2022 // Reflecting Back on a year of business + life
Reflecting back on the 2022 season … in A P R I L of 2023??
Well, better later than never, right!?
The truth is, I used to do these posts religiously, and not just this one… if you’ve been following along for any length of time, you might recall that my “end of year recap” posts consisted of FIVE total. They were these:
Reflecting Back (this one!)
Best of Couples (all my favorite shots from engagement/anniversary sessions of that finished season!)
Best of Weddings, part ONE! (same idea, all my favorite shots from weddings of that last/finished season, but it was soooo giant, since weddings are my primary focus, so I had to split it into two posts!)
Best of weddings, part TWO!
Behind The Scenes (the post I feel like most people really get curious about, the post that I know from analytics gets more hits than the other four, the post that takes so much time to put together, the post I laugh out loud so hard at, the post even I myself look forward to!)
And the reality is…that has come to an end.
Officially, beginning with the 2022 recaps, I’ve decided I no longer can put the time and effort into that work. I realized also that I share so many of my “favorite” shots from each engagement session, anniversary, lifestyle session, and wedding throughout the year as I’m actively documenting these things…that, I don’t really need to do these. I keep Instagram hopping, and Facebook too — with a lot of sneak peeks, favorite shots, reels, stories and more. And since I still blog nearly every session and wedding I do, that is another avenue for sharing my favorites. Creating these end of year recap “favorites” or “best of posts”, just isn’t really necessary. And when I tell you that they take a ton of time, I’m not even kidding.
SO… Moving forward, I will now only be doing TWO end of year posts. This one, the reflecting back. Anddd…. **drumroll**….. The behind the scenes!!!
It feels important to me on a personal level to still do this reflecting back post… It’s nice to write out my thoughts on what the finished season was like for me, how it felt, what I felt were my successes and failures, etc.
It’s also nice to revisit personal stuff — the highs (sometimes lows), and the story of my past year in LIFE! I share fairly openly with you guys, and I genuinely find so much comfort and joy in that. It’s really fun for me to share my life and feel the support, encouragement, enthusiasm and more that YOU share back to me because of it. I feel VERY strongly about the importance of being transparent, as open as you can, and just letting people in…so, I do what I do :)
And that behind-the-scenes post…well, that one, I just can’t give up, it’s too entertaining :)
So how do I feel about the 2022 season from a business perspective??
SOOOOOO GOOD!!
The year kicked off with finding out I was nominated for the Kansas City Vendor Choice Awards — Photographer of the Year. Then, shortly after, finding out I had become a top five finalist for that award. To say I was overwhelmed with shock and gratitude, would be an understatement. That evening for the gala / award show at one of my fave places in KC — Union Station, was easily one of the most memorable evenings of my career, and life! Though I didn’t take home the award (spoiler alert, I go on to do it in 2023!!), it was such a magical evening full of so many damn good memories!
2022 was very fulfilling, and full — busyness wise, financially wise, creatively wise, FUN wise, all the ways!! The 2022 busy season consisted of:
23 weddings
30 engagement sessions
9 family / maternity sessions
1 branding session
I got to revisit some venues I know and LOVE like Farmhouse KC, The Venue at Willow Creek, Sycamore Tree, The Barn at Riverbend, Lone Summit Ranch, 1890, and The Elms. My calendar fills up so fast, so it’s nice when I can sneak in at least one, maybe two weddings a year at places like these!!
I was able to not just revisit, but revisit multiple times last year some of my favorite places too like The Hawthorne House, White Iron Ridge, and Wildcliff!! Again, with how quickly the calendar fills up, when I get multiple or several weddings at some of my most favorite places to shoot, I’m SO pumped!
I also got to document some weddings last year at places I hadn’t yet been to before, and I LOVED that!! Places I visited for the first time in 2022 for my own booked weddings were — Hallbrook Country Club, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, The Bride & The Bauer, Kansas City Country Club, Belvoir Winery, Longview Mansion, anddddd Big Cedar Lodge!! Getting to go to new places is always so much freakin fun!! SO thankful my calendar allows that to happen! So thankful that so many couples pick me!!
