We had a lot of entries to go through and after some hard choices, we have narrowed it down to three finalists. Everyone had amazing and great stories, and it was very hard to decide among the entries. If you were not picked, please take heart that we appreciate you so much and hope you will enter again next year. We wish everyone a safe and peaceful finish to their duties and service.

Happy voting, the finalists (in no particular order) are:

1) Melissa
2) Heidi
3) Elisa

Their stories are below.

To Vote:

Send an email to contest@taitboudoir.com with just the name of the person you are voting for in the subject line. Feel free to include comments with your vote, comments may be posted to the blog.

Voting ends at midnight on August 15th. The winner will be announced shortly after.

GOOD LUCK!

Well, being the curious and very insightful person that she is, she quickly saw through my ruse, and not only did she accept me, but she was impressed by what I do. But the hard part was still yet to come. After we had only been on two dates, I had to leave for two months of training. But we talked on the phone every night, and she took care of my cat and my house after my house-sitter fell through halfway into the trip. And on top of that, she sent me several care packages with her wonderful baked goodies (biscotti being my personal favorite), which would become the norm for any of my long trips away from home. I had become accustomed to meeting someone, starting a relationship, and then having the Air Force send me someplace on a trip or deployment, only to find that my partners would leave me before I got back home. I knew Elisa was different after this first trip. I knew she was special.

Since then, she has stuck by me, through months apart when I was in Kuwait, Iraq, Korea, and Alaska. Before we were even married, she stuck with me through a 5 month deployment to the Middle East in which we only got to talk for 15 minutes on the phone, two times a week. I was never worried for a minute that anything would go wrong with my house while she was watching things. Reliability and dependability are two of her star qualities. Of course, the care packages came regularly and meant so much to me. Cookies were in them, of course, but silly things like artwork from her students, and my favorite brand of New Mexico green chili salsa really gave them an added special touch. I missed our 1 year anniversary during that deployment, as well as Halloween, which was our first big holiday date together, and will always be a special day for us. When I came back, even though it was January, Elisa organized a “Halloween” costume party to welcome me home.

She stuck with me through a move to Ohio, and then DC, as well as one of the biggest challenges of them all, when I was in graduate school, and due to my studies, I maybe got to see her for an hour a day, before I went back to the lab (including weekends). But not only did she support me, she supported my classmates spouses as well. As I was attending a military graduate school, I still had the position of class leader, and due to the challenging nature of the coursework many spouses were “grad school widows” for the duration of the program. I never asked Elisa to reach out to the other spouses, she just did so naturally, and fell into the role as supporter and confidant for many others, as she had for me. I ended up getting an award for my thesis (because of her support), and gave her all of my prize money for new clothes (she deserved it!).

It has not always been easy. She had made some serious sacrifices in her career for me and our relationship. When we met, she was in graduate school herself, and well on her way to a career in dance. The arts world is a very difficult one to break into in new communities, but she found a way to get a faculty position at a college in Ohio (which she had to leave after a year and a half when I moved her again), and after months of false starts, she has finally found a job that makes her happy teaching dance to young kids here in Virginia. Her sister has not been so lucky, having lost her job as an architect, as well as having her husband lose his job, less than a month after they had a new baby. So, Elisa found ways to trim our budget (mainly by trimming any spending on herself for hair, makeup, skin care, and any other pampering products) so she can send money to her sister to help care for her new baby.

Very recently, I had to go to a training up in New Jersey, and my car totally failed on me on the highway. To keep me from reporting late to the training, Elisa hopped into her car the minute she heard I was in trouble and saved the day by preventing me from being AWOL in a marathon driving session where she took me from DC to New Jersey and then drove herself all the way back home. I signed in on time, but just barely. I honestly do not know what I would have done without her. The following weekend, I had a single day off, but Elisa still made the trek of 4 hours up and 4 hours back again to spend the day with me. When I asked her if she really wanted to put herself through that long drive for such a short time together, she told me, “You are worth it.”

