Picture Outfit Hunting

Every October we have our family pictures taken for a couple of reasons. One, I want to document our life as a family. Two, I want to be included in some pictures (even though I hate the way I look) b/c I'm always behind the camera and rarely IN pictures. Three, we needs pics for our Christmas cards. And four, my mom had our pictures taken as a kid, but we rarely had pictures of our whole family done unless there was a new church directory coming out (several of you can relate). lol And now that I'm older, I have almost forgotten what my step-dad, who passed away in 1994, looks like. That makes me horribly sad, so I am determined to have family pictures done every.single.year.

BUT...I am also VERY particular about what we wear! I don't want to be all matchy matchy, but I also don't want to just wear our crummy every day clothes. So about a month before our pictures I set out to find clothes to coordinate, but not look like I tried too hard. Know what I mean?

I typically start with my outfit b/c I'm the hardest to fit. I wanted black and white with a splash of color. I thought Jon and I could wear black tops, jeans, and black shoes, and I'd add in a splash of whatever color I found for the girls. It took me a while to find black and white for the girls. There's lots of brown and pink out there, but not a whole lot of black. A friend told me about Kelly's Kids, and I found exactly what I was looking for, but man...the prices are nothing to scoff at! I decided on hot pink as our splash of color, and then went to town putting our outfits together. Little Bit is wearing this dress, hot pink tights and black boots. Chipmunk is wearing this skirt with this top, black tights and boots. I spent nearly $200 on their outfits alone! YIKES!!! After I got the girls' outfits together I started looking for hot pink jewelry for me as my spash of color knowing it's not easy to match hot pinks. After searching for hours, I finally found some on Etsy that I really liked. And this morning I found Jon's outfit at Koh.l's. Hopefully he'll like it! Now I just need to decide what blouse I'm wearing. I bought a couple different things this morning. I found a hot pink tank and black cardigan for me, but now that I put it all together, the tank is a little too purple when it's up against Chipmunk's sweater. So do I wear a blank lace tank with the black cardigan, or just wear the hot pink tank under it and not worry that the hot pinks don't match?

And of course, after I select hot pink as our complimenting color I find out that the photographer is using a red couch for the photos. I can't afford to change things now, so hopefully our hot pink won't look too horrible with the red couch! I guess all our pics will be b/w if they do!