Top 10 Family Picture Ideas without Breaking your Budget

Before the Mr and I were married we decided that annual Fall family pictures would be an important tradition for us.  But if you haven't noticed let me be the one to break it to you gently...

Photographer's are crazy expensive.  

For a few years we went with extreme newbies who were a little less expensive but still so expensive that we couldn't do anything with the pictures we had made.  We were just grateful to work it in the budget to have the photos taken for another year.  So we would take the photos on a cd and hold on to it for "someday" when we could afford to have them printed.  

But this year, I didn't have the heart to do that again.  I still wanted pictures taken like always, but I also wanted to do something with them. I wanted some prints.  I wanted some Christmas cards out of them.  So I went to work figuring out how we could make that happen.  I talked with photographer after photographer looking for the cheapest deal.  

I got nowhere.

So I sent my sister a text that went something like this:  Want to play photographer for an hour?  My sister is a teacher, she does not do photography even as a hobby.  But she can point and shoot and I can edit pictures like the rest of them.  We made a private Pinterest board where only the both of us could see and we started pinning all kinds of ideas like outfit color combos and pose ideas.  What started out as a way to save money actually became pretty fun!  Like I had some control in how our photos would turn out and I would actually get to do something with them this year!!

I wondered if anyone else goes through this or doesn't even try to have pictures done because of the expense.  I can't wait to share with you today 10 of my favorite resources that were such a blessing to me as I planned our own family pictures!!  

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Linking up with:  Sweet Bella Roos, Lamberts Lately, Think Tank Thursday, Great Idea Thursdays, Project Stash, On Display Thursday, artsy fartsy, Party in your PJs, Pretty Pintastic Party