2019 // Reflecting Back on My Past Year in Business!

Another year has come and gone and I’m not going to lie — both personally and professionally, 2019 FLEW BY at lightning speed. My goodness. Maybe it’s because I’m getting older, maybe it’s because time really does in fact, zoom by, maybe it’s a combination of both, but holy moly I feel like time needs to CHILL OUT already!

2019 was a pretty freakin’ awesome year for ELP! My goal each year wedding wise, is somewhere around 20ish — that “ish” can go either way, a little less, a little more. For the 2019 wedding season, I was blessed and honored to witness and document 28 weddings, and that being the most I’ve ever shot in one year, it felt unbelievably amazing!!

Funnily enough, in 2018, I shot 23 weddings and felt overwhelmed and crazed and in some ways like I couldn’t keep up. So naturally, I go and book 5 more weddings than that the next year lol. I knew going into 2019 though, that it was going to be different, I just felt it in my bones! A combination of just being more comfortable with WHO I am, WHAT I’m capable of, having better systems in place, and then knowing that of those 28 weddings, they were far more spread out across the year instead of being so clustered together like the 23 weddings of 2018 had been. Not shooting double header after double header, or like in 2017…that insane triple header that I so crazily did, made a pretty substantial difference for me.

The trouble is you can’t really bank on the ability of having your weddings spread out each year as a wedding photographer. It’s hard to really gauge if they will be that way or not as you are lining up bookings and deciding yes or no on taking a double because what if you say no to a double, but then don’t book another single. Ya see what I mean!? Either way, 2020 is shaping up currently at 26 weddings with several more pending and luckily so far at least, they are pretty spread out again!

For engagement sessions in 2019, there were 32! That boggles my mind and I’d have to go look and I’m too lazy to do that, but I think that too was a record!! Engagement (and anniversary!) sessions are LEGIT my favorite!! Just me and a sweet couple for a couple hours exploring and having fun, it’s the very best!

In my 2018 Year in Review post, I talked a bit about goals I had for the new year —

• 1. One had been overhauling my website and I’m pleased as punch to say that happened, and holy crap the amount of work that went into it, but holy crap again, the joy I felt and still feel! I’m super happy with my website and feel confident in what my clients and potential clients see as they land here in this space! This off-season/year I’ll do a few minor updates such as primarily updating images, a few bits of copy here and there, but overall, it’s still solid and I’m so dang glad!

• 2. Two had been finishing my home office design. It’s ironic that when I wrote that as a goal last year, the actual words that followed were “Ask me how long I’ve been saying that haha.” — and well, I could say that again. It still isn’t done. All of 2019 came to pass and it still is not done. Oy vey.

• 3. Three had been I wanted to take my client experience up a few notches — and I feel like I totally did that this past year! I’m excited for 2020 because I know that I never want my client experience to become stagnant, I want it to be always improving, and I’ve got some good stuff coming in the next few months that I feel are going to transform my approach even more!

• 4. Four on the 2018 list was offering educational stuff to other photographers, and possibly mentoring! I had said possibly!! Dude I’m pleased as all heck to say that middle-ish of last year, I rolled out coaching/mentoring sessions and they have totally rocked my world! Not sure I would’ve believed I’d be in this position several years ago, but I’m so glad I am. Meeting other photographers and creatives and doing all I can to pass on the lessons, systems, skills and more that I’ve learned has brought me a TON of joy! These sessions will be continuing moving forward! If you reading this are interested, you can find more info about a coaching session with ELP here!

• 5. Five, lastly….had been more blogging! And admittedly, I started off 2019 with a lot of good intentions on this topic, and I did fairly well at first, but as the year got busy, it tanked. I’d like to think I can do better for 2020, so we shall see!

For my 2020 coveted “off season”…

I gotta be honest. I think I’ve said something like this before too, but hear me out. The first year in business, I didn’t comprehend what an off season was. That lull of no weddings and cold weather was like WHY AM I NOT SHOOTING, THIS FEELS WRONG. It didn’t take me too long to realize though that having an off-season as a wedding photographer, is like a teacher having summer break, and without it, you might go nuts. Like, really nuts.

By my second and third off seasons, I had sooo many projects and things I wanted to accomplish that I never had the time to do during busy wedding season (newsflash: this is still true, will always be true, til infinity), but those couple of years my off-season wasn’t really anything at all related to “TIME OFF”, I worked my ass off instead, trying to complete projects.

