As most of you know, Jenny Taylor Photography recently opened its new studio in downtown Naperville. To celebrate, Jenny held an invitation-only grand opening event on Friday, March 16.
I haven’t been with Jenny for very long, but it’s plain to see that she really enjoys rewarding her best guests with prizes, and this event was no exception.
As an aside, how does someone become one of Jenny’s best guests? It’s not hard -- in fact, since Jenny works so hard to make what she does exciting for everybody, it’s downright fun.
To get started, you can take these four simple action steps:
1) Get connected on social media: “like” Jenny Taylor Boudoirs Facebook page, follow Jenny on Twitter, and/or fill out a “contact” form on the website.
2) Enter and/or vote on her regular contests (you probably know Jenny gives away free boudoir sessions regularly! How awesome is she?).
3) Mark your calendar for upcoming Jenny Taylor sponsored events and show up! When you do, be sure to “check in” on Facebook or tweet that you’re here -- typically Jenny will thank you in boudoir cash good for your next session for being such a terrific fan! To guarantee you can make one of her events, book a boudoir party with her and invite all your girlfriends.
4) Lastly, I can attest to this after observing a couple rounds of Boudoir Jeopardy (and a trivia contest she held) -- do your best to study up on what Jenny Taylor offers. Or, listen up and remember what you hear Jenny say! The more you know, the more boudoir $$$ you can win! (P.S. A good way to do this is also by following the Sexy Spotlights. Wink, wink!)
So, back to the grand opening. As usual, I didn’t really know what to expect (to this day I still kind of feel like the wide-eyed superfan I was the day I interviewed with Jenny, haha!) besides a few details. I had read in the Evite for the grand opening that there’d be tons of opportunities for boudoir goodies and that our joint masterpiece, Boudoir Jeopardy, was going to make a serious appearance: a round every hour on the hour from five to nine!
From what I understood, the grand opening was to be kind of like a hodgepodge of guests that didn’t know each other at one giant, extended boudoir party -- right? Well, yes and no. There were similarities, but it still turned out to be one of the most informative evenings I’ve spent with Jenny Taylor and what she calls her “awesome staff” (hehe). It was like a mini-red carpet event for me, again the wide-eyed superfan, because not only did I get to meet and chat with some of the other brilliant girls that work with Jenny, but I also got to personally meet with what I call one of Jenny’s “faces,” someone you can see yourself if you browse through Jenny’s Facebook page. More on that later . . .
Let me paint you a picture: The studio was all decked out, of course with music playing to set a casual and friendly ambience. A large table carried a large spread of light fare on an elegant white tray surrounded by glass champagne flutes containing what looked like pink bubbly (i.e., Cherry 7-Up). The flutes wore fun pink ribbons around the stems. I couldn’t resist nibbling on a blueberry mini-scone -- yum! Hidden beneath the white tablecloth waited a collection of pink gift bags for each guest packed with boudoir goodies hidden in the tissue paper. They’d be able to stash all their prizes there throughout the evening.
One of Jenny’s assistants signed people in at the desk boasting Jenny’s Little Black Book (a guestbook of her previous clients’ handwritten messages), boudoir cash for Tweets and Facebook check-ins, and best of all, stacks of mystery prizes every guest could win from a spin on the Boudoir Wheel.
It was at the reception that I met the extremely talented Amber, who is Jenny’s executive assistant. We chatted about all the cool stuff she gets to do as the executive assistant (gotta admit, I’m a little bit jelly!), and I was impressed to hear she studies public relations. Like me, Amber is an enthusiastic superfan ;)
In the salon, Jenny’s other assistant Taylor, whom I’d met at the boudoir party on March 9th, was busy transforming a couple of guests with her carefully practiced makeup artistry skills, beside a new face for me: Leila, one of Jenny’s six hair & makeup glamifiers.
Jenny, who was especially dressed up, naturally, was simply shining in her trendy grey lightly flowered top and black skirt/grey-and-black lightly flowered colorblock dress? (Whichever it was, hehe). The muted colors of her outfit were offset by a pair of sparkling sandals. Eventually, she ushered everyone into the main room of the studio where plenty of seating awaited the guests. The dark glistening coffee table in the center held its enormous sample of boudoir albums, which I looked through for the first time that night. So many options!
Jenny broke the ice with the crowd and introduced herself with a mixture of usual business and a bit of playful humor. She then fired off (to my shock!) many answers to our set of Boudoir Jeopardy questions, so that the game could fit its allotted time slot (and, I imagine, so she could give away more prizes). Smoothly, the game commenced. Clearly Jenny had had practice since its recent debut!
This crowd of ladies proved themselves VERY savvy, as they collectively only missed two questions! A particular guest also wowed us with her extraordinary listening skills, giving answers that no one else remembered Jenny mentioning (told you it pays off!). To my surprise (mainly because boudoir photography seems to be such a once-in-a-lifetime experience), a small number of the guests had already done shoots with Jenny, which also explains why they seemed to know everything! It was great to see that even though they’d already done it, they were eager to return.
Jenny, per her generous nature, awarded all the players their team total amount of money in boudoir cash rather than making the contestants split the bounty among themselves.
As the guests were playing, one particular petite blonde girl stood out to me the entire time. She looks familiar, I mused. Isn’t she on Jenny’s website or something?
Turned out, she was. Though it was well over my time to go, I introduced myself to her and her friend in the hallway when Jeopardy had wrapped. Her name was Natalie, and she told me her photo had been on the Facebook page. I told her it was like meeting a local celebrity.
We talked about her session with Jenny and asked her friend if she was going to book a shoot. Like many girls who are newer to the idea of a day of pampering, posing, and pouting for pictures, she was a little on the fence. But Natalie and I pounced immediately! “You HAVE to do it,” I gushed. “There’s nothing like it.”
Those two sentences pretty much sum up what’s happening at Jenny Taylor Boudoirs -- there’s always something new going on that’s unlike anything else (even if it’s not a shoot!). Personally, I’m gearing up to report from behind the scenes of Jenny’s Matchmaking Dating Game, so stay tuned. . . .
