So when you book a cake smash, you’ll get the information about the things that you need to bring along with you – the most obvious being a cake of course. When you arrive at the studio, the first thing you need to do is make some decisions about how you’d like your cake smash to look. We get it all set up straight away so we can just get on with the fun part.
Choose your backdrop – I have lots of these to choose from
Choose your Bath Tub – rustic tin or modern clawfoot – the choice is yours…
Choose your Tub Splash Accessories – A choice from a number of sets ranging in style from vintage florals and woodland creatures, to a giant rubber duck (naturally!)
Choose your bunting – this is a bit of an obsession of mine, I keep making more and so the collection grows. You’re welcome to bring along your own (it needs to be 5 foot long at least to fit the backdrop) or choose from any of mine.
Things You Need to Bring
Number 1: A Cake. Yep, you’re definitely going to need one of those and it can be as fancy or as simple as you like. When it comes to cake though, I don’t recommend chocolate as it looks a bit odd in the finished photos.
Number 2: Wet Wipes. These are essential for a quick clean up between smash and splash as babies are a lot nicer to get undressed if you can at least de-sticky their hands first!
Number 3: Towel / Bubble Bath – if you’re adding in the tub splash portion of the session. The bubble bath is optional if you don’t normally use it.
Things You Might Like
Favourite Toys. We don’t let these get involved in the cake smash, although I did have a Jellycat bunny that took a bath once, but they are cute to have at the clean part of the shoot before the smash begins. It’s always fun to look back and remember how important those first toys were and how much they were loved.
Balloons. These is a funny one because sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t. They can look super pretty but I’d recommend helium ones otherwise they are just too tempting sitting on the floor and your baby will likely spend more time crawling after them than sitting for photos. The number ‘1’ balloons are gorgeous but in a photo shoot they are usually a lot taller than your baby so you don’t get to see all of them in the pictures which is a waste. Plus they are foil so they reflect the studio lights. Plain round balloons in any colour that suits your scheme work best and you want to tie them to your weight with a very short string (so they’re almost on the ground) otherwise you just get string in your pictures and the balloons themselves are out of shot.
Cake Smash Outfits. People have their little ones cake smash in all sorts of outfits or just in a nappy, although swim nappies or pants over the top do look nicer than just the nappy on its own. Still, as cake smashes have got more popular, there’s a wide range of outfits that are commercially available. Printed and personalised in some cases, there’s some super cute stuff about. Just remember if you’re ordering on eBay to check the delivery dates you can end up waiting a more or so for outfits making their way over from China.
Things I have at the Studio
Bunting. My bunting collection is legendary and I add to it all the time but you might have your own that you want to bring along and you’re welcome to of course. With sets that spell names or ‘happy birthday’ etc, bear in mind that you won’t see the whole string in every shot where the image is cropped in to focus on your baby. It’s not necessarily a problem but just something to think about when you’re choosing.
Little Wooden Spoons / Trowels. These can be handy for the cake smash. Sometimes babies don’t like the feel of cake in their hands but they’re more than happy to dig in with a trowel or batter it with a spoon so you’re welcome to borrow those if you’d like to.
