my everyday style: 5 tips for family holiday photos!

So let's be honest... while family photos are great to HAVE they are a huge pain in the butt to complete. Who's with me? From choosing the outfits (the struggle is real!) to getting everyone ready the day of, to keeping everyone happy (it's hard to believe my kids are smiling they were so grumpy before photos!) to finding a photographer - it's all a TON of work.  But the payoff is huge.  The family photos we have taken over the years are among my most treasured mementos.  Whenever I look back on photos of my kids from when they are young so many emotions and memories rush back. I can never believe they were so little and I am always so thankful we made the time and money investment back then.  I can't say enough how worth it is!!!

We had our family photos taken for our yearly Christmas card while we were on vacation in Orlando last week and I absolutely LOVE how they turned out.  Even though my son was SUPER grumpy that day. Even though it was RAINING when we started - my poor hair! Even though it was FREEZING - cloudy, drizzly and 52 degrees is quite chilly in Florida!  Here is how we survived...

My 5 tips for family holiday photos:

1) Choose an amazing photographer!  Our photographer was SO sweet and encouraging. She helped to put us all at ease and make us all laugh at the right time.  Plus I loved that she gave clear and concise instructions on posing and smiling.  And then other times she just let us be "us" - it was the perfect balance!  We used Flytographer to find an AWESOME photographer in Orlando and I couldn't recommend the service enough!  We booked a full hour, though a half an hour would have been better for everyone's sanity - but, hey, we survived!

2) Book your photos in a place that is new to you! We did our family photos in California a few years back with a fellow blogger friend who lived there at the time (you can see a few of them in our old master bedroom post, here).  Ever since then, it was a lightbulb moment!  Capturing your family is a new and unfamiliar place is an adventure all of it's own! But what if you don't have a photographer friend in every city!?!? Enter Flytographer - a friend told me about them and now I am telling everyone I know about this amazing service (this isn't sponsored, I just really love them!). You choose a city and Flytographer let's you choose a photographer in that city.  Then you communicate with them on the basics of the shoot and voila! It's done.  No location scouting, our photographer did it all for us and no pressure to buy prints after the fact. It's a flat rate that includes digital images you can print on your own or use for holiday cards.  The process was SO easy and we loved it!

3) Choose outfits wisely! I don't worry so much about outfit matching, but I do make sure they all coordinate well. For this photoshoot I went with pops of red for a festive holiday feel.  Then from there added in a bunch of neutral colors like grey, black and navy.   The last time I did family photos I went 100% neutral - you can see those photos here.  You want to at least choose colors in the same color family - so go back to your art 101 class and make sure the colors are on opposite ends of the color wheel. It seems silly, but it's so true! And ALWAYS make sure everyone is going to be comfortable in their outfits so you can move around and have some fun. My daughter doesn't wear dresses much, but she agreed that this style was comfortable enough for photos. It can be tricky having kids "dress up" a bit for photos because they usually don't want to. But try to find some type of common ground - for instance I let my son wear sneakers. Which really didn't even show!

4) Don't be too worried about the final product! I've learned over the years that my kids are going to be crazy, maybe a little grumpy and that the photos probably will NOT look exactly like what I had envisioned.  But they will still be amazing!  It was drizzling for these photos and I feel like my hair looks super frizzy - but now I just will look back on it and say "remember when it was drizzling for our family photos" and laugh.  Family photos are capturing a moment in time for your family... embrace that not every moment is absolutely perfect and go with it! In the end trust that your photographer is capturing you at your best - that is what you are paying them for! And be ready for whatever the final product may be. I remember when our son was about 1 1/2 years old we booked photos with an expensive and highly sought after photographer. The shoot was a mess. Our 1 1/2 year old was a whirling dervish of toddler craziness.  I was convinced the shoot was a bust, but I literally burst into tears when I saw the photos she captured.  They were beautiful memories of crazy toddler life and she did such an amazing job!  That is why they are the professionals - trust them!

5) Always, always offer a reward for the family afterward!  Family photos are fun, but they can be super draining and while my kids don't mind smiling for about 15 minutes they are DONE after that.  And truth be told, sometimes I am too. Give everyone in the family something to look forward to afterward.  If it's a cold day all go for hot chocolate afterward, or plan a family game hour to blow off some steam.  Go out to your favorite place for lunch or snag an ice cream cone afterward.  Make the entire thing FUN with a big payoff.  That will get them smiling well after their standard 15 minute quota.

(photos by Ly Sue of LH Photography)

I hope you enjoyed my family photos tips... you can shop all of our photoshoot outfits here:

(sadly my red striped dress is sold out... here are a few similar options: one, two, three)

Choosing a Christmas card to send to friends and family is one of my favorite holiday activities!  Addressing them all, is not - for a limited time Minted has a FREE addressing service and right now new customers get 20% off their order or existing customers get 15% off their order... there are SO many beautiful cards to choose from!  Here are a few of my favorites...