How to Plan for Family Photos

And everything we wore for our own family photos this week.

My favorite family photo that sits framed above my desk in Oakwood, shot by Jessie Zevalkink.

One of my strengths as a stylist and mom combo is nailing family photos. They are a high priority to me each year. I use and archive these photos and look back on them frequently as the boys grow. I also thoroughly enjoy designing our Christmas card each year so I put a lot of thought into the style of the photos and what can work for our annual card too.

I’ve learned a lot from years of photoshoots and wanted to share my top tips with you!

1. Ask AROUND: I have found the best photographers by asking my trusted friends who they use. This is a great way to vet who you book and know their product. If there are any Christmas cards that you particularly love or someone’s IG feed that has the best photos of them and their fam - start there. I also rely heavily on IG to source photographers. Almost all of them are super responsive on DM and will direct you to their websites to place an inquiry.

2. Plan in ADVANCE: I booked our photographer for this past week’s shoot last Fall (like in August). If you want a really good photographer, then don’t be surprised when they book you a year out. GREAT photographers typically have very limited availability and you need to be aware. I planned our entire weekend/week in Michigan this week because we had family photos on Monday 7/7 at 9am. That’s the first thing that was on our 2025 calendar and was not about to be missed or moved.

3. Do something FUN: My kids do best at a photoshoot when they are having fun and think our photographer is there mostly to play with them. I tend to dislike heavily styled images with everyone looking. I love the more candid and real moments that happened to be beautifully captured. My favorite family images of all of us are from the kids playing and running at our old favorite park in Columbus or playing at the beach in NoMi. This past week, we did the beach again in NoMi but picked a different beach and a different time of day so it wasn’t too duplicative. If you are unsure about what you like, start building a board on Pinterest and look for patterns in the types of family photos you’re saving.

   Here are some of my favorites from my archives where we just let the kids be themselves:

   

   

   

   

   

4. What to WEAR: I really feel passionate about this but WEAR SOMETHING YOU ALREADY HAVE AND LOVE. Think of your family photos as an archive of the best of your wardrobe. So when you look back in 20 years, you can think “I just loved that dress” and feel a deep sense of nostalgia towards the time and place that you were in and that your clothes reflect. This also enables you to feel very comfortable which is KEY. The camera will detect if you are uncomfortable and stiff from what you are wearing. Same goes for your kids: now is not the time for new clothes for them. Pick items they know and love. It’s not the day you want to have a battle with your child over what they wear.

5. Think COORDINATE not MATCH: I love a matching moment for my kids but that’s reserved for safety moments: being able to keep track of them at Disney or in a busy airport. For family photos, we coordinate. Since I’m the one that looks at our photos the most, I prioritize my own outfit first. I pick something in my wardrobe that I love and build from my outfit’s palette. My go to is a printed maxi dress - I feel most comfortable in my uniform and love that I don’t have to worry too much about how my arms/legs/ankles/etc look. Since my outfit typically has a few colors in it - I build the kids and Chris’ looks from that palette. I usually almost always pick what my favorite outfit of Chris’ is at that moment and he wears that. Then the boys will wear clothes that look good on them: George looks best in earth tones because of his hazel eyes so he typically wears greens/browns. Julian and Felix have grey blue eyes so they are typically in blue tones. Julian is the only one that looks great in cream because of his blonde hair and olive skin so he’s frequently in cream. Ultimately, I’m trying to make everyone look their best and so I really consider what colors will highlight their unique features in the overall palette.

Sometimes this concept is easier to show then talk through, so I’m sharing the boards I created for our most recent shoot so you can see how I built out our looks:

First I started with recent looks of my own that I loved - many were outfits from Portugal and then a recent look of Julia Berolzheimer's that was my favorite of her recent Greece trip (and from one of my go to brand’s: Natalie Martin). I also have been so into all my Dôen dresses this year so I had wanted to try a new beautiful blue option. However, I couldn’t get the blue to ship in time before we left so that got tossed out.

Then I remembered that most of my favorite personal photos from the beach are in my Natalie Martin Fiore dresses, so I honed in on that:

George and I in 2021, in an outfit I still wear today (and Julian re-wore those swim trunks in this week’s shoot).

One of my absolute favorite photos of myself: 36 weeks pregnant with Felix.

So the board options started to look like this:

And I ultimately wore a combo of the two options, incorporating a little red into all of the blue instead of pink:

Jessie shared a preview of some of the images from the back of her camera during the shoot and we both agreed that everyone nailed it!! I can’t wait to see (and share) more! You can shop all our looks here.

And if you’re in the Northern Michigan area, I can’t recommend Jessie more.

And if you’re in the Ohio area, my close friend Monica Hundley has taken our photos for years but she’s hard to book now that she’s a sports mom like me. I’m anxious to work with Tiffany eventually and of course Natalie is my go to for all my work ventures. But I’m still researching more photographers in both regions and I will share as I find or connect with people I admire!

Europe content is on the horizon, so stay tuned xx