Hi Foxy Friends! Today I'm sharing with you, what Mr. deems my "Super Bowl", that is family photos. I look forward to it every year. We actually only started doing it when Baby Fox was 1, so this will be our 6th year. Each year I look forward to, stress, debate and search high and low for the perfect outfits. I know some people can just go to their closets, pick something out morning of and be good to go. I'm so not that person. Everything has to be perfect. Plus the plethora of t-shirts my son has...not going to work. I saw that Lynzy had a post on how she does her family pictures, so go check out that
post on what she does to pick out her family photo outfits. So here are my 5 tips to planning the perfect family outfits!
Tip #1
Pick the location that your family photos are going to happen. We try to find new areas to pick each year. The first year we stayed close and did some in our house and some at the park up the street from our house. Then each year after that we ventured to different places.
Tip #2
After you pick your location, next comes the outfits! You know the location, now you need to figure out what sort of clothes you want everyone to wear. I will typically think for a few weeks on this one. Seriously. I try to come up with a theme, how I want everyone to look and what other occasion we can wear the outfits to. So I can double dip a little. Whether it be for Christmas or Thanksgiving, we usually repeat the outfit at some point for some function. Plus I try to make it seasonally appropriate, like if it's going to be 3° out, better plan for that, if it's going to be 80° out, try to plan for that too.
There is this location (I think the one we are going to pick this year), that I have not gone to because I could not come up with how I wanted everyone to look. Like the beach, you want everyone in light colors, not really a Fall type setting, with heavy sweaters and riding boots. We did beach photos year 4.
Bonus tip #1
If you do beach photos and want to do some water shots, make sure you remember to bring spare clothes to change into at the location and not leave them in the car. Walking back to the car in wet jeans, not fun for the Mr. or the little. Also don't forget underwear, Baby Fox did not appreciate I forgot to pack them, didn't realize he was going to go all the way in!
Tip #3
My number one suggestion is to pick Mama's outfit FIRST! Seriously, how hard it is to find an outfit that makes us Mama's feel great in? Especially since this is the photo that is going to go out to all family and friends, most likely. I try to find my outfit first, then Mini Fox's and then the boys. The boys are fairly easy, it's the girls and all of our accessories that get me.
For me I always wear a dress of some sort. I NEVER wear pants, I just don't feel as comfortable and dresses hide a multitude of sins. I've picked my outfit first 1 time out of the 6 years. Oops! The other times I was left scrambling a few days before trying to find stuff. The time that I did find mine first? Last year. I found this leather skirt at Nordstrom on mark down, mark down, mark down. When I saw it I knew that I wanted that with a white button down. Then from there the rest was easy. I even put
together a little collage last year.
And this is
how they came out. I did not follow my advise and the weather on the day we shot our shots, early November, it was 85°, we were all DYING!
Just cause it's funny, every time we stopped snapping photos, we would take Baby Fox's shirt off, he is notorious for nose sweat and 6 seconds into the shoot, he had sweat dripping down his nose and his hair was starting to get wet...emergency! Cool down the kid any chance we could.
Tip #4
Now that you have picked out your outfit, now for the littles. I usually hit up Janie and Jack, because so far out of the past 3 years she's taken photos, her dress has come from Janie and Jack 2 of the times. So I'm liking those odds. The trick to dressing the other people in your family is to coordinate NOT match. I can't stress that enough, coordinate don't match! Personally I don't like the family photos where everyone is wearing jeans and a white shirt, or tan pants with a sweater. I like everyone to have their own outfits. The past few years I try to pick up a color from someone else's outfit. Like the beach photo, I actually found Mini Fox's dress first, then I decided to try and find a navy blue dress for myself and teal and blue for the boys. Then I picked up a necklace in teal, so that we all coordinated. The picture from last year, I picked up the color in Mini Fox's dress for my necklace. The easiest way to pick up colors is in your jewelry. Simple, yet gives my outfit the pop of color to make me look like I belong.
This one was the hardest since Mini Fox was only 2 months old when we took the photos. It was hard to find a dress that I felt comfortable in, good 'ol Old Navy for the win. I didn't coordinate any colors from my outfit, but the pop of red is just perfect for the other muted tones that Mr. and I'm wearing.
Also because you are coordinating and starting early I usually find everyone's outfit on sale, but of course there is always that one piece that is full price. I never know who it's going to be year from year, but it always happens, so just mentally plan that not everything is going to be on sale.
Bonus Tip #2
While I try to coordinate with the surroundings, sometimes it's just fun to go outside the norm. Like the time Baby Fox got his first tux and we really wanted him to wear it in the
family photos because who doesn't love a baby in a tux? Of course I then had to coordinate our outfits to the tux.
My favorite from this photo session
Just in case those didn't work out, I also did some fall type outfits that we changed into...in the car...
That dress, found at H&M on some random rack, it was the only one and in my size, it was meant to be.
Tip #5
Book your photographer early! I adore our
photographer, she's taken all of our family photos plus Mini Fox's newborn photos. If you are in the Southern California area call her, she's amazing! Talk to your photographer about where you want the photos done and when they think a good time is. I think for the place we are going our photographer said that it's best to get them done in September because there are less people around and the chances of someone else in the photo is slim. Try to take your pictures sometime early November if you can, that way you can get your photos back by Thanksgiving. The key here is that EVERYONE has cyber Monday sale after Thanksgiving. We get our photos from Shutterfly because their cyber Monday deal is AWESOME! The holiday cards are on sale, and then
Cyber Monday you can an additional 40-50% off. Awesome deal right? Can't beat it, your cards are ordered and soon into December you can address them and get them out for everyone to enjoy and then you can start Christmas shopping and not have that hanging over you. Plus you don't have to pay rushed shipping because you realize it's December 15th and you haven't sent anything out yet.
I found a dress at Old Navy that I really liked, so I ordered it, and now trying to piece together some outfits for the rest of my clan, and you know what I think I found a lot of the pieces I'm going to get...although who knows if it will go together when I see them in person, but for now, this is what I have in mind.
*I did buy these with my own money, but linked products are affiliates and I will receive a small commission if you click on it. Thank you for your support!
Hope this helps a little when you're planning your next family photoshoot!
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