Christmas Portraits!

Bethany's Christmas portrait outfits!

We finally decided that we were going to get professional studio portraits made for Christmas.  We were hesitant for awhile because December is already somewhat expensive for us, especially with daycare costs starting!  However, yesterday I found a great coupon for JCPenny Portrait Studio on their website and we couldn't pass up the deal.  (Seriously, it was an awesome coupon!  $40 for 48 Christmas cards, 3 traditional portrait sheets each with different poses - unless you wanted duplicates, one free 8x10, and any additional sheets were $5! Oh, and NO sitting fees for any family members!)  The coupon was good through 11/30 and when I went to the website today, it was no longer available for print, so I'm glad I found it when I did!

I was sooo ridiculously excited for her Christmas portrait session.  My grandmother was really big on portraits of me, my brother, and sister growing up and it was fun reliving that tradition with my sweet daughter.  Well, it was fun reliving it . . . until the camera started flashing!  Bethany did all right for a few of the pictures, but she was overheated in her cute dresses and over-stimulated by the photographers trying to get her to smile.  (They were great, but after awhile it was all too much for her!)  She definitely had a little bit of a meltdown at the end. 

After it was all over, she was a happy baby again and drifted off to sleep while Marcus and I looked through our portraits.  Thankfully, not every single pose came out perfectly.  I know that seems silly to be thankful for, but had they all been super cute, I would have had a hard time not purchasing several more portrait sheets!  In the end, we got five sweet poses.  I'm super pleased with them and can't wait to see the pictures.  Two are set against a more modern patterned backdrop and three are against a glowing Christmas tree backdrop.  (Yes, it's just as cheesy as it sounds, but that's exactly what I wanted!  I even wore a snowman shirt to go with Bethany's jumper!)

The Christmas cards we chose are simple, but perfect!  I spent way too much time in the studio trying to use a card design that let me utilize four different pictures, but we weren't happy with the way the mish-mash of photos looked.  We decided to take the single best photo of Bethany from the entire session and use it for the perfect Christmas card.

Despite the meltdown, I enjoyed her first Christmas portrait experience!  After reading several different things online, I wasn't sure what it would be like working with JCPenny, but they were great!  Marcus even had fun and mentioned how different she will be for her Easter portraits.  My ears perked up at that!  I never said anything about Easter portraits, but if you insist! 

We're going to keep the Christmas portraits under wraps until we officially send out our Christmas cards.  As soon as they're mailed, we'll share the rest of the prints and send out the link, so that family can purchase additional portraits if they want them!)