I gave her a confused look and she waved her hand at me.
“I told her the situation and she was really excited. She said she’d do something really fun. Do you still have those shirts you guys got for Christmas?”
Her energetic mood got me excited about it. We talked outfits and makeup and locations.
“She’s got a studio, so we could go there. Or if we wanted to do some outside photos we could always use one of our backyards. There’s tons of great spots for pictures.” We both left lunch excited for the weekend.
I headed straight to my closet when I got home and began searching for the perfect dress. My hair was on the lighter side of purple this time around, more like a lavender color. It looked gorgeous with a mint green dress I had. I sent Cleo a picture of the dress and told me she’d find something to match. She called back later to tell me she found a light pink dress.
“Great, I’ll put Mark in a Navy shirt and he’ll look good with both of us.
I was right. When we stepped into the photographer’s studio, we saw that he looked good paired with either of us. Cleo had driven herself here ahead of us, so when she saw us come in she waddled over and hugged us.
“Are you excited? These are going to be so freaking cute!”
The photographer came over and introduced herself. “Hello, my name is Jackie. I’ve got some great ideas for you today. This is the highlight of my week. You want to come with me, and I can show you where you’ll be?” We introduced ourselves and then the three of us followed her to the other side of the rather large studio. We passed about a dozen different backdrops, but she stopped us at a blank white one.
“You guys are so beautiful, you don’t need anything fancy to make the pictures stand out,” she explained. She told us to relax and settle in. Jackie stepped away and went over to her tablet on her desk. She clicked some things and the room erupted with music.
Some fun rock music surrounded us. I looked around and saw that she had speakers hung up all over the room. She returned to us bobbing her head and smiling wide. Reaching for a white stool she put it in the middle of our area.
“Okay, Cleo sit down, hands on your belly. Renee, stand behind her and put your hands on her forearms. Mark, you stand behind your wife and hug her. Oh! And ladies, take these,” she ordered. She reached down into a box by her feet and produced two pretty flower wreaths for our heads. “They’ll look beautiful with your curls.” Cleo must have told her our color plans, because I was handed a mint one that perfectly matched my dress, while Cleo had a pink one to match hers. After setting them on our head we got into the pose she wanted. It felt awkward but after a few snaps of her camera we began relaxing.
We took hundreds of photos it felt like. Every pose, every combination of the three of us. She took some of me and Cleo first. After a few of us hugging I leaned down and kissed her forehead. She gasped and started giggling. Jackie exclaimed that those would be beautiful later.
Then her and Mark got a few taken. Those were funny too, although I insisted they get a few more serious ones. Finally, Jackie insisted that Mark and I get some of just the two of us.
“You guys look gorgeous together. I love it,” she murmured more than once.
Later we changed into our mom and dad to be shirts, while Cleo slipped on hers that said, “just babysitting”. This shoot was pure fun. Jackie brought out pink paint and pink powder.
“You guys do whatever you want with this. I’m just an observer. Have fun.” There was a moment where the three of us stood looking at the props in front of us, but Mark broke the hesitance by reaching into the bucket of powder. He grabbed a fistful and threw it at Cleo’s belly. She let out a small squeal and grabbed some for herself and threw some at him. Before I could even think to begin to feel left out my loving husband grabbed a paintbrush and ran it across my cheek! Game on.
I understand why Jackie insisted on the blank backdrop. It looked awesome after our pink on pink fight. I had powder in my hair and Mark’s shirt was completely covered in paint. At some point the three of us had placed our bare hands in the paint and placed them flat on her belly. Then when we pulled them away I promptly slapped Mark on the cheek. He got me back by rubbing the powder all over my arms. By the time Jackie called it a wrap the three of us were filthy.
“We should do one of these shoots with the whole group,” Cleo suggested as we took washcloths to ourselves. “We could each get a color. My family blue, you guys purple, Wilson’s could do green, you get the jist. That would be a blast.”
“We could do that when Tot is born. When the whole family is finally here,” I agreed with her. Jackie overhearing us gave me her card.
“I would absolutely love to shoot your baby girl. Please, call me when she’s born. I’ll make time for you.” Thanking her, she told us our pictures would be ready in two days.
“I’m going to start working on them right now. I can’t wait for you guys to see them. Are you guys thinking of selling them to someone?”
I didn’t understand what she meant so I asked her to explain.
“Some celebrities will sell their big moment pictures to magazines. You can get a real nice chunk of money for going exclusive with someone. I have a few that I work with that would buy them if you were interested. Many people use that money for their children’s college funds or others do charities.”
I bit my lip. This all felt a little weird. Before I could protest Mark piped up excitedly.
“We could donate to Evan’s place.”
“That would be amazing!” Cleo exclaimed. Jackie raised her eyebrows but turned to look at me directly.
“Mom? Do you want me to make some calls? No offense, but I think ultimately she has the last say,” she chuckled. I felt a pit in my stomach but seeing my husband and Cleo so excited about the idea made me nod.
“Go ahead. Let us know if you get any takers. Do you need their agent’s info? He usually deals with stuff like that.” Mark gave her Sam’s phone number and email and we left.
Stopping home to shower and let the dogs out we slipped over to the Andrews’ to have dinner. Derek and the Wilson trio were already there, enjoying beers and some appetizers.