Then slowly but surely, I started really basking in the uhhhmazingness of a true off season. Taking time to chill out, to relax, to rejuvenate. Still had projects, don’t get me wrong, those will always be there, but I found out how to actually take time off and let myself REST before going balls to the wall during the crazy-busy wedding season again.

SO all that said… Ask me how PLEASED I am that for 2020, I intentionally didn’t book weddings until May!? GO ON ASK ME. Cause I’ll tell ya. I’m pleased, thrilled, ecstatic, oh so happy about that decision. It was nottt easy, trust me. But I’m so happy I did!

As always, there are of course a lot of projects I want to tackle during this time, but there should also be some rest in here too. Some Netflix and Hulu binges, lots of books to read, some vacations, YAAASSSS QUEEN!

Before I get into the GOALS OF 2020, I wanna recap a few random things from 2019!

Such as….this once in a lifetime dreammmm of styled elopement shoot that I put together with the help of Kat (wife to Ben) of Benjamin T Warner Music — formally a KC based musician, now an Asheville, NC based musician…aka, my old stomping grounds near where I grew up! Kat and I threw this shoot together fairly quickly, we both are itching to get more into the elopement realm of weddings, — luckily for her, she’s in an area where elopements are prevalent, which isn’t as true for me as I wish it were, but here’s to hoping these images will help change that moving forward! Heavens knows I will go and travel just about anywhere for a great love story!! SHAMELESS PLUG. CONTACT ME ASAP FOR YOUR INTIMATE ELOPEMENT :)

We were soooo blessed to find Brooke and her real-life boyfriend Carter because together, these two are unstoppable, and this shoot went off without a dang hitch. You can see the entire shoot, perfectly dubbed — an ethereal and windswept mountaintop elopement at black balsam knob, here! And I will oh-so-happily share a few of my favorites below! Feast your eyeballs, friends!!

In 2018 I did three big styled shoots, and five small ones — but for 2019, this mountaintop elopement was really the only one! The only other stylized thing I did was to shoot a new line of bridal gowns for the lovely Angela of Fabulous Frocks of KC, and then to document her bridal open house, perfectly titled, Get Fabulous! If you want to see more from that event you can do so here, and then below are a few faves of mine! Our model, Emily…is a showstopper!

So what are my thoughts going into 2020 and what are my goals for the year!?

• Actually finish my home office design!?
  — This one makes me laugh, honestly, lol. I don’t even know what I need to do to make this space feel done?? There’s a wall space above my desk that I want to fill with a very unique and personal art project, but to do that means I gotta DO the art project… so…. yeah. Beyond that, truly, it’s probably done, or as done as it needs to be!? Who wants to place a bet that my future 2021 year in review post mentions me still wanting to finish my home office!?

• Tackle several courses and conferences to continue my education!
  — It’s super important y’all, no matter how long you’ve been in this business, to always keep growing and moving forward and learning more etc etc etc. I could go on and on about this topic! For this off season, I have 20 or so online courses and one huge in-person retreat I’m attending all in the name of bettering myself as a photographer. It’s A LOT. I’m slightly intimidated by it all, but I’m oh so very ready for it too :)

• Finish entirely, all 38 things on my todo list….ugh.
  — For real, I counted. Some of those thirty-eight things are simple, like fix broken links on my website, update my Facebook banner image, go visit a certain local bakery that I’ve had a gift card for - for literally 8 years LOL. Some of those thirty-eight things are more complicated and will take longer like updating images on my website, updating my bridal guide, clean out + organize the basement (woof), and switch ELP over to a whole new gallery system — to name a few.

• Blog prep and content calendar plan!
  — I really, really, really want this one to happen, folks. Do you guys have anyyy idea how many blog post IDEAS I’m sitting on!? Like for real! No, you don’t know, because I never do them!! Ughhh! I’ve known for years now that if I could dedicate some of my off-season to writing up tons of blog posts and just save ‘em as drafts, then come busy season, I’d already have sooo much content done/ready and all I’d have to do is schedule it out or hit publish manually! EASY!! Apparently not so easy, cause I still haven’t done it. Is 2020 my year for this!? lol

• Read lotssss of books!!
  — I have soooo many books to read, you guys! And I want to continue sharing my reviews of books too on my blog like I’ve been doing, but also more on Instagram! If you think you might want to follow along with that, you can follow me on Instagram and also follow my book reading/reviewing hashtag! — #elpbooknook

I could probably keep rambling, but let’s be honest, this post is long enough! If you made it to the bitter end, YOU ROCK. Here’s to 2020!!