Lifestyle Newborn Client Prep Guide:
What to Include and How to Create One
Creating a welcome guide for your photography clients can truly transform their experience. Instead of wondering what to expect, your clients will receive a beautifully crafted, thoughtful guide that sets the tone for a smooth and enjoyable session. Tailored to reflect your unique photography style, personality, and preferences, this guide speaks directly to your clients' needs and helps them feel prepared and excited.
It sounds fantastic, right? But where do you begin?
I’ve been there—spending hours scouring Etsy, Facebook groups, and endless search results for ideas, only to feel overwhelmed and stuck. I want to save you that stress! In this post, I’ll share some categories and tips to help give you the framework to create a client welcome guide that perfectly aligns with your business and meets your clients' needs.
Who is your ideal client? Speak directly to that client instead of being vague and trying to speak to everyone.
If you are just starting and don't have a clear vision for who your ideal client is, take some time to consider this.
Personally, I felt like I needed to photograph a good number of families before I was able to narrow down my ideal client. It was easier for me, in the beginning, to imagine I was speaking to my little sister and helping her to prepare for her session.
Speaking directly and personably will help your client to connect with you.
In this post, I am going to outline the key parts of a great newborn client prep guide, you can apply many of the same principles to other session types as well.
Welcome Section
Start out with a brief intro about you... Here is the trick though, you want to write in such a way that highlights how your skills, personality, and value serve your client. Your client probably doesn't need to know the shows you like and your favorite coffee order - That's great content for your Instagram stories. This is the place to demonstrate some ways that your personality and approach will be a great fit for them and build your client's confidence in you as a photographer.
Before the Session
Scheduling: How does the client let you know when baby is born? What is your process once they notify you?
Baby's age: How old is baby generally going to be when the session takes place? What should the parent know about the difference between newborn photos at 1-2 weeks old, versus 3-4 weeks?
Day of the Session
The house: Talk about how you want them to prep the home, do you want them to clean/tidy? Turn overhead lights off?Turn music on? Turn TV off? Turn up the heat?
For the parents : Talk a little about what to expect, how they should interact with each other and their children, this is a good place to empathize with how they are feeling in this busy time of life and reassure them that you are going to make this a great experience for them!
The baby: Should baby be fed before you arrive? What are your expectations of baby? (I like to emphasize that we will follow baby's lead and take as many breaks as needed!)
Wardrobe
What type of styling do you recommend? Colors, styles, materials, etc., Anything they should avoid?
Neutrals are really great suggestions for in home sessions. Mentioning that your clients may want to consider the colors and tones in their home when choosing their outfits might seem obvious to us as photographers, but many clients will not have considered that!
This is also a good spot to mention your client closet, or specific retailers you like to recommend.
Older Siblings and Fur Babies
Talk about how to prep these members of the family, your expectations for them, etc.,
I like to advise parents to have older children fed before the session so that they don't get hungry during the session. Some photographers I know prefer to incorporate snack time as part of the session, this is up to you as the creative director of your session. Prep the parents ahead of time to know what to expect in this regard!
Talk about what you expect the children or pets will be doing during the session - Are you okay with them coming in and out? Do you want pets to be contained until a designated time? Do you want the older siblings to be ready for pictures during the first fifteen minutes and then they can go play? These are all good things to briefly mention!
After Session Expectations
Talk a bit about gallery delivery timeline and next steps, prints and products you offer, album design, etc.,
How to Create and Deliver this Guide
A great way to present this information is either as a Canva designed PDF, or as a hidden page on your website - (this is my personal favorite, it gives your clients a better user experience if they are viewing it from their mobile device, as they generally will be doing, plus, it helps your website's SEO.)
Final Tips
Use your experience! Think through your past sessions, what are things that you wish you had told your clients ahead of time? What were questions that they had? What felt clunky or awkward (how can you address that ahead of time?)
It is not only negative though - What went really well in past sessions that you want to emphasize for future sessions? Talk about these things too!
Be brief. I struggle with this, I am a wordy person. Write it out, but then read it aloud to yourself, take out the extra words. Where do you find yourself naturally skimming? Your client will probably read it the same way - Make it more concise! You can always email more information. The key is to deliver content in a digestible way.
You've got this! I hope this serves to get your creative juices flowing and gives you a framework for how to think about approaching creating your own client welcome and prep guide.
Looking for more photographer resources? You will probably love my blog Resources for Photographers Building your Business
Heartfelt & Joyful Photography
Hi, my name is
Susannah!
Capturing the beauty in everyday motherhood moments and embracing the nostalgia of childhood.
I crave authenticity, thrive on emotional connection, and see life through a romanticized lens—especially when it comes to capturing the love and chaos of family life.
As a wife, mama, and lover of photographs, I know how quickly these moments pass—the snuggles, the giggles, the fleeting seasons of motherhood. That’s why I’m passionate about creating images that don’t just capture how your family looks but how these moments feel.
Moments like the way your newborn nestles against you to, the laughter on your bouncing toddler's face, the shifting dynamic as you pull your no-longer-little child into your embrace one more time and you laugh together, my sessions are about preserving the stories you’ll hold onto forever.
Let’s create something timeless, meaningful, and uniquely yours—images that will bring you right back to the love and connection of this season, over and over again.
