The most common question I get before a family portrait session is “What should we wear?”.  Since I have a full day of mini sessions coming up this weekend I thought this was the perfect opportunity to do a blog post on it.

First off, dress comfortably! We will be sitting in grass, the kids will be running and playing, so dress accordingly.

Don’t resort to wearing white t-shirts and jeans because you don’t know what to wear! Embrace color! Personally, I think it looks best when everyone “goes” without being too “matchy”.  I often tell people to choose one outfit first with a pattern and then have everyone else’s outfits draw their colors from that.  Here is a great example – the little guy has on a patterned vest – dad is wearing a shirt that is the same light blue from the vest, mom is wearing white from the vest and another coordinating blue color.  They look great!

Another great example of this idea – Kieley has on a pink, white, and green dress – dad is in light pink, mom in white.

Another way to do it is choose a few colors and have everyone wear them in different ways.  Here, navy and white with some pattern in dad’s shorts.

Here is the same idea, in shades of light blue, navy, and white.

Here the ladies are in shades of pink and the guys are in shades of blue.

Usually I tell people not to mix too many patterns, but I have to confess I kind of love this!  While all three girls are in bright, bold patterns I think it works because they are all in the same colors. Totally fun!

Here are a few more ideas I’ve put together with clothes from The Gap and Old Navy.  Once again, embrace color! It brighten’s up the images!

If you’re interested in any of these outfits they are all linked on my pinterest page here.