I have hired a professional photographer every year since my youngest daughter was one to shoot our family portraits.

Want to know my biggest regret? That I didn’t start sooner.

We didn’t have a lot of money after my oldest was born. I quit my job and our income went down by almost half. I was always looking for ways to cut costs, looking for ways to NOT spend money on things I could do myself. And there are a lot of things that I could do myself – like designing invitations, making cakes for birthday parties, etc. And there are things that I wish I had hadn’t attempted to do myself – like painting stripes on the walls in my kitchen (don’t ask) or trying to paint art for their nursery (not good).

Looking back, I wish I had hired a professional photographer sooner.

I didn’t get professional maternity shots (though my husband did snap a couple of me in the later stage of pregnancy when I was HUGE which I both cherish and despise). I didn’t get any professional shots of our “little” family when we only had our first born.

I know you’re thinking… yeah, yeah, but YOU’RE a professional photographer!

I haven’t always been a “professional”. And sure, I got some really great photos of my kids when they were babies with my old film camera and my first digital point and shoot. But, I wasn’t in any of them. I captured lots of memories of “them” but not “us”. We didn’t capture that time when it was “our little family” during those few years. And it makes me sad.

I know a lot of people that forego hiring a professional photographer… because of the cost, because it’s hard to coordinate outfits, because the kids get cranky. Others rely solely on the school pictures taken every year (which is mostly what I have of my own childhood being the youngest of four kids)… which brings me to my next illustration….

Here’s my little Kendall in her 1st grade school picture….

 

I’m not going to lie… this shot TOTALLY cracks us up (I’m sure the school photographer told her to smile big and here’s what we got!).

While I’m glad that we have that one, it doesn’t even compare to this shot from our family shoot with DrewB Photography that same year…

 

 

 

I’m so glad that we have this shot. Because THIS is my Kendall. THIS is her personality. And I am so grateful that it was captured in that moment forever.

I know personally that professional photography can be expensive (for us, it’s literally a line item in our budget every year). But for me, the cost would be too high to have missed out on a shot like that of my little Kendall, and all the other wonderful images I now have to add to my memories.

So do yourself a favor… don’t miss out… don’t have regrets…. because these are the moments you will cherish forever.