Welcome to my newborn photography and cake smash photography website! Thank you so much for stopping by. I have been married to my wonderful husband and friend, Mitchel for 14 years. Together we have 4 boys, Terrance-28, Daniel-20, Maddox-12, and Gavin-11. Our springer spaniel named, Jesse and our spunky cat, Ralph. Our boys are our greatest accomplishments, and keep my days very exciting, not to mention extremely busy.
Having my son at the young age of 17 inspired me. He truly saved me from a life that I knew I didn’t want. I wanted to be better than my past, to build a greater future, for us. I owed him that. He’s the sole reason behind my aspirations to be a newborn photographer and it all started when he made his way into this world. Documenting how incredibly innocent his beautiful little soul was, was pure joy. Nothing else compared to it. Documenting his organic smile, and his way of being, day after day, I truly understood how PRICELESS newborn baby photos were and how much I wanted to spend every waking moment documenting his everyday life before it soon became a faded memory.
Although that was a dream for a young 17-year-old, I didn’t have the financial stability to drop everything and take a chance on the unknown. Went to school, and got a job in the medical field. Things were great for us but little did I know they were about to get better. I met my husband! The rest is now history.
After we were afforded the wonderful opportunity for me to become a stay-at-home mom to my last two boys and the documenting of their almost everyday life as I did with my firstborn, only then, did I realize how much I truly yearned to finally make my dream a reality. In 2013 made it a goal to teach myself everything I needed to know about digital photography, all while raising two young boys, 14 months apart. My husband supported me more than 110% and believed in my ability. I studied newborn photography intensely for the next few months.
I would sit and read as much as I could in my free time; and watch endless amounts of YouTube videos, soaking up all I could about the fancy gear, technical skills and business related to digital photography. I was gradually making some money on the side but every penny made went straight back into my business. On a whim one day I decided I was ready to start a photography business. I put an ad on Craigslist and I bought a website to showcase some recent work. I felt like an official “photographer” at this point, but I still had a lot of learning to do. I charged $65 a photo shoot and gave clients CDs of about 100 edited pictures.
I quickly became popular and swamped with clients. From there, I just started to increasingly perfect my work, craft and technical skills to be where I am today but the road to success was not easy. It was probably one of the most challenging things I could have done; risk, failure, doubts, criticism, discipline, sacrifices, rejection, late nights, persistence, and hard work which ultimately brought me to where I am today. I’m so happy to say all that work paid off.
Now, I can officially say I’m a licensed, legal, and insured maternity, newborn, and cake smash photographer, and this time I am much more in CONTROL of my business and CONFIDENT in what I love to do.
• $35 retainer fee due upon booking
Lily Hayes has always kept her photography collections simple, transparent and all inclusive. Our booking process is seamless and hassle free with only amount due upfront is a $35 booking fee. However, $35.00 booking fee only applies to newborn, lifestyle and maternity sessions. Cake smash sessions require a $125.00 booking fee. Booking fee, is applied to the total amount due. Remaining balance is due 24 hours prior to your session date.
All inclusive pricing; you select the collection that include the said number of files and you pay the listed price. The collection price includes photographers time, creative talent, session design, editing of your images. As well, as the rendering of high resolution digital gallery. Gallery is available for digital download. The photos are yours to share, print, treasure and adore for years to come.
Lily Hayes, an acclaimed Dallas Newborn Photographer, excels in artistic maternity and cake smash photography. She serves clients in Dallas, Plano, Richardson, Carrollton, Allen, McKinney, Frisco, Wylie, Rockwall, and nearby areas. Her studio is conveniently situated east of Dallas near George Bush.
