J & J //Engagement

Its a crazy thing when you know two people your entire life, you grow up together and are basically like family, they get older & fall in love, get engaged, are now planning their wedding, and you get to photograph the entire process. This literally is the story between Jordan Leigh, Josiah & I. 

I grew up with Jordan Leigh & Josiah, as well as their entire families. I seriously can't remember a time without them in my life. All of our families were incredibly close growing up, to the point that we did EVERYTHING together. We saw them multiple times a week, went to church with them, would travel with them, have them over for dinner etc. Well..our little group of friends slowly started to fall in love. My sister and Josiah's brother, John Anthony, started crushing on each other, and at the time, we all thought it was so weird that best friends were falling in love. But years later, they are happily married & now we really ARE family. Then, Josiah started crushing on Jordan Leigh, and now years later, THEY are engaged and will be getting married in May!! My 16 year old feelings of "oh my gosh this is so crazy they are in love!" started kicking in while I was shooting their engagement photos, because it still hasn't hit me yet that they are getting married!!!!

Jordan Leigh is the sweetest human, extremely elegant, and artistically talented, especially at drawing & painting. She paints & sells these miniature portraits of people that are incredibly accurate and look identical to the person she's painting. You can find her work on Instagram @jordanleighstuckyart . She's also about to graduate with a degree in Visual Arts at the same university I went to, creating her senior show, planning a wedding, and getting ready to move, all within a few months. I did the SAME thing a little over a year ago, so I know she's up to her eyeballs in work and is probably slightly going insane, but she's doing an amazing job at it all & I can't WAIT to see her senior show. 

Josiah is hard working, crazy smart, and also very artistic. When we were younger, we'd go over to his house and see all these small figurines he had molded out of clay. They were always so intricately detailed & realistic. Josiah even used his gift of creativity to do something for Jordan Leigh that I have YET to see any other fiancé do. He had a crazy idea to not just design, but MAKE Jordan Leigh's engagement ring. Josiah called a local guy who does that work to see if it was possible to teach him how to make her ring. Josiah used a diamond that was formerly Jordan Leigh's great grandmother's, and after months of work, he literally hand crafted her engagement ring (photos of the ring below!) I love couples who have special stories behind certain aspects of their wedding day that makes it so much more personal and unique!

Jordan Leigh & Josiah, you both are like family to me and I am SO thankful for our friendship over the years. I could pee my pants over how excited I am for your wedding AND that y'all are moving to Greenville after your wedding!!! Extra bonus! Love you two and the countdown to May 26th is ON!

How to plan a wedding...budget style.

This is the time of year for wedding planning! Every week I get inquiries from brides who have recently gotten engaged and are starting the planning process. It's such an exciting season of life as a bride, but it can also become very stressful & expensive. According to The Knot, the average American wedding costs $30,000. That is just crazy to me! When I got engaged, there was no way my college student budget was going to allow me to have a $30,000 wedding. Plus, my sister had JUST gotten married 4 months before I got engaged, and my parents didn't have a lot of funds to dish out to me. So I had to make my wedding happen on a small budget. 

 I know, it might be weird to you that I'm posting a blog about how to save money on your wedding day when I am IN the wedding industry and make a living off people getting married. But I was also a bride just a few months ago, had a killer wedding, and pulled it off on a small budget. So, for all those brides getting married this year, I wanted to share a few tips on how I saved money and planned my wedding on a budget. 

• Splurge on what's important, save on what's not. Everyone has things they value and are willing to spend money on. For some, it might be that they have a LOVE for music & want a live band at their reception, and are willing to pay $3,000 to have one. Some might have a lot of friends and family that they want to attend their wedding, and are willing to pay $4,000 for a venue that will hold everyone. MY hope is that you value quality photos to remember your wedding day by, and splurge on a professional photographer ;) Whatever that may be for you, decide on what you value, splurge on that one thing, and then try to find more affordable alternatives for everything else. 

