DIY at home cake smash photo shoot
My little man turned one a few weeks ago and I knew that I want to do a cake smash photo shoot for him. I was already planning a baseball theme birthday party, so I already had all of all of these decor items I had planned on using for that. I feel like when it comes to a cake smash that less is more. Set up a few items to ground the photo and get your idea across, but also you don’t want to have too many distractions for the little babe. By the middle of the shoot he was over the cake and throwing the balls and playing with the coke bottles. He loved playing with the cake and getting messy and I got some good photos out of it!
what you’ll need
First place to start is you need to get a background backdrop support system. I actually borrowed mine from a friend. but she got hers from Amazon. It’s easy to set up but you may need two people to move it if you don’t set it up in the exact spot you plan on shooting in. Not because its heavy but because its long and awkward once put together.
Next you need a backdrop. I got the this exact backdrop from Amazon. It does come very wrinkly from being packaged and shipping. I threw mine in the dryer for 20 minutes on hot and then set it up on the stand and steamed it. I highly recommend you take the time to steam it or iron it, it makes it look like a much higher quality picture.
GOOD LIGHTING! This is so so important! We don’t have studio lights so having good day light is necessary for a good quality photo. You don’t want direct light but you want the brightest space in your home. That spot in my house is actually by the slider doors in out kitchen. We have a whole breakfast nook set up that I moved just to take these photos, but lighting is key so its worth it.
Then add in all of your accessories!
This exact letter M is no longer sold, I did find it at Michaels. BUT I do also have this galvanized metal letter M. They have it in other letters as well of course and I almost used this one but I did prefer how the red looked with my set up.
Wood pedestal – cake stand. I did find this exact one at Homegoods, but I found this similar option on Amazon.
Lastly I picked up the bottles of cola from our local Walmart and thats it! Super easy to throw together a DIY at home cake smash
A couple of tips
Have someone there to help you! You could probably get away with doing it by yourself if you have to, but it was so helpful to have a friend there. Hanging the banner and getting it exactly where you want was much easier with two people. Speaking of the banner, I didn’t plan ahead and was using random chip clips that I had in my kitchen drawers to attach them to the backdrop. I would not recommend that! If you have those big metal paper clips I think that would have worked better because they are much lighter weight and can hold better than clips, that are meant for chips 😂 but thats okay we made it work!
Be prepared to give that baby a bath right after! I tried to use wipes but this kid had cake all in his hair and we went straight to the tub!
Don’t wear nice clothes. I knew the baby would get messy, I didn’t anticipate also being covered in cake head to toe myself.
Also, Maverick crawled away a few times because he was over it, and got his cake hands on other things. Maybe thats just my wild child but be prepared to have cake multiple places. If possible try and shoot on a hardwood floor but if thats not possible maybe put down an extra sheet just incase they crawl away so you don’t get cake from their hands on the carpet.
Have fun! It’s so fun to watch your little babe have fun wit the cake, they are turning one and they only do that once! I’m so happy I have these pictures to look back on and knowing that I did them myself is even more rewarding.