I’d share places I documented engagement sessions at last year, but wow that list would be long lol. I did however toss in some fun shoots in downtown KC where my couple and I just EXPLORE on foot, and honestly, those sessions are so so fun. More walking sessions in 2023, please!! I traveled a couple hours here and there for various locations in different areas of both Missouri and Kansas and I love getting to do that as well! And of course, just hitting some of my most favorite spots around KC for engagement sessions never, ever ever gets old!! We as a creative industry here are honestly so lucky.
On a fun trip to Colorado…. I got to do an amazing couples mountain session!
Not just an amazing couples mountain session, but with someone I adore! Ashley is someone I worked with A LOT for many years early in my career, as she used to be part of the Kansas City Wedding Community!! Since though, that rockstar has moved onward to Colorado where she continues to work in the wedding industry out there! Getting to see her again, and document her and her love, Sasha, was amazing… We did a fun little hike and honestly, their images are some of my favorites of my career!
To see Ashley and Sasha’s Colorado session, go here!
One random, but super cool thing that happened in Savannah!
On a girls trip to Savannah, Georgia with my bestie Jamie… I had wanted to set up a couples session specifically on Jekyll Island — those driftwood trees y’all… all along the beach, in the oceans edge…there really isn’t anything quite like it. I wanted to do a session there so badly! I tried to get one set up mulitple times by connecting with others on the coast, but it just didn’t work out. So, I thought oh well, I still want to go see this magical place and photograph it just for myself. Jamie and I go one afternoon…and you’ll never, ever guess what happened. If you follow me on Instagram, you already know lol.
Jamie and I walked up on that magical beach…mesmerized by all we were seeing. And then I looked to my left. And I saw a super sweet looking couple setting up their iPhone and taking some cute photos…they were dressed really nice, so I thought, man…this is something important, I can feel it. I walked up to them, introduced myself, asked if they would mind if I took some photos of them with my camera, (that I would absolutely give to them!) and they quickly agreed! Come to find out… they had just gotten engaged the day before. And had come to this very beach in that very moment to take some iPhone photos of themselves to document their engagement. Then here I walked up with my camera in hand, some of my favorite lenses, and a super eager heart to document this exact thing.
Crazy how the world works sometimes.
That sweet couple, was Olivia and Jonathan… and after a SUPER FUN, unexpected, completely serendipitous meeting — there are now incredible photos of them newly engaged, on one of the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever seen in my life.
And what’s even more wild is that after our chance meeting, BECAUSE of our chance meeting…we became fast friends. We kept in touch. And now? They hired me to document their wedding in Savannah in 2024. Let me say again — crazy how the world works sometimes… but I love it so much!!
To see Olivia and Jonathan’s magical session on Jekyll Island, go here!
THE WEDDING DAY MIRROR SELFIE continued in 2022…. and I once again had so many others join in on the fun and share theirs on IG as well. I’m SO glad others in the industry hopped on this super random idea I had many years ago. It’s honestly fun to see and has become a camaraderie type thing, which I love! I don’t always remember to take these on wedding days, or some days are simply too busy for it!! But it’s fun to get when I can! :)
THE BEST MIRROR SELFIE OF ALL… is that third from the top left (and seen below!). That, my friends, was the culmination of alllll the wedding day mirror selfies. WHY you ask!? Because THAT was my besties wedding day, and she works in the KC wedding industry (Miss Alex Plunkett, owner of The Legacy at Green Hills!), and I was a bridesmaid in her beautiful wedding last May! Andddd, with us is Mike, none other than Mike of 4 Honor… a local KC photographer, friend, and widely known as the selfie king. When I started the wedding day mirror selfies years ago, Mike was quick to hop on that bandwagon, and you can pretty much always count on him sharing a snap in a mirror during the weddings he shoots!! Us three in a mirror on the wedding day of one of us…what a trifecta!!!
