What Do I wear?! Family Session Style with Ashley

Hi everyone, I am Ashley from Words About Waverly.  I am married to my high school boyfriend, we met in Math class at Cox High School fifteen years ago!  We have a daughter, Waverly Maye, who is as sweet & spunky as they come.  She is the absolute love & center of our lives, and we are thrilled to be adding to our family again, we are expecting baby girl #2 in early June!  I work as a Fashion Marketing teacher and love all things style, design, & any kind of celebration.

First, I am truly honored to be guest posting for Brooke & so thankful to be working with her!  Brooke has certainly become a special part of our lives as she has captured so many special moments with our family & will continue to with our maternity, birth, & newborn pictures in the months to come!  We absolutely adore her, not only is she beyond talented as a photographer but also truly cares about her clients, something that means so much to us.

Brooke asked me to share some tips on dressing for family photos today, one of my very favorite things to talk about!! 🙂  I majored in Fashion at Radford & have loved style for as long as I can remember.  I believe that no matter what your personal style is, you should own it & be proud of it, it really is such a great reflection of you.  Personally, I do my best when I feel my best, & that’s when I

 am wearing clothes that truly feel like me.  With that being said, I have always shopped on a budget, I don’t feel that you have to spend thousands of dollars to look fashionable.  I invest in a few pieces that I know won’t go out of style & that will grow with me, and try to do the same when shopping for my daughters.  Of course, all of this applies when it comes to family photos, the moments when you undoubtedly want to feel your absolute best!  I thought it would be fun to pick some outfits for a spring shoot, the perfect time of year for pops of bold, bright colors.

When choosing outfits for any family shoot, I always try to coordinate rather than dress us all exactly alike.  This can obviously be done easiest with color, I think a great guideline to stick to is no more than three!  I usually will pick one piece I love as a starting point for inspiration & then go from there, it’s usually a piece for either me or my daughter since my husband tends to like classics & neutrals.  I love prints but usually will only pick two, stripes & florals can be fun paired together in a shoot but can also get overwhelming really quickly.  Remember, you want the people to be the focus of shoot rather than the clothes, the fashion will simply enhance it all! 🙂

As I mentioned before, your choices in clothing should reflect you, & that truly is the case when it comes to family photos that will hang on your walls or that you will back on for years to come.  I chose a couple trendy pieces for me & my daughter because that’s what we would wear in our real lives, but I know never to do that for my husband because simply put, he never would any of that. 😉  Being comfortable is the key to beautiful photos, especially family ones since they represent your true relationships with each other & all sides of your personalities. 

I hope this is helpful to someone, & that choosing clothes for any shoot is a fun process rather than an overwhelming one.  I am always happy to help or answer questions about styling (for anything!), my email is akwright@vbschools.com.  Thanks again to Brooke for having me & giving me an opportunity to talk about one of my passions!

XO