Hooray! You’ve booked a cake smash session with Liz Viernes Photography! I’m so excited to meet you and my goal is for you to be 100% satisfied with your decision to hire me. In order to prepare for baby’s cake smash, you’ve got some decisions to make!
During our consult call, we’ll talk about a number of different things, including what a session with Liz Viernes Photography is like, what you get for your money, what steps you need to complete in order to book, outfits, locations, etc. My goal in discussing these topics is to get to know you, first of all, and to help you prepare for the session so that you’re ready and excited for our time together!
Prepare For Baby’s Cake Smash – What Will the Session Be Like?
We’re going to capture some awesome memories together and I am absolutely thrilled about it! A cake smash session with Liz Viernes Photography is fun, easy, and stress-free. My goal is to capture the fleeting moments that seem to be passing by more quickly that you realized they would. I want to get that toothy grin that you adore. I want to freeze that adorable expression that he gets from his daddy. I want to see her dance to her favorite song and clap her chubby hands together – something she wasn’t doing last month and maybe will have moved on to something new next month. These types of shots are what a cake smash session with Liz Viernes Photography is all about.
Prepare For Baby’s Cake Smash – What Do You Get For Your Money?
I collect a non-refundable session fee in order to hold your slot on my calendar and then, once your gallery is ready to view, I’ll send you an email letting you know that it’s ready. Please make sure that all decision makers are present at that time because you only have 24 hours to view the slideshow (however you can rewatch it as many times as you want within that 24 hours). Once you’ve viewed the slideshow, it’ll be time to choose from three packages. Each package contains digital files and a print credit gift card to be put toward products such as an album or a stunning metal print (or prints or cards or a photo book or….).
Each collection comes with a gift card because I want to rescue your images from the purgatory of your computer’s hard drive. I want you to be able to enjoy your photos daily. I want your children to have physical albums to page through and printed photos on the wall to see their growth through the years. I also want to provide you with beautiful, archival, professionally printed products that will last a lifetime – as opposed to sending you on your way with a print release and no direction (which often results in clients choosing a one-hour place without calibrated machines which results in wildly inaccurate colors and a generally poor product).
The cake smash session includes photos of the birthday boy or girl and family shots, if desired.
I always suggest that clients save their files in at least two different locations in case, God forbid, you lose one set of the files (say your hard drive goes bad) and have to rely on the back-up set. I will save your files for a period of one year but may then delete after that point in order to save space on my own hard drive. I would absolutely hate it if you came to me, upset, seven years after your session, begging to get another copy of your images, and I had to tell you that I don’t have them. Back-up your files PLEASE.
Prepare For Baby’s Cake Smash – Steps for Booking
In order to book a session with Liz Viernes Photography, I will have you sign a contract, a Covid waiver and submit payment of the nonrefundable session fee. Your time slot on my calendar is only secured once I have all three of these items returned to me. Everything is done digitally so it’s all very easy.
You can choose whether you want to schedule the session 3-4 weeks before baby’s first birthday so that you have the shots back in time to make invitations or have prints available to display. Or you can schedule for right around the special day so you are freezing your baby forever in time right at Year One.
Prepare For Baby’s Cake Smash – Outfits
Outfit changes, if your baby tolerates them, can provide variety to your gallery. For the portraits (outfit #1), choose whatever you’d love to see in your photos. For the cake smash (outfit #2), I always love to see little round bare bellies and cute little toes. For little girls, that might mean a set of bloomers to cover her diaper, a headband and some pearls. For little boys, a pair of shorts is fine. The less they’re wearing (as long as the diaper is covered), the better, because frosting will most likely be everywhere.
As a light and airy photographer, I recommend light, neutral, solid colors for any outfit chosen. This will lend a timeless, classic feel to your photos and ensure that you will love your images for years to come, rather than be distracted by some loud, crazy pattern that happened to be in vogue that year. Patterns are out, solids are in. Loud, dark colors are out, soft, light colors are in.
Prepare For Baby’s Cake Smash – Location and Timing
I always like to say that location isn’t as important as light when choosing a spot to take your photos – but it’s still pretty important. I’m always happy to suggest a spot (check out this blog post here for inspiration) or take a suggestion from you. Just let me know what you’re thinking!
Outdoor cake smash sessions may be scheduled from April/May-ish to October. No outdoor cake smashes will be scheduled during the winter months. Due to the early sunrise/late sunset times during the summer months, morning sessions are best for the average one year old (Trust. Me.). This means that a summer cake smash will be Very Early in the Morning – we can discuss this more in our consult call but just be prepared to somewhat hate life that day when the alarm goes off. You’ll love the cooler morning temps, though, and baby typically does so much better in the morning than the evening.
Please consider whether you are willing to commit to such an early time for an outdoor session. If you are not willing to commit to an early time, indoor studio sessions are held all year round. Timing for an indoor cake smash is either 8:30 or 9am, depending on what’s most convenient for us both. Easy Peasy. Your 100% satisfaction is my goal ❤️
I do ask you to provide the cake. A 6-8″ cake is completely sufficient – you could go smaller if you wanted but I wouldn’t recommend going any bigger. If you want to do something outside the box, you could do a donut smash (look them up on Pinterest – SO cute) or bring a single cupcake…whatever your vision is, we’ll carry it out.
If you need bakery recommendations, please check out my saved highlight on Instagram. The suggestions there are either recommendations from past clients or bakers I personally know. Regardless of which route you end up going for the smash, know that it’ll be absolutely *adorable*.
Liz Viernes Photography is based near Laurel, Maryland, and specializes in maternity, fresh 48, posed and lifestyle newborns and first year milestone portraits.
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