This was one hectic week in our house, from getting everything ready for the Better Homes & Gardens photoshoot, the photoshoot itself, cleaning and packing up Christmas post-photoshoot, I think I’m just starting to recover! This post is definitely not the glamorous side of photoshoots – today you’re going to see all my behind the scenes shots from my iPhone. If there’s any advice I would give someone getting ready to have their house photographed, don’t even bother making sure everything is perfectly in it’s place! We moved almost everything – to get stuff out of the way for a shot, to style the shots, to make things look just right in the shots – furniture, pillows, books, flowers, accessories, even our living room chandelier got moved! The other thing I can tell you, is it was such a fun time meeting and working with the editor and photographer from the Better Homes & Gardens Special Interest Christmas edition magazine. I am so excited to see all of our hard work in print. Notice I said our – these guys were so awesome at letting me participate and get right into the action…I loved every minute! It makes me miss the days I used to spend working on fashion shoots – with amazing creative talent, collaborating on ideas and styling every detail and making sure the shots look perfect. SO. MUCH. FUN. A huge shoutout and thank you goes to Ann Blevins and Jay Wilde for allowing me to jump right in. We had a blast…and I’m crossing my fingers that one day I’ll get to do it again!
Before I begin, I have to give you a peek at all the amazing flowers I was able to order for the shoot. I snapped these post-shoot, so they’re not the original arrangements – we did some deconstructing to be able to style certain vignettes we were creating. But all in all, they’re mostly the same as what you see here. Aren’t the so fabulous and lush? They came from Flore, a Montreal florist located in the heart of the city. SO beautiful… they were able to create the most gorgeous arrangements, our home literally smells like a florist shop.
Enough of the pretty stuff, let’s get to the mess! Before they arrived, the house looked pristine, I swear… and of course, I didn’t snap one shot before they came. As soon as they walked in, they got straight to setting up the first shot of the living room. The furniture was all moved around for the perfect composition – you can get an idea of the shot on the screen in this image below. They moved my rattan sitting chairs and used one of them facing the sofa to create a more interesting furniture layout, and to also open up the fireplace visually. After the first shot was done, Jay went to work on shooting some closeups of the mantel and stockings.
The second shot was straight on of the Christmas tree, with the camera setup in the kitchen. We moved the sofa and rug out of the way, wrapped extra presents and reworked the shelf styling. Since I can’t show you much of what the house looked like (other than the giant mess haha), I can tell you that I added my navy and light blues back on the tree and mantel, and I also brought many of my blue and white pieces back in as well. I absolutely love how it all turned out with our new white sofas, and I think I may just recreate the look next Christmas. Check out last year’s Christmas decor here to get an idea of how my holiday blues look in our home! Now, picture them with our white sofas….gorgeous!
Here’s a look at the mess in the living room as we’re shooting the tree from the kitchen. See that wire hanging from the chandelier? We used it to pull the chandelier out of the shot!
Next, Jay shot our front porch (see my Christmas porch here) and then our entryway console table. Ann and I worked on styling a vignette on the table – the faux flocked pine branches and silver trees that I originally had in this space didn’t work so well in the shot, so we went to work and created a whole new look with some greenery, ornaments and my brass hurricane lanterns. It turned out beautiful.
Our first shot of the day was of me, standing in front of the buffet with the tree in the background – sorry, no phone pic of my outfit, you’ll have to wait ;) After that shot was out of the way, we finished setting up and styling the dining room table. Jay and Ann went to work getting a couple of closeups of the tablescape, which was very similar to my Christmas table that I recently shared (see it here), with greenery and ornaments.
What an amazing experience this was for me, I loved every single minute of the entire shoot. Ann and Jay were so much fun to work with and such a pleasure to get to know a little bit. They are some seriously talented people – I learned so much from Better Homes & Gardens team, and it was truly an absolute blessing to have them here photographing our home.
Savvy snowbirds.com
January 12, 2019 at 9:07 AM (2 years ago)OMGOSH!!!! What an amazing couple of days for you!!! Did they help clean up? LOL….I will keep my fingers crossed that you make the cover of BH&G! I cannot wait to see the photos!
