When Kimberly DeTerlizzi and her husband, Andrew, found out they were expecting a baby in March this year, they wanted to share the news in a unique, creative and quite public way.
Not for them the traditional, awkward “announcement dinner” with both sets of parents. Posting a blurry ultrasound picture to Facebook was too 2008.
Instead, the Saddlebrook, NJ, couple went full throttle by releasing a professionally shot short film to deliver the joyful message to friends, family and strangers alike.
“We hoped it would inspire others to believe that fairy tales exist,” fashion designer DeTerlizzi tells The Post.
The 29-year-old is among a small but growing number of parents-to-be paying thousands of dollars to star in cinematic “baby reveals,” complete with location scouting, professional lighting, mood music and animated storks.
Shot by specialist film production companies, with a price tag of between $1,500 and $3,000, they don’t come cheap. But according to clients like the DeTerlizzis, they are worth every penny when you add up the likes and skim the delighted comments they attract.
“Everyone was floored and blown away when they watched the film,” says the seven-months-pregnant Terlizzi, whose video is set to the Sister Hazel song “This Kind of Love” and was uploaded to Instagram on Mother’s Day.
The romantic short — which ends with an animated stork flying across the screen — blends shots from the Terlizzis’ wedding in 2016 with fresh footage taken at Argyle Park in Babylon, LI.
“It was a collaboration,” says Nathaniel Nunziante, owner of Intrigue Wedding Films and creator of the video, viewed on Instagram 3,340 times and counting. “But Kim had this whole theme in her head of sky and clouds, which is integral to the film.”
Another couple that bought into the trend is Ryan and Michelle Taylor, both 32, of Lakeland, Fla. They commissioned a “serious but touching” video to announce their 2015 pregnancy with daughter Edith, now 2.
“We had already been through a miscarriage and ectopic pregnancy, so she was a much-longed-for baby,” says Ryan, who works in marketing.
“We were so grateful and so blessed, we didn’t want the announcement to come across as casual or flippant.”
They hired their friend Caleb Bish, owner of Storvox Creative, to make their short film, which shows the parents-to-be embracing in a park.
It also zooms in on Michelle’s bump and the duo’s wedding bands.
“Michelle wanted to make a play on the nursery rhyme ‘Kissing in a Tree,’ and we spent an hour driving around Lakeland looking for the right tree to sit in,” laughs Bish. “Luckily we had great light.”
The emotional video — which gained traction on YouTube with 1,777 views so far — ends with footage of Edith’s framed sonogram at 18 weeks’ gestation, attached to a branch of the tree.
Two-and-a-half years on, the Taylors recently showed the film to Edith.
“Michelle is pregnant again with another girl, due in December, so it really helped introduce Edith to the idea of having a baby sister,” says Taylor. “The video is something we’ll treasure forever.”