Cake Smash & Bath Splash Photographer Brisbane & Redlands
Jennifer Horner Photography has it’s gorgeous natural light filled studio in Cleveland, Brisbane. Specialising in maternity and first year photography, cake smashes are an important part of what the studio does.
How does a cake smash shoot work?
The design process & the cake
Your $199 session fee covers your cake, outfit, props and fresh florals or decorations. You don’t have to organise anything, you just turn up for a stress free, fun experience. Then you choose your package with a minimum spend of $549.
You’ll have the choice of the following themes:
- Stunning white on white with naked cake and bamboo or fresh floral topper – suitable for boys or girls
- Fresh florals, with floral garland and fresh floral bath
- A touch of colour – all white backdrop with garlands and cake and outfit in a colour of your choice (unisex)
- Watercolour pastels with painted backdrop in pastels
- Unicorn theme with pastels and clouds
- Stars and clouds (Creams and golds) – unisex
- Gumnuts and greenery – a deep toned shoot with gorgeous native greenery (can add native florals), wood tones and light wooden cake holder
- A very hungry caterpillar
We work closely with CuppaMakeCake, who deliver cakes to the studio for our shoots. CuppaMakeCake also can source florals for decoration of the cake and bath.
The studio provides a cake to suit the theme chosen, up to a budget of $50, and fresh florals if required.
You are also welcome to bring along your own cake and/or florals for the shoot.
The Family Portraits
Each cake smash session begins with an updated family portrait, and a photo of bub with each parent if you’d like one. If not, we spend this time getting a few portraits of the birthday child alone. At this stage, any siblings leave to go for a play at a local park or a drive with Mum or Dad.
The Cake Smash
The next stage of the shoot is the cake smash, and this usually takes around 15-20 minutes where bub explores the cake, the textures, the taste, and has fun making a big mess. It’s recommended that baby has tasted, played with and smashed a cake before coming to the studio so that it’s not an overwhelming process for them. I recommend a cupcake in their high chair a few days before the shoot.
A quick break to relax
After the cake, we have a brief break to set up the bathtub. During this time usually your little one explores the garden next to the studio and has some ‘time off’ for 5 minutes to recharge and reset. This allows them time to run, crawl and process the experience of the cake smash, ready to hop in the bath next.
The bath
We bring out our purpose build bath tub full of bubbles, and can add florals to this section of the shoot if you wish. All babies love this portion of the shoot, and have fun with flowers, rubber duckies, bubbles, and splashing. Here we get big grins and lots of personality.
After the bath
After the bath, if you want one, we will do a naked baby shot from behind, sitting on a towel, just showing their sweet back and thighs and rolls.
What should we bring?
- The outfit you would like your baby to wear. Some parents provide an outfit but the studio does own some simple rompers for girls in neutral creams and whites, and a few nappy cover options for boys.
- A towel for the bath portion of the shoot. White is best.
- Your cake if you are providing it yourself
- A spare top for Mum or Dad, as sometimes things get a little wet and sticky!
- A drink bottle for bub, smashing is thirsty work!!!
- Small snacks that your baby loves, we sometimes need these to encourage the baby to try the cake.
What should we wear?
Parents and family shots are done against a simple cream background, so the sky is the limit in terms of what you can wear. Most parents tend to choose colours that match their child’s colour scheme for the shoot, or wear simple neutral or cream tops. Avoid anything with a small, busy pattern as it can cause distortion in a photo. Also try to avoid bright reds or hot pinks as it reflects into the skin tones and makes you look quite flushed.