Episode 002: Are You Making These Three Wardrobe Mistakes?

Hey, hi, hello and welcome to the second episode of the Kelsi Bailey Photography Podcast. At the time of this recording, we are in the midst of the Autumn Session Season. Autumn Session Season is without a doubt the most bonkers time of year but it is the most bonkers time of year in the best possible way. Autumn Session Season for me runs through about mid September through mid November. When I decided to launch this podcast, I did, on purpose, opt to do it during my busiest time of the year because I feel like we are all in the midst of our busiest time of the year. We’re adjusting to back to school, we’re coordinating a lot of schedules, we’re thinking ahead to the holidays-we’re trying to cram an awful lot of stuff into a little amount of time.

With this podcast, my intention is to put as much pertinent information as possible in a place that is easily accessible on your own time and at your own leisure. I know I have a lot of information on my website, I have a lot of information on my blog, when inquiries come through, I have PDFs that I send out that share all of the information and what you can expect for the offerings in my business but I also know that sometimes that feels like one more thing-it feels like one morePDF to scroll through, one more email to keep track of, one more website that you need to spend time purusing, and with us consuming all of this and running through life at what feels like the speed of light, I just want to give you guys an extra place to come, tune in whenever it’s handy for you, and grab all of the information that you need.

So it is during this, the busiest time of the year, that I want to offer the most help for all of you and when it comes to family photo sessions, the question that I get the most often is surprisingly not ‘What should we wear for family photos’ although that is on my list for an upcoming episode..the question that I get the most is more like…will this work for our family photos, this is the vibe we’re going for, this is what I’ve got in the closet, this is, you know, what I’m feeling this year vs last year and can you help translate this into an an appropriate family photo outfit? So that’s what we’re going to be talking about today. Or, rather, I want to ask you-are YOU making these 3 wardrobe mistakes? Are you ready? Let’s raise our coffee mugs…cheers-and jump into today’s episode. 

Mistake #1: Waiting until the last minute to buy/try on your outfits. I feel like if I could see your face right now, I’d be nodding right alongside you. I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking ‘Kelsi, we live in an amazon prime world. We order things on a Tuesday and they arrive on a Wednesday and listen-I’m an Amazon Prime member too-I know how satisfying it is to order something on a Tuesday and pick it up off my porch on a Wednesday BUT you deserve better than an Amazon Prime snafu for your photo session-especially one where you’ve made a financial investment. 

If you are making a financial investment and in investment of your time for your family photo session, you deserve better than an Amazon Prime snafu. What I don’t want for you is for you to show up at your session as the Frazzled Family. Like the Addams Family. But the Frazzled family. The one that’s coming in hot-maybe 5 or 10 minutes late, leaping out of the car and you’re already frazzled because someone’s outfit is not on point. 

Either you waited too long to order an outfit and therefore you had to go to an emergency plan B the day before your session because the outfit didn’t arrive or you waited until, you know, the morning of your session to try on the shirt that you ordered only to find that you don’t like the shirt at all and so someone else is in a backup plan B outfit as well and then the session that you have paid for and poured time into is now suddenly getting kicked off on the wrong foot. And you deserve better than that. I want you to show up to your session looking and feeling like a million bucks so here is my challenge for you.

I challenge you to put your session outfits together whether you’re ordering them online, picking them up in store or pulling them out of your closet-I challenge you to do that the week that you book your photographer. Not the week of your session. But the week that you book your session. Typically, sessions are booked either weeks or even a month or two in advance. If you book your photographer and then within the same week curate your family session photo outfits, you will have ample time to receive or pick up or pull out your outfits that you need and hten I want you to try them on. I want you to try them on , lay them out on the floor together, I want everyone to try them on. Do they look good? Do they feel good? Do they like it? And then, if they don’t, you still have plenty of time to find something else. I promise you-if you get organized early, your session day self will thank you. And, remember, you aren’t in this alone-if at any time during the process you’d like another pair of eyes on your outfits or a second opinion-reach out to me or your hired photographer. We are here and happy to help. 

