Photography is obviously one of those areas that is SOooooOOO subjective. It’s art and what one person VALUES as art another may not rest much on. What you value is something that you hold dear, wedding images should rank up there! Right next to the one you’re marrying 😉

It’s not really uncommon to receive emails from potential brides and one of the first lines is “What do your packages start at?”
It’s typically followed by “I’m on a budget”. I get that. EVERY bride is on a budget really. A budget is just a set amount for spending. So, see one budget could be $3,000 and the other budget could be $30,000. Everything has a PRICE and it’s okay to ask for one, but don’t look at that number and instantly tag it with that VALUE.Let’s say you pay me $3,500 for a full day(8 hours) of photography. You tell people what you spend and their response range from “Wow! What a great deal!” to “Oh my word, that’s ridiculous to pay someone $3,500 for 8 hours!” I like the first group of people by the way 😉 Okay kidding. Some people see that number and instantly value the services at that.  They are NOT my clients. I spend a full day with you, I am with you through what are likely the biggest moments of your lives this far. I photograph your mom buttoning you into your dress, your dad seeing you the first time. I capture his first look at you, dressed in the most expensive outfit you’ll likely ever wear. There are first dances with dad and mom and toasts to a happy life. Those images aren’t worth $3,500 anymore…they are truly priceless. They are MY works of art, custom art for you. It cannot be replicated, duplicated or reshot. Those moments will NEVER come around again. Now, they are VALUED so much higher then the PRICE you paid.

In December of 2013, I was PREGNANT. Like really, really pregnant and three weeks away from meeting PK. I shot a wedding for one of the sweetest brides, let alone girls, I have ever met. She was so excited every time we talked, she gushed over her fiance, and got all starry eyed talking details of her big day. Luckily that day came and it was PERFECT. She was so blissfully radiant. Her family was so beyond accommodating to me, always asking if I needed anything! Help, water, a chair, something to eat, whatever!! Her dad told me multiple times that night how thankful they were for me. Their kindness really really stuck with me.

This week she shared one of my images on her social media, over a year from her wedding. The image is one of my favorite from daddy daughter dances, but what she wrote stopped me.

I had no idea her dad had a heart transplant and that maybe this day would have been alot different if not for that surgery 11 years ago. You see, this image and her words solidify to me that what I am doing is SO much more than me, it is bigger than me showing up with a camera and capturing images. I am preserving someone’s life and story. I am freezing a moment to be told years down the road. To stop and remember, be thankful, stay faithful, and celebrate hills and valleys that God puts in our lives.
The PRICE she paid for her images have come and gone, money spent and maybe forgotten about. The VALUE, the unwritten worth of her custom portraits capture,  will carry on.

Preserved for her to reminisce on and be thankful for.