Photography: Pagli Rajkonna
Makeup/Hair: Aria Hussain
Location: Hill Garden and Pergola, Hampstead Heath/Golders Hill Park
What you don’t see in the pictures:
1. I got up late and had to forgo showering or having breakfast. My body was kind of a mess the entire day. I was too nauseous to eat so I basically survived on water and a handful of almonds. I showed up in my #peoplemakeetsy t-shirt, which I only ever use to sleep in and which is now bluish after a shirt from Joe Browns bled in the wash (post featuring that ruffly thing coming soon). I did take a second to put on a decent bra though. The strap that shows in some of these pictures, that’s totally my bra. Everything else — dress, jewelry, shoes, bouquet — was brought by Bristy and Aria.
2. It took over two and a half hours to have my makeup and hair done. The weather kept changing its mind but I basically froze. I wrapped myself in a thin scarf of Bristy’s (Pagli Rajkonna is her photographer name) and it was definitely not enough. The result was amazing though, and it was one of those makeovers where it feels like the make-up artist is painting on your face. Which I enjoy.
3. I wore false eyelashes for the first time ever and they were super uncomfortable. I don’t know how you people do it. Or why. Bethany nearly put fake eyelashes on me for the boat shoot we did last month but then she was like, eh, your lashes are long enough! I am all about my nouns being adjective enough. All about it. I am not about false eyelashes. I am not about lace sleeves, either.
4. That said? Bristy and Aria are hands down some of my favorite people I’ve worked with. My comfort at a shoot is inversely proportional to how many dudes are involved in it, and the dudes at this shoot were tangential and temporary*, so it was awesome.
* 5. By which I mean they showed up after I was made up and dressed up. It was a meetup organized by Bristy, so I paraded around Golders Hill Park with a group of nine or ten photographers, stopping at various places to take pictures. I sat on a bench at one point, and on a tree. And on the floor in the middle of a field. I wish I had some of those pictures! I told Bristy to forward my details to the two other female photographers there but haven’t heard back.
(The dudes were fine, really. Mostly. They were fine as far as I was concerned, anyway, though a couple of them did their usual ‘oh I’m disappointed we got kicked out of the pergola for being such a large group but I’m just going to fume about it instead of address it directly or make the most of the rest of the park,’ directed at Bristy, who was the organizer. Male photographers have such massive fragile egos. Never ceases to amaze me. I’ve met some good ones, but mostly… eh.)
6. People kept congratulating me on getting married. It was cute. I mostly said ‘thanks.’ At one point I did feel compelled to say I was not planning on marrying anybody, least of all a man. I think I was sweet about it. Sweet enough. I am very, very blunt, though. At one point one of the male photogs offered me his arm to help me off a tree, and I handed him my bouquet to hold. I… don’t like to touch strange men. Soz.
7. The shoot as a whole was incredibly exhausting, and reaffirmed that I need to either feed myself throughout shoots, or take shorter ones. Probably both. Also, not work on Sundays probably. And charge more for a full day’s work. I just really wanted to work with Bristy and it was tricky to organize a shoot with her that wouldn’t involve me paying for transport for TF, so when I saw she needed a model for a bridal shoot in Golders Green (a very short bus ride from my corner of NW3 London) and I fit the height requirements (which literally never happens — I’m that middle ground between petite and agency standard), I just went for it.
8. And now I want to shoot a bride at this location. Any of my readers up for it? ;)