Photographer Captures Babies As A Valentine's Day Box Of Chocolates

Photographer’s adorable Valentine’s Day chocolate box shoot with babies goes viral

Connecticut-based photographer JoAnn Marrero of From Labor to Love specializes in maternity, baby, and family photoshoots just released the cutest Valentine’s Day Photo Shoot featuring babies since Anne Geddes turned a bunch of babies into snap peas. Marrero came up with the brilliant idea to make a life-sized Valentine’s Day chocolate box and fill it with, well, babies.

Marrero, who made headlines before when her video of dino baby “hatching” out of his dino shell went viral, told Parents that she’s been thinking of this idea since she got her son a box of chocolate for Valentine’s Day one year.

“I gave my then 2-and-a-half-year-old a box of chocolate for Valentine’s Day,” Marrero said. “It didn’t dawn on me that he had no idea what was in the box, so when he opened it, he was jumping up and down yelling, ‘There’s candy in it!’ to his big brother. It was so cute.”

She then built the life-sized chocolate box and put out a casting call for babies who would stay put (lol) and got 85 emails. She finally whittled it down to the final 13 and ended up with this precious moment:

But it took a lot of work getting that perfect shot!

Marrero told PopSugar that “I just wanted a good, fun time with no expectations,” and said she hoped the day felt like “one giant play date” for the kids. Behind the scenes, there was a lot of adorable chaos. Lots of animated waving by parents, some crying, crawling, and lots of babies getting covered in actual chocolate from the real Hershey’s Kisses on the set.

“They were all fine for the first five minutes,” Marrero joked to Parents. “After that, they all had their own agendas and it was chaotic cuteness. One baby started crying really loud and set off a chain reaction of crying!”

And, of course, there were a few tears. What would a baby chocolate box be without a few fussy chocolates?

Marrero tells Scary Mommy we have more holiday-themed baby cuteness to look forward to. “I am planning on something wonderful for this upcoming Christmas Holiday season!” she says.

“What’s better then a box of chocolate? A box filled with babies for Valentines Day of course!” Marrero wrote on Facebook. “Cuteness amongst the chaos of photographing 13 babies at once. We had it all… smiles, tears, stares, complete meltdowns- you name it! A big thank you to all who joined us today!”

Speaking on behalf of all people, thank you for this cuteness on Valentine’s Day eve.