Alice in Wonderland costume for Book Week

For Book Week this year, my daughter decided to go as Alice In Wonderland. She was Little Red Riding Hood for Grade 1 and Hermoine Granger last year. I've been wanting to do Alice for the longest time so I'm so happy she finally chose this character.

Sabre's 7th birthday photoshoot

Sabre turned 7 years old last week and we all know this is a big milestone in any child's life. We didn't have a big party and just chose to go to Hong Kong for a family vacation. He did have a small pool party though so he could still celebrate with a few friends.

DIY Christmas Photoshoot 2017

And our annual Christmas card photoshoot continues! Again, I decided to DIY it this year thinking it would be easier since the kids are older... wrong! ;p

Smart Parenting feature

Check out Smart Parenting online where I was featured as one of 4 Pinay Moms who Share Useful Tips for Their Pre-Birthday Shoots.

I already posted about my daughter's 7th birthday shoot before, so you can click HERE to see more photos from that day by Mhel Mesa Photography. And if you want to read the whole article, head on over to SmartParenting.com.ph. :)

A 7th Birthday Photoshoot

For my daughter's 7th birthday, I knew I definitely wanted her to have a photoshoot to capture that time in her life. She had a small party in McDonald's but I didn't hire a photographer anymore for that day since I was just the one who took the photos. I figured I'll just spend for her pre-birthday shoot since that's where I wanted the photos to look extra nice.

Our 8th

Today is our 8th wedding anniversary! We actually did a family photoshoot a few weeks ago and while the kids were busy running around not being cooperative (lol) I asked the photographer if she could snap some shots of me and hubby.

Merry Christmas!

And here it is, the final Christmas card from the DIY photoshoot I did a few days ago. Hope everyone is having a wonderful and merry Christmas with their loved ones. Happy Holidays everyone, from our family to yours!

DIY Christmas Photoshoot

Happy Valentine's Day!

Did a quick photoshoot with my kids for Vday this year. I just had them wear red and hold the balloons from Miley's OWLentine's party. I didn't even try to have them in one shot since that's practically impossible haha! But so glad with how this collage turned out. Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

XOXO,

Helene

Skyler's cake smash

Our little Skyler just turned a year and a half year old. How time flies! So to celebrate this milestone, I'm sharing pictures from our cake smash session with Sugarpuff Photography after Sky's 1st birthday. Cake is from Shortcrust btw. Enjoy! :)

probably my fave pic haha! Skyler clearly knows it's HIS cake!!!

Our Prenup Pictorial

Today is our 6th wedding anniversary and to celebrate, I thought I'd share our prenup photos taken way back in 2008 by Flickerhappy Studio. I knew I wanted a vintage theme and I remember searching long and hard for a location for the shoot. I happened to see a photo of this place in Real Living magazine which turned out to be A11 Gallery in Pasay City. From the pictures I saw, I knew I had to have our shoot there.

I didn't know who to get in touch with so I remember just writing a random email to a contact address I saw online. Lo and behold, someone replied and said that it was the very first time someone had inquired about a prenup shoot! So yes, we hold the distinction of being the first ever couple to do their prenup in this place. :)

I completely love how the photos turned out because every single corner of the place was gorgeous! Looking back, it's probably how I would still want my prenup pics to look even if we did it today. And you might think we look sad in the pics coz there's hardly any with us smiling but that's intentional lol! We definitely didn't want to be mushy or cheesy so we just treated it like a fashion spread hehe. So yes, no kissing shots! I remember having my trial makeup done before the shoot then I just did my own hair. I also was the one who styled our outfits. Sariling sikap even then hehe! :)

Anyway, hope you enjoy the pics as much as I loved looking back on them. Throwback! ;p

Our Luxe Photoshoot

I love taking pictures and of course, having my pictures taken too. Hubby hates it though and gives me the evil eye whenever I ask him to take anything more than 3 times (hey, may slight differences ang angle and poses lol!).  How I wish I can have my photos taken professionally all the time, if it just wasn't that expensive! It really is an investment and I've indulged in it after my kids were born so we can have nice family photos we can treasure forever (see our Stork Studio shoot HERE and our Picture Company shoot HERE).

Anyway, I'm always on the lookout for new photographers and a few years ago, I saw my friend post gorgeous photos of her baby on Facebook. I checked and found out that they were taken by Luxe Photography. When I got pregnant, I was seriously contemplating on doing a maternity shoot but then decided to just do it myself (check out my DIY maternity shoot HERE and HERE). I figured it would be better to have the photos taken when the baby was born. Personally, I prefer taking baby pics when they're a few months old versus newborn since I think they're definitely cuter and their personality will already show. So fast forward to when Skyler was 8 months and we finally had our much awaited photo shoot!

Anyway, what I love about Luxe was their amazing set-ups, and it was honestly my first time to see that in kiddie and family shoots back then. Most of the other studios just use plain backgrounds and simple props (which I also like for the classic look). But now, having a stylist is the norm not just for pre-nup pictorials but also for baby shoots! When I was emailing with the photographer, Wilvin, I said I wanted to do a vintage travel theme. He was suggesting doing it outdoors, but I wanted it in the studio to get the full styling effect. Besides, the weather can be so unpredictable too. We're from the south but we trooped all the way to Quezon City on a weekday just to do this pictorial!

You've probably already seen a snippet of our shoot from our 2014 Christmas card and only now have I finally gotten around to sharing the complete set with you guys! The cost of our shoot was P9,500 and what I liked was that the package came with 50-80 edited hi-res photos. This was such a good deal since when we had our shoot from Stork Studio (which cost about the same), it only came with 10 hi-res files (plus a few print-outs). Can you imagine how hard it was to choose only 10 pics??? Plus, Luxe was more flexible with the time (3 hours) versus Stork Studio which only gives you 1 hour. So even if it was expensive, I felt like I was definitely getting more bang for my buck. :)

When we had our shoot, it was literally just in the living room of our photographer Wilvin. From all the previous pics I saw in Facebook, I wouldn't have guessed it was just taken in someone's sala! Anyway, he was in the process of building his studio then (also in his home), which I know is currently done already. It was kinda weird at first taking pics in the living room with people popping in and out, plus his kids were also there. I guess that would be my only complaint from the shoot if any. It became a challenge tuloy to get Miley and Sabe to pose properly since they just wanted to play with Wilvin's daughter. ;p

Shooting with children is definitely a challenge and you just have to learn to go with the flow. I wanted a pic with all 3 kids together, but we couldn't get a good one since no one wanted to sit still. I had 2 outfit changes planned but by the 2nd change, no one was in the mood anymore! I was expecting Miley to be game and Sabe to be the more difficult one, but it ended up being the opposite. Miley's smile was so "pilit" most of the time so we only had about 5 good shots of her. Sabe meanwhile completely hammed it up and modeled like a pro! Skyler was crawling all over the place and even bumped his head. So I was super happy when I finally got the CD after 3 weeks and saw these gorgeous pics! You wouldn't think by looking at them how hard it was to take haha!

Anyway, sorry for the super long intro! Now brace yourself for a LOT of pics!

And out of all the pics in the CD, there was only ONE family picture! Miley isn't smiling but at least it looks nice. Thank goodness we were able to get a good shot!

I'm super happy with how the pics turned out! Super sulit too since I was able to use the pics for our Christmas card and also Skyler's party. I would definitely love to have another shoot done in the future and I'm getting excited just thinking about what theme to do. I think I should make this a yearly thing, don't you think? ;p