How to Get a Great Couples Christmas Card Photo
I live for a good Christmas card! My parents were never than into sending out cards growing up, but we always received a ton of them from friends and family. Obviously, these were the days before social media, so I loved looking through the photos and reading the families' years at a glance.
To this day, there's almost a sense of nostalgia I get when I receive a Christmas card. With all of the promotional catalogues and bills we receive, it's nice to open our mailbox to a letter from our friends.
I've loved the planning part almost as much as sending out the cards themselves. Being a blogger, I'm always scouting out beautiful places to take images and I enjoy searching for seasonal spots. Here are some of my tips from my years of Christmas card planning experience.
Leave Room
I can't tell you how many times we went to take Christmas card photos and once I got them home and uploaded to make them into cards, the wording was going to overlap one of our faces. Since then, we have learned from our mistakes and we always leave lots of room at the top of the image or the bottom to accommodate for text.
Most Christmas card photos have space at the bottom and top, so be mindful to have either a dark or light color where you plan to put your text.
Make it Easy
You don't always have to go above and beyond for your photo! Garrett and I had a photographer I was working with snap a few photos of us on our winter vacation. We grabbed a bottle of bubbly and some sunglasses and it ended up being one of our cutest cards yet! It's also nice to have extra images from vacations or life moments to pop on the back of the card.
Grab a Photo from the Archives
We don't get much snow in Atlanta, but when we visited Asheville, NC one winter we were transported to a winter wonderland! We met with a photographer and snapped some photos. I still love these images and think they would be great to use in the future for a Christmas card photo if we were in a hurry to get some printed.
Work Your Angles
Make sure to have your photographer get vertical and horizontal images of you! We made sure that we received a variety of different angles and crops to create the perfect card.
Coordinate Your Clothing
Clothes don't always have to match, but they should be complimentary to one another. This year, I am planning to do a pajama shoot at the house, but instead of matching with Garrett, I plan to wear red and he will wear green. To make the pajamas look like they belong together, we might each wear a Santa hat or a coordinating shoe. As you can see in the above image, I'm wearing a red dress and Garrett is wearing a red and white checkered shirt. Coordinating clothing will help the image to look effortlessly chic.
Are you planning a photo shoot for Christmas cards this year? Tag me on instagram when you post yours!
