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Published on Junebug Weddings

Business, LATEST, Photography

6/17/17

June 3, 2017 will always be a day I will remember. My first time EVER getting published on a HUGE blog (or anywhere really). When I took the Path of Profitability course with Jasmine Star, I remember her saying something that left a huge impact on my life. She spoke about the many “little” wins in her business and how she overlooked them and went on to the next goal or task. She gave us a little bit of advice….”celebrate your wins!” So this is what I’m doing. Ever since I got a hold of that, I celebrate wins in my life!

I’m simmering in this win because I never thought I’d be here. Honestly, I never thought I even wanted to be here. Getting published was not something that I was striving to do. It sort of just happened and then after it happened, I realized I maybe should’ve wanted it all along!

I want to take you through the process of how this all happened for me (and all the vendors involved). I was working alongside Event Truly Yours on a few projects (again, something that just sort of happened) and we were planning a beautiful bohemian style wedding shoot. We dreamed up this wedding and came down to only two more tasks….booking the model bride/groom and booking the venue. During this same thought pattern ETY actually met up with a couple they were working with. After meeting with them, they realized that this couple basically had the same style for this wedding we were creating! ETY contacted me and suggested we turn our wedding design idea into Bryce and Kaitlyn’s real wedding. After speaking with all the vendors and making financial adjustments to it becoming a real wedding and not a stylized….we were all on board and excited.

I remember when I met Bryce and Kaitlyn. They were such a down to earth couple. Their love was indescribable. It wasn’t a forced love or even a gitty love….it was very very real. It was a love I knew had gone through a little testing of fire. After shooting their engagement photos, I knew that their wedding day would pretty much be magic, and it was!

Ok before I talk a little bit about wedding day in March, let me backtrack to a moment I had with Jordan Voth during a one on one mentorship (Mentorship with Jordan Voth). I remember how much he inspired me to aspire to get featured. I remember asking him one question during that conversation…. “How do you know when it is worthy to be a featured wedding?” He simply answered “you will just know it’s special.” I shoot a lot of very very special weddings and incredibly special people so how was I ever to know what was “special” to others since I always think they are pretty special myself.

Ok now lets talk about wedding day. There was so much detail that I can describe that lead up to such a dreamy day and wedding but I particularly remember two moments that made me feel like “this is special.” First moment was during the couple’s first look. We had previously chosen the perfect location. A huge tree on a little hill that overlooked the mountains. It was perfect. Bride was naturally shy, so this moment was created for them to have a special intimate moment before walking down the isle. I can’t tell you what it felt like shooting this moment….it was beautiful but so sincere and romantic. Once we captured them in this area, I looked at my second shooter every so often just to give her the eyes of ….”is this just me, or is this perfect?!” The way her dress flowed. The way he looked at her. The views….all of it….magic…..all of it “special.”

Next moment was when we trailed a forbidden path to hike up a little into a field of wild flowers. I’ve shot in wild flowers before, but I’m not kidding you, these wild flowers were sort of created just for them! They specifically chose to be married on the first day of spring (which was on a Monday) and Spring definitely rewarded them! Weeks before the flowers were not like this and even a few days after their wedding the flowers had changed. I remember my groom (who was the one to spot this field and asked I shoot them there) stood with his bride at one point of this part of the shoot, looked around, gasped, and literally said “we are in a Disney movie!” I couldn’t agree more. It was magic….it was “special.”

I walked away feeling like this day-and all its beautiful details were so special and it made me wonder, “is this special enough? Would this be worthy enough for publication?” Who knew! Oh…I know who’d know….Jordan Voth. What happened next was that before submitting this wedding, I sent it over to Jordan Voth and asked his opinion. Could this be featured (since he’s been featured so many times!)? His reply literally shook the ground I stood on. (I’m being a little dramatic but I’m serious). He said it was a great collection and I should submit it to Junebug Weddings or Green Wedding Shoes. When I read that, I thought….clearly I’m not reading this right. He did not just recommend I submit to the two platforms I most highly followed (especially Junebug). I thought….no way! Could I actually be in the midst of some of the photographers I most admire? Some of the work that I go gaga over? Me? No.

Something you’ll learn to know about me is this: even if I’m not 100% sure, or even if it’s scary, I’ll jump and I’ll try! I always think…what’s the worst that could happen? Most of the time, the biggest regret to me or the biggest pain would not be the rejection or the failure, but the chances I did not take. So I took a chance and within a week Junebug Weddings emailed me that they’d accepted the wedding and it would be FEATURED! It was one of the most thrilling things in my career thus far and I believe there will be more thrilling things to come but I celebrate the NOW.

I can’t even begin to believe that I could celebrate this win by myself. I wish that on the blog feature it would’ve gone into more detail about what the other vendors did to create such magic, but it’s ok, it was a beautiful blog. So I want to take a minute to celebrate with those who worked so hard especially the ladies (Breanna, Megan and Erika) from Events Truly Yours. The beauty of every single detail was PERFECTION! Literally one of the best details in wedding styling I’ve seen in a while! My second shooter (who isn’t just a second shooter, but an incredible photographer) Andrea Benevitez with A’Marie Photography who stood by my side and captured all the beautiful in between moments that made the collection even stronger than I could’ve made it on my own! Hair stylist KC Fitzgerald who so passionately worked through Kaitlyn’s beautiful hair making it so picture perfect. Makeup artist Maria Aguilar with her incredible style and approach to makeup-making our bride so radiant and confident. All the incredible and beautiful floral arrangements and flower crowns done by the amazing staff at White Oak Florist. The incredible exposed cake done by Courtney at GhilaDolci Bakery…it was so beautiful set up on that incredible stylized table with the dream catchers (done by ETY), seriously I think I took more wedding cake photos than I usually do! Ladies & Gents Bridal for providing Kaitlyn the most perfect dress suitable for her-but so capture worthy! I celebrate with you all….because you all created the setting that inspired Bryce + Kaitlyn to live in their dream world for a day…making it super wonderful for me to capture! I’m inspired by all of you.

I hope that didn’t just sound like I received a grammy or something :-)! But if it didn’t already feel like that here’s one more thing to make you feel like I may be taking this “win” a little too serious! I really want to thank the Lord for always seeing me through every single moment of my business. May He always get the glory for every single win because I know I would be nothing without His guidance! I hope you can celebrate this win with me and all of these amazing vendors for getting my first feature ever on the platform of my dreams! To many more wins….CHEERS!