THAT'S The Moment

I'm so lucky that at my very first wedding I learned a big lesson. I was shooting my very first solo wedding, so keep in mind I basically knew nothing. The ceremony had just ended and the bride and groom walked back up the aisle smiling ear to ear. Then, as is tradition, the rest of the bridal party followed them out. I stayed to get photos of every wedding party couple walking back up the aisle. I then stayed to get photos of the parents and grandparents walking out as well. I was getting a boring photo of some family member walking back up the aisle when I heard cheering behind me. The bride and groom were surrounded by their bridal party in some sort of ultrahug/mosh pit of pure joy. I immediately thought, THAT'S the moment they need to remember. WHY AM I OVER HERE DOING THIS? The happy, cheering crew was so far away that even though I RAN to catch it, I didn't make it in time. The moment was over. 

Well, I don't miss moments like that anymore.

I had never shot a wedding before, or been in a bridal party, so I didn't know if I should expect that moment to happen every time. I can now tell you with confidence that it does. After every wedding there's a pile of people hugging and it's THE BEST. Sometimes the ultrahug is quiet. Sometimes it's loud. Sometimes there's crying, or laughing, or falling (I'm not kidding - I've seen people fall over one another). Every time I think THESE photos are going to be the one's the couple treasures. This is the moment. 

Leaving A Legacy

I make legendary chocolate chip cookies. It's true. I love that these cookies are not only a way for me to connect with the people in my life now, but they are also something I can pass on. I'm excited to someday tell my kids, or even grandkids, my chocolate chip cookie recipe. Hopefully making these cookies can be something we do together, and something people remember me by. 

In the same way, I love that photos leave a legacy. Not only for me, but for my clients. My clients can pass their wedding photos on to generations to come. Their kids can look at their wedding album and see the happiness, the love, and the (by then) super outdated styles. :)

Again and again

Most of my business comes from word of mouth referrals. I love that because my business is built around referrals it means I get to work with the same awesome people over and over again and build REAL, lasting relationships with them. So often my current brides are girls who were bridesmaids from a wedding I worked on the previous year! I feel like I already have a great connection with the bride and usually her friend who referred her is in the wedding. It's like a reunion! With so many of my clients this has been the case, and it was the case for Lauren and Brandon's wedding too! Lauren's best friend Kassi hired me for her wedding in 2014. It was at that wedding that I connected with Lauren and her (then) boyfriend Brandon. A year later when she got engaged - there it was, an email from Lauren. I was so excited to get to work with her and Kassi again (and hopefully even again and again)! I'm so thankful for the ways we can keep being involved in each other's lives. 

The Beauty of Albums

One big change that my business has made in the last year is offering albums with wedding collections. This is a change I'm so, so proud of and excited to build further. Most of my current clients do choose to include an album in their wedding collection, and I'm so thankful for it. Designing albums is a part of the business that a lot of photographers hate - they even frequently outsource it. It's actually one of my favorite things! I majored in graphic design in school and my favorite graphic design project I was ever assigned was a magazine layout. Later, when I had a job in graphic design, what I loved the most on the job was book and magazine layout. It's like a beautiful puzzle! Read my bio, I LOVE a puzzle. 

Again, most of my current clients do include albums in their collections. This blog post is not about selling albums. It's about sharing why I think albums are deeply valuable and an essential part of the wedding photography process. 

The purpose of your wedding photos is to help you relive the story of your special day, and help share that story with family and friends for generations to come. I think it's a real disservice to your wedding story to have a bunch of jpgs sitting in a folder on your desktop or external hard drive. Scrolling through icon size photos whenever you happen to stumble across them on your computer is not an ideal way to relive your day. Creating an album is the perfect book end (no pun intended) on your wedding photography experience. Often the experience is left dangling when the photos are delivered to the client and then no further action is taken.

Of course, prints are also a great way to use your photos for their purpose of sharing your story. If you are anything like me though, only so many prints are acceptable. I have over 700 wedding photos to choose from, and I'm not going to hang them all up in my living room. An album allows for a large amount of photos to all be collected together, and in STORY format. The albums I create are chronologically designed. This chronological visual paired with your personal narration makes the perfect way to share the story. 

