Gypsys Cake Smash Photoshoots

My daughter, Gypsy, is turning twelve this year and she does a cake smash and photoshoot for every birthday. I've loved carrying this tradition on for over a decade. This photo below is unfortunately the only photo I can find from her first birthday photoshoot, but I still have this box, which is so special to me now. I remember that she did NOT like eating her chocolate cake that I had made or getting messy. I learnt that day that testing the cake flavour on your kid before their first cake smash, is probably a good idea 😆

When my son, Apollo, was born in 2019, because I had kept the box, I recreated the image with him, too. How cute are these two.

And one of them together! Awww!

I didn't start doing cake smash photoshoots as a tradition until her 4th birthday in 2017. For her 4th birthday, we had just purchased a 1976 Bluebird School Bus to renovate to a tiny home, and we did the photoshoot in the empty space before the build began.

The photoshoots have adapted over the years but their themes always reflect that season of my daughters life that year. Doing these every year, I've also realized that they capture a season of my own life, based off how much I had planned ahead and what was going on in our lives at the time that effected where we took the photos, how we took them, the cakes we used, the amount of images, etc. It's been a wonderful experience to document with her. This was her fifth birthday cake smash in 2018. She chose the Rockstar theme and this was the year that I learnt although ice cream cakes are delicious, they are NOT good for smashing 😆

This was the year I also started adding a cake-less portion to the birthday photoshoots.

Gypsy really rocked this one. So did I.. with my Guitar Hero guitar.

For her sixth birthday cake smash, I attempted to use a green screen for the first time for her Frozen theme and proved that my strengths lie in the photography and not the editing, but they still turned out cute! We all remember 2019 when every parent had to watch Frozen eight million times? Yes. Obviously this was that phase of life.

In March of 2020 yikes Gypsy turned seven and we chose a pink monochrome theme. I LOVED the props for this session and she had so much fun digging into her delicious cake. She really got into it!

For her eight birthday in 2021, she fought me tooth and nail about doing the photoshoot, but I was committed. So instead of being worried about a crazy theme and all these props, we did a simple birthday shoot in front of a pretty collage near our home, with a delicious treat from a super yummy local bakery, and had a little celebration to ourselves. By the end, she was super into it and I even got her to take a few fun solo birthday girl shots.

Her ninth birthday in 2022 was another favorite set of mine, teddy bear picnic theme! And of course, she had her model moment for this one, too. She looked so cute with this short hair, this girl can rock any hairstyle.

For her tenth birthday in 2023, we did a St. Patrick's Day themed shoot, because her birthday is in March.

I fought HER tooth and nail on this one 😆 I wasn't feeling it but she TOTALLY was and that was the only important thing, and she did amazing. If you ask her, creating the mountain of whipped cream is one of her favorite memories out of all of these years of cake smash photoshoots.

My favorite part of this session was after everything was cleaned up, she completely directed me and posed herself for her own photos, and these were them:

What a little artist. Last year in 2024, for her eleventh birthday, after a decade of being a mom, I feel like I finally got things done in advance so the birthday sessions for both my kids, were my favorite by a long shot. Gypsy chose a 1930's theme, which was the theme I tried to talk her into last year, and it ended up being my LAST PHOTOS at my first commercial studio space across from Village Green Mall before I moved into my current downtown Vernon studio. We started out with a full on Vogue-esque photoshoot, designed by her, hair by Hair To Please You:

Then the CAKE WAS HAD!

These were also her last photos without braces, which have completely changed her face since. These are the last little baby faced photos of my girl 🥹and they are now her favorite cake smash photos so far.

As she ages, she gets more involved in the planning and execution of the photoshoots, which makes her feel more connected with the photos. She looks forward to creating the vision based around the theme that she picks, and I spend the months leading up to it, collecting and creating the perfect props, booking hair and finding a cake. Professional photography is partially about the photos you receive at the end, but there is a lot in the experience alone. I love putting my kids into the spotlight and treating them like a celebrity for a little while, while we celebrate them and their next year of life. I know that these photoshoots have impacted their self image in a positive way and seeing the photos on display in our home, helps them with their sense of belonging. Doing these birthday sessions also makes sure that at least once a year, I slow down enough to remember to capture my own children, not just my clients. That's a personal reminder I need sometimes because life happens so quickly. I invite you to try a cake smash session for something other than a first birthday and see how much fun it can be.