How I Make Figuring Out What to Wear for Your Family Photos Easy

Let’s get your family dressed with less stress.

One of the most common stressors for families preparing for a professional family photography session is figuring out what to wear. It can be hard to know what will look good on camera while still feeling comfortable and like YOU. And when life is busy, it can be tricky to make time to shop, try things on, and get every member of your family head-to-toe styled.

For all these reasons, I’ve made it my mission to make figuring out what to wear an easy, fun process for all my clients. By offering advice, access to free outfits from my client closet, and access to a private styling site where you can shop for pieces to keep, I make dressing your family easy-breezy.

In this post, you’ll learn some of my advice for looking your best and the process I use to make styling stress-free!

Let’s start with my favorite styling tips for family sessions.

The biggest piece of advice is to coordinate, not match. You can create a cohesive look without everyone wearing the same color or putting kids in matchy dresses or shirts. I promise this will give your photos a more natural, timeless look. 

If you are thinking, “Wait, how do we coordinate, what does that even mean?” here are a few tips: 

• Stick to the same tones or color families. For instance, you might choose earth tones, neutrals, or jewel tones. 
• Bring in subtle patterns, colors, and textures that complement one another. One child might have a sage green solid dress, and another might have a mustard dress with a knit sage sweater. 
• This last tip is evident to most people, but avoid clothing items with logos, characters, or writing. It can really draw focus and change the whole look. 

Texture and layers can add a lot of depth to your photos. You also want to try to choose items that have some nice movement. Avoid anything fussy because you’ll be moving around a lot. The last thing you want is to stop the beautiful moment of connection because you need to pull your dress up or tug at your skirt. 

When clothing for your kids, make sure that everything really fits, even if you need to size down. You don’t want them to look “swallowed up” by their outfits. On that note, avoid collars, scarves, and giant hair bows. 

With all that advice in mind, here is the process I use to simplify dressing for your photos.

If you already know what you want your family to wear, that’s fantastic. I’m not here to tell you what to do — only to make your life easier! I’m happy to look at what you’ve put together and offer any feedback if you’d like. It’s as simple as laying everything out, snapping a quick photo, and sending it to me. But if you feel confident, then your job is done!

If, like many of my clients, you aren’t sure where to begin, don’t worry—I’ve got you.

Immediately after you book your session, you’ll get a link to my Client Closet Instagram and VIP Facebook Group so that you can see examples of real families like yours wearing the items I have available for you to borrow. Scrolling these feeds is a perfect way to gather inspiration and save items that appeal to you.

About five weeks before your session, I’ll send a questionnaire to gather information about the sizes and clothing preferences of each family member.

From there, I can put together an inspiration board of outfits that I know will look great based on your responses, our session location, and the season. Then, you review it, and we can adjust it based on your feedback. The items I include are available to borrow for free from my client closet or for you to purchase from my curated shopping site Style + Select.

The Client Closet offers a collection of clothing items for women, kids, and babies that you can borrow for free to wear for your shoot. Access to my client closet is included in every session. I carry a variety of high-quality items that photograph beautifully from shops like Reclmation, Free People, Zara, Lou and Lou, Baltic Born, Vici, Joyfolie, and more. I do my best to stock a wide variety so that there are options that make you feel beautiful while still feeling like yourselves.

Style + Select is a private, curated shopping site that allows you to style your family and order all the outfits directly. The platform features items from stores like Target, Gap, and H&M, as well as smaller online boutiques in Adult (S-XL+ Plus Sizes), Maternity, and kids (0-24 months to 14Y) collections.

Using these resources, we typically begin by figuring out mom’s outfit (or moms’ outfits). I’ve learned that if mom feels good, everything else tends to fall into place. Once that’s sorted out, we typically style kids next and dad last. I don’t carry clothes for dads to borrow in my client closet, mainly because they are the easiest to style. I am always happy to suggest items for dads to pull from their closets or purchase to complete the family’s look.

Here are a few more reasons why the Client Closet is amazing.

Again, if you have outfits you love and want to wear, that is totally okay! And, if you’d like to shop for items to keep, you can do it on your own or through Style + Select.

However, there are many benefits to utilizing my client closet as a resource. Here are some of the reasons I love offering this service to families

It eliminates the hassle and expense of shopping for new outfits for the entire family.
During our relaxed, active session, you won’t have to stress about getting the clothes dirty or wet. Roll in the grass, stand in the water, let your kids run down that hill, and I’ll take care of cleaning everything afterward.
In addition to clothes, I have some adorable hats and floral crowns. I find that putting a little one in a dress and floral crown immediately makes them feel special and beautiful in a way that shows in the photos.

If you’ve wanted to book your family session but are hesitant about choosing your family’s outfits, you can rest easy knowing that I have you covered. It’s just one of the ways I strive to offer a high-touch, fun, relaxed experience that results in images you’ll treasure forever.

Curious about my family photography approach and pricing?