Newborn Session prep guide

I’m so excited to work with your family! Please read below to prepare for your session, complete the required fields, and submit any additional questions you may have.

How Scheduling Works

Now that you’re booked, I’ve got your due date penciled in and I am somewhat “on call” to schedule your session shortly after baby arrives. If you are made aware of any changes to your due date, or an induction or c-section is scheduled, please let me know. Once your baby arrives, please reach out and I’ll nail down an exact date (typically within the first 2-3 weeks). If hair and makeup is included in your session, we will schedule this at that time and connect you with your HMU artist.

THE DAY OF YOUR SHOOT

Newborn sessions are shot in your home and last about 1.5 hours. We’ll start with family shots and sibling shots so siblings can be on their way to preschool if needed.

Here are some important instructions for the morning of to make sure your session goes as smoothy as possible.

1.  Please try to keep baby awake 45 minutes before your scheduled start time. Try giving a bath or have playtime (here's where dad can really help!)

2. Feed or top off 30 minutes prior to scheduled to start time.

3.  Leave baby wearing only a diaper and a tight swaddle. 

4.  Keep your home warm and cozy (at least 70 degrees). 

What to Wear

You won’t need to worry about what baby will wear as we’ll use our photo-friendly baby wraps to swaddle your newborn for the first portion of the shoot. For mom, dad, and siblings, we recommend planning wardrobe in advance so that you look and feel your best.

Color Schemes:

  • Make sure everyone in your family is coordinated. Start with mom’s outfit, pull out a color palette of 2-4 colors and stick with different shades of those colors in family wardrobe. Get all of the outfits together and place them on a bed to see how they may or may not compliment each other.

  • Take the backdrop into account. If you have lots of color or decor in your home, stick with a more neutral or complementary palette.

  • If you have  a neutral home with light-colored walls and minimal decor you can spice up your shoot with a floral, pattern, or fun color scheme....or you can keep it all neutral to accomplish those light and airy monochromatic photos. The lighter the color palette, the lighter your photos are going to turn out.

Fabrics:

  • Choose fabrics that are interesting to the eye - lace details, embroidery, sweater/textured materials, long flowy dresses.

  • Stay away from unlined or low-cut tops and dresses and clingy knit fabrics.

  • Dads may wear sweaters, henleys, pullovers, T-shirts, or button downs with sleeves rolled.

  • Dads please stay away from golf shirts, polos, dressy slacks or shorts (jeans, chinos, khakis are great). Toddlers can follow these same rules as long as colors coordinate...they're gonna look cute no matter what, right?

  • Little girls need to wear a diaper cover or biker shorts under dresses and skirts.

Style:

  • The most flattering styles for right after baby are flowy maternity tops and dresses, and if you're going the pants route, maternity pants or jeans. Some of my moms rock their post-baby bumps a la Kate Middleton, and some choose to wear undergarments like Spanx.

prepping the house

When I arrive at your home I’ll take a look around to see where the best places are for natural light. We’ll likely use a living space, master bedroom, and/or nursery. Please make sure any clutter in these areas is put away. It’s better to err on the side of less - clear away nightstands, remove diaper pails, baby monitors, visible cords, anything you don’t want in the background of your photos.

Hair and Makeup

If you don’t have professional hair and makeup included in your session, we highly recommend scheduling this on your own or allowing plenty of time to do your own hair and camera-ready makeup. You may also add HMU to any session for $225 and let us handle scheduling an artist for you!

Prepping older siblings

Let your little ones know this is going to be FUN! We’ll sing and dance and talk about their favorite characters. They’ll get extra special snuggle time with mommy and daddy and even get to hold the baby. Please do not instruct your children to “say cheese” or smile. It’s my job to get those natural smiles out of them, so I’ve got a few tools in my tool belt. To avoid little ones getting overwhelmed, I ask parents to please let me provide the direction to big brother or sister.

Make sure little ones are well fed before we start. Snacking or bribing with treats during the shoot ends up being a tough distraction to move away from. It’s totally okay, though, to let little ones know if they’ll be getting a reward after we are done. They’ve earned it!

Where to look and what to do with hands

I ask everyone to always default to looking at baby and when I need you to look at the camera and smile, I’ll ask. Hands should always be accounted for so if there’s a free hand, put it on someone else or put it in a pocket.

crank up the tunes!

I want your shoot to look and feel as relaxed as possible so feel free to turn on your family’s favorite feel-good playlist (not just your toddler’s favorite, but something dad will enjoy too).

After the shoot

Your online proofing gallery will be emailed to you 3-4 weeks after your session date at which point you will select your digital/print package. We work hard to get purchased high resolution files to you within 24 hours after selection and payment.

Prints and other products will be received about 3-4 weeks after full payment is complete.