Simple Ways to Personalize your Home Sweet Home Session
If you’ve been thinking about booking a family session but the idea of a scenic overlook, a color-coordinated outfit, and a stranger telling you where to stand makes you want to close the tab – this one’s for you. The Home Sweet Home session exists for exactly that feeling. It’s built around your actual home, kids, partnership, and the small everyday things that make your family yours. No sweeping backdrop required. Just your people and the place you feel most yourselves + a little bit of intention that goes a long way.
What is a Home Sweet Home Session?
This is for the family who wants some space to sink in with the comfort and familiarity of home. It’s for you if you want photos that feel natural and true, with your kids being kids and the pieces of life that feel treasured, beyond just a pretty backdrop you happen to be standing in front of in dress clothes.
It’s a shorter, simpler session than my Story Session, which can span multiple locations, longer activities, and a fuller slice of your family’s world. The Home Sweet Home session is more focused. One place. One or two things you already love doing. Timeless but natural portraits that feel relaxed and natural – maybe on the front porch, in the grass, on the playground, around the firepit.
What You Don’t Need to Over-Plan
Baking pancakes from scratch sounds lovely and it can be great and super special to photograph that tradition – but it’s also the kind of activity that can take an hour in itself and leave little room for anything else. That’s better suited to a Story Session, where we have more time and space to let something like that breathe.
For a Home Sweet Home session, we’re looking for the smaller, everyday things. The stuff that would probably happen on a Saturday even if I weren’t there to photograph it. One or two simple activities woven into portraits of your family together – that’s the rhythm we’re going for.
Think less “what’s our biggest family tradition?” and more “what do we actually do around here?”
Activity Ideas to Make Your Session Feel Personal
A few examples of the kinds of activities that work beautifully for a Home Sweet Home session:
In the Yard or Driveway
- Sidewalk chalk, scooters, or shooting hoops in the driveway
- A backyard game of baseball, or whatever sport your family likes to play together
- Popsicles or ice cream on the front porch or back deck
- Playing in a leaf pile in the fall
- Drinking coffee or having breakfast on the patio
- S’mores or time around the backyard fire pit
Inside the House
- A favorite card game or puzzle at the kitchen table
- Time in the kids’ rooms doing whatever they actually do in there – jumping on the bed, building a fort, playing guitar, working at a sewing machine. These personality-driven moments in their own spaces are some of my favorites to photograph and are really special keepsakes as they grow.
- Playing with the dog
- Playing the piano or having a big dance party
The through-line in all of these ideas is that they’re things your family would do anyway.
They don’t require prep, props you don’t own, or a family meeting to organize. They just require showing up in your own home and doing what you already love doing together.
What to Wear
This is one of my favorite things to talk about for home sessions, because the wardrobe question trips people up more than it should.
Dress the way you would if you were just hanging out at home – but maybe one small step above your most worn-in pajamas.
- No shoes. You probably don’t walk around your house in shoes, so you don’t have to do it for photos either.
- No collared, buttoned shirts, belts, or slacks required. This isn’t a traditional family portrait. It’s a Saturday at home, so you can dress like it.
- Comfortable, everyday clothes that feel like you (and your kids). Worn-in jeans, a favorite sweater, your kids favorite bright red beanie. Yes to all of it.
The wardrobe should match the feeling of the whole session: relaxed, real, and at home.
What’s Included
The Home Sweet Home session includes one hour of time together making pictures in and around your home. You’ll get a full gallery of around 60 final images to view and savor, then the opportunity to narrow your favorite 25 pictures to receive as digital files.
Twenty-five images is enough to use for your holiday card, print as gifs for family, and others to hang around the home. It’s variety without overwhelm. You get a full gallery to browse and then pick the ones that you love most to keep and put around where you’ll see and enjoy.
It’s a wonderful starting point if you’ve been a little unsure about booking a session or trying how photos feel at home. And it’s the kind you can return to year after year.
Your next steps
If you’ve been putting off booking because the whole thing felt like too much – too much planning, too many outfits, too much pressure to make it look a certain way – the Home Sweet Home session was designed with that feeling in mind.
Your house. Your kids doing their things. A few simple moments to capture and treasure.
If you’re curious about what this could look like for your family, I’d love to hear from you. You can reach out through the contact form here and we’ can start there.
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