2022 new headshots… always a must, each year — multiple times, if possible!! For these ones, I partnered up again with the LOVELY Lauren Benson of Lauren Benson Photography, aka…one of my dearest friends, who brings out all my emotions and supports and loves me so well. ADORE THIS WOMAN! Our pic days together are always so so fun. I always love the photos she gets of me! We just about froze to actual death deciding to do 2022 headshots in November, but hey!! Worth.
The year was as full as time allowed for friendor coffee dates, heart to hearts with vendors turned more than friendors…turned actual besties. Random run-in’s while on walks/runs with incredible people this industry has brought into my life, dreaming up dreams with big dreamers like myself, anddddd several coaching sessions with that cutie in the white beanie, proud of that girl!
On a personal note that I could write so so much about… and have, in countless specific Instagram posts, and so much more in the book I’m currently writing… 2022 was full of a lot of highs, lows, discovery, rediscovery, growth, boundary establishment, dreams, hopes, successes, giant wins, heartbreak, and more happiness than I can really describe.
A fantastic bachelorette trip was taken to Charleston, South Carolina in April with and for my bestie Plunkett (i.e. that cutie patootie in the wedding industry and best wedding day mirror selfie up above!!)
There was a wildly needed solo trip in June to Colorado to visit one of my very, very best friends and her dear husband. That trip was pure catharsis in so many ways.
And there was a girls trip with my bestie Jamie to Savannah, Georgia in September, that was more fun than I thought possible at my age, lol — and magical moments like the shoot I mentioned up above on Jekyll Island!
SO. MANY. GREAT. MEMORIES.
THE HEART HUNT JOURNEY OF 2022!
For those that follow my Instagram… you know I spent a couple months last spring / early summer driving all over Missouri and Kansas finding A L L 156 (156!!!) hearts that were up for a temporary art display / camaraderie thing that Kansas City established last year. This was easily… EASILY one of the most fun things I’ve ever done in my life. I wrote about it on Instagram (and it’ll be in my book too!) this journey started off as something I thought I’d do entirely with a guy I had just begun dating…and then that ended, harshly. I almost gave up on seeing the hearts because it then felt tainted, but I didn’t. So around and around, burning a lot of gas I went, and I saw nearly all by myself, and it was one of the most rewarding things, ever.
Somewhere around the 20th heart, I came to realize that it was more than an art thing for me. It was more than a treasure hunt. I ended up dubbing it the “heart hunt journey” because though I was actually and literally hunting down hearts… I was also really rediscovering and finding my own.
The memories from this, are limitless.
And…as so many of you sweet souls who I know personally, deeply, a little, or not at all… you know this story.
After ending a 12 year relationship in early 2021 and flipping my entire world on its side… choosing to make hard decisions, dealing with crippling guilt, and finally the ultimate tough acceptance of letting someone else down in order to save myself. To then getting back into dating in late 2021, and having my heart broken right out of the gate by someone new. To then taking a step back…and then getting back into dating yet again later on in early 2022. I started off ‘22 with a different mindset after realizing how happy I was on my own, and realizing I didn’t really need to be with anyone. I had reached a point in life where my own company was easily my favorite, and I was more than content, I was truly happy. My new mindset became two fold — just have fun, live life, YOLO. And, secondly, I will not get into another relationship unless I meet the ultimate person who checks all the boxes and takes my own existing happiness and simply amplifies it.
Like so many of my sweet couples, I hit the dating apps. Hinge and Bumble brought 23 people into my life — including the late 2021 chooch.
But 22 dates later… and Hinge delivered a match so perfect, I had no idea number 23 would be the one.
You, my people, have followed along this last year so lovingly and excitedly. Saying things like “Out of all the love stories you’ve documented, yours is my favorite”… reminding me at every opportunity that I deserve this, that you’re so happy for me, saying you can tell how happy I am in every smile and twinkle in my eye — and his too. Reminding me how insanely cute we are together, and so much more.
Quite honestly, I’ve never, ever been happier. Yeah I photograph love stories for a living