I have a sweet and wonderful photog friend named Emily (of Emily Magers Photography).  I was looking for someone to photograph my events and she was looking to develop her skills and promote herself.  And thus began a professional collaboration that turned into a beautiful friendship.  We spend a LOT of time together, and my son has started FaceTiming her because he’s so obsessed with “EmLeeee!”

Emily has done so much for me and become such a good friend.  So when she told me about her idea to offer Valentine’s Day mini photo sessions, and asked if I would stylize it for her, I was thrilled to do so.  We headed off to the local dollar stores to see what we could find and started loading up our cart.  All together, I think we spent about $40 on decor and supplies. The rest we either had on hand or borrowed.  Or was donated.  Emily does some photography for Bake You Happy, a local cupcake shop and Cupcake Wars winner; they donated a dozen adorable (and delicious) cupcakes for the shoot.  And Sarah from Cardboard Sheek donated the “Love” and hearts banners.  To welcome Emily’s clients, we set up a little welcome table with snacks, drinks, favors, & coupons for future sessions.  I have to admit that I lacked inspiration up until about 3 days before the shoot, but we were both really happy with how everything turned out.

There was lots of hugging, kissing, hand-holding, and general all-around love & affection going on.  Just as it should be for Valentine’s Day.

Station 1: The Love Couch

The Love Couch was simply decorated with two banners made by Cardboard Sheek.  I love her banners and use them as often as possible!

Station 2: The Kissing Booth

This kissing booth was a total DIY project.  It was a piece of foam board duct taped (yes, I’m that classy) to dowels which were stuck into tins filled with rocks.  I printed and cut out the letters and used paper I had on hand to decorate it.  I also made up some giant conversation hearts from posterboard that were used as photo props. I LOVE how the conversation hearts turned out.  They were such a fun addition to the photos.

Station 3: The Cupcake Shoppe

I was really happy with how this little table set-up turned out.  Giant glitter hearts (from the dollar store) were stuck to the wall with sticky tack. The framed subway print was a free printable from Lil’ Luna. The cupcakes were donated by Bake You Happy and I bought the tulips at a local grocery store.  

After our day of photo shoots, Emily and I decided to make sure of all our decorations and throw ourselves a little Valentine’s Day party in my back yard.  Click here to see pictures from our Love Letters Valentine’s Day party.

Vendors:

Photography: Emily Magers Photography

Styling: Marigold Events

Cupcakes: Bake You Happy

LOVE & hearts banners:  Cardboard Sheek

Love Subway Art Print: Lil’ Luna