Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessica Smith.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I started photography when I was 14 and got my first camera. I literally told my mom and dad not to get me anything else for Christmas, I wanted a camera and that was ALL I wanted. Christmas day, I opened the box and it just escalated from there.
I started off just taking photos of my siblings and way too many selfies…
In college, I met the guy who would eventually become my husband and he was in love with photography, We did sessions with one another and had the best time through our late teens and early twenties taking photos of our relationship and time together.
I started my business and literally started with just photographing everything. Families, birthdays, engagements, and couples… eventually, I photographed my first boudoir session. It was in the woods, I set up a tent and an air mattress and we had a blast like we were having a slumber party outside.
I remember coming home and telling my husband that I didn’t want to photograph anything else ever but that was all it was…just a statement.
I had three children in the last three years and things kind of shifted focus away from my passion and toward just taking care of what was in front of me.
I continued to photograph everything and didn’t even advertise boudoir.
At the beginning of 2018, I collaborated with another photographer and we threw our first boudoir marathon together. After that, the energy was even harder to ignore and I started my boudoir group on facebook.
I started advertising slowly and booked a second marathon with the same photographer in August of 2018.
This time, I photographed a lot of mothers and the emotional connection to how we treat and embrace our physical form as women really hit home for me. I knew this was what I wanted to do and it was all I was going to do from now on.
Today, I am only photographing boudoir photography and I do indoor and outdoor sessions. Encouraging women to love themselves for who they are is most definitely the best job in the world.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Oh, definitely not.
Finding what I was passionate about was a long journey… one I’m just beginning to tackle with a brave face.
Growing up, I was raised very faith-based… and as a girl in the church, we are taught to cover, and hide our figures. They aren’t praised at all and are… actually seen as shameful parts of us. I was never taught to embrace my body as a woman…I was taught that my physical attributes were weapons… of mass destruction. If a guy saw skin he would ruin his entire relationship with Jesus and that would be MY fault.
So, I never learned anything about being sexual… being a woman… or even loving those parts of myself… instead, I learned to cover them up and hide them.
So, realizing that I loved boudoir has been kind of a long emotional process for me.
I know it’s never going to be easy… dealing with self-love issues myself and trying to empower and encourage other women through self-love is SO hard.
I tried to take some photos of myself the other day and it was harder than I realized.
Nitpicking every little thing and having issue after issue with the shape of my body because it has changed so much through the years.
I have been learning that loving this body for going through life with me is the most important thing to do. But learning that lesson and living it are two very different things.
I went from being skinny and no stretch marks to birthing three babies in three years and breastfeeding all of them back to back. I now look NOTHING like I used to… but boudoir for me is all about helping women fall back in love with themselves through photography. So, overcoming those obstacles is seriously all a part of the process.
Coffee and Cream Boudoir – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Coffee and Cream Boudoir is all about making the everyday woman feel amazing in her own skin.
We specialize in Boudoir and Glamour Photography.
I’m probably most known for my love of coffee but also for the encouragement that every session brings to my clients.
I am most proud of my boudoir group.
Coffee and Cream Boudoir on Facebook.
The women in that group encourage and empower each other every single day and I am in awe of the community we are building. Just seeing a group of diverse women encourage and uplift one another has been awe-inspiring for me and has really changed the way I look at my friendships with other women.
The thing that sets me apart from other boudoir companies is probably my Boudoir marathons.
We try and do a marathon every few months and never in the same space twice.
I have back to back bookings for them and the women who book are highly encouraged to book with their friends. I encourage them to empower and uplift one another during their sessions and I love watching these friends genuinely loving one another.
We as women tend to put everyone else first so taking a day to really love on yourself and be authentic and just be YOU is seriously such a refreshing thing to see.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Success to me is… that message I get after a boudoir session…or after a gallery of images is delivered and my client is messaging or calling me in tears…
She’s telling me that she hasn’t loved herself in years…
That she has been looking for who she used to be instead of loving who she is now…
She’s saying that she wants to do one of these sessions every year because she wants to appreciate her body as it ages and not forget to love herself along the way.
Success for me is showing the back of the camera to a woman in the middle of her session and hearing her squeal with happiness “THATS ME?!?!?!?!?!”
That right there… that is success for me.
Pricing:
- Outdoor Boudoir 350.00 (25 images) 1 hour and professional makeup
- Indoor Boudoir 400.00 (30 images) 1 hour and Professional Makeup
- Marathon Pricing 300.00 (20 images) 30 minutes and Professional Makeup with exclusive venue
Contact Info:
- Website: www.Coffeeandcreamphotography.com
- Email: Coffeeandcreamphotography@gmail.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/coffeeandcreamboudoir
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/coffeeandcreamboudoir/
- Other: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Coffeeandcreamboudoir/
Getting in touch: VoyageHouston is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
