By JAQUI LEYVA-HILL
Special to the PARADE
A new luxury photography experience is bringing flowing gowns, professional styling and beachside portraits to South Padre Island.
SPI Luxury Beach Events by Nadia has launched its South Padre Island Flying Dress Experience, offering clients the opportunity to pose in couture-style dresses against the Island’s beaches, dunes and Gulf Coast scenery. Sunrise and sunset sessions are available.
Nadia Baughman Turner, founder of SPI Luxury Beach Events by Nadia, said the concept grew naturally from the company’s existing work creating weddings, proposals, luxury picnics and other special celebrations.
“Flying dress photoshoots have become popular in beautiful destinations around the world, and I kept asking myself, ‘Why not South Padre Island?’” Turner said. “We have some of the most beautiful beaches, natural sand dunes, breathtaking sunrises, and endless coastline in Texas.”
Clients can select from a collection of flowing dresses in a variety of vibrant colors. Depending on the package chosen, sessions may also include professional hair and makeup, accessories, photography, styling and creative direction.
Turner said she remains personally involved throughout the photoshoot, helping with posing and movement, adjusting the dress and tossing its fabric into the air to create the dramatic “flying” effect. Accessories including earrings, necklaces and anklets are also available as finishing touches.
“Rather than simply taking photographs, we create an editorial-style experience where every client feels like she’s starring in her own magazine cover,” Turner said.
The Luxury Signature Experience is priced at $995 and includes the flying dress rental, professional photography, personal styling and creative direction, one magazine-style edited image and five professionally edited photographs. Turner said the experience lasts approximately two hours.
The Luxury All-Inclusive Experience is $1,295 and adds professional hair and makeup and accessories. It includes two magazine-style edited images and eight professionally edited photographs. The approximately four-hour experience includes hair and makeup, dressing, transportation to the beach location, styling, photography and multiple scenic setups.
Turner said several weeks of advance notice is recommended when possible, particularly during spring, summer, holidays and graduation season because sessions require coordination with photography and beauty professionals.
Mommy & Me and children’s sessions are also available, and packages can be customized for occasions including birthdays, graduations, engagements, anniversaries, maternity photos and other milestone celebrations.
Turner said the experience was designed for a wide range of women, not only professional models.
“This experience isn’t only for models,” she said. “It’s for mothers, graduates, brides-to-be, women celebrating birthdays or anniversaries, cancer survivors, entrepreneurs, or anyone who simply wants to celebrate herself.”
Beyond the finished photographs, Turner said she hopes participants leave their sessions feeling “beautiful, confident, empowered, and celebrated.”
“Our goal is to provide more than a photoshoot,” Turner said. “We create a luxury experience that leaves our clients with beautiful memories, incredible photographs, and a renewed sense of confidence while highlighting everything South Padre Island has to offer.”