Christmas Mini Overton Park Prep

 

Hello Christmas Mini-ers!!!!

I’m so excited for this Christmas mini session at Overton Park in Midtown, I can barely see straight!

 

So, I wanted to write a little post to get you allllllllll prepped for the session so we can make the most out of our time together.

First off, DATE!!!

NOVEMBER 3RD, 2018.

In the event of rain, sessions will be moved to the 4th, same time! Forgot your time??? EMAIL ME. (maddie@maddiemoree.com)

Secondly, location!

Overton Park. Midtown Memphis.  2080 Poplar Ave, Memphis, TN 38104

 

Directions:

1. Heading west on Poplar, turn right on Veterans Plaza Dr (One street after Cooper heading west). You’ll see the sign here for Brooks Museum and the Levitt shell.

 

2. Turn right on Old Forest Lane. Just follow the signs for the Bark park! We are meeting at the trail head entrance right across from the dog park and playground!

 

3. You’ll see a parking lot at the end of Old Forest Lane. Check for parking there. There’s also parking all along the street.

 

4. I will be waiting for you right at the trail entrance. 😀

 

Trail entrance. Parking is right behind where I’m standing from the camera’s perspective.

We will be in the trail area to the right.

What to bring:

1. For your babies, bring ANYTHING that makes your life easier for these 15/30 minutes. Whether that’s backup outfits in case they get dirty, a stroller to hold everything, toys, treats for bribing, or snacks in general. I will have someone around watching our stuff, so you can bring your things, and they can watch it while we are shooting!

 

2. Your fur babies! If you want them in your family photos, I WANT to photograph them in your family photos! If you do bring your pets, bring a leash and doggy bags to clean up after them. I also recommend bringing treats for good behavior. 😀 Like I said earlier, I’m a big fan of bribing.

 

3. Parents/Grandparents. I will photograph AS MUCH AS I CAN in the 15 or 30 minutes we have booked. I know grandparents love having pics with their grandbabies. I’m totally fine with you bringing as many family members as you want. I will shoot whatever I can in the time slot allotted. You just need to tell me priority. If main priority is your children, I will focus more on just them and just get a few of the rest. If priority is just your little family unit and your parents are there for the end part, that’s totally fine. Just let me know.  I’m here for YOU! 😀

 

4. Props. These are for you! If you have a cute sign, pumpkins, ornaments, or any Christmas/holiday things you want featured – feel free to bring them! I will have a red and black blanket that can be used to sit on/wrapped around you. I will also have a green and navy plaid picnic blanket to sit on. Otherwise, it’s up to you, my friends.

What to wear!!!!

Look, I feel you here. Picking out the perfect outfits that are your personalities, flattering on you, cohesive yet not matchy-matchy…it’s HARD. Here’s what I recommend.

It’s fall. So, I would go for fall colors: dark greens, reds, browns, maroons, oranges, navy blues, and purples.

 

When choosing clothes, you just want to make sure you all look like you belong together without looking like you all bought the same shirt. (Because we don’t want to wear the same shirt as our husband or our mother, #amiright…?) So, it helps if you choose a color palette. If you are unsure of some good color palettes, just go to Pinterest and type in “fall color palettes.” Pick one, two, or three main colors (either cool or warm) and then add in neutral colors (cream, grey, navy, brown, black) to fill any gaps.  Cool colors would be considered blues, purples, teals, greens. Warm colors are reds, yellows, oranges. Green and purple are transition colors and depend on how warm or cool the tone is.

If you choose one color, I would do different tones of the same color so it’s not too matchy matchy. I also recommend adding in a bolder color pop somewhere to break it up a bit! Scarves, sweaters, vests, and hats make for great pops of color, and you can always take those off if you want to change it up.

Don’t forget your pup! Bowties, scarves, and leashes can also bring in some color!

 

Ok, so it would look something like this:

Palette of main colors: Navy and pink maroon. Neutrals: Grey (Remember neutrals fill in gaps. They are great ways to add pieces to your color scheme without taking away from the cohesiveness. **Generally, I recommend grey/blue jeans for cool schemes and brown/tan/cream for warm schemes. You can obviously wear jeans with anything, so that’s up to you!).

Palette one color: Navy blue, light blue, midnight navy blue Pop of color: Maroon

This shot and the first shot are similar, but still different!

Palette: Brown, cream, white, navy jeans Pop of color: Red (in scarf and bowtie)

Palette: Navy, Tan, Green Neutrals: Brown

Palette: Navy, cream, brown, grey

Here they did a mirrored color sitch. She’s light up top and dark on the bottom. He’s dark up top and light on the bottom. And check out the cute bowties for the pups!

All this to say, there’s a bajillion different combos and no wrong answer. It’s also helpful to lay out everyone’s outfit and see what looks like it fits and what needs help. Feel free to send me photos if you want my opinion. I’m happy to throw it out there! 🙂

 

Helpful tips:

1. Get there 5-10 minutes early! Look, I am the QUEEN of being late, so I totally feel your pain. BUT we only have 15 minutes, so make sure you do not lose any time in your session looking for parking spots or getting lost.

 

2. Bathrooms are scarce. We are at a public park, so I highly recommend taking care of alllllllllllllll business beforehand. 🙂

 

3. Be open. Be goofy. Be ready to have fun! Pictures should NOT be painful. Your family has grown a lot this year. Things have changed, and we should celebrate that in photos. So let’s have fun with it! (Read: Don’t be so serious!) My goal is to photograph your family the way y’all are. Of course there will be happy photos where everyone’s smiling and looking at the camera, but I also love taking  real photos of y’all laughing together and being yourselves. Don’t worry about the posing. That’s what I’m here for! 😉

 

What should I expect?

So, we only have 15 or 30 minutes for these sessions! If you have any poses/shots in particular that you want to try out, just show me before the session on your phone, and I’ll make it happen! These photos are for you, and I’m here for you!

As far as posing, do NOT worry! I got your back! We’ll walk around; I’ll set you up. You’ll look at me. You’ll look at each other. Y’all will be goofy. Y’all will snuggle. And the photos will be cute.

After the session is finished, I will go home and edit these as fast as my eyeballs can take. One week to be exact! If you have questions in the meantime, don’t hesitate to call/text/email me.

I hope this post helped you prep for the mini session! Christmas Minis 2018, HERE WE COME!!!

 

Till next time!

 

xoxo

maddie