• Read your vendor's fine print. I got married at a beautiful venue that wasn't outrageously expensive. However, in their contract, booking them as my venue meant that I agreed to using their rental company for all my tables, chairs, and any additional needs. That rental company was not the most affordable option I could have used, but I agreed to the contract and had to use them. Make sure you are aware of all the fine print to keep you on budget & prevent any unexpected expenses. 

• Buy dried flowers & make bouquets yourself. As a photographer, I LOVE it when my brides use professional florists because large & creative bouquets add such a beautiful element to the photographs. I also have friends who are florists, and I am constantly advertising for them because they are true artists and I love photographing their work. However, using live flowers can get costly very quickly. So what I did on my wedding day was order a ton of dried flowers (from Curious Country Creations online), had a fun, bouquet building night with all my bridesmaids, but then had a professional florist make my bouquet with live flowers. This saved me some money, but then also provided the funds for me to splurge on my bouquet. I'd highly recommend this because professionally done bridal bouquets make for beautiful photos.  Another way to save money in this area would be to hire a professional to make all your bouquets, but then add a different element to the dinner tables, instead of large flower arrangements, which will save you a lot of money. (Bouquets below done by Lexi Woodward)

• Do as MUCH DIY stuff as possible. For my wedding, anything I could do myself (or could bribe my family members or close friends to do), I did. My sister has beautiful handwriting and she did all the hand lettering for my invitation. My other sister & I actually designed my invitation. My sister made our wedding cake. My dad and I made flower & candle holders out of wood for the table center pieces. I made a wedding music playlist on Spotify and had my uncle (who has tons of sound equipment) DJ the reception. I had these huge, wire, plant holders that were on the main wall of the venue that my best friend & I made by hand. My sisters & best friend raided the woods near our house the day before my wedding to gather greenery & vines to use as decorations for the reception. There are TONS of things you can do yourself. Sure, it might take time & some extra thought, but it can cut costs tremendously! I had so much fun creating unique elements for my wedding and made lasting memories with my family & friends in the process. (Below are some images from my wedding of things we made ourselves. Photos by Julie Mixon) 

• Have a pot-luck reception. I know this sounds crazy and kinda impossible. Yet, this is probably where I saved the MOST money on my wedding day. On average, caterers charge about $20-$30 per head at a wedding, and if you invite 200 guests, that is somewhere between $4,000- $6,000 you will spend, just on FOOD alone! Unreal. At my wedding, my parents provided the meat for everyone, and the rest of the food was brought in by our guests. We had a food sign up sheet online that people filled out, so we were aware of how much food would be provided. It sounds pretty ghetto, but seriously, it was the greatest idea. There was SUCH a variety of mouth- watering, home cooked dishes, breads, and desserts and we had more than enough to feed everyone! It was such a blessing and I tell all my brides to consider this on their wedding day if possible! 

There are so many things I'm glad I did on my wedding day, and other things I wished I would have done differently. I love any chance I get to help my brides (and brides in general), and I think one way is by sharing the good, the bad and the ugly. It also saddens me to watch so many people go into debt because of their wedding, or spend so much time, energy and money on their wedding, and neglect their future marriage. My heart for my couples is that they have thriving marriages, not just a killer wedding. These tips might not work for everyone, and I'm sure there are better/more affordable alternatives than these, but I hope these will help you has you begin your wedding day planning, in order for you to have a killer, affordable wedding AND a thriving marriage. xoxo

Small Business Owner *Spotlight*

Having my own business is never something I imagined for my life, but the Lord knows better. He has blessed me with a career I love and I can’t imagine doing anything else! There are so many beautiful aspects of having my own business, but there are equal amounts of hardships that come along with it. Having people in my field who are working just as hard and pushing through the hardships truly encourages me to keep going. A few of those people for me are Shana Wanco, Jeff Felton, and Randy Branch. These three all started small businesses in 2017 and are absolutely KILLING it. I love watching their growth while doing something they are passionate about. I thought it would be helpful, for other small business owners or people who are simply curious as to how running a business actually works, to hear from THEM about some of what they learned in 2017.

