How to Pick Outfits for Family Pictures

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It’s that time of year – if you haven’t done your family photos yet, they’re likely in the next few weeks. If you’re like me, you completely stress over what to wear, and it only gets more difficult the more kids you have. This was our first year taking outdoor photos as a family of four since last year’s photos were Ella’s newborn photos!

For the past few years, I’ve had a bit of a system for picking our outfits, and it’s served me well. I’m so happy with how our outfits and photos turned out, so here are my tips for getting the look yourself! All the photos in this post our by our dear friends and photographers, Mathy Shoots People.

• Pick one solid color to start from. This is usually the piece I happen to find first. This year, that meant my maroon dress from my October Stitch Fix box (some great similar ones are on Amazon), and I went from there. I then looked for pieces for everyone else with maroon in them.

• Pick a pop of color. For us, this year’s “pop” was mustard. The mustard is predominantly in my scarf (mine is no longer available, but this one, this one, and this one are similar), but it’s also in Ella’s dress.

• Add some visual interest with prints. Everyone in solids is so boring and so 1990s. Instead, I purposely picked out a maroon windowpane shirt (no longer available, but similar) for Chris and the floral dress for Ella with the same colors in them. That allowed them to coordinate without being boring or too matchy-matchy.

• Finish off with neutrals. This year, our neutral was Chris’ jeans and Abbie’s blue dress – both neutral, but Abbie’s dress had the ruffle detail I loved. We all wore neutral brown boots to keep things consistent (Mine, similar to Abbie’s, and Ella’s).

• Use accessories to tie the end result together. For us, it was Abbie’s maroon floral bow, Ella’s solid mustard bow (head here to subscribe), and my scarf. Using accessories in the same color families helped us all look cohesive and pick up all the colors I chose. I wore simple gold earrings to pick up a bit more of the warm tones but not distract. Each person is wearing at least two of the colors in either a print or a solid, but they’re all different.

I’m so happy with the way our photos turned out this year, and I have no idea how I’m going to top them next year. I guess I have a full year to figure it out, huh?

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