Tips for Creating a Travel-Themed Birth Announcement

This Disneybound Outfits for Moms post was written by family travel expert Marcie Cheung and contains affiliate links, which means if you purchase something from one of my affiliate links, I may earn a small commission that goes back into maintaining this blog.

I’m not normally a traditional person, like creating a baby announcement or baby announcements. I’d prefer sharing things on social media, texting photos to family and friends, and sharing the excitement over our growing family.

However, I’m very traditional about sending real, paper birth announcement cards. I love adding in the statistics (birth date, weight, height, etc.).

Most importantly, though, I like to select photos and design the card myself. Besides our annual Christmas card, it’s the only time I mail things to many family members.

I was so excited to plan our baby birth announcements that I actually booked our photographer when I was just 3 months pregnant. Then, I spent a few months envisioning how I’d like the shoot to go, what I’d like the baby announcement card to look like, and introduce our new bundle of joy to the world.

This may sound excessive, but I wasn’t able to do a professional newborn baby photo shoot with my oldest son, so I really wanted to get the most out of the experience. Here are the steps I took to get my aviation-themed custom birth announcement cards:

If you are able, it’s helpful to hire a photographer to take newborn baby photos so that you and your family can be in them. My husband is a great photographer, and I love the photos he takes of our kids, but I also love it when he gets to be in the photos, too!

We would like to use the Happy Film Company here in Seattle because they know how to relax and take candid photos of our family.

Here are some photos to get:

• Sleeping baby. This shouldn’t be hard if you do photos within the first few weeks. Our newborn baby was awake for most of the shoot, and then we rocked him before doing the aviation-themed portion of our photo shoot.
• Close-up details of hands and feet. They change so quickly that you will forget how small they are!
• Mom with baby. I like getting realistic shots of myself with my new baby. Otherwise, all my photos are posed and usually taken on a cell phone.
• Dad with baby. In those early months, there are usually lots of shots of Mom with the baby. It’s nice to get some shots with just Dad and baby because they interact differently, and it’s great to capture that.
• Siblings with baby. I always love photos of siblings holding, kissing, snuggling, or lying next to the newborn baby. It’s even better if you can add a soft prop so siblings have a safe way to interact with the new baby.
• Whole family. You will be surprised how few photos you will have of your whole family that aren’t posed Christmas photos. I like relaxed shots that show our personalities. We had our toddler sing “5 Little Monkeys” while jumping on our bed to keep his expressions genuine.
• Special family members: If you have the opportunity, it would be fabulous if you could include grandparents or even great-grandparents in photos with the baby. Even if you can’t coordinate a professional shoot, take as many shots on your camera or cell phone as you can so you have those photos. You won’t regret it.
• Something unique to your family. I am passionate about babywearing, so I really wanted to get some nice shots of me wearing my son. However, we had a really nice vibe going during the shoot, and I decided to let go of that so we could get more photos of our whole family. But I love that we incorporated our love of airplanes into the photo shoot.

Since my family is obsessed with traveling and our baby has a travel-themed nursery, we thought it would be fun to continue the theme through the birth announcement.

Karen from HandMadeCraftyOne Etsy store sent us an aviation-themed crocheted outfit that was perfect for our photoshoot! I really like how soft the yarn was and that the pants were adjustable for skinny babies but could accommodate heavier ones.

We plan on using the hat when we visit the Museum of Flight and other airplane-related outings for cute candid shots! I repurposed my vintage reproduction suitcase from our wedding and stuffed a Queen-size blanket inside. I also repurposed a vintage metal airplane to set the scene.

Even though it’s so easy to post baby birth announcements on social media, there is something special about sending something in the mail. I like being able to add personal messages to the back. Plus, it’s fun to see your baby’s photo on other people’s fridges when you visit them!

My oldest was in the NICU for a while after he was born prematurely, and when we finally got him home, one of the first things we did was take newborn baby photos for custom birth announcement cards. For me, I really needed to do something to celebrate his new arrival and move past the emotional journey we had endured. Creating his birth announcement was such a positive experience that I knew it was just as important with my second baby.

I really enjoy using Tiny Prints because they have quite an extensive collection of designs, themes, and options. They also offer sales all the time and lots of fun add-ons and customization. They make nice keepsakes, and you could even frame and add them to the nursery.

I picked this personalized birth announcement layout because it highlighted the aviation-themed photo and had a spot to fill in a photo strip with 4 additional photos. This added to the vintage travel vibe I was going with. Additionally, they offer birth announcement pillows, which are pretty fun!

One of the fun things you can do with extra birth announcements is to send them to fun places! My favorite place to send them is the White House because you can get an official greeting from the President!

We did this with my oldest, and it was really fun to receive something in the mail with his full name on it! You can send it anytime within a year after your baby’s birth (but not before the baby is born.)

Keep in mind that because this is an election year, you should be mindful of when you send if you are hoping for a particular President to send the greeting. You can request the official greeting online (that’s what I did) or at the following address:

President Barack Obama & Mrs Obama
The White House
White House Greetings Office
Room 39
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20500

Another fun place to send extra baby announcements is Disneyland or Disney World.

Mickey and Minnie Mouse
Walt Disney World
1675 N Buena Vista Dr
Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830
or
Mickey and Minnie Mouse
The Walt Disney Company
500 South Buena Vista St.
Burbank, CA 91521

My oldest son was born right before the Seahawks won the Super Bowl in 2014, so I sent Pete Carroll our Seahawks-themed baby announcement card. He sent back a congratulatory message and a Super Bowl key chain!

This was really cool for our family and was a nice addition to his new baby book. I’ve also heard of people sending announcements to fan mail addresses for their favorite celebrities.

I hope these ideas inspire you to create your own baby announcement cards that are just right for your family!

Tiny Prints and HandMadeCraftyOne provided complimentary products.

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