PS…last night I spent over an hour looking at your very first posts…lol…you know I am trying to build my own blog and I wanted to see how you started, where your turning point was….you have come a long way…you are my total inspiration!!!!
tamaraanka
January 13, 2019 at 10:29 AM (2 years ago)Thank you so much! It was really fun and I loved it all – I did most of the cleaning lol! And I’m a little mortified that you’re looking at my old posts hahaha – I really had no idea what I was doing! But I’m very flattered and I truly appreciate your kind words, thank you so much! I have quite a long way to go!! Thanks as always for stopping by! xox
Dana
January 12, 2019 at 9:18 AM (2 years ago)I love reading your posts! You are so talented, I so appreciate that you share the details of how you do things. So happy for your photo shoot! Can’t wait to purchase an issue to see the final results. It was so fun to see behind the scenes!
tamaraanka
January 13, 2019 at 10:30 AM (2 years ago)Dana thank you so much, I really appreciate your support! It means a lot to me! It’s amazing what goes on behind the scenes and I’m really happy you enjoyed it!
Marty
January 12, 2019 at 10:14 AM (2 years ago)Congratulations and so fun to see the background of how it all comes together.
tamaraanka
January 13, 2019 at 10:31 AM (2 years ago)Marty thank you very much, my friend, and thank you very much for reading!! xo
Lisa C Parsons
January 12, 2019 at 11:41 AM (2 years ago)Awesome! That would be a dream come true for me if I had that opportunity! Your home is beautiful!
tamaraanka
January 13, 2019 at 10:31 AM (2 years ago)Thank you so much, Lisa, it was really cool and an amazing experience!
Tonia
January 12, 2019 at 12:32 PM (2 years ago)Thanks for showing the behind scenes of the photo shoot. What an exciting experience! Looking out for the October issue! Congratulations.
tamaraanka
January 13, 2019 at 10:32 AM (2 years ago)Thank you so much for your kind words, Tonia, it was amazing and I truly feel blessed!
joanmechlin, joni
January 12, 2019 at 12:32 PM (2 years ago)When I pick up a magazine to read and see the beautiful pictures, I would never think of all the work that has to go into it. You sure gave us a thorough insight here, Tam. Bet you’ll relive these moments forever.
tamaraanka
January 13, 2019 at 10:33 AM (2 years ago)Joni, it really is incredible and all of the styling tricks are fun too…I feel so fortunate to have had this opportunity! I’m so happy you enjoyed reading along! Muah!
Isabel Gauvin
January 12, 2019 at 5:29 PM (2 years ago)You guys made quite a mess! Thanks for the behind the scenes so that we can better understand all the work that goes into making something looks that amazing! xoxo
tamaraanka
January 13, 2019 at 10:33 AM (2 years ago)It was a total mess lol! But so fun, and I’m so thrilled to have had this chance! Hope I get to do it again some day! Thanks for stopping by! xox
Jenn
January 14, 2019 at 7:04 PM (2 years ago)Thank you so much for taking the time to tell us about the experience. That sounds like a lot of work, but such an amazing chance to work with some talented professionals. I can’t wait to see how this all folds out into the beautiful pics in the magazine. You’re known for your blue decor so that is so fitting to be able to display all your beautiful blues on the tree! Hope you make the cover!
Jenn
tamaraanka
January 19, 2019 at 8:49 AM (2 years ago)You are so kind and so welcome! I’m thrilled you enjoyed reading about my time with the BHG team! They were awesome! It was such a great experience, I cannot wait to see it in October! Thank you for reading! xo
Bridget
January 14, 2019 at 7:44 PM (2 years ago)I have just recently been following your blog and all I can say is that I am a huge fan. I laughed out loud when I saw you standing on or in the sink hanging your pretty wreaths. You are a inspiration I sooooo happy to be able to follow your wonderful decorating ideas. What an inspiration. Good luck with the magazine.
tamaraanka
January 19, 2019 at 8:50 AM (2 years ago)You are so kind, Bridget, thank you! Haha I get right into the action and I love it! I am truly flattered and humbled by your kind words, thank you so much and thank you for reading with me, it always means so much to hear from everyone! xo
Holliday Johnson
January 14, 2019 at 7:47 PM (2 years ago)I can’t wait to see the final product!! Too bad we have wait so long! ;-)
tamaraanka
January 19, 2019 at 8:51 AM (2 years ago)Holliday thank you so much!! I can’t wait!! I guess it will be that much more suspenseful haha!!! xo
Roseann
January 18, 2019 at 7:49 AM (2 years ago)I enjoyed the behind the scenes! Thanks for sharing the amazing experience. Please keep us posted when the magazine is published. Can’t wait to see it! Best of luck!
tamaraanka
January 19, 2019 at 8:52 AM (2 years ago)Thank YOU for reading!! I’m so happy you enjoyed it – what a fun time it was and so fulfilling! I think it’s October, and when it’s out, I’ll be sure to share it here on the blog!! xo