A Photoshoot Nearly Gone Wrong

My wedding planning experience

Hi, fam!

How are you today?

It feels like I've been away forever. I miss recording, editing, and brainstorming podcast episodes. But your girl was busy planning, getting married, and honeymooning. I returned from the honeymoon about a week ago, and settling back into my new normal has been quite the process. Once I’m all settled and have gotten the hang of my new life, I’m considering recording an episode with my husband so you can meet him. We'll share our wedding experience, the ups, downs, and crazy moments. Let me know if you're interested in this kind of stuff, and we'll make it happen once I'm back from my mini-sabbatical.

Before the wedding, I planned to send you our pre-wedding pictures, behind-the-scene moments, and the link to stream our wedding. I wanted to carry you along as much as possible, but the last two weeks before the wedding were so intense that I barely had time for anything else. I will just write to you about it. Believe me, there’s a lot of gist there.

During counseling, we were told that things often go south during wedding planning, and we must be prepared to take it in stride. However, being armed with this piece of invaluable advice didn’t prepare me for the emotional rollercoaster I experienced the week of our pre-wedding shoot. We had two outfit ideas - twinning in a playful two-piece and a semi-formal attire. I had my tailor make my outfits. When I went to pick up my clothes that week, my confidence in our “slaying” our looks melted. For some reason, the two-piece wasn’t “giving,” and it was too late to create another outfit. I reached out to my friends, and we found a solution. I decided to wear the jumpsuit I’d made for the civil wedding as an alternative. Thankfully, my husband got a matching outfit.

The day before the shoot, I asked someone to straighten my dress with a pressing iron. You can guess what happened next. My dress burnt. The burn was right in front of the dress and quite noticeable. I almost fainted. I don’t cry easily, but I broke down that night. It was around 10:30 pm-ish. My sister immediately took charge of the situation because I was a blubbering mess. After contacting my tailor, she asked us to bring the dress at 6 am the following day. Mind you, the photoshoot was fixed for 10 am, and I was to leave the house at 8:30 am. I also had a makeup session planned early that morning. Eventually, we reached out to the photographer, an excellent friend. I told him what had happened and showed him the burnt dress. I was even considering rescheduling the shoot. He told me to wear it like that, and would fix it during editing. I was skeptical, but it was my best choice.

We had the photoshoot the next day, and it went better than I could have imagined. We still had a few hiccups, like my husband forgetting his trousers at home and my contacts making me highly uncomfortable because of the heavy eye makeup. Eventually, we finished the shoot, and when I saw the final pictures, I almost wept tears of joy and gratitude,

That little incident taught me something. Plans hardly unfold as intended because there are many factors we cannot control. It’s the nature of life. But through it all, God works to make everything beautiful. I was worried, upset, and emotionally spent, but God worked it out for good. We had fire pictures, and looked nothing like we had gone through. Also, I saw how precious is the gift of people. My sister, friends, tailor, and photographer held us up and proffered solutions when it looked like things were falling apart. 

I don’t know what life is like for you right now. But I’m praying you remember God works with crashed dreams, messed-up plans, and the seemingly worst circumstances. I pray you see the men and women God has placed around you to carry and help you when things get hard. I also pray your eyes are opened to find opportunities to be a blessing to those around you.

Here’s a link to the rest of the pictures. Enjoy!

If you’re not following me on Instagram @eniola_adeeko, you’ll miss out on some of the wedding gist and pictures as I’ll be posting there too. See you in my next newsletter with some more gist. Let me know if you enjoyed this one.

All my love,

Mrs. Ashaolu