First off is Shana. We met in college where she was studying graphic design and I was studying photography. She immediately stood out to me because of her crazy talent and sweet spirit. I ended up photographing her engagement and wedding. She has also completely redesigned my logo and branding for my new website. If she wasn't already cool enough, she recently started her own business called Iris & Marie Letterpress, where she specializes in letterpress work. If you haven’t heard of or seen letterpress done before, you HAVE to follow her on Instagram @Irisandmariepress.She frequently posts videos of the process, which are absolutely mesmerizing. This is what Shana had to say about what she learned this past year:

"Okayyyyy so, 2017 was my taking off year! Super exciting, super scary. I quit my full time job in April & officially started my business in May. Being able to set my own schedule & say yes to the work that fits my style was & is still AMAZING! The biggest, hugest thing I've learned in 2017 is how important relationships are & putting yourself out there! Everyone knows that taking good photos of your work, being authentic & trying to keep your social media game up to par is key, but behind Instagram are tons of relationships! I love using Instagram as my main platform to market, but I've put a lot of time into making lasting vendor & client relationships that have turned into friendships. I go to dinner, schedule coffee dates with people, ask for advice & give advice. All of that usually doesn't even include talking about work! I've also put myself out there by attending styled shoots outside of the city I live in, reaching out to wedding planners & photographers outside of my state & messaging people on Instagram. Quitting my job has given me a tougher skin & allowed me to become more outgoing with people that I don't know. If I didn't know someone, I would NEVER go out of my way to speak to them, but now it's almost second nature. You never know what job you could gain if you just go & introduce yourself."

Second is Jeff. If you live in Florence, you most likely know him as one of the baristas at Lula's Coffee Company. He and his boss took a small dream they had years ago and turned it into a non-profit coffee shop that has not only impacted people within the Florence area, but also people around the world. Jeff recently quit his job at Lulas, but couldn't stay away from his love for coffee. Last year, he started his own coffee roasting business called Batch Nine Coffee Company, @batchninecoffee, which Lula’s now sells and brews in their shop. He is expanding his brand to other local coffee shops in Florence, as well as others across the states. Jeff really knows how to run a business, but is still learning more and more each day. This is some of what he says he's still learning:

"For all of the glamorous moments from small biz owners that you seen on Instagram, there are an uncountable number of tough moments that go on behind the scenes. Late nights, long days, tough spots, uncertainty, doubts, creative blocks. What I’ve learned most in 2017 and the first month of 2018 is how to embrace these “un-glamorous” things as the ebb and flow of starting/owning a small business.

You have to want to own your own business. And when I say you have to want it, I mean you have to WANT it. Lots of people have ideas for starting businesses and some of them actually get up the stomach to take steps and make it happen. But I understand now why a considerable amount of them tank pretty quickly - it’s because late nights, long days, doubts, tough spots, and creative blocks happen, and if doing what you’re doing isn’t engrained in the core of who you are, you’re not going to respond when it’s crying in the middle of the night.

I have learned that this is what I want to do, that this craft is one I want to perfect. How do I know? Because it hasn’t come without late nights, super long days, doubts, frustrations, and creative blocks, and yet I still keep moving forward.

Sometimes I have several orders to fill and they have to go out in the morning, which means a late night is inevitable. Creativity comes in spurts. Lots of times, I draw a blank on what to do next, how to drive sales, or even what to caption a picture. I’ve had multiple opportunities to throw in the towel, and sometimes it would seem to make sense to do so. I could have, but I just couldn’t, if you get my drift. It’s because deep in my guts, I know this is just the ebb and flow of it all, and I’m willing to grind it out when that’s all I can do. I’ve also learned that in those moments, patience and perseverance are all that works, but its worth it every time to keep moving forward!"

