Behind the Scenes: Shoot Days at Valia Honolulu

Let me preface this by saying I am not a professional photographer. I just take photos for the website and the 'gram cause well, it's one of the many hats I wear in my small business. We invite our customers turned Brand Ambassadors to help us snap shots and so grateful that we have such big supporters willing to help us out as models! 

I thought I'd be fun to give a little behind the scenes look at our "causal, informal, not professional" photoshoot sessions. I guess I felt the need to say that because I think sometimes people thinks its a whole production. It totally can be when shooting with professional photographers and models (which we LOVE when we do have those opportunities by the way), however, our little marketing budget and schedule sometimes just don't allow for all that. We are little company and we just make do with what we have!

(Christie is wearing the Linen Blend Flutter Sleeve Dress in S and toting the Support your Local Crafter Denim Tote from Twiggy Hawaii)

Ali'i Coffee Co is right around the corner on Beretania and Bethel! We definitely appreciated being able to snap some quick shots in there and tried not to disturb anyone's Saturday morning coffee break! It was so fun that we could capture @olboy_melon's artwork in this shot too!

(Christie is wearing the 19th and Whimsy Chloe Cardigan in Sage and the Eliza Solid Black Dress in S)

Another neighbor of ours is The Bloem Bar located in Haul 2 HI. They're located just a few doors down from us at the other corner of Mark's Garage. Jane brings in some amazing South American garden roses for her arrangements. I'm talking large, blooming, fragrant and seriously not your average rose. 

(Christie is wearing the Naomi Party Dress in S)

@thestyletheorist was the lovely model for the day and made shooting so easy! When she's not helping us out, she is a full-time grad student, part-time writer for a local publication and house manager for a local theatre. I'm constantly amazed at how much people can get done in a day. Best believe we got a coffee after this shoot cause this was just part one of her very long day! Can ya guess where?

(Christie is wearing the Yireh Hudson Romper in Avante in M and carrying the Haru Palette Macrame Clutch - available in-store)

So random story about this shoot... Christie was wearing a heart monitor the whole time. It actually was about the size of a pager (gosh...I just dated myself) and was taped to her chest above her heart. We worked around this and styled to cover it. We don't photoshop so if you look real close, you can probably see the bump.

Hope you enjoyed this quick behind the scenes look into an aspect of my business! Oh and a shout out to MK Hawaii who coordinate all our photo and video shoots. The company is run by our very own Megan Dela Cruz.