Thank you to Walmart and The Motherhood for partnering with us.

I’ve been chomping at the bit to share these family photos we took while visiting my family in Northern California.  This beautiful property is a park in my hometown, and I grew up playing here.  In fact, my sister and I even took professional photos here when I was about ten to give my parents as a holiday gift (with a little help from my relatives).  

Instead of giving our families physical items for Christmas gifts this year, we decided to set up family photo sessions in each of our home towns.  We took pictures with our grandparents, siblings, parents….it was amazing!  We didn’t have to carry gifts all over the country, and what an amazing thing for us all to have in the future.  In fact, we’re talking about doing this every year.

If you’ve been around here for awhile, you know that we have an ongoing series about What to Wear in Family Photos.  Whenever we talk to one of the photographers who take family pictures for us, inevitably we end up talking about how many emails they get with questions about what family members should wear.  In fact, after taking these pictures….our photographer had me laughing hysterically describing some of the worst outfits he’s shot over the years.

Today, I wanted to talk specifically about kid style……What to Wear in Family Photos, the toddler edition.
Simple Tips for Dressing Your Toddler for Family Photos:

Think Realistically: Your child needs to be comfortable.  I’ve made the mistake WAY too many times of dressing Lydia in some adorable, yet totally uncomfortable outfit.  It makes getting pictures really difficult. A pouting toddler, or a toddler tugging at their clothes? Not cute.  Not fun.  And your photographer won’t like you very much.

Plan Ahead: Just gonna be honest, this is where I failed with this particular photoshoot.  I forgot to check the weather before we packed and left for our trip.  What had I originally pack for Lydia to wear? A short sleeved shirt.  Well, the day before we were scheduled to take these…..I realized there was no way she was going to be comfortable.  I ran out the night before, looking for layering pieces…..and brought Lydia with me.  Who would have thought we’d find the perfect piece at Walmart? Yes, Walmart.  Lydia fell in love with this adorable polka dot vest…..and when I saw the colors I knew it would look great in pictures!  The vest is by HealthTex, and it was seriously inexpensive.  In fact, their entire line impressed me.  Adorable, great quality fabrics, and great prices.  I may or may not have also picked up a bunch of leggings, skirts and sweaters for Lydia at the same time….just in case we needed them.

Coordinate with Adult Pieces: If you look at these pictures, we are coordinated without being totally matching.  We are all wearing jeans, neutrals, and a bit of blue.  I was originally wearing a vest that was almost identical to Lydia’s…..but it looked a little too matching for my taste.  In fact, Robbie said we looked like an awkward family photo…..so it had to go!

Consider Location: I knew that we’d be shooting in a location with lots of brickwork.  So, we selected colors that would compliment that location well.  Bright pink for instance? Would have looked REALLY weird.

/ Lydia’s Vest / 

Photos by Playful Soul Photography

So what do you think? How do you dress your children for family photos?