There's a lot of pressure on parents to get baby's first birthday just right. Not from the baby, I assume, since they can't really say much about it and even if they could they would totally forget about it an hour later. But by other parents, social media, themselves. And the cake smash, when a baby attacks their birthday cake, is basically becoming the promposal moment of every little birthday party. It has to be fun and interesting and adorable and memorable. Well, I can tell you this little girl's Starbucks cake smash ticked all the boxes so I guess the rest of you parents might want to go ahead and up your game.
Fayetteville, Georgia-area photographer Lynn Puzzo was recently tasked with the super fun job of coming up with a cool cake smash photo session for an adorable 1-year-old little girl named Aria. As Puzzo explained to Romper in an email, she had just moved to Fayetteville from across the country and was trying to come up with something creative to "help me get noticed so I can book some new clients." While Puzzo often books newborn photo shoots, she decided to do a cake smash session with Aria featuring something she loves herself; good old Starbucks. And judging from Aria's joy as she smashes that cake on Instagram, she didn't exactly hate the gig either.
Puzzo told Romper she came up with the idea after finding a "cute little outfit on Instagram;"
When I saw it, I had to have it. At first I was just going to use it for any client session - then I got the idea to do the cake smash. So I found the baker - Sandra, with Santini Mini Sweets in Atlanta Georgia to make the cake for me. She was amazing to work with, and the cake was 100% worth the 2 hour round trip drive to get it!
I think Aria would agree.
Aria is nothing if not the consummate professional, however. In fact it wasn't even her birthday... she was hired on as the talent, as Puzzo told Romper:
I put out a "model call" to find a baby to use for the session. I kept the entire thing a secret, which was super hard since I was so excited about it - but I had been unable to find any other Starbucks themed cake smash sessions on the internet so I was excited about it being something original! My little model friend is Aria, and she was perfect for the session! She has to be one of the most sweet, happy, expressive babies I have ever worked with!
Of course the Starbucks cake smash session was a success for more reasons than just little Aria. The outfit worn by Aria from Ritzy Baby boutique in Branson, Missouri (hilariously called Hipster Coffee Striped Bowkini) certainly didn't hurt matters. Nor did the ingenuity of a creative photographer.
If I don't see this Starbucks cake smash become a thing on social media I'm going to be disappointed in all of you.
