Now that we shared our 2016 Christmas Card, we HAVE to tell you guys how this photo shoot was almost an EPIC FAIL!

Taking the photos for our Christmas cards has become one of our favorite holiday traditions because it usually results in us laughing hysterically at our own ridiculousness. This year was the first year we didn’t have to press the camera’s self timer and run into our places because we recruited Matt to take our pictures. With him behind the camera, we thought things would run A LOT smoother (and would be a lot less ridiculous)… but boy were we SO wrong!

Allow us to start from the very beginning of how this all went down.

Usually we take our Christmas card photo sometime in November and by then temperatures in Chicago are COLD and we are outside freezing our buns off. Since we wanted to do a more “dressy” look this year, we thought taking these photos while the temperatures in Chicago were still warm would be our best way to wear dresses and not freeze in the process.

So we actually chose a date in AUGUST to get this photo off of our to-do list. We figured with our crazy schedules and the busy Fall makeover project, August was one of the only free weekends we could get the photo and guarantee that the weather would be warm enough to be outside.Well we were right about that, the temperature was perfect for our “photo shoot”, however we didn’t account for other weather details that day.

We had a sleepover at Bridget’s and planned to get up super early to get these outdoor photos out-of-the-way before people filled the streets and started looking at us doing our “Christmas in August Shoot” like we were legit crazy. <— we wouldn’t blame them!

We got up, got ready by 7am, and walked outside to a monsoon. IT WAS LEGIT POURING and when we looked at the radar, the rain was not stopping anytime soon.

We should’ve just cancelled the shoot right there, but it was 7am, we were all dolled up, didn’t have many opportunities to get together to shoot, and figured it wouldn’t be a Playbook Christmas shoot without a crazy story like this one. So of course, we opened our umbrellas, tried to get the gifts into the car without them getting wet (fail), drove to this location and waited in the car until the rain let up.

In between showers (literally), we snuck in as many photos as could. As you can see in some of these photos, our curls did not work well with the rain and humidity. #Augustprobs

The good news is that these big smiles on our faces are very genuine because we could NOT stop laughing (once again) at our ridiculousness.
We kept saying that this is what we get for trying to take our Christmas card in August.

And don’t even get us started on trying to find cute, Christmas wrapping paper in stores in August. We were scrambling trying to find paper that worked for the holidays.

Now that it’s December, there’s SO many amazing options in stores! We’ve been snapping pics of the AISLES and AISLES of gorgeous options and texting them to each other saying how nice it would’ve been to have these in our photo! Maybe we should stock up for next year’s early photo?!

But as much as this photo shoot was wet, humid, and did no favors for our hair, we surprisingly had a blast…. and are still laughing at the 7 am stormy craziness!

Lesson Learned: Contrary to what we thought, getting your Christmas Card photo done in August may not have been the best idea (who knew!?).

On the other hand, it came with memories that may make us laugh out loud for years and years to come and a photo that may be far from perfect but one we wouldn’t trade for the world!

Whether your Christmas card turns out as perfect as you had hoped or feels like an epic fail, we hope it brings you laughs and memories for years and years to come! And if we’re being completely honest here, what more can you ask for out of this special tradition after all?!

 

Bridget&Casey