Send me photos of your outfits, send me links to two different choices that you’re trying to choose between-I’ve got you! I can’t photoshop a wardrobe change for your entire family if you show up as the Frazzled Family but I can (and would be thrilled) to help curate the perfect outfits if you accept the challenge and plan early instead of making the mistake of waiting until the last minute to buy/try your outfits.

Mistake #2: Settling for an outfit that you don’t absolutely love. Mama-I am talking to you and you alone so buckle up, girl, I’m about to drop some truth bombs. The first is this. No one cares about your photo session as much as you do. Let me repeat that. No one in your household cares about your family photo session as much as you do. Okay? Not your 6 year old daughter. Not your 16 year old son. Your photographer might. If I’m your hired photographer I can be absolutely certain that I care just as much about your photo session as you do but it’s you and me girl. We care the most. 

And I know you’re the one doing the legwork. You’re the one scheduling the session, you’re putting the outfits together, you’re telling everybody where they need to be and when and when the gallery arrives, it will be you diving in, picking your favorites, , printing the ones you need for the house, picking the one for the Christmas card and if you are going to pour that much time into getting all of that coordinated, never mind the financial investment that you’re making, you should absolutely be putting yourself first when it comes to what you’re wearing.

I know it’s easy as moms to take care of everybody else first and then leave ourselves for last (if there’s time) but I am begging you, in this instance, to put yourself first because these photos are going to last forever. I don’t mean that in a daunting way. I don’t mean to add more anxiety to your photo session but I’m just stating a fact. These photos are going to last forever and you deserve to pour just as much time and energy into finding an outfit that you absolutely love as you do for all of the other parts of the session that you are already navigating. 

Now is not the time to be looking through and thinking ‘hmm, you know what, I’ll splurge on myself the next time we have family photos taken or ‘I’ll wear something like that, you know, maybe when I lose 10 or 15 pounds.’ Nope. We are not doing that. Buy the dress, wear the outfit because guess what? Coordinating everyone else’s outfits around yours is going to be the easy part. Especially if you’re obsessed with what you’re wearing. When you look back on these photos or you walk past the prints in the hallway or they pop up on your digital photo frame, I don’t want your first thought to be about how meh your outfit was. Because you settled. 

I know this feeling all too well and it’s a bummer when I go back and look at photos from a particular session or I catch a glimpse of them in the hallway or they do pop up on our photo frame and my first thought is always ‘I’m bummed that I wore that.’ There is one session in particular that I made this mistake. Put myself last. I settled for a dress. Told myself it was fine. Got the session back. It wasn’t fine. And now every time I see a photo from that session, that’s all I can think about and I don’t want that to happen to you. So please. Don’t settle. Pick an outfit that you absolutely love so that when you do go back to the photos. When you do catch a glimpse of them in the hallway, when they do pop up on your digital photo frame, you’re going to love them. Not just the day of your session or the day that your gallery is delivered-but you’re going to love them forever. Okay-wow-feel like I got off on bit of a tangent there but that’s mistake #2-settling. Don’t do it! 

Hey-pardon the interruption, but I wanted to a quick pause to introduce you to one of my favorite brands and business besties, Polished Prints. If you’re anything like me, you’re a busy mama you are reaching for clothes that feel good—not just on your skin, but on your soul. Polished Prints is a feel good apparel company made. by a busy mom just just like you for busy moms…just like you. And yes, I’ve been talking about their mom crops for years and I swear by them. I’ve got one in just about every color and find myself reaching for them time and time again. I’ve even got my mom hooked on the mom crop. Whether you’re chasing toddlers, or chasing dreams, Polished Prints has something that will make you smile every time you slip it on. You can shop ALL their goodies online at polished prints.com and when you do, use code KELSIBAILEY for a discount on your purchase , that’s KELSI BAILEY for 10% off your purchase. And now, back to the show.

