# Planning a mini session day > Plan and fill a mini session day: short paid slots across one or more dates, families who book and pay themselves, and every gallery delivered quickly. Source: https://help.corehue.co/docs/guides/planning-a-mini-session-day/ Set up a mini session day with fixed dates, short time slots and a price for each booking. This guide covers planning the schedule, collecting payment and delivering each client's gallery. ## Plan the day before you build it A little planning saves a chaotic Saturday. - **Pick a theme and a location** that works for every family: a field at golden hour, a studio set, a holiday backdrop. - **Choose a slot length that's honest.** Fifteen or twenty minutes suits most families. Toddlers rarely give you more anyway. - **Build in buffers.** A five-minute gap between slots keeps you on time when a family runs late. - **Decide what's included.** A set number of edited photos, delivered by a certain date. Put it in the description. - **Price it to sell out.** Minis work on volume and urgency, so price below your full sessions and make extras easy to add. ## 1. Create a mini session service Go to **Bookings → Services**, choose **Add service** and pick **Mini sessions**. The mode can't be changed later, so choose it here. See [Running mini sessions](/docs/online-booking/mini-sessions). ## 2. Set the price and slot On the **Price & slot** tab, set the price per slot and pick a **Slot duration**. **Spots per slot** controls how many bookings one time can take, so you can run a shared set or a drop-in line rather than one family at a time. ## 3. Lay out your dates On the **Dates & location** tab, add each day you're running. Every date has its own start and end time, booking gap and location, so a Saturday in the studio and a Sunday in the park live on one service. CoreHue builds the slots between those times for you. ## 4. Take payment at booking On the **Booking flow** tab, open step 4, **Payment**, turn on **Collect payment** and choose full payment. The slot is held while the family pays and released if they don't, which stops anyone sitting on your best time slot. See [Unpaid bookings and held times](/docs/managing-bookings/unpaid-bookings). You can also add a contract to the booking flow, signed as part of booking with your [saved signature](/docs/contracts/your-saved-signature), and a short questionnaire asking for names and ages. See [Adding a contract and questionnaire to booking](/docs/online-booking/contracts-and-questionnaires-in-booking). ## 5. Add extras More images, a few extra minutes, a print set. Add-ons let families build their own package while booking. See [Adding add-ons to a service](/docs/online-booking/add-ons). ## 6. Publish and promote Publish the service, make sure **Public booking page** is turned on under **Bookings → Settings → Booking page**, and share the link to the service itself, not just your booking page, so families land right on the dates. See [Sharing your booking page](/docs/online-booking/sharing-your-booking-page). Full slots read **Full**, and once every slot is taken the service shows **Sold out**. That's useful social proof for your next round. A good promotion rhythm: announce to past clients a few days before everyone else, then post publicly with a clear "booking opens" time. Families who've booked with you before tend to grab slots fast. ## 7. On the day Open **Bookings → Calendar** or **All bookings** on your phone for the running order. Each booking shows the family's name and their questionnaire answers, so you can greet the kids by name. See [Using the booking calendar](/docs/managing-bookings/using-the-calendar). If a family doesn't turn up, there's no separate no-show status: note what happened on their contact, then complete or cancel the booking. See [Completing a booking or handling a no-show](/docs/managing-bookings/completing-bookings-and-no-shows). ## 8. Deliver every gallery fast Mini session clients expect quick turnaround. Create one gallery per family, from their contact so it's linked to them. A consistent setup speeds this up: same cover layout, same colors, same download settings. Then share each one by email with the download PIN included. See [Creating a gallery](/docs/galleries/creating-a-gallery) and [Sharing a gallery by email](/docs/gallery-sharing/sharing-a-gallery-by-email). Offer extra images for purchase by turning on favorites, so families can star the photos they'd like beyond what's included. Then invoice them for the extras. See [How client favorites work](/docs/gallery-favorites/how-favorites-work). ## A few tips - **Reuse the service next season.** Swap in new dates and publish again. Everything else stays as you built it. - **Leave shared availability blocking on** if you also take regular sessions, so a booked mini slot removes that time from your other services. See [Giving a service its own schedule](/docs/online-booking/custom-availability-for-a-service). - **Mind your plan's published service limit.** A mini session service counts as one published service: 1 on Free, 5 on Plus, unlimited on Pro. See [How many services can I publish?](/docs/online-booking/published-service-limits). - **Plan storage for lots of galleries.** A dozen galleries in a day adds up. See [How storage works for photos and videos](/docs/plans-and-billing/how-storage-works). ## Frequently asked questions ### Can I run mini sessions on several dates and locations? Yes. Add each date on the **Dates & location** tab, each with its own times and location. They all sit on one service. ### Can two families book the same slot? Only if you allow it. Set **Spots per slot** above 1 for a shared set or drop-in format. Otherwise each slot takes one booking. ### What happens if a family books but doesn't pay? With **Collect payment** on, the slot is held while they pay. If they never finish, the booking expires and the slot opens up for someone else. ### Can families pick their own photos? Yes. Turn on favorites in their gallery so they can star the photos they love and send you the list. See [Collection settings for client favorites](/docs/gallery-favorites/collection-settings).