Hello reader,
Whoo whoo! Thursday! Photoshoot day…and new dress day! We
woke up fairly early today, got ready; I didn’t think it was necessary for me
to flop at doing my own make-up since there’d be people doing our make-up. I didn’t
want raccoon ‘smokey eyes’ for my photoshoot!
And thus we set off, we went to some kind shopping centre (I
didn’t really notice since I napped in the bus on the way there, it was hot,
and I was really tired) then we were told that those who didn’t have dresses
should get off the bus. We saw passing planes overhead, the airport wasn’t very
far away so when planes passed, there were so close to the ground that you
could clearly see the underside. We went into a bridal store, Brides and Co.
That place was unreal. It had the most beautiful dresses I’ve ever seen and I
got so excited, we were told that we were free to look around and try on any dresses we liked. Let me repeat
that…any dresses. Whoop! The girls and I had a look around; I saw some dresses
that I was in love with but unfortunately most were a little big for me.
Walking around to the back of the store I saw a lovely peach coloured dress and
I decided to try on. Look, I have to tell you about the fitting rooms. *wipes
tear* Wait, I don’t think any words I can think of will adequately describe how
awesome they were. I think the bridal stores do this on purpose too. You feel
so calm and you could just try on dresses all day. Well anyway, the mirrors
were outside the doors so you had to go out to have a look at the dresses on
you. I went out to have my dress zipped up and right there and then…I fell in
love with that dress. It looks really great on me. Usually I tend to avoid
strapless dresses because of the boob situation but that one made my boobs look
awesome and offered lovely support even without a bra. I needed that dress.
After consultations with Marisa and the other organisors, I was told the dress
was fine. Let me tell you, I was very happy.
After choosing my dress I waited while the other girls tried
on their dresses. You know how bridal stores are…I started envisioning myself
trying on my wedding dress, with my maid of honour offering suggestions and all
that. My mind really wandered. Brides and Co was so generous that they offered
to sponsor dresses (and those were really expensive dresses) to the other girls
who already had their dresses from the other store, I was amazed at their
generosity. After taking photos with the store assistants and manager, we set
off to one of the organisors house were we had lunch and jokes and swapped
stories with each other. It was a good time. Soon after that we had to have our
nails and make-up done. While half of the girls were busy with their make-up
(It seemed like I was the only one who didn’t know a thing about make-up), the
other half –including me- were ferried off to a sweet dainty salon where I had
my nails shaped a bit and painted the colour of my choice.
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| Charcoal grey nail polish! |
Time was quickly
running out, the sun was about to set and I hadn’t done my make-up yet! I had
stupidly got off the bus without my make-up bag, meaning I had to wait for it
to come back. When the bus finally came back with the rest of the group, it was
such chaos as people scrambled to have their nails done (there was only one
nail technician for twelve of us!) and sweet Elrie did my make-up for me. She
did it the way I liked; as close to natural as possible. When I went in to get
dressed in my dress, I was told that my make-up was barely visible. I had to go
to Marisa, who took a make-up course (seriously, is there anything the girl
cannot do!? She knows make-up, teaches pilates and is a ballerina…). When I was
done the sign language interpreter helped me to wrap my hair in a bun and into
our dresses we got and into the bus and away we went.
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| Me at the salon, before leaving for the photoshoot |
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| Christi and I...I swear I'm not short! |
The photoshoot took place on a golf course and it was a very
beautiful day. I tried to take pictures and a video but I had a really crappy
camera and the battery kept dying so I couldn’t take that many photos. Not to
worry though, that was the point of the shoot; professional photos. We each
took turns to pose individually on a beautiful stone bridge as the sun lowered
in the horizon and a breeze flew in, making the fabric of our dresses billow boldly in the wind. I’m so excited to see the photos. I’m terrible at smiling widely and
posing like a beauty queen but tell me to pose like a model and I’m in my
element. After the bridge photos we were told to take our pick of any location
around the golf course to pose near. I chose to pose under a curtain of hanging
leaves (don’t worry, I checked for tree snakes beforehand) and the stone bridge
yet again. When my photos were done and dusted I waited with the other girls,
chatting and joking around as always. I worried the sun would set before the
photos were done as it was getting dark. Not to worry though, we all had
ourselves photographed but then rain began to fall. We made a mad dash to the
bus which was a little bit of an overreaction because it was only drizzling.
But still, we had on very expensive dresses and we had explicit instructions to
take good care of them.
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| All of us minus Alexis (where was she!?). I swear I'm NOT short, I was grouped between two of the tallest girls :P |
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| From left: Chanel, Amy, Elrie, Christi, Megan, Xolisile, Beyonce, Beauty, Elzane, Coleen and Chanika. |
After we were done with the shoot we changed out of the
dresses, put them within their protective… *makes describing hand motions*
pockets…? and we were off to dinner at…Ocean Basket! Yus! Seafood baby! All of
us were pretty much tired and hungry so we were excited for food, Megan was
especially excited for sushi since she really loved it. We had a really long
table set especially for us and it was such a beautiful ambience that everybody
was in their element. Megan had her sushi (sushi wasn’t offered for us so she
said she’d pay out of her own pocket but they gave her sushi for free anyway). Xolisile was a little bit excited with her food, she ordered chocolate milkshake and seemed to forget that she had a straw in it and tilted the glass, which of course resulted in split milkshake in her crotch haha. That wasn't the last of the clumsiness, while we were eating a salad, some pieces fell off her plate and onto my lap - with dressing and everything! I wasn't even mad since I found it funny. The night was beautiful, we were served by really friendly waiters who had the biggest smiles on their faces and
we were filled up and happy.After eating who all smiled for a group photo with the owner of the restaurant who looked like he belonged on the cover of GQ Magazine.
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| Pouting and smiling like princesses do |
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| Candid photo! |
On the way back to the hostel, it was pretty late and we
were exhausted, so we all napped in the bus. We arrived, cleaned our faces (all
that make-up!) and as it was already tradition, we congregated in the common
room for tea and rusks/crackers. We may have practiced our ramp walking and/or
talent. I don’t remember. Tiredness... or old age.
Stay tuned for Friday’s diary.
‘Til next time
-Bella
