Last week, I gave my main tips and tricks for picking out clothing for family sessions- if you missed it, click here!  Today, though is the really FUN part of this mini-series, because we get to really see it all in practice!  I will reference various ideas I brought up in that post as I put together a few outfit possibilities for you to see!  I am going to show you the process I followed before our family session this past fall, and including some alternatives for each of us that could have worked well in different locations or seasons.

Keeping in mind coordinating (not matching), layers, accessorizing, and patterns, I always recommend my moms (let’s face it, they are usually doing the styling, but I would LOVE it if a dad was all about this job sometime!) to find ONE piece, a bolder one, that they just love and build everything else around it.  Usually, that tends to be something she or a daughter is wearing because in general, women’s clothing can tend to be more decorative.  You don’t want to have TOO many crazy or bold patterns that don’t go together, so by finding one piece you love and building around it, you eliminate that.  For us, the piece I first fell in with was actually a shirt for my son. I adored the colors and patterns for a fall session:

The next item I found was pants for my then 3 month old girl.  They were navy blue with gold leaves, and I ADORED them.  I always like a little subtle metallic because I like the way a camera picks up the color, and they went so perfectly with the light fall pattern on my son’s shirt. After having these two pieces, I knew our neutrals were navy and grey (which I happen to LOVE together), and I knew we would try to weave in more of the mustard yellow and teal tons of E’s shirts.

Next I picked Michael’s shirt because, frankly, I knew it would be easy to choose- I knew he wouldn’t ever want to be in anything too bold that would draw more attention to him- so I knew he would wear one of those neutrals, and he had a grey sweater we both loved, so we went with that!  I knew that I was going to want to pull in some of the mustard yellow and some layers so I got a sweater of that shade, and added a navy shirt with gold specks that I had and would tie in with baby girl’s pants, gave her a neutral top, and got her a headband that would tie all the colors together, and it all came together so well:

LOVE these images from my sweet friend Nikki!

Our girl and Mike both tie in the grey neutral (as does her headband!), you can see in the image of she and I that we both have on navy blue with gold specs but both subtle enough that they don’t clash, and my sweater ties in Elijah’s stripes. If Michael was more comfortable in color, I could have put him in a darker teal shirt (the color from E’s stripes) with a grey sweater for some layers, and to tie in more of that color- but teal and him just don’t mix!

Now, I absolutely adore that shirt of E’s as I mentioned, so I wanted to show some other possibilities with it to demonstrate how much variety there can be from one patterned item (remember, that is your starting place!).  Following the same concept, I put together 2 other options using that shirt that show different levels of “dressiness” (which is always a consideration- how dressy do you want to look?) and warmth depending on the season.

The first option has 2 boys outfits and 1 girl (for those planning with more than 2 kids) in the bottom image. Each of the kids has a fair amount of pattern in this one, and to some it might seem to much, but for my kids, I know that they are both too young to be holding each other so likely they will usually be in our arms, giving some space and neutrality to their patterns from our outfits.

Here, Michael gets some color in a yellow button top (and a little extra warmth in flannel material) and I have a dress option with leggings and boots (and a good statement necklace!).  Our girl has some layers and an adorable dress where leggings can be added, and there are 2 boy options that coordinate well and tie in similar shades.

The last option has me in a much more spring-like outfit with some good color, Michael goes to a grey neutral sweater again (his comfort zone!) and the kids are in the same outfits, but with different layering this becomes a good warmer weather option!

I hope this was HELPFUL and will make YOUR next family-clothing-planning job MUCH easier! Remember, start with ONE bold piece you love, find other items that pull out individual features of that one piece but are less eye catching, and add accessories that tie it all in!   Don’t ever let this be a reason NOT to get your family photographed–it can be an easy and fun process!! 🙂

If you are looking for some lesser-known interesting places to shop, these are some websites that I adore!

For girls:

http://www.mak-rose.com/

http://www.pippylou.com/

For women:

http://www.charmingcharlie.com/

http://www.modcloth.com/