Older newborn photos with five-week-old Finley

“It’s never easy with a new baby,” new mum Mackenzie told me, “but it’s been as easy as it could be. My pregnancy and birth went smoothly and little Finley is just amazing. He makes all these little noises and has even started to smile – every little thing he does I feel so proud like he’s just won a gold medal.”

Mackenzie is from Michigan while Joel is from the UK. They met in New York while Joel was visiting an American friend and the sparks flew between them.

They dated long-distance for four years before Mackenzie moved over to Abingdon (where Joel runs a top-rated independent bar called The Tipsy Mercer) in November last year, so they could get married in December. 

They had planned a big wedding do at the Bodleian Library last May, but the pandemic meant they had to keep pushing the date back. With Mackenzie’s family overseas and unable to travel, the couple decided to go ahead with a simple registry wedding instead.

Now they’re so glad they did, as shortly afterwards they found out they were expecting, and the couple wanted to marry before starting a family.

Like many new parents, they’ve taken zillions of images on their phones of each other holding their new arrival but have very few images with all three of them in. That’s meant that Mackenzie is particularly excited about finally having lovely pictures of their family of three together.

However, she wasn’t initially planning on having a Newborn Photoshoot at all. Her dad and stepmom came over from America to stay with the new family for a few weeks and it was her dad who did the research to find me and insisted they get booked in with me.

Little Finley is the first grandchild on both sides, and Mackenzie is one of four sisters so you can just imagine how excited the family are to meet him. Mackenzie and Joel hope to take a trip to America soon once Finley’s passport is ready so they can introduce him to his wider family.

In the meantime, Mackenzie and Joel are enjoying finally being in the same country together, and bringing up amazing Little Finley as a husband and wife team 🙂

After our photoshoot Mackenzie said:

“Our entire experience with Sarah was incredible! She is extremely professional and made us feel so comfortable from our first phone call all the way through our photoshoot with our newborn! The pictures turned out so beautiful & are going to be so special to us forever. We will definitely be going back to Sarah for our future family pictures!”

Mackenzie, newborn photography client from Abingdon, Oxfordshire

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If you’re interested in newborn portraits or family photography in and around Bicester, Oxfordshire, please get in contact.

Sarah Plater LMPA is an award-winning qualified, certified professional newborn and family portrait photographer based in Bicester, Oxfordshire. She is the Master Photographers Association Newborn Photographer of the Year 2019 for the Central Region (covering Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire).