blog

Family photos! Doesn’t everyone love getting the family dressed up and having those wonderful photos taken? I enjoy getting all the outfits together, deciding where to shoot, and doing my DIY family photos but buying brand new outfits every season or year just doesn’t always work out. I’m going to show you how I’ve used the same dress for the last 7 years to create a slightly different Christmas look for family photos. 

The dress, nothing fancy, a simple green Old Navy sweater dress.

2018 

The reason I purchased the dress the first year was because I was about 5 months pregnant with Ada and I didn’t want to have to buy a maternity dress that I would likely never wear again. This dress was perfect since the fit is loose and the material is forgiving. I paired it with a holiday colored plaid scarf and called it a day. I want to say I didn’t even bother with shoes since I knew we were using the chair and my feet wouldn’t bee seen. 

2019

For 2019 I wore the dress plain without a scarf. Not a mind blowing change but that small difference paired with the different lighting because we moved outdoors makes the dress look different enough to pull it off and wear it again.

2020

The decision to wear the dress again came from the desire to write this blog. I didn’t want to use it as a dress though and thought it would do ok tied up in the back with a pair of jeans. It looked fine but needed the vest to cover the fact that the tail of a dress was tucked into the back of my pants.

2021

For 2021 I went with the dress as a shirt look again but dropped the vest. I had to make sure I didn’t stand with my side or back facing the camera but that’s not hard to do when you are taking DIY Family Photos and not candid shots running around with the kids. 

2022

I decided to try something a little different last year so I took the scarf from 2018 and used it as a skirt. It’s not something I could run around in and pull off in an everyday setting but for a quick family session it worked well! I also paired the dress with some knee boots I’ve had for at least 10 years this year instead of my ankle boots from years past. 

2023

I went back to the simple plain dress look but paired it with some white Nikes. It’s been a few years since I wore the dress plain and we were sitting for that photo so I knew it would work. Also…I threw this together so last minute I didn’t really have time to put a ton of thought into it. I was planning to wear a jean jacket but when it was time to leave the house it didn’t even cross my mind. That’s one of the perks of having a go-to dress for family photos!

2024

This year I (awkwardly) tied up a cream scarf and wore it as a vest. It sort of worked especially since I knew this photo would be one where we were sitting with the Christmas tree on the beach. I also decided to wear my duck boots this year because if I’m wearing shoes on a beach these are the shoes I’m rocking. Typically I go barefoot for beach photos but in the winter it’s too cold and cold bodies AND cold feet don’t make for happy family members lol!

Bonus Look! | Fall Family Photos

The dress paired here with a different scarf works without looking like I only wear this green dress for photos here because of the fall theme.

If you’re counting that’s 8 different family photos with the same dress! I wonder how many more years I can get away with this… Do you have a piece of clothing you’ve worn multiple times but changed the look of in some way? Share how you do this with your wardrobe below!