Death to Her 20s || Cincinnati || Harley

*Laughter* .... More *Laughter*... And a whole lot of "Oh my god, you're S-T-U-N-N-I-N-G" and you pretty much have a good grasp on how this entire session went.

When Harley contacted me about doing this session to celebrate the death of her 20s, a funeral for her youth, if you will, I immediately jumped on board.

You see, not only did I think it was a fun idea for Halloween time, but Harley and I go way back; (I have photographed her proposal and engagement, her wedding, and anniversary portraits for her and her fantastic husband!) I know what a wonderfully genuine, funny, awesome person she is - she is the energy we all want to be around! It was easy to put together our ideas, and plan out all the details for the best way to celebrate her impending 30th Birthday!

We started our session in a nearby small, old, graveyard, hinging on the "funeral" aspect, and making our session a little bit spooky, There was this beautiful little ray of light that popped through the trees, as if the sun wanted to come out for a moment, just for us. A Cincinnati October is normally pretty gorgeous, but wow, the colors of the trees were *chef's kiss* this evening!

Upon arriving to our next location, the "3" for her 3-0 balloons almost instantly popped before our set was even styled ready (peep her Crocs still on! 😂)- all we could do was laugh and carry on, as she tried to pop the "0" too - because clearly we had no use for it any longer, haha! That set the tone for this session, laughing, jokes, and really leaning in to how silly and fun this entire idea is!

Between some fierce poses, there were lots of stories told, jokes made, and then we popped some champagne and finished off our session with the last bits of light left!

A successful celebration of her big 30th Birthday -- to celebrate the wonderful, kind, genuine and caring woman her life leading up to this, has made her. As they say, death should be a celebration of the life lived. And we definitely celebrated the "death" of her youth in style.

I hope this session will always be a way to remind her how fantastically fierce she is, how what is inside shines so brightly outwardly, and how we all only get better with age.

Happy Birthday Harley!

PS -For those interested, Harley is an Esthetician who is active on social media talking about skin care and body positivity! You should 100% check her out - and learn to love yourself more, and take better care of your skin!

@harlsdee & @esti.pop on Instagram

Our beautiful chair prop came from Dahlia Vintage located in Loveland, and was the perfect pop of color and style we needed to pull the entire session together!