My wife is the epitome of “We’ll make it work,” and has always found a way to make surviving tough situations seem fun and adventurous. Finding a job here in Virginia was hard, but instead of sit back and get depressed, she re-dedicated herself to strengthen her mind and body, and lost almost 30 pounds by changing her diet and exercise patterns. She was always beautiful, but now she looks absolutely gorgeous, and I am so proud of her. She has proved to be flexible, and adaptable to all the aspects of my service in the military and makes what I do so much more meaningful, knowing that she is there to support me. Whether it is looking out for other military spouses, sending me mail and care packages, taking care of the homefront, or negotiating the labyrinthine military healthcare system, she has always come through, and I know she always will. I am the one who choose the military, but she choose me, and because of that choice that she continues to make to support me, I am better at everything that I do.

I’m getting sent on another trip by the Air Force soon, this time to Baghdad on July 27th, and I will be gone for another anniversary and another Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s. And although Elisa is very sad about me having to go, she is already finding ways to make things work out for us again and even strengthen our relationship. I cannot believe I’ve only known her for 5 years. In some ways, it seems like we’ve been together forever, but in other ways, I still feel the same joy of our first dates.

Thank You,
Ryan, Maj, USAF

Although I’m not at ease writing about myself, I want to explain it’s not because I’m uncomfortable with my body. Hey, I know I’m no Jessica Simpson. As a matter of a fact, I’m fairly certain both of her breasts would be the mass equivalent of half of my bum, but I love my body. If I don’t give you a little back story, you might not understand how big winning this contest would be for me.

I was in a major boating accident when I was 3 years old. My leg was pulled into the propeller and broken in eight different places. I survived the accident despite all odds and only one of my legs was damaged. Thanks to the miracle work of the surgeons they were even able to put it back together.
Because of the severity of my accident I’ve had two leg lengthening procedures (known as Illizarov) and probably over a dozen other surgeries. Since my accident I’ve spent the other 19 years of my life in and out of the hospital. It’s been tough, and I’ve had my ups and downs. My mom raised me to believe everything happens for a reason, and I do. Approximately 80% of my right leg is covered in scars and it took me a while to come to terms with that.

I haven’t needed surgery for almost over four years now and that has really helped to cement a brighter outlook on things. It may be cheesy, okay…. I know it’s cheesy, but my scars are a part of who I am. I’ve learnt so much from my situation. I know that when people see me on the street in shorts during the summer that that’s not what they’re thinking, and sometimes it’s awkward, but I’ve come to see things in a happier light. (Sometimes I joke I was bitten by a shark to break the ice.)

A few years ago I met a boy who didn’t notice I had scars, or that I even walked with a bit of limp sometimes. He loves me, supports me, and even wraps my leg in a wrap sometimes when it’s sore.

I’ve been interested in doing boudoir photo shoots with Tait Boudoir for over a year now, but something has always come up. When I first found them, I re-wrote an email to them a dozen times, trying to come up with a way of saying “hey, I’ve got scars all over my right leg, are you still willing to take pictures of me?” I’ve put this off for so long because I didn’t know how to explain my situation. But I believe everything happens for a reason and now if they read this, it’ll be out there.

I’d like the free photo shoot to not only celebrate but commemorate the confidence I have in myself and my body. A lot of my photo albums have pictures of me recovering from surgeries, and I’d like to add a boudoir shoot to add to the collection to show how far I’ve come!

In June of 2008 I made a major life changing decision with my family’s help and intervention. My dream life was about to all come crashing down. My fiancé was extremely abusive in many respects and controlled every aspect of my life. He separated me from my family and was slowly secluding me from the life I had before I was in a relationship with him. A number of things were brought to the surface in May of 2008 and one being the number of women he was in a relationship with, the financial burdens I was unaware of and a number of other aspects of his life I had no idea about.

While learning that my fiancé was living a double life, my family stepped in and supported me with the decision to leave, although difficult and wanting to believe that it was all a lie and just a dream. I found the strength to leave.

