I love a good cake smash! It is just too cute! I like having a photographer take pictures of my family, but that fee isn’t always in my budget. I plan to get family pictures once a year, and in between I try to get the pictures myself. Here’s how!

Choose a good spot- It is important with photos that you pick a spot with bright, indirect sunlight. I wanted to do the pictures indoors so I choose to do them in my dining room that faces east in the morning. Make sure there aren’t any shadows over where you’re taking pictures! It’ll look funny in your pictures.

The backdrop- I used a large white table cloth that I already had and I use quilting tacks to hang it on the wall.

The balloon garland- I picked out some balloons at my local party store. I choose pearl white, coral, peach, and rose gold. I got some 11” and some 5” to create some texture in the garland. I started by blowing all of them up and tying them in pairs with the nozzles. Then I twisted them to a string and arranged them how I liked. It had a really big impact in the photo shoot and only cost $6!



The cake- I got the cake from a friend who is an amazing baker and artist! I told her I wanted a Sweet as a Peach theme and she really hit it out of the park! I loved the color of the cake and the super cute peach she made for the top! The dainty frosting pearls were a perfect touch too! The best part was that it was DELICIOUS!!!



Taking the pictures- I took these pictures with a DSLR camera that my husband got me for Christmas 2 years ago. It is the one that they have at Costco. If you don’t have a DSLR camera, your phone can do just fine!
To get smiles- One year olds usually will laugh and dance if you start laughing and dancing! Seriously, they don’t even need a reason to party to jump right in! With my older kids, singing The Happy Birthday song is usually good for some smiles. I also have constantly bribed them with mini marshmallows!

Photo editing- I’m no pro at photo editing, so I bought some presets for Lightroom mobile on Etsy for $4! It is worth every penny! Lightroom mobile is a free app and you can edit photos there if you buy presets or not! Presets just make it quick and easy for me.


Here are some more pictures! My baby is so adorable! I’m glad I have these pictures! Overall, I spent $6 on balloons, $10 on her outfit, and $4 for presets. That is a total of $20!






If you try your own photo shoot, use my #craftingoverload on Instagram! I’d love to share your pictures!