Another "Formal Photo" question

[SASM]

Who did you give the formal photos to? Where do you draw the line? Just grandparents? Did you just buy an 8x10 (or some other size) and keep it for yourself, not giving any out? What packages did you find worked best for you?

Thank you from a clueless new mom!! :-)

[Momof3Labs]

We gave 5x7's to the grandparents and wallets to the aunts and uncles, and had an 8x10 and a couple of 5x7's made up for ourselves. Probably overboard, but if you are going to do portraits on a regular basis (every few months) keep in mind that family (and you) will quickly accumulate a ton of portraits!

We will probably do bigger pictures for everyone of his one year photo.

[C99]

If it was an option NOT to buy the 8x10, I would have skipped it. I framed a 5x7 for our wall, gave framed 5x7s to both sets of grandparents and gave wallets out to those who either asked for them or who I thought would want them -- family and close friends.

[Karenn]

We did pretty much the same as Lori. Colin does have 3 sets of great grandparents living, so we also gave each set of greats a 5 x 7.

I'm not sure where you've decided to get your pictures taken, but it's good you're thinking about this ahead of time! The first time I went to Picture People, and they brought out $250 worth of darling pictures all printed and ready to go home with me I was so overwhelmed! I can be so indecisive that it was hard to pick the "best" shots (especially knowing that anything I didn't buy was just going to be trashed.) IMO, they kind of set it up so that it's REALLY easy to buy far more than you need, or really even want. I've made my mom come with me ever since that first time so she can help me decide on the best shots and I don't end up buying what I don't need. (Of course this last time, she spent almost as much as I did on her own- so that may not be the best plan :))

[parkersmama]

Such a hard question! I hate deciding this every time we have new pictures. With our first son we gave pictures to lots of relatives. We found out pretty quickly that cost WAY too much money! Now, we mostly give to grandparents and occasionally to other family members as well. I always get an 8X10 for us. We put them in a silver frame on the mantel and when we get a new picture made, the old ones go into a nice album for 8x10s that is on the shelf in our den. Also, during that first year for each of my kids, I bought most of the proofs and a small album for them (they are 4x5). That way for each picture session we have a nice set of pictures showing their personalities and not just the "best" picture.

[August Mom]

Well, our first formal photos wound up being Christmas gifts, so we bought quite a few photos and bought quite a few frames on sale at Kohl's (the cheapest place for decent frames that I've found). For the "first photo" we got 8x10s for ourselves, each set of grandparents and my aunts and uncles (with whom we still exchange Christmas gifts). We also got 5x7s for my mom and DH at work. We got 3.5x5s for DS's aunts and uncles. We also got a sheet of wallets for any of the above-mentioned relatives who wanted them. For our second formal photo at 6 months, we got 8x10s for ourselves and my mom and dad, 5x7s for DH's mom and dad and DS's great grandma, 3.5x5s for DS's aunts and uncles and a sheet of wallets for others (I was having trouble leaving this pose behind :). I was planning to get my mom and dad a 5x7 instead of an 8x10, but my mom specifically asked for an 8x10. I had really good coupons at both sessions ($3.99 sheets). If I had to pay full price, I probably wouldn't have bought as many.

My one piece of advice on this subject is to make a written outline of how many of each size of photo you want to buy before the photos are taken. Then you can just write which pose you want next to each size. There's a lot of decision-making after the photo session as it is without trying to remember who should get a photo and what size it should be. Good luck.

[Melanie]

It gets so expensive! And all of our parents are divorced, so there are a lot of sets to give to. We buy whatever size we want for us, usually 8x10, occasionally bigger. One set (I go to cheapy photo places where you buy by the sheet) package of wallets. Grandparents get 5x7 or 3x5 and 1 wallet. Unless it's a holiday like mother's day or something and it's a gift then we usually go 8x10 and get them a frame. It depends on the parent, too. Like I can't see MIL or my Dad displaying a huge photo of us in her house, so we don't waste money getting them one.