We’re taking family photos next week and I’m so excited. We haven’t taken photos of the four of us with a photographer in over a year and it’s crazy how much bigger the kids are now. Wilder looks like a completely different baby. It might be the former stylist in me, but I enjoy picking out our family outfits for the photos. I wanted to share some styling tips if you’re taking family photos soon.

I usually start by going through our closets and pulling possible choices we own in the colors I want us to wear. Since we’re taking them this time of year I’m leaning into fall neutrals – beige, brown, gray, black, cream, etc. I pulled a few dresses from my closet to try on and decided on this black wrap maxi dress from Yumi Kim. It’s at least four years old so I don’t have a link but I found some similar Yumi Kim dresses: here and here, and a couple dress I think are gorgeous and would be so pretty in photos: here and here.

I knew Jeff would have something that would work so I didn’t bother to go through his closet until I had the kids looks nailed down. The kids have grown so much since last year and needed new things. I first went to Zara because I love their baby boy basics but struck out on sizing for Wilder. Note, size down at least two sizes when shopping for babies there. Luckily I found Crosby’s dress there. Next I headed to H&M and found these skinny jeans and cardigan for him. I sized down to 6-9 months in the pants and 9-12 months in the cardi. He’s 18 months old and typically wears a 12 month size elsewhere, just to give you an idea on sizing.

Next I lay out our looks to see if the colors/patterns (if there are any) compliment each other and then I work on Jeff. To be honest, his look is usually more of a filler. I knew he’d either wear a henley or button down and gray pants or jeans. He usually wears a one of these henley’s, J. Crew pants, Levis, or a button down.

To summarize:

Think about what colors you want

Go through closets first and pull and possible options

Shop for other pieces you need

Lay them out together and photograph to make sure they go together and there are no clashing colors or competing patterns

Now that the outfits are set, we tackle the hardest part… actually taking the photos with two toddlers + a husband who will probably want nothing to do with it. It’s really the most wonderful time of the year!

Hope your weekend was as relaxing and overindulgent as mine. Yesterday Jeff made me and Crosby Belgian waffles with coconuts and chocolate chips and a banana syrup, if that tells you anything. It’s honestly a miracle my pants will button. For Cyber Monday I want to share deals on some of my favorite items, hint my Uppababy stroller is on sale!

Did that get your attention? You can get $100 in rewards when you buy this stroller, or anything $300 or over on right now at Buy Buy Baby. These strollers almost never go on sale so it’s a great time to buy one… or another big ticket baby item on your list.

I have this Babyletto Crib (currently using it as a toddler bed) for Crosby and this one for Wilder.

Other amazing sales & deals

Abercrombie & Fitch has everything 50% off! They have some really cozy looking coats and I’m loving this puff-sleeve sweatshirt.

Aerie has all sweatshirts and leggings 50% off. I have this sweatshirt and couldn’t love it more. It’s a slightly oversized fit and so comfy.

Old Navy is also 50% off everything. One of my favorite places to shop for babies and toddlers.

GAP is also 50% off everything. Another one of my go-to’s for the kids.

Freshly Picked is still 30% off everything and 50% off if you sign up for their membership program (first month is free and you can cancel at any time) with code FPxAshnfashn

Elemis makes some of my absolute favorite skincare items like this cleansing balm, marine cream and oil. Everything is 30% off with code CYBER19

Crate & Barrel is 20-30% off site wide. My favorite wine glasses, soup and sandwich plates and the waffle maker I mentioned are all from Crate & Barrel.

Serena & Lily has 25% off everything. One of my favorite things in our living room is this rattan hanging chair.

Minted has a great sale going on right now. I’ll definitely be taking advantage of it today and ordering our holiday cards.

Tula is another skincare favorite of mine. I live for this eye balm, cleanser and primer. This kit has all three + more and is such an amazing deal!

The holidays are right around the corner (hello November 1st tomorrow), which means it’s time to start thinking about and planning family photos. The past couple of years I waited until the last minute and we just took our photos for our holiday cards at home… which was fine. But this year I got it together early and am excited to send our cards out.

I wanted to share how I plan out our outfits for photos. Jeff completely trusts me and will usually wear what I pick out for him. Although, truth be told, his outfit is usually the most basic of the bunch. But I’ll get to that.

Step one: choose a color scheme.

Since we were shooting at the beach at magic hour I wanted to keep our outfits on the neutral side. I usually start by choosing mine or Crosby’s outfit and build from there. For this one I chose my Cleobella dress first. Then I picked this simple blush romper for Crosby, pulling from the blush in the flowers on my dress. Last I chose Jeff’s beige sweater and jeans. A super simple outfit I knew he’d wear and flows well with ours.

A tip, it always helps to pull everything out and take a quick pic to make sure all the colors, etc look good together.

A funny story about these shots… we started the shoot in the park above the beach and slowly made our way down. Once we got down to the sand Crosby was so excited all she wanted to do was run around. Our photographer took advantage of the happy toddler moment and was taking pictures of her running at the waters edge. All was good until a big wave came and knocked her down. She got soooo soaked. Luckily I brought a change of clothes but forgot a hair brush and her hair was wet. The rest of the shoot (this outfit) was mostly from far away so you couldn’t see how miserable she was.

Look #2:

For this look I knew I wanted Crosby to wear this Burberry dress. Her grandma got it before she was born and I’ve been waiting for her to fit into it. Next I picked my dress… I liked how the red ombre complimented Crosby’s dress. And again, last was Jeff’s look, neutral and tied the whole thing together.

Outfit details:

look #1:

My dress is Cleobella but old. Similar here and here

Crosby’s romper

Jeff’s sweater is old J. Crew – similar here, jeans

look #2:

My dress

Crosby’s dress

Jeff’s shirt and pants

Happy Halloween – thanks for reading and following!

I cannot believe how fast this year has flown by! Between wedding planning, getting married, honeymooning, house hunting and traveling this year has been jam-packed. We’ve actually been married for five months as of today!

I wanted to use our wedding pictures to my advantage and get ahead on holiday cards. I know I’m going to blink and have a fridge full of them. Instead of scrambling at the last minute I’ve partnered with Shutterfly for this year’s card and couldn’t be more excited!

Shutterfly makes is super simple to create your perfect card. I chose a template that had a gold foil design… because duh, gold foil. But there are so many unique and affordable options to choose from!

– shop the post –

Hope you have a great weekend – thank you so much for reading!

*This post was sponsored by Shutterfly, but all opinions are my own.