Hey Grl Hey!
It’s no secret —if you follow me on IG— that I recently graduated from college! Woohoo me!
I knew as a junior in college, when the pandemic first hit, that I wanted to do quite a bit for my graduation photos because let’s face it, I worked hard for my degree and it wasn’t easy—lots of depressive episodes and mental breakdowns.
So if I was finally reaching the finish line I was gonna do the most, no cap.
I planned 5 or 6 shoots originally but I ended up only having time to really do 4 and even then they were very spread out.
I had an idea of the outfits I wanted to wear when I started planning themes but I’m not going to lie and tell you I could not find half of the stuff I came up with in my size or available online, and when I planned them I was going off of other peoples photos and what I liked that they did and what I didn’t.
But it all worked out in the end.
My first shoot was Illini themed since I graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.
I had another outfit planned but unfortunately I knew that I had neither the fabric I needed to DIY it nor the time to figure out how to make a jumpsuit with no pattern, so I grabbed this blazer dress from Missguided in a size 22 or 24. It was more of a burnt orange color but it fit the theme.
I should have paired it with navy blue heels, but I was on a college student budget at the time and very clearly wasn’t trying to spend all my money on a pair of shoes I would only wear once so I did a little color blocking and paired my yellow heels with the orange.
My second shoot was supposed to highlight my time in our chapter of the national association of black accountants.
I served on the executive board for 3 of my 4 years in the organization so it was only right that I commended that opportunity in some way.
Now this was one of the looks that I had something else planned and it didn’t go my way.
Honestly I wanted a dress, but I had previously purchased this jumpsuit from Eloquii during one of their sales and since I spent $70 on this one piece, I had to include it somehow.
It was also a tuxedo jumpsuit, like come on I was rocking this for something grad related.
In terms of styling, I had to buy another cap because a blue cap with a white and black outfit? Yeah I wasn’t doing that. Luckily Amazon has everything so I ordered one just for this outfit.
I paired it with a pair of suede like heels from Forever 21 that I grabbed a really long time ago, but I will try to find a link to something similar.
And it wouldn’t be right if I didn’t give the girls a red lip with all these neutral colors.
Overall I think I went for a very elegant and sophisticated set of looks for my graduation photos. I’m not sure how I got there, but I definitely look good.
My third shoot was for my Sorority’s Chapter grad photos, and the theme as always was Red for the Redz.
I found this dress on Amazon and immediately knew that was what I was wearing for those photos because nothing else was giving classy but not overly professional.
And I wanted to be a little playful in these because all of my other pictures were so clean cut, with a-line hems and boxy silhouettes.
The ruffles on the arms and the twist front with the peplum added the right amount of interest without being too much.
The only thing negative I have to say is that when the dress arrived, the slit in the back was extremely high, like see your underwear high— not sure why they think that would work on a plus size dress.
So I did have to sew it up just a bit to get the slit to a better length that wouldn’t be overly high and revealing.
I paired this with my pearl necklace and nude/ clear heels which I later found I should’ve rubbed with coconut oil in the inside because they were so foggy so soon.
So how did I plan all these great outfits that somehow fit the theme of my degree?
Well for starters I planned early, and came up with individual themes of what I wanted to highlight most from my college career.
I wanted to be different so I didn’t go the traditional route with any of my looks and it worked for me. I wanted to add my own flair to them and be me.
After you have the outline see what you have in house, decide if you want to be trendy or classic, and have fun.
And that goes for any shoot.
Be confident, and authentically you.
That’s how you get the best result from your photos, and that’ll make you have a good batch of photos as well.
X. Do you be you.
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