I LOVE HALLOWEEN! Like to a ridiculous degree. It is my favorite holiday. My kitchen is decorated for Halloween pretty much year round. (The only time it comes down is for Christmas!) Really I love everything about just the month of October. It's Fall in Connecticut and the leaves have started to turn those dazzling shades of red, orange and gold. This is also my birthday month. So the whole month is filled with horror movies, fun events and birthday celebrations!

Back in July I was already thinking about All Hallow's Eve. Sara Kenny, a friend and sometimes model ha an amazing idea for a photo shoot. I had said I wanted to do something period themed. Like Pride and Prejudice. Sara said she wanted to do period piece zombies. That was it. I was in, we had a plan and a photo shoot was born! Sara orchestrated the entire project. A huge team was assembled to take on this shoot. Sara brought in her best friend and friend to Jillian Lyons Designs, Shelby Threloff. Shelby brought in her mother, super dress maker Beth Threloff who also makes costumes for Wallingford's Trail of Terror! Shelby's boyfriend also joined in as our male model, Duke Davis, another alumni of the Trail of Terror. I added in Caity Taylor, a very natural model who has a regency look to her ala Pride and Prejudice to round out our modeling team. Having just graduated from UConn and about to start spending most of her time in NYC, I was lucky to book her! But I had an in - she's also my cousin!

This shoot took weeks to plan. We all messaged each other regularly. I designed pieces around the concept of period piece zombies. So for me the key ingredient was going to be the photographers and the make up. I wanted nice close ups I could use to promote my business for the Fall! Sara and Shelby were no strangers to the world of prosthetic make up. Being fans of cosplay and conventions of all kinds they jumped head first into this task. They brought on Deidre Deth for all of our prosthetics. Her work took about 2 hours, and so completely rocked my socks off! To add a touch of glamour make up artist Sarah Mrazik came in and applied a beauty to the zombies. Pretty zombies! Glamorous, period piece pretty zombies!

Deidre Deth and Sara Kenny.

Shelby Threloff is one adorable zombie!

Sarah Mrazik with model Caity Taylor.

Caity is ready for her close up now Ms. Lyons.

Deidre Deth creating a nasty bite wound for Duke Davis.

There was a serious buzz in the air the day of our shoot. Everyone dove head first into this project. Photographers Brooke Cadett and Shawn Baskum were brought in. We all met at a beautiful location chosen by Sara in the woods of Wallingford. It was perfect. Then the magic happened. Matt and I sat back and relaxed in the summer sun while Brooke captured some amazing shots.

All photos below are courtesy of B.Cadett Photography.

An amazing shot of Caity Taylor.

The best picture of the day!

You can find many of these items pictures in my Etsy shop! Thanks for reading!