With the holiday season full steam ahead, we have holiday cards on the brain! You might be newly married this month, or last year, but you still haven’t gotten together a card to send out to friends and family. You can send a card out during the month of December, or wait to send one after the January. It’s a fun way to update people on your life and new chapter!
Photographer Nikki Hollis even offers anniversary sessions in her top two wedding packages, and in the very top package, she includes a free photo session every year for ten years after the wedding! These sessions can be used for anything except other weddings and senior pictures. So, any couple choosing her top wedding package can choose to use these free sessions as their holiday sessions.
From a photographer’s perspective: Nikki Hollis Photography
A lot of times couples will use their engagement pictures for holiday cards but I usually only see that happen when their engagement pictures were actually taken in the fall season. Holiday cards should have a warm, festive, holiday feel to them so the pictures should absolutely follow suit.
I have definitely had couples come to me AFTER the wedding for holiday photos. Generally, I see my bride and groom couples EVERY single fall for these pictures! Happy clients will always come back for more. After spending all of the time planning for and shooting a couple on the most special day of their lives, we really become like family and most of us, friends too!
Most photographers, myself included, offer holiday photo specials. The reason for this is because fall is the busiest time of the year for photography and it makes things easier for both families and photographers to book quick sessions to get just what they need for holiday cards. Some families still book full sessions and use the images for more than just holiday cards. However, for those just needing a few simple shots for cards, there’s not a big need for a full hour or two hour session. Mini sessions are usually 20-30 minute sessions for nearly half the price of the full sessions and give photographers time to fit in more clients and give the clients the opportunity for simple and inexpensive sessions just in time for the holidays.
My most inexpensive holiday mini session package usually costs $145 for a 20-30 minute session and I will usually include in that package 2-3 digital images which is just enough for putting together holiday cards. Additional prints, digital images and photo gifts are available for purchase and I also create custom holiday cards for my clients as well for an additional charge.
Another fun holiday portrait I did involved a family of four boys. The boys ages ranged from five to eighteen. In one holiday portrait with these boys, we had the younger boys tie up their oldest brother with christmas lights and put a santa hat on him. In the picture, the younger boys all looked thrilled while the older one in the santa hat looked miserable. It was the funniest picture I took that year. It totally captured the boys as they were in everyday life but with a fun holiday twist. Also, this year, that same family of boys came back for more holiday portraits and one of the younger boys put his head through a wreath and wore it like a necklace. His mom started to tell him to take it off but I couldn’t help but to encourage the boy and have him leave it on for one funny picture. Again, I was able to capture boys just being boys.
I love it when my wedding couples turn into families and then come back every year for their birthday and anniversary and holiday photos. I get to document their journey and growth as a unit. It’s a beautiful thing to be a part of. My best advice for both families and photographers wanting to get great holiday photos is to get off of Pinterest and just start being creative and having fun with each other. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love Pinterest. However, too often, the same photos are repeated over and over again and our holiday photos lose all originality and personality. Be yourselves and just have fun and you’ll get the best images you could imagine. Then, your holiday cards will really make people smile!
Images | Nikki Hollis Photography
Contributing Writer | Nikki Hollis
