

Custom Cartwheels

Thursday, March 03, 2016

.wedding wednesday.

105 Plus/Fat Bride/Groom - Meet Rachel & Pete

Wednesday, March 02, 2016

Wedding Wednesday post where every Wednesday you get to find out a little more about the couples that shared their photos for the 105 Plus/Fat Bride/Groom Photos post HERE or the Youtube video HERE

I will also be doing more Budget Bridal posts. You can see previous posts HERE

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Rachel & Pete

Barnet, North London

Where did you meet your Bride/Groom?

We met in February 2008 on an online dating site. The site had just put up a new feature where you could state if you were free to see someone that night, or the next night - I’d got fed up of talking to men for a few weeks at a time on there and then never meeting up with them so changed my status to say I was free - Pete messaged me, we clicked and arranged to meet the next day! Went out for drinks and that was it! We moved in together three months later and got engaged ten months later on NYE! I would

When did you get married and where?

14th August 2010 in Barnet Church and then the reception was at a local restaurant.

What dress/suit size were you when you got married? (only answer if you want to)

My dress was a size 24 but pretty much let out as much as it could be, so more like a 26.

What was your experience of finding a dress/suit?

Unlike some others I really didn’t have a problem with this. My mum knew there was a dress shop local to her in Bridgwater, Somerset that did a wide range of sizes so I decided to have a look there first. They were really great and pulled out all the samples they had between a 22 and a 32, which admittedly wasn’t loads but was enough for me to get an idea of what I might like. I think they were mostly Alfred Angelo, which meant they could be ordered in quite few different colours/variations. There was probably five or six, not too bad for a fairly small local shop. The one dress in my size that they had I wasn’t sure of on the hangar, but decided to try it to see what a properly fitting dress would look like, plus it had a purple section (my favourite colour!) and what do you know I loved it. It really was a say yes to the dress moment! The only issue I had is that they didn’t realise I needed the long length version and ordered a standard, so I had to wear flat shoes all day, but as I hardly wear heels anyway this wasn’t really a problem.

Describe your day.

It was a very wet August Saturday, which was a little disheartening, but in the end didn’t really affect the day. We decided on quite a small wedding, as we both hate big parties, plus our budget wasn’t huge, so there was probably about 50 people invited. I had five bridesmaids - my two older sisters, and my three nieces. We’re quite close as sisters so it was great having them there to support me. Our service was in our local church, as although I’m not particularly religious now, I am a vicar’s daughter (!), and even though it wasn’t his church this meant my dad could perform the ceremony for us (he did this for my two sisters too), which added a lovely personal touch to it. I’m not sure there’s too many people who get to have one of their parents officiate! As dad was busy elsewhere my mum walked me down the aisle. As I didn’t have friends for bridesmaids two of my closest friends did readings, as did one of Pete’s. We also had three or four hymns and I tried to choose ones that had significance to my family. My nan and Pete’s mum signed the register for us to include them in the day. After photos outside the church we then went to a local restaurant, which was booked out just for us and we had lovely food and drink and then were joined by a few more evening guests. We hired a digital jukebox for the evening so everyone could put in songs they wanted to hear, so we all had a good dance!

Anything else you would like to add.

I was self-conscious of my size at the time of the wedding and was very keen to try and fit the stereotypical model of a bride in all but size, in case being big made me stand out too much (ridiculous when you are the bride I know!!), so probably wasn’t quite as “myself" as I could have been. For example, I normally have a shortish bob with a fringe but grew this out so I could have “wedding hair” - now when I look at the photos it doesn’t quite look like everyday me! And although I wore flat wedding shoes what I really wanted was a pair of wedding trainers, which I was persuaded against wearing. So I guess what i’m trying to say is be yourself and don’t let others make your decisions for you! It’s your day - don’t worry about what everyone else thinks as the most important people there are you and your partner.