My daughter’s 6th birthday was last week and it got me thinking about how special her 5th birthday photo shoot was at Disneyland (I still need to do her photo shoot for this year).  Bella loves Minnie Mouse!  So I planned a shoot in Toon Town at Disneyland for her.  We have annual passes and so it was extra fun and easy to plan.  But, I thought that I would walk you through my planning process.  And I hope it will be helpful.

1)  Figure out what theme, color pallette that you are going for.  This was easy for me!  She’s obsessed with Minnie Mouse.  Her favorite color is pink and so we went with the pink Minnie Mouse dress.

2)  Decide on a location.  Think about your theme and color pallette that you previously decided on.  What would bring that to life?  Sometimes you want a more simple background, for us, it was easy.  I wanted Minnie’s House!  It was so helpful that the east side of Minnie’s House is adorable and has that most perfect light during the golden hour.  Definitely something to take into consideration!  That is something that your photographer can help you with.  One thing that helped us, at Disneyland, we waited to do this shoot until a couple of weeks into January.  That is a time that is not as busy as during Christmas.  Her birthday is December 27th, that would NOT be a good day and try to do these pictures, people would be everywhere.  And, on busy days, the line to Minnie’s House goes onto that side of the house and we wouldn’t have gotten these pictures at all.  We went on a good day!

3)  Decide on props.  You don’t always need props at all.  Sometimes, just your outfit is the prop.  But we decided to bring her favorite Minnie plush from home.  We also bought a pink balloon, which was an extra treat for her, I NEVER let them get balloons, NEVER.  But then we also got a cute lollipop.

It was such a fun day.  For a parent, there is nothing better than making your child feel special and Bella loved this!  And these are precious photos that we will treasure forever!