Finding Our Niche

In this blog post, I want to explain our unique focus as wedding photographers, and how it positively affects our business. Before diving in, let me explain some background. I've been searching for my place in the photography world since 2011 when I created my business. At first, it was incredibly easy to pick the path I wanted to follow: couples, engagements, and weddings. I've always felt more comfortable in smaller groups, even when I was a kid. The connection that I was able to build with a couple was always much more natural. The journey of finding my place became a little more difficult when it came to perfecting my editing style. But after some consideration and basing it on my personality, I decided to focus on more bright and colorful images.

In November, I attended the Creative at Heart conference. One of the speakers, Shay Cochrane, figuratively slapped a bunch of us in the face with "finding your niche." The entire conference was abuzz with ideas of what made their work different and what set them apart from the masses. I felt the tiniest amount of imposture syndrome, because I had no clue what made my business awesome. It wasn't until I read Shawn's blog post a few weeks ago that I realized our niche was staring us in the face the entire time.

Our Niche

The benefit of our husband and wife team is getting to show balance during the wedding day. It's not just about the bride for us, but about the couple. We pride ourselves on building a great rapport with our couples so they can feel confident that their needs are met. With Shawn and I being a strong partnership, that has also gone through the tribulations of our own wedding planning, it's been our mission to be as inclusive as possible. Not only do we want to hear from the bride during our consultations and emails, but we also want to know what the groom wants out of the day.

A great example of balanced focus was at Alyssa and Matthew's wedding. Matthew had a moment during the reception where he stepped aside with his best buddies to have a celebratory cigar. Alyssa wasn't a part of the cigar smoking, making the moment unique to the groom. It allowed him to have a piece of the day be his. Of course, the entire day was theirs, and certain aspects of it were inevitably geared more toward the bride. However, being able to capture an element of the wedding that was specific to Matthew was really amazing and packaged the day perfectly.

We hear a lot about how a wedding is "her day", but that doesn't sit right with us. A lot of vendors and other photographers want to strictly show the wedding through the eyes of the bride. We won't ever be the photographers that put a strong emphasis on only one half of the couple. We are the photographers that truly and honestly care about the story of both of you, and a more full day view. We care about the entire journey to the wedding day, and that includes the dashing groom.

Our Evolution

There won't be any huge changes for us that hasn't already taken place. Shawn joining in 2014 was the biggest shift that happened to my business. It became ours, and something that we are both very proud to be a part of. We do hope to continue to make further improvements that will enhance the wedding experience for our couples. First and foremost, we plan to work on the balance that is within our meetings. Shawn started going with me to meet with potential clients around the end of last season. It's been a learning curve on when to let each other take the lead with conversations. We still practice our talking points in the car so that we make sure we are both covering important details.

The few changes we'll be doing in the immediate future involve getting our mission statement out there. This means changing the text on our website and in those introductory emails. The new language will reflect to our couples how much we value them for who they are and the things they want. We're laying the ground work so our couples don't wonder what we are capturing on the big day. They will see us getting moments that they didn't even realize were happening. Every tiny shift has a huge impact on our ultimate goal: capturing the love and bond between two very important individuals.

Our Future

The connection with our couples grows when we take a genuine interest in them together. The reason we require an initial meeting with the bride and groom is because we need to build our relationship. When meeting with couples, we get to see the flow of their partnership and they get to see ours. The changes we are putting forth in these meetings will help make our couples feel more like friends. That level of trust will easily make the wedding day smoother.

We feel a need to attempt to make a shift in the wedding industry to be more inclusive of both individuals. Encouraging vendors to not only focus on the bride is a win for everyone. Not only can this change have a positive affect on the bride's stress factor, but it can also help reshape gender roles in the wedding world. Guys do not need to feel emasculated for wanting to be involved, and women don't need to feel like the entire wedding planning is hanging on their shoulders. We hope that our couples and fellow vendors appreciate and follow our stance, and maybe "it's her day" will permanently become "their day."

Conclusion

We want the experience our couples have with us to be fun, loving, and overflowing with joy. And the best way to do this is by allowing both partners to have a strong voice. While we always had this focus, we hope that doubling down on our efforts will bring this more to light. Our couples can expect more intimate photos, and can believe that they will both matter to us. This attitude can hopefully catch on to other vendors, and we can make weddings an even more magical event for everyone involved.