Third is Randy. I'm literally so excited because he and his beautiful fiance Samantha are getting married this year and I get to photograph their wedding!!! I did their engagement photos last fall and let me tell you, they were a dream to photograph. They were so natural in front of the camera and are a pretty attractive couple! Randy is a videographer, @randybranchmedia, who specializes in weddings, music videos, and promotional work. I've been so impressed with Randy, as he took a hobby and created a business out of it. He's constantly learning new things and always creating new work, which is one of the keys to growth and improving your craft. Here are some words from him about all that 2017 taught him:

"2017 was a transitional year for Randy Branch Media in that I learned the difference between JUST creating content and running a business. I've learned that it takes hard work, dedication, and most of all, patience. I've also found that networking is key. Building relationships with other creatives and business owners has encouraged me to learn, grow, and improve my craft. It's so rewarding doing what I'm passionate about on a daily basis, but that doesn't come without some struggles. It can certainly be difficult managing the business side of things when you just want to follow your passion and create content, but I've found a sense of fulfillment in owning my own business. My favorite thing about Randy Branch Media is the relationships that I'm building and in 2018, I want to see the development of more relationships, collaborations, and cross-promotions."

The farther I go in my business, the greater my love for it grows, as well as my appreciation for OTHER small business owners. I literally have SO much to learn, but the best way to learn is by doing. I am super thankful I get to grow, fail, and learn alongside some pretty talented people. I'm also thankful to the Lord for giving, growing, and completely blessing my business the way He has. I often get frustrated and impatient, but He is so faithful and has given me way more than I could ask or imagine. If you ever need wedding stationery/branding, coffee, or videography, hit up my friends!

Happy Friday y'all!! xoxo

Chelsea//Portrait

A few months ago, some friends, my sisters & I decided to come together to do a creative portrait shoot. We wouldn't be getting paid for it or anything. It was simply for fun. But sometimes, those are the best types of shoots. We had a vision for what we wanted this shoot to be & got to work trying to make it come to life. I asked my friend Chelsea if she could model, my girl Lexi volunteered to do flowers, and my sweet sister Margaret Ann did hair and makeup. Oh..and my other sweet sister Genevieve came as moral support, and to be our bag carrier & coat rack ;) 

We all met in Columbia on a windy, 46 degree afternoon. It was COLD, and poor Chelsea was shivering terribly! We would shoot for about 5 minutes or less, then bundle her up in all of our coats until she was warm enough to brace the cold & wind again. She was SO tough and hung in there the entire time, not complaining once. It was so worth it though, because LOOK AT HER! She couldn't be more gorgeous if she tried!!!! 

I've always loved doing portrait sessions, especially creative portraits. Most people are a bit hesitant to do something fun & dramatic like this, but we wanted to show that it is possible and can turn out beautifully! Many brides are also hesitant to do large, dramatic bouquets, hair pieces & makeup, which is totally understandable. But again, we wanted to show that it can be done in a very tasteful & lovely way. Especially for photos, the bigger the better. If I were a bride again, I would do something different and dramatic like this. And if you're a bride out there & want to do something like this, but aren't 100% sold on the idea, Lexi & I were talking about the fact that you could do a big bouquet or floral headpiece for your bridals, instead of your wedding day. Because, who really wants to carry around a 15lb bouquet on their wedding day?! Yet, we thought this would give brides the idea and option of doing something like this for their bridals instead. 

Coming together & collaborating with other creatives is SERIOUSLY such a joy. It's so refreshing and gets you out of the rut of doing and shooting the same type of stuff day in and day out. It's also a great way to meet new people in the area who are in your field. One of my goals for 2018 is to collaborate more, which is a huge step for me because I am such an introvert. But regardless, it's necessary, in any career, to get out of your comfort zone, do different things, meet new people, and create new work. It truly refuels you and helps you continue for the long haul. So, here a few (or not so few) images from our shoot. I took over 500 images, so narrowing it down for this post was a bit difficult! But, hopefully you enjoy the work & the excessive amount of photos isn't too much ;) 

I want to give ALL my love and gratitude for these incredible ladies. They seriously made this shoot come to L I F E and I couldn't have done this at all without them. The result of this photo shoot is due to their talent and work. 

Chelsea, I can't thank you enough for putting up with our crazy ideas and for letting us drag you out into the freezing cold weather to do these. You were absolutely perfect, graceful, and beautiful. You are such a wonderful girl & I so appreciate you sharing your beauty with us. 

