My daughter, Olivia, is three and a half years old. She is all things girly, which is like my dream come true. Her blonde curls are finally starting to come in (she was bald as a cue ball there for awhile), and she very closely resembles my own baby photos. She is all the joy, and giggles, and love, you could ever ask for.

A few weeks ago, we were digging around in the basement for a misplaced toy, when we came across a wedding photo. Olivia looked at it for a minute, and turned and asked me where the “white dress” was. I explained that it was my wedding dress, and it was packed away in a box. We recently moved and everything is a little bit everywhere! From that moment on though, she was on a mission to wear “the white dress”. I told her we could definitely take photos in the dress sometime, if she wanted, and then kind of forgot about the whole thing.

But not my persistent little Olivia, she would remind me daily that we were going to work to take her picture in the white dress. She couldn’t wait to see it. So, on a rainy Saturday, I finally searched for the dress, finding it in a corner of the basement, nicely packed away, in a big plastic bin.

When Olivia was three months old, I tucked her into the top of my wedding gown, all laid out beautifully on the floor, and took her picture. She doesn’t remember, but it was one of my favorites. I had planned to continue taking her picture in it every so often, but it was one of those personal projects that I just never made happen.

So when SHE decided it had to happen, it was the nudge I needed. We gathered up the white dress and veil, and headed out to play dress up. She giggled at how big the dress was on her, and how I had to clamp it in the back to stay up. Why didn’t it have sleeves? Where were the arm holes? She was in hysterics over the size of the skirt. I think in total we spent 20 minutes playing around before she decided it was too big and limited her movement too much. But in those 20 minutes, I got some of the most memorable photos of my little girl, just being the silly girly-girl that she is.

I left the studio with her that day, and my mind was already racing with ideas. How can I offer this to other families? And with that, the White Dress sessions were born.

These studio mini sessions will be held in April 2020 on specific dates and times. Sign up information is available by clicking here.

My whole heart just exploded watching my daughter enjoy this session, and you can see her joy in these photos! She loved playing dress up in mommy’s special dress. Come visit me in April, and let’s have some fun with your little ones!