Within the last 7 months I have begun to realize the extent of the abuse he placed on me. It is amazing how deep the wounds are when you are in a relationship with someone who abuses you emotionally, mentally, financially, sexually and verbally. I have found my voice and have been so empowered with what I have been able to do without him in my life. My entire focus has been on just me and only me. Loving and forgiving myself are the reasons I get up everyday, they are the reasons that I have been able to accomplish what I have in such a short period of time, they are the reasons I can heal. One day I will forgive him, but I will never be able to if I can’t love and forgive myself first. I have made the decision to not be angry, or shameful or feel guilty for my relationship or what he did. I have chosen to tell my story and help other women find their voice and find the dreams they lost.

With a lot of work and continuing my healing journey I have started working on a documentary to help young women understand what types of abuse are out there, and to know they have a voice and can be empowered to take control of their lives. I have learned through this journey if better is possible is good good enough… For me I was living a life that was good or okay and now I have found my soul and I am living each day with a purpose and determined to be an authentic woman who loves herself.

I would love to have a photo shoot like this because I was never comfortable with my body in my relationship. Since I left I have lost 45lbs, I started running and training for a triathlon. I am so proud of the work I have done on my head, heart and body. To me it would be very special to see it all together in a picture being a whole woman. Many women I am sure are hoping to have these pictures for their spouse or significant other, for me I want to give them to myself a gift of how much I love my body, my heart, my soul…

It is more my fiance that deserved to have them of me than me deserving to win a photo shoot. He is an amazing man who makes me feel beautiful. When we first started dating I told him that I had ovarian cysts. These are normally not a big thing to worry about, however, mine grew to about 10 inches around and was situated inside my ovary. This has taken a tole on all aspects of our intimate life as I often have pain and the fact that anything that works my core too hard causes great discomfort.

About 4 months after we began dating I had to go in for surgery. At first they believed they would only need to make two small incisions to remove the cyst and I would be out the same day.

When I came out of surgery I noticed they had given me a full laparoptomy, which is essentially a c-section but they don’t cut into your uterus. I was stuck on the couch for 3 weeks, unable to stand longer than to make it to the bathroom. He quit his job and took care of me the entire time I was home allowing me to get well as fast as I could. I now have a c-section scar across my abdomen. It has made me very self conscious about wearing anything sexy for him, even though I know he does not care about my scar as it is just part of me.

We had thought we had beaten this, but this past November I went back for a check up and they have found another one the same size. Since, we have had to drastically change the way we eat and live. I need to make sure I don’t eat gluten, lactose, egg whites, corn, refined sugars and take close to 15 supplements each day. He has, very willingly, jumped on board agreeing to stick to the same diet I am on and often hold me to my diet closer then I wish at times.

He has been there every step of the way. This January, on our one year anniversary, he asked me to marry him. As it turns out he was laid off two days after he bought me the ring. Now we are trying to plan a wedding, he is trying to find a job, I am preparing for possibly having another surgery and yet he still manages to make everything seem great and like together we can conquer anything, if you did not know our story you would think we have it all.

He is an amazing man and I am so lucky to have found him. I have wanted to get these photos done for him for a wedding gift, but I know to do it as a surprise I will need someone to make me feel sexy. I just want to look for him as beautiful as he made me feel when I was stuck in my house coat on the coach for that month.

Thank you for giving me the chance to enter this contest.

To enter the contest:

Please email your story and a photo to info@taitboudoir.com with the subject line FREE VALENTINES BOUDOIR

The story, the entrant’s first name and submitted images will be posted on our blog on February 13th for voting if you are a finalist.

Feel free to nominate a deserving friend just please have their permission first and send us their contact info so that we can confirm.

We will post the top 3 entries on this blog and then the winner is up to the readers!

*** We will be accepting entries until February 11th. The finalists will be announced and voting will begin on the 13th. The winner announced on Valentine’s Day. *** (updated)

GOOD LUCK!

P.S. To view last year’s contest click here.

P.P.S. If you sign up for an upcoming boudoir marathon and you win the contest, your payment will be refunded.

Here are a few photos from her shoot from the other week.

She came in recently do to her session. Here are a couple of images from her photo shoot: