Tips for Outfitting Family Photos

I have a brother, half-sister, two step-sisters, a sister-in-law, a brother-in-law, two nieces, a nephew, two niece-dogs and a dog sister....so when this fall I got a wild hair to get everyone together to take family photos to surprise our parents with for Christmas, everyone thought I was crazy. Thankfully we enlisted the help of my friend Sara of Sara Jayne Photography {as always} to take the photos and get us organized. Coordinating a date and time was shockingly easy what was difficult was coordinating the outfits. 

We knew we were going to be outside in the fall and we knew we had 5 families to coordinate and look somehow put together which included three kids and a baby. I have always liked family photos that are coordinated but still allow everyone to show off their personal style and individuality so that's what we went with and it really turned out great. 

With Sara's help I have come up with some tips for coordinating your outfits for family photos:

Stay away from the classic "white top (or black, or red, or any color really) and jeans". In my humble opinion it's super overdone and outdated and I personally think it makes the family look like one big blob and makes for some pretty uninteresting photos. 

Create a color scheme. Picking 3 or 4 colors allows everyone to coordinate without matching and gives some options in terms of putting outfits together.

Be wary of patterns. If you are going to do patterns make sure they don't clash or make sure they compliment each other OR be sure there's enough patterns so not just ONE person sticks out.

Layer it up! Utilize your color scheme with layers, for example, put the boys in a collared shirt in one of the colors with a sweater over it in another one of the colors. 

Pay attention to shoes! Even if they only show in a few photos a pair of bright colored shoes that don't match can take away from the whole photo. 

Stage it! Lay all of your outfits out on the bed so you can see if anything really stands out or doesn't "go". Obviously, this isn't always possible with a large group of multiple families, but if each family does it you should all be set. 

And when in doubt:

*neutral solid colors

*avoid stripes or bold patterms

*no words

*long or 3/4 sleeves

*pops of color in accessories

*if you're concerned about slimming - go darker rather than lighter

For our photos, we decided on tan, red, black and denim. This allowed everyone lots of options - red sweater and jeans, black pants and tan top, or as Jason said "red leather pants and a black shirt" which thankfully no one showed up wearing.