Paris Plus Size Wedding Dresses

Now this is a story you just can’t make up! This is about a unique opportunity in Paris where we got the chance to photograph designer plus size wedding dresses. My wife Wendy and my dream was to spend an extended time over in Europe at some point when our daughter Shelby was young to give her life experiences you could only get through the wonderful gift of travel. We have both grown up with open minds and hearts to be at a place in life, filled with gratitude in the desire to connect with different cultures and everything great which goes along with this curiosity and love.

We were not sure if we could make it all happen, but everything fell into place. We were able to get out of the last 2 months of Shelby’s Montessori school, find a fantastic couple to rent our house, (a police officer relocating from LA to Bend and his wife!), stop insurance on all our cars and put them in storage and just by blind luck, I was able to open 3 months of time in the spring where I did not have a wedding to photograph and Wendy was able to work remotely. All the boxes somehow got checked and I remember Wendy and I looking at each other and saying…wow, I guess we’re doing this!

Ever since our honeymoon cycling in Provence, France in 2009, where by sheer luck, through a fellow photographer in Bend, I was told about this website called “couchsurfer” where I could locate and stay with people throughout the world that were interested in hosting travelers. No money exchanged, only good will with the interest of meeting other cultures, working on language skills and showing others the pride they had in the area they lived.

My first experiences were after our honeymoon when I couldn’t convince Wendy to take another week off work and join me to check out Krakow and Prague. The last time I’d been in Europe was in 1992, 17 years previously, and there was no way I wasn’t going to take every advantage I could to see places I always dreamed about. My first 2 couchsurfing experiences were amazing and more than anything it proved to me that most people in this world are wonderful human beings only looking to survive by finding their path through life. 99.99999% are wonderful…really!

Fast forward to 2019 and we are heading over to Europe for three months but not before we take a side trip to Manhattan for an engagement session on the Brooklyn Bridge, plus we get to spend quality time with some of Wendy’s family in NJ. Please come check out this ENGAGEMENT SESSION NYC….ok, now onto the flight over! I only bring this up as it’s more funny in a weird messed up way…so Wendy, Shelby and I get a short flu bug when we left Bend, and I just remember both of them being sick on the flight to NYC and more specifically, I remember Shelby walking back and forth, (at 5 years old) in the airplane aisle, saying repeatedly, “I need to get off this plane!”….all the while I’m just putting my head against the seat in front of me thinking, “someone needs to be filming this!”

Ok, so it’s the three of us and we land in Amsterdam and after spending a wonderful week checking out the area we head to France and at some point, (see how I sped things up?) after finding a family in North Eastern Paris who accepted our couchsurfing request for a full week, (which is longer than the typical 2-3 day stays)! Iohanna and Jean-Luc invited us into their home and it was an amazing experience! They have 3 children who were 7, 10 & 12 years old at the time and it was so rad to see Shelby play with everyone even though they could not speak each other’s language. We spent many nights past 1am drinking great wine with cheese and even had a babysitter watch over all the kiddo’s while we went out to play badminton with Iohanna, Jean-Luc and their friends one night.

So, Iohanna home schools the children and they have a group of homeschoolers that get together at times for socialization/connection. We went to one of these gatherings and while the kids played, we got to meet some of the other parents including a lady by the name of Carol. I always love learning about what people’s careers are about so when Carol told me she had just taken the jump to start a wedding dress business focused on plus size brides I was very intrigued and excited at how we were in the same industry! I remember telling her that I’ve always wanted to do a photo shoot with brides in Paris and much to my amazement, she invites us to join her for a photo session she was planning for the following week.

The timing was perfect to have this opportunity so we decided to head south of Paris to Fontainebleau for a week of rock climbing in THE world’s most famous “bouldering” location before heading back up to Paris for the photo session and then on to Belgium.

I cannot thank Iohanna and family, Carol, and all the models for graciously including us in your lives for this wonderful opportunity in Paris to photograph designer plus size wedding dresses. We all went away from this experience with warm hearts! Please enjoy the images.

Byron

© 2025 Byron Roe Photography www.studio-br.com