What does self-care look like? BTS @ Our Self Care Month Photo Shoot

Before summer officially replaces our beautiful tulips and cherry blossoms with steamy streets and hoards of tourists, we dreamt up a photo shoot in Central Park to kick off our self-care month. 

Earlier this year, we vowed to "make self-care a non-negotiable. But what does self-care even consist of? 

To us, self-care is less about long leisurely bubble baths and pampering, and more about giving ourselves enough down time to enjoy unstructured, free-form thoughts about nothing and everything.

Central Park is the perfect place for this. There are enough people and stimuli to keep your mind busy and provoke new thoughts, yet enough quiet and stillness to have your own experience.

So, a small crew of us set out to see if we could capture this idea in photos and jewelry.

Come with us behind the scenes to see what Central Park and self-care look like through our eyes (and some DIY iPhone shots) before our new photos come out. 

 The F&F photo crew reporting for duty! From left to right: Giancarlo, Alessia, Hayley and Chris.

This is the 26-foot high Bethesda Fountain in the middle of Central Park. On any given summer Saturday, there are 3 or 4 couples getting married here. While they're dressed formally, there are no seats or RSVP lists. The public is their audience, the backdrop is the park and the music is provided by whichever local artist is down there performing at the time. At one point, we had a bride and her bridal party waiting for us to finish up our shots so they could take theirs. 

What do you do when you've got three different looks to shoot but no dressing room? You find a little corner, pull out a blanket and make one.

Once Alessia was in her first outfit, we walked up to the sunny terrace above the fountain, overlooking the small lake where you can rent gondolas by the hour. 

We're pretty sure they're the backdrop of several of our photos.

Fun with statue heads and perspective. 

We wanted to find a place where we could escape the crowds, and stumbled upon this small clearing of cherry blossom trees. Ethereal light was pouring through the branches. It instantly transported us out of NYC and to...

  ...a beautiful place to journal. The ultimate form of self care in our books. You never know what's going to come out of your mind and onto the page.

Next, we walked down to the stream by the boathouse. There's nothing more healing than the white noise of water and thousands of people thawing out after a long winter. Chris, the photographer, makes sure every detail is on point so he can get the perfect shot.

Behind this couple, you can see the Loeb Boathouse. It not only rents out gondolas; it's one of the only 3 or so restaurants in the park and a popular venue for formal wedding receptions and events.

Our style writer Hayley perfectly paired a number of our pieces with the three outfits she picked out for the self-care series. We can't wait to show you how she styled the jewelry to match the moment and mood.

The famous bubble guy, making bubbles for kids and dogs to run through. We could watch this all day... 

 A massive bubble, caught on camera. Hopefully we caught the look of self-care as well. We will all find out soon!