Gorgeous little M visited the studio last week to celebrate her first birthday and let me tell you, this baby was born to model!  M smiled from the second she walked in the door until the second she left.  She looked straight into the camera and settled into the perfect pose in every set!  Her big brown eyes and long lashes totally stole my heart.  We had a session full of color; capturing family portraits, some classics of M, and an adorable Minnie Mouse cake smash!  Enjoy your sneak peek!

Another one of my adorable baby planners is already celebrating his first birthday!  When planning for his session, mom and I went back and forth about whether we wanted to go with a cookie monster theme or something a little more classic.  While I love working with a theme, I think it’s also important to keep a timeless appeal in our sets and mom totally agreed.  We were torn.  We decided to go for cookie monster, but keep it classic with bright baby boy colors in the background and turquoise to compliment B’s nursery.  I love the way the set turned out!  Sweet Indulgence not only made the perfect cookie monster cake, but they also shared one of the backgrounds from a recent dessert table they catered.  We combined it with our own to make the perfect cookie monster color scheme!  B loved his cake and didn’t mind getting messy.  He was super fast but that cake sure had him sitting in one place.  I love that last shot because he had his little feet crossed like that the whole time.  Just chillin, eatin his cake!  Enjoy your sneak peek Y family.

I was so excited to see these two little princesses again for our portrait session last week.  We celebrated their first birthday in style with an adorable cake smash for two!  K and S were so much fun to photograph and it was great catching up with mom and dad.  The girls loved all of the attention as we sang and played during the first half of the session.  Typical girly girls, they didn’t love getting messy, so our cake smash portion of the session was short and sweet.  Thankfully, K and S look adorable no matter what they do, so we have the perfect birthday keepsakes even if they didn’t dig right in to those cakes!  I’m so excited to show mom and dad the rest.  Enjoy your sneak peek and happy birthday girls!

Sometimes it just all comes together!  I was so excited after meeting baby R and family at our pre-session consultation.  How could I not be?  Baby R is so gorgeous!  We started our session with family portraits, took some individuals of R crawling around the studio, and then finished off with a fabulous cake smash.  At our pre-session we had a lot of different ideas floating around for the cake smash and I wasn’t sure how to pull it all together.  Mom envisioned something colorful and we both loved pinks, melons, and turquoise for our set.  We picked out a melon colored romper and some adorable accessories… and now we just needed a theme!  R’s nickname is “goose” so I thought Mother Goose would be a fun way to incorporate some personality into our set, but every idea I planned was all pastels and just didn’t make sense with our color scheme.  Then I found this fabulous book bunting featured in a baby shower on the Martha Stewart website and knew it would be the perfect way to bring all of the bright colors into our design.  Baby R did an amazing job from start to finish.  These adorable babies sure do make my job fun!  Enjoy your sneak peek!

We have had so many baby planners celebrate their first birthday this spring and we’ve had a ball designing all of the fun sets.  This gorgeous family from Massachusetts was actually my first baby plan family ever… starting back when big sister A was still in mom’s belly!  We’ve had a fun few years together so I was greatly anticipating this cake smash for baby J.  Mom sent me over a few photos of the adorable bow ties she picked up at Vinyard Vines and let us plan the set from there.  I was obsessed with these debonair whales as they paraded around our studio in preparation for the set.  J was a little under the weather, but big sister A didn’t mind jumping right into the cake smash to help him out.  I love all of the portraits we have of them playing together!  I’m crossing my fingers for a baby number 3 ;0)  Enjoy your sneak peek.

Can you believe this sleeping beauty is already turning 1?!

Baby C’s newborn session (above) was one of my favorites from 2011!  She is just as gorgeous one year later with her big blue eyes and joyous smile.  C was just starting to walk when she visited the studio for her first birthday session last week, which was a fun milestone to capture for mom and dad.  She loved standing and clapping and was very busy exploring the studio.  We went with a pink and turquoise theme for her cake smash which brought out those big blue eyes perfectly.  This is one of my favorite color combinations this spring!  Enjoy your sneak peek!

We had a fun time running around with V at the studio last week for her 2nd birthday session.  She was one of the busiest two-year-olds I’ve ever photographed, but when she’d glance at the camera for a split second, it was magic!  V is gorgeous with her big brown eyes, long beautiful lashes, and the delicate curls that frame her face.  Two year old cake smashes are even more fun than our first birthdays because by two, kids actually understand what fun it is to have a giant cake all to themselves.  V was still hesitant to get messy, so we stopped for a few clean ups in between bites.  She was adorable trying to put the cake back on to the stand anytime it fell off!  Enjoy your sneak peek!

I haven’t seen baby V since her newborn session last year and she is every bit as beautiful at 1 year old as she was at just a few days old!  I remember swooning over her gorgeous lashes at her newborn session and they still grace those big brown eyes.  V’s sleepy days are now replaced with toddling around and exploring her world.  She was sometimes serious and sometimes full of smiles, but always a little princess!  Mom wanted something soft and girly for the cake smash and Sweet Indulgence’s ballerina cake complimented our set perfectly.  Enjoy your sneak peek!

Our second product showcase is for our custom-designed cards! Our graphic designer, Meg, designs cards for our clients using their personal style, party theme, or even nursery decor for inspiration. She creates birth announcements, party invitations, greeting cards, holiday cards, or anything else you dream up using your Heidi Hope images!

We’d love to show you some. First, some pretty pink birth announcements:

Then, cute tri-fold cards for party invites and just saying hello:

We can’t forget this golf-inspired first birthday party invite, using photos from a cake smash shoot!

Lastly, our favorite holiday cards from 2011 (never too soon to start planning 2012′s holiday shoot!):

Each card is unique and completely customizable. Meg has also created custom card templates for photographers, which you can find here!

I can’t believe another one of my adorable baby planners is graduating!  I have loved getting to know this family over the past year and capturing their special milestones with baby J.  My baby planners feel like family to me by the time the year is over, and like always, this cake smash was a little bittersweet.  I wanted to ask mom and dad, “when are you having another one?!”  as they left.  J was a happy little guy as always and he managed to get covered in cake in a matter of seconds.  I just adore that little dimple!  Enjoy your sneak peek!