Planning a cake smash shoot for your baby

Below I have shared everything I did when planning my baby girl’s cake smash photoshoot!

My baby girl’s (Mckenzie Rose) first birthday was SUPER special as it is an important milestone.We therefore decided to celebrate it by having a cake smash shoot. My husband and I thought it would be a picture-perfect way to record the memories of turning ONE! FUN, CAREFREE and TASTY…

I decided to write this post to help other parents plan a cake smash within a cost friendly budget.Here is how I went about planning it to minimize the costs and still get a kaleidoscope of amazing pictures.

LOOKING FOR THE IDEAL PHOTOGRAPHER FOR YOUR BABY AND YOUR BUDGET

You will want to find the best fit photographer for your baby’s personality and for your purse. Start looking early, this will allow you to do your research based on reviews, having the opportunity to engage with the photographer a few times before the date (this will allow you to gauge if he or she is a good fit for your baby’s personality) and you will have more choice in terms of the rates charged.The final criteria is to look for a photographer that has the camera equipment required for high quality pictures.

My photographer was SAM PIYAR PHOTOGRAPHY (the best in the industry in my opinion), also known as NIKS PHOTOGRAPHY. She was amazing with my strong willed toddler and her pricing was highly competitive. I got enough time with her, an A5 photobook and a disc of stills.

Watch this space…we will soon be doing a collab!!

DÉCOR FOR THE PHOTOSHOOT

Some photographers have their own props, however I wanted a more personal touch so I decided to get my own décor. I recycled the décor for the first birthday party. This saved us a small fortune when compared to some of the quotes I received before deciding to do my own décor.This is how I did it, I decided on the colour scheme and the look and feel. Once this was done, it was easy sailing. I made a trip to the china mall in Johannesburg (you can look for your closet one) and purchased 90% of the décor I needed.

The pink rug was purchased from Mr Price Home, which I now use in her playroom. The milestone board was designed by a web designer called Selson Muniappen and the printing was done by a printing company based in KZN called CANVAS Print Co. I also used the milestone board for her first birthday and is now a keepsake.

Both Selson and CANVAS Print Co were amazing service providers.

All this cost me approx. R1300 and I am left with a keepsake and décor for her playroom.

Décor alone was R500.

LOOKING FOR THE IDEAL CAKE

So I looked and looked and looked…long story short, it was just too expensive to be smashed and thrown away as my shoot was outdoors. We made our own cake with the help of my future sister-in-law. I bought the meringues and decorated. If baking is not your forte, don’t worry, buy a box of cake mixture, mix according to the instructions, bake and decorate as you wish. An even better option is buy a pre-made cake from the store, add some extra icing to chocolate balls, chocolate bars and meringues andstick to the cake based on how you would like to decorate it.

The cake we baked and pictured below cost me less than R100.

BABY FASHION FOR THE CAKE SMASH

Fashion is essential for the photoshoot. Buy something that looks good and cleans well because when your baby gets into the cake, you want to be able to clean it up easily.

Also do your family and prop pictures before the actual SMASH THE CAKE!

Outfit was R350.

GETTING YOUR BABY READY FOR SMASHING THE CAKE

We were initially abit disappointed because Mckenzie did not get right into the cake, she touched it with her little fingers one finger at a time. We literally had to take her hands and push it into the cake to get the “show started”, she just needed a little encouragement and then there was no turning back.

In hindsight, we could have prepped her with a practice session, buy a cupcake and then sit with your baby and play with the cupcake; get him/her to get used to the texture of the icing and get some on their cheek, nose and lips.

 

The total cost of the smash cake shoot (being mindful that I recycled the décor; I am going to exclude the milestone board and the rug as I would have purchased regardless of the shoot) was a GRAND TOTAL of R2450, call it R2500 (inclusive of fuel). I compared prices and I came out spending half of what I would have spent had I not followed the tips above.

I hope this helps and HAPPY CAKE SMASHING!!!