For almost every wedding there's an important family member or friend who wasn't able to be there. For us it was Kyle's grandmother. She wasn't able to travel from California to Texas for our wedding. Kyle and his grandmother are the best of friends, so it was crushing for both of them that Grandma Shirley couldn't be there. However, it's important to both of us that she be able to feel like she didn't miss a thing. In the same way, our children will be able to look at our wedding album and feel transported to that moment in time when mom and dad got married. I'm really excited to share our album with them someday.

I didn't have the option to order our own album right after our wedding, but I've now designed one for us and it should come in soon! I'll share photos when it comes in.

5 Things I Wish I Had Known 5 Years Ago

Five years ago today I was a junior in college - one semester away from graduating early. I had JUST broken up with my long time boyfriend who I had intended to marry. I had no idea what I was going to do after graduation and was increasingly running out of time to figure it out.

It's pretty amazing how much a person can grow and learn in five years. I do think that everyone needs to go through those high school and college years where you think you know everything but actually know nothing. It's an important process of life to be in that place and claw your way through it. However, there are some things I wish I could tell the five years ago version of Stephanie that I think would really help that girl out.

1. You don't need to find someone to marry just because the people around you have found someone to marry.

Yeah, this was a BIG one for me, especially where I attended college. People call it a marriage factory and the description is not inaccurate. What I realize looking back is that I wanted to have someone to marry just so that I had at least one secure post grad plan. After graduation I didn't have a job lined up because I wanted to run my own business. But I didn't know how to run my own business because - well, how could I? I didn't know where I wanted to live and I could pick ANYWHERE on the map (which is actually really scary instead of being freeing like you might think). I just wanted to know one thing for sure. If I knew who I was going to marry that might even answer the other questions like where to live and work.

The point is, I graduated without a fiance and I was one of the only people I knew who did so. I had to figure out all of those post grad life questions on my own. It was terrifying, but one of the most valuable things I've ever been through. During that time I did meet a boy. He's awesome so married him.

2. Most people don't start at the top and that's OK.

I knew what I wanted to be (a high end wedding photographer), but I also knew that I wouldn't be able to just START there. At the time I interpreted this as a failure. I said to myself that other people who aren't starting their own businesses can just go apply for their dream job, get that dream job, have amazing lives and large savings accounts and adorable puppies and never have problems. What I see NOW is that this wasn't true for them either. Most people in my generation are starting from the bottom (cue Drake song - just kidding I hate his music don't cue Drake song). My husband now has an amazing job that he loves, but he had to work at Exxon for a year before landing that job. I have friends who have worked at Barnes and Noble, Old Navy, and Walmart. It wasn't their dream job, but those things were NOT failures. It's not a failure to have to start at the bottom and put in the time and work to be at the top. 

3. When it comes to friends quality beats quantity.

While approaching graduation I was terrified I would lose all my friends because most of my friends would be graduating after me and would be immediately getting married. What I've come to learn is that YES, some of those people aren't in my life anymore. The people who ARE still in my life are going to be there until the very end. My post college life has been a natural culling of who stays in my life and who goes. Those who remain are my ride-or-die true crew. They've got my back for forever and I've got theirs. Those other folks? It wasn't meant to be and that's ok.

4. Being an adult is just like being a child. 

I didn't have super strict parents, but like anybody I did have rules and I did have to obey whatever choice my parents made. I had freedom from that in college, but I went to a pretty strict Christian institution that had a dress code and a curfew. Post college life was going to be the first time that literally NOBODY could tell me what to do. Want to stay out all night? Do it. Want to eat ice cream for breakfast? Why not, you're an adult. Want to spend all of your money on shoes? Can't tell me not to. But you know what happened? I didn't stay out all night, only now I was the one telling MYSELF not to do that. I had to be at work in the morning! No one told me not to eat ice cream for breakfast... but I still never did. No one would even know if I spent my entire paycheck on shoes, but I've got bills to pay! Why would I spend all of my money on shoes? Being an adult is just like being a kid, only now you're your own parent. I would tell five years ago Stephanie to basically be happy where you're at. No stage in life is completely without responsibility or challenges. Hoping for that day is futile. Enjoy whatever freedoms your current stage in life does allow, and be ready for whatever is coming next. 

5. It's all going to be fine - chill out.