personal journal: Maternity Leave September 2025
A Note from Cruz during maternity leave | Bookings open again November 2025
Hello, hello to all of my beautiful people!
If you’ve been following along with my little journey, you’ll know that I am currently expecting my second little one come October 2025 🖤 With this, as of September, I now go on maternity leave to start prepping for my little ghoul’s arrival!
It has been such a darn rewarding and badass wedding season and while I am going to miss all of you spooky birds getting married this fall, I look forward to coming back and prepping for next year’s festivities and shoots soon!
While my first wedding back from maternity leave will take place this November 2025, and it is also at this time that I plan to re-open bookings for 2026 inquiries, I don’t anticipate taking many more, if any, projects for November and December of this year.
In any case, I’ll still be around checking my email inbox and serving my current clients with the help of my handy assistant, Kyle. I’ll just a little bit slower during this time which is why I decided to close my inquiry forms for now. But I can’t wait to hear from you all lovely people come November once I re-open my inquiry form.
In the meantime, please enjoy our super goth and badass maternity photos to get you through this spooky season while I’m gone- can’t wait to chat with y’all then! 🖤
Yours truly,
Cruz
Photo by Ash Mirr Photography, Edited by Cruz Valentin Photo
A Goth Pinup inspired maternity photo shoot
While I absolutely thrive in literally anything retro and vintage, if you know me, you’ll know that I am a goth and punk kid at heart. I’ve been wanting to do a semi-goth pinup inspired photoshoot for quite some time and, if I do say so myself, I think our photos came out pretty rad!
I actually curated a styled shoot a few years ago that kind of resembles and re-inspired me for our maternity shoot for baby #2 (you can check out that shoot here if you’re curious). But what also sparked the idea for my maternity photos was a vintage pram stroller.
I have been on the hunt for a vintage pram since my pregnancy with my first baby to take some rad photos with but alas, it’s hard to find those kinds of things here in Vegas. Your girl got lucky this time around though because I found one- on Facebook Marketplace of all places!
The woman that I purchased the stroller from was actually gifted the pram by her sister in the 80s. Her sister brought it with her all the way from London to Las Vegas and she used it for both of her children. Sadly (and yet luckily for me), her children did not care to keep the pram for their kids so now I am the new keeper of this gorgeous thing.
The concept was essentially: cool, goth, vintage.
Staying cool by the pool side | Editorial and Lifestyle maternity photos
Photography by Ashley Marie Meyers on 35 Film | Developed by Indie Film Lab
I’m a little extra so I had a few scenes in mind to make the most out of our maternity shoot because your girl was getting her hair and makeup done: we were going to make this one count!
The first scene was one inspired by many others which included lounging by the poolside with the family. Having our pool photos at the Park MGM was what came to mind as their pool is cutely decked out with green and white striped umbrellas. The whole hotel is art deco in style and so it was a no brainer- it had to be here!
I sported a super cool retro-inspired polka dot bathing suit that I already owned (because we like to try and be sustainable here) but I did admittedly purchase a super stylish hat from Vixen by Micheline Pitt to complete the look. My husband found a pretty rad striped set and our baby boy was in a simple striped onesie that modeled those old school swim trunks.
a stroll through the nomad hotel
The Park MGM Hotel and Casino is unique in that not only does it have a super cool art deco style, but it is also home to the gothic Nomad Hotel (making this my favorite hotel on the Strip, naturally).
I’ve had the pleasure of staying at the Nomad Hotel before and would 10/10 recommend. The style of the hotel is not only very gothic and moody but is very elevated in style and gives a sense of old world luxury- it almost reminds you of some gorgeous building you’d stumble upon in New York or something!
Naturally, it was where I wanted to take more of our photos and this time we wanted the pram to be highlighted. The idea was goth pinup with an alternative but yet traditional, nuclear family feel.
For this scene I decided to wear a striped, satin dress that I had purchased online a few years back. I very much love a gothic circus vibe which is what had motivated me to purchase it in the first place but I really have only worn it once. The puff sleeves and satin striped fabric felt like a perfect nod to the alternative edge that we were trying to keep consistent. Paired with some simple black velvet heels, a velvet choker, and some gorgeous glam waves by the ever-so-talented Jennie Louise, I felt like a million bucks.
My husband also came in hot with his own style: he paired a threaded vest with a white, long sleeve button-up shirt that he rolled up, along with some handsome slacks and Church Doc Martens. Classic and still badass.
Our son had on some super cute black suspender shorts and a white polo with a black bow-tie along with dress shoes to mimic that old school-boy look. It really came together.
Ashley, our photographer, added even more vintage goodness when she told us that she had brought an old school light that belonged to her grandfather. It not only served as additional lighting in the super dark Nomad Lobby but it added a very old school, Hollywood glam vibe to our photos. I feel like we pulled off a vintage horror look and 20s vibe all at once and I couldn’t be more stoked.
An Homage in Downtown Las Vegas
For the last scene I really wanted to do a little homage, a throwback if you will, in Downtown Las Vegas. Specifically, I wanted to take a few quick photos in front of the Traveler’s Motel on Fremont St.
For our first maternity shoot, we decided to go a little less extravagant and a little more relaxed as we rented a classic car to cruise down the street and take photos in casual wear that still felt like us.
I wanted to take a few in front of the same spot for our second maternity shoot; same place, different time.
Ash of Ash Mirr Photography trekked out in the heat and made our final tiny vision come to life with some rad, editorial and candid shots of us strolling the streets of Downtown Las Vegas (our normal stomping grounds).
All in all, I’m very grateful that we were able to get some cool mementos to show our boys when they’re older and before we get older. I’m grateful that our little family is growing and I can’t wait to make more memories with these little goobers!!
Special shoutout to Ashley and Ash for capturing us in this time and thank you to Andie and Jennie for waking up super duper early to glam me up and make me feel like the pinup baddie I’ve always wished to be.
See you in the winter, folks! 🖤
Vendors:
35mm Film Photography (Nomad Hotel): @ashleytruly | Digital Photography (Downtown Las Vegas): @ashmirrphoto - Edits by @cruzvalentinphoto | Hotel: @nomadvegas | Makeup: @andiep.artistry | Hair: @hair_fiend13