What to Wear: Family Holiday Photoshoot

Can you believe the holidays are right around the corner? Our family holiday photoshoot is just a few weeks away and I’m in the middle of planning our looks, so I thought I’d share how I plan outfits for our family photoshoots.

Planning Your Family Photoshoot Wardrobe

1. 1. Location The location of your photos plays a leading role in outfit selections. In the photo above, we were at Trinity Tree Farm just outside of Issaquah. It’s a gorgeous venue for weddings and tree cutting. Our photos the previous year were in a studio in downtown Seattle, so I wanted to play up the outdoor aspect of these photos.
   2. Color Palette Choose a general color scheme that will connect the look, but avoid being matchy-matchy. The intention is to look like a group that naturally fits well and compliments each other without looking overing coordinated. Use the color palette to weave consistency through everyone’s outfit. Here’s another example from a few years ago, where red tones were the anchor color.
   3. Assess what you have and what you need. This is the most time consuming part, but unless you’re going to run out and buy entirely new outfits for everyone (confession: I have done this and it’s expensive) you’ll want to start by getting a sense of what you have to work with. Think about the location and color palette as you do this and remember that you’re not going for a matchy-matchy look. Instead, you want complimentary tones through with a few hints of your chosen colors.
   4. Create a Visual I’m a visual person and need to see the options together. You can either lay your clothes on the floor to get a sense of how everything fits together or create a digital version like I have to the right. I like to use a tool like photoshop for this just because it’s easy, but you can also use PicMonkey and any other collage builder.
   5. Try things on, mix and remix. This is the part by family l-o-o-v-e-s. Just kidding. They dread it! But I get a kick out of them modeling for me. Don’t be afraid to change things up if someone is uncomfortable in what they’re wearing.
   6. Be open to last minute changes. Don’t be afraid to make last minute changes. As you can see from the final photo and the collage to the right, we added a zip up sweater for T at the last minute because it was freezing and both Gray and I forgot our scarves in the car (🙈). Cooper also refused to wear his jacket, so I didn’t force it. He’d just woken up from a nap and was not in the mood.
   7. Have fun! 

How do you plan your family photos?

xo