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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.

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.

You can also add a contract to the booking flow, signed as part of booking with your saved signature, and a short questionnaire asking for names and ages. See Adding a contract and questionnaire to 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.

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.

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.

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.

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 and 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.

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.
  • 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?.
  • Plan storage for lots of galleries. A dozen galleries in a day adds up. See How storage works for photos and videos.

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.

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