Jan 6, 20194 min read

Fall and Holiday Minis Were Awesome!

Even though I don't offer family portraits on a regular basis, I really enjoy hosting little mini-session weekends, and this time of year is probably my favorite time of year to do it! This year I had some families who wanted some clean and simple fall portraits, and a couple families who booked my holiday themed minis. I really enjoyed having both types of session in a short time as it gave me an appreciation for the different aspects of each style. I had a great time catching up with my clients and getting to visit with all of their kiddos.

For the coming year I am going to be doing something a little different for these. I am putting together a calendar of all the mini sessions I will be hosting for the year. I highly encourage booking these well in advance so that when the time comes it is already taken care of! When I release the calendar I'll keep it up on my website and will be accepting inquiries year round, once the retainer is paid the session will be booked and I'll send a reminder email a couple months out.

Mini Session Themes I am Considering:

-Valentine's (kiddos only)

-Spring/Easter (family or just kids)

-Mommy & Me (For same sex couples I will split the session time between parents)

-Daddy & Me (For same sex couples I will split the session time between parents)

-Summer/4th of July (kiddos only)

-Back to School (kiddos only)

-Fall/Holiday (family or just kids)

For questions about booking any session with me, or to express interest in any of these mini session weekends, I can be reached at ashley.thebestnestportraits@gmail.com

The Clarke family showed up to their fall family portrait session in gorgeous navy blue, berry, denim, and brown. I really loved their coordination between colors and prints/solids and their boots helped create the country fall vibe they were going for. Brandi has been an acquaintance since I was in my early 20's and though we lost touch for a few years I was excited when she contacted me about photographing her family. Then she announced that her family will soon be growing! I am SO looking forward to visiting with Brandi, Cameron, and Corbin very soon for their maternity portraits!

The Coker family first contacted me about six months ago before the birth of their youngest son, Isaac. They booked me for Isaac's newborn portraits and we had a lovely time together that day! If you'd like to see Isaac's newborn session it can be found here and I'll be adding his six month session soon!

Elsa and Cory have four awesome kids who are always very very sweet and helpful to me. Matthew, Amber, Mia, and baby Isaac are so much fun to be around and always full of giggles. Coincidentally the Coker's also showed up in hues of blue and berry, with a bit of grey instead of brown. I love the mix of prints, and Matthew's NASA shirt is pretty cool! It was a treat to get to visit with them for their fall family portraits, and we'll see each other again in June when Isaac turns a year old!

The Gallegos family and I have seen each other a couple times this year so I was very excited when they quickly booked a holiday mini session with me. We first met when they won 1/4 Mommy & Me minis that I gave away for my fourth anniversary in business. They opted out of sharing their session and chose to focus on their awesome son Maddox instead. Maddox's session can be found here, he looked so dapper and we had a great time hanging out.

The next time that we saw each other was on Marry Me Day, the day of Bea and Gabrielle's wedding! It was an adorable at home wedding and I absolutely loved being there with them. They added the smallest rainbow accents to their theme, to represent being LGBTQIA which also added a lightheartedness to the celebration. Best of all was when we surprised both their families with not only a pregnancy announcement but also a quick gender reveal. To find out for yourself you can check out some of the highlights here.

I was really excited for this year's holiday mini sessions as I had gathered some very cute stuff and knew that they were going to come out just awesome. I let the ladies know that I'd be decorating with red and green and they dressed to match. Everyone looked their very best, and best of all I got a Christmas card from them that was so stinking cute!

Lastly, my lovely friends, the Juppes are not only friends but also have returned to me for several sessions in the last couple years. Our first session together was also my first gender reveal, and Janelle told me to just surprise them with something. So I came up with the idea to give everyone squirt bottles filled with tinted water. They all wore white shirts and jeans and we had a squirt gun fight to discover baby's gender. This super fun session occurred before this blog was set up so they aren't on here, but now I have an idea for some throwback posts! =)

The Juppes also booked me for my holiday minis last year, and then I got to visit them again when baby AJ finally arrived. I was so excited when they booked my holiday minis again this year because I wanted to top what we did last year, and I think I succeeded! Janelle also went with navy blue (very trendy!) but she paired it with deep oranges and browns. I seriously have just loved all of these similar but different fall color combos!