 Lexi, every time I work with you, I am amazed at what you can create with flowers & leaves. Not only does it take talent to rig THAT many flowers together without having them fall out, but it takes more talent to envision what you want your work to look like, and then know the steps to bring your idea to life. You're crazy talented. But beyond that, you have a beautiful soul and fun personality. Your love for Jesus is contagious, and so is your laugh! I feel blessed to have you in my life.  (PS- Lexi is giving away a *10*% discount on florals to anyone who books a wedding with me! So pass the word along-the deal is good until the end of February!) 

Margaret Ann, I was just on the phone the other day with someone and told them how you literally are good at everything you do. And you could choose basically any career or hobby & be fantastic at it. It's slightly annoying and I'm kinda jealous, but I'll get over it one day ;) But for real, thank you for always sharing your talent and for always helping me with all my photo shoots for all these years. You're encouraging, full of joy, and always so selfless. I love you more than you know. 

Geneveive, we joked with you the entire photo shoot about how you wouldn't stop suggesting that Chelsea wear the white dress for some of the photos. But I am SO glad we listened to you because those are seriously some of my favorite images from this shoot. You always say that Mog & I stole all the talent in the family, but that is NOT true at all. You have such an eye for beauty, placement, and design. You give a fresh perspective on everything. Thank you for coming along and helping us out, it meant so much to me. I love you forever. 

Tips for Choosing a Wedding Photographer

Good morning friends!! 

I am writing this on the floor next to a big window in our apartment, watching these HUGE white snowflakes fall to the ground. It is a gorgeous sight. I feel like everywhere else in the country has gotten snow already, except where I live. But thankfully that's not the case anymore :) 

Since this is the time when people start booking wedding photographers for the upcoming year, requests start coming in. Unfortunately, a few brides have requested to book me on a date that I am already booked. When this happens, a lot of brides ask me for help or recommendations, because they feel lost, overwhelmed, and unsure of what to look for when it comes to choosing the right photographer for their day. So, if you are getting married this year or know of someone who IS, hopefully this will help you when it comes time to choose your photographer! 

• Choose someone you like & enjoy. Between the engagement session, bridal session, and wedding day, you will most likely be spending more than 12 hours with your photographer. He or she is literally your shadow the entire wedding day. So if it's someone whose personality annoys you or who you don't enjoy being around, this will make for a LOOONG day. Therefore, make sure you ENJOY the person. I try to meet with all my clients before the wedding, to make sure we get to know each other and build a friendship. It's super awkward when you show up on the wedding day, having never met the bride or groom. So, meet up with your photographer before your wedding or grab dinner with them after the engagement session to make sure it is someone you enjoy and want by your side on your wedding day. 

• Choose someone who is talented, creative, and who reflects your style. Some people settle for a cheaper photographer because their budget is tight (I get that!). Yet, people who do this regret it in the long run. They wish they would have invested in a talented photographer. Sure, in the moment, it feels like a LOT of money, but it's so worth it. When my sister got married, she was a 19 year old, poor college student, who was paying for her wedding almost entirely on her own. Even though her budget was super tight, she invested in a wonderful photographer (shout out to Erin Drago!). It was probably the most expensive thing she invested in on her wedding day, but she had no regrets. You will get what you pay for, so choose to invest in someone talented & who reflects your personal style. Photographers pour countless hours into traveling, shooting, editing and spend lots of money on workshops, equipment, taxes, business expenses etc. They put in a TON of work, so value it and don't settle for someone cheap. 

• Choose someone who will give you the most bang for your buck. Some photographers only give about 100-200 images from the wedding day, which to me is craziness because on average, photographers take somewhere between 1000-2500 images (or more!!) on a wedding day!! Obviously not all those photos are gallery worthy, but I give my clients at least 800 photos (usually more depending on the size of the wedding & how long I shoot). Ask them about this upfront so you aren't disappointed when you receive your gallery. 

There is obviously much more that goes into choosing a wedding photographer, so if you have ANY questions at all, I'd be more than happy to help out! Even if I am not your top choice, I can point you to many other friends & creatives in the industry who would meet all these qualifications and MORE! Happy Wednesday & for those who are enjoying their snow day, I hope you have lots of hot chocolate, blankets, and a fire in your fireplace <3