Our Maternity Shoot

Pregnancy is an exciting time and no matter if it’s your first or third, it’s a time you want to remember. Looking back at my first pregnancy, though I was tired, I am happy I had so many events going on because I had photos from every stage along the way. I remember every week we would wait for my app to tell me the baby’s size and compare it to how my bump looked.

One night during my fifth month of pregnancy I went down the Pinterest rabbit hole of maternity shoots and woke up more overwhelmed than ever. There were so many options of styles, themes, outfits, etc. that I truly didn’t know what I wanted. When I brought this up to my husband, he told me “try something new and different so later you don’t think, what if?” Clearly this man knows me well because that’s exactly what would’ve happened and you can’t exactly go back to being pregnant.

I started with a list of where I wanted the shoot, what outfits/looks, and (the most important element) my budget. I made a mood board so I kept my ideas in line and also had something to share with the photographers I spoke to. I didn’t want to spend more than $400-$500 on the shoot so that limited my options from the start; some photographers started sessions at $1,000.

I took to instagram and Google and searched maternity photographers in my area that fit the style I was going for; I sent each of them a message about what I wanted, my mood board, budget and started collecting pricing information. After a month, and talking to maybe 8 photographers, I finally picked Itsy Bitsy Photography in Queens, NY. Her style was flexible, the shoot was in her studio indoors and she had the prettiest outfits for me to choose from. The gown collection was important to me because she had the dramatic pieces I was looking for without having to personally invest in the outfits; I had no use for a fluffy pink gown after my maternity shoot so this was perfect! Well, everything was except that I would only get 10-12 edited photos and nothing else. The photographer had a rule that she didn’t give you the whole sessions photos but only those perfect edited ones of the few poses you do.

Now for some people this is ideas but as a type A personality, I want perfection and I usually am very hands on but I had to trust my photographer was going to give me that in the photos she would select and edit. I made sure to share the looks and poses I wanted with the photographer ahead of time and she reassured me she would get the right shot. We also did a few poses she recommended that I hadn’t thought of and I was happy to try something new as well.
After much debate, I took the leap of faith and loved the photos we ended up with! This post is not sponsored in any ways and I paid for these photographs with my own money.)