The last and final mistake I want to make sure you are not making is allowing the internet to influence and plan your outfit selection. When the time comes to select your outfits, chances are, your first instinct is going to be to turn to instagram, Pinterest, google, perhaps to tell you what to wear. Listen to me carefully. I mean this in the nicest way-but I want you to toss that notion right out the window, okay? Now, don’t panic, you can return to our beloved insta, Pinterest and google but we are going to END with them…not START with them. the time comes to start putting together your session outfits, I want you to first and foremost, throw open your closet doors. Take a look around. What do you see? What do you notice? Do you find that your closet is full of patterns? Do you not own a single pattern? Do you find yourself reaching for dresses on most days or are you more of a t-shirt and jeans kind of gal. Do a quick personal style inventory. I bet you’ll start recognizing a few patterns. You’ll probably notice a color palette among the clothes in your closet. Pull out a few items that you love-maybe it’s a floral maxi dress, maybe it’a denim mini dress, perhaps it’s your favorite pair of wide legged jeans-or the cashmere turtleneck sweater. Whatever makes you look and feel beautiful-make a note of it. 

Throw open the doors to your kiddos closets. What are you seeing? What colors do they gravitate towards? What will they be comfortable in? Pull out a few items. Lay them together with the items you pulled from your closet and with this, you’ll be able to start piecing together your family’s personal vibe and style. This is going to help you avoid showing up to your session in plaid and floral prints when you’ve never reached for a plaid or floral print in your life

The point of this exercise is to start planning your outfits from a place that is inspired BY you not FOR you. Be honest with yourself you know what colors make you glow so I want you to avoid jumping into the google search bar and typing ‘autumn family photo session outfit inspo’ because here’s what’s going to happen when you do that. Google is going to populate and you’re going to be flooded with beautiful families. Beautiful outfits. Beautiful images. Of other families. So you-who lights up when she wears red- It’s too easy to click a handful of links and fill carts with outfits another family has deemed ‘the perfect autumn family session outfits.’ and those outfits might be sage green-so now you’ve been influenced by google to wear something you probably never would’ve selected on your own. 

Instead, take the knowledge that you’ve collected from doing your family’s style inventory and search specifically for that. If red is your color, search for a dress, a sweater, a romper…whatever…and build your outfit from THAT place. Trust me. The influencer who is telling you that she found THE dress for your next family photo session has indeed found a beautiful dress, but she doesn’t know you or your family like you do. I’m not here to dismiss influencers or pretend like I’ve never done a swipe up a time or two but when it comes to outfitting my family for our family photos, I want them to look and feel like…us. And I can’t count on insta, Pinterest, or google to tell me who ‘us’ is. Remember-you haven’t scheduled a photo session to satisfy insta trends or because you need a new Facebook photo or iPhone lock screen background. You’ve-hopefully-scheduled them because you are so in love with this season of life that you’re currently in that you want to press pause and remember it forever. So don’t START by searching Instagram, Pinterest, or Google and allowing them to influence you. Instead, take what you already know and love about your family’s style and let THAT influence your searches. My job as a photographer is to bring your family to life and to be honest I am so thrilled that all of my families show up for their sessions with their own individual vibe. I know and respect that other photographers encourage their families to follow a certain vibe or trend but I am so inspired by you and your vibe that I don’t want you to show up as anyone but yourself so mistake #3-don’t allow the internet to influence or plan your outfit selection.

Woo-hoo! I hope that helped shed some light on that frequently asked question-not the ‘what should we wear for family photos’ although we’ll talk about that in a later episode, but ‘will this work for family photos and can you help us turn our vibe into an appropriate photo session outfit’ Avoiding these 3 wardrobe mistakes will have you well on your way to curating outfits that will yield images from your session that you will love not only now, but for years to come. Remember, when it comes to selecting your session wardrobe, I am here and happy to help so don’t be shy!