Christmas Tree Farm Prep 2018

Hey hey heyyyyyyyyyy! It’s Monday, and we are just a FEW DAYS AWAY from the Christmas Mini Session on Nov. 10th!! So, I wanted to write y’all 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 10th, 2018.

In the event of rain, sessions will be moved to Nov. 18th, same time! Forgot your time??? EMAIL ME ASAP. (maddie@maddiemoree.com)

 

Secondly, location!

Merry Christmas Tree Farm. 1890 Getwell Rd, Nesbit, MS 38651

 

Your phone GPS should take you there, no problems. BUT, I made a map for you just in case….

Directions:

If you’re heading south on Getwell (blue arrows), the tree farm will be on your left. It kinda sneaks up on you, so just pay attention.

If you are coming from 55, (red arrows) take:

1. Head south on I-55 towards Jackson, MS.

2. Take Pleasant Hill road exit (after Tanger Outlet).

3. Head East on Pleasant Hill and

4. Take a left on Getwell. The tree farm will be on your right!

Here are just a few quick pics taken with my iphone. You will want to park to the right of this little gift shop building in the open field.

Walk through the bridge, and the trees are on the right. I’m not exactly sure where we will be set up yet because I’ll be picking a spot where there’s the best light. I recommend getting there about 10 or so minutes early. This will give you time to find it, park, and meet me at our spot. Don’t worry, the farm isn’t that large, so you’ll find me pretty easily. I will also have a LOVELY Santa Elf assistant there to tell you where you need to go. 🙂 If you get lost, call me and we will help you find it! 901-412-4482

There is still time to sign up, so if you have are interested in having awesome Christmas family photos, here’s the link to signup times! Offering times 7:50AM-4:40!

If you are late, it will cut into your session time, so please keep that in mind when you are prepping!

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, jackets (it will be in the 50s this weekend), a stroller to hold everything, toys, treats for bribing, or snacks in general. I will have my lovely helper, Christina, around watching our stuff, so you can bring your things, and she can watch it while we are shooting! I will also have cookies and milk (regular 2%, Chocolate, Egg nog, and Almond). If you do not want me to offer this to them, EMAIL me so I can make a note and not disappoint some babies right before photos. Haha They are also going to be eating cookies….so maybe bring some wipes.

 

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. I’m here for YOU! 😀

 

4. Props. This session is a little different for me. I will have a blanket set up, Christmas cookies, milk, and cute milk jars. (*****I have cookies for kids. If adults want cookies too, send me an email so I can adjust my numbers). The idea is Christmas PJs and here’s the inspiration photo so you can see the style I am going for. Obviously, if you have something else in mind, NO PROBLEM. I am here for you, just let me know! We don’t have to use my setup at all. The tree farm is a gorgeous place for photos in general, so we can do full family photos, just kids, or both (with or without Christmas PJs)! If you have a cute sign, ornaments, holly, 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.

Photo by Lana Sky Photography

 

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.

 

If you are not dressing up in PJs, I would go for fall colors: dark greens, reds, browns, maroons, oranges, navy blues, and purples. Christmas colors would be nice too, especially since we are at the Tree farm: Maroons, dark greens, cream, gold, browns.

 

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! 🙂

 

For PJs, you can go all matching where everyone is wearing the same outfit, OR you can break it up and follow the same rules for the normal clothes…but ya know, in pajamas!

 

I would stick to Christmas colors for this part (Reds, greens, browns, creams, golds, plaids). Don’t forget outfits for furbabies if you want them in the photo!! 🙂

 

I love the Christmas plaid like in the first image. I also created a Christmas Pajama inspiration board in Pinterest. Here’s the link to see a few things that I think would be cute for kids and families!!

 

For some ideas to add to your PJ outfit, I would consider bringing: Slippers, Uggs/fuzzy boots, fuzzy socks, a robe (if it’s cute and Christmas-y), a fun winter hat (or even a Santa hat), a scarf, Christmas pillows, a Christmas book, or Christmas mugs.

 

Helpful tips/Questions:

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 tree farm, so porta-potties are a thing. I highly recommend taking care of alllllllllllllll business beforehand. 🙂

 

3. Just kids or us too? This is up to you! If you want just your kids to be in the photos with cookies, I’m totally cool with that. If you all want to be in there as well, that’s great too. With full families, we will also be walking around to get a variety, so you’ll still want to bring shoes to wear in the photos.

 

4. What if I don’t have kids but still want to do PJs photos? Heck ya! Of course!! Just let me know if you’re doing PJs without kids, and I’ll have some cookies for you too…. **maybe consider bringing some cute Christmas mugs…Ain’t nothing saying you can’t bring some whiskey to mix in with the egg nog, if ya catch my drift.** 😉

 

5.  Do I have to wear PJs?? No!! You can wear anything you want. I would refer back to my color palette ideas! If you aren’t doing PJs, it would be a normal session around the tree farm. We can still shoot on my blanket that’s set up and still Christmas-y, and we will be moving a lot more around the farm. In short, no worries. I’m not pressuring you to wear PJs at all!! These are for you, and I’m here to make you happy! <3

 

6. One outfit. Unless you have a 30 minute slot, I’m going to go ahead and say that we will not have time for outfit changes. If you’re in PJs, be prepared for all photos to be in PJs. If you decide you want to try to change clothes, please note that the clock will not stop for outfit changes, so it will cut into our shooting time. If you’re ok with that, I’m ok with that! 🙂

 

7. 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 and your kids 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 and munchin’ on some tasty cookies. 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!

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 – Tree farm edition, HERE WE COME!!!

 

Till next time!

xoxo

maddie