"You want the moon? Just say the word, and I'll throw a lasso around it and pull it down."

I recently got engaged, and I knew I wanted to do some self-portraits of my fiancé and me. Our wedding will be very fantasy-inspired, and we both have an aesthetic that is very whimsigoth.

A lot of my art outside of photography is influenced by music, tarot, has witchy influences, and mixed media. When coming up with a concept for our photos, I knew I wanted to do mixed media, and I wanted to do a vintage moon backdrop.  I have been obsessed with vintage backdrops for as long as I can remember, and one of my favorite movies is A Wonderful Life, so we also wanted to make a nod to that by having the moon in it.

After looking at some of my vinyls, I saw the album cover for a Smashing Pumpkins album. The art of a girl coming out of the star filled m.y head with ideas. That is when I decided exactly what to make!

To ensure that we would fit into the moon, I created a paper moon out of poster board. That way, I would have a guide when I went to create the moon in Photoshop. I then set my camera up on a tripod, set a timer, and ran back and forth (more like waddle, I had injured my ankle that weekend). Once the photos were taken, I went through and did basic editing. I then opened an art board in Photoshop and put all of the pieces together. The goal was definitely a little cartoony and whimsical! I did find the illustration on Pinterest, but never found the artist.

I 100% did all of the editing; there was absolutely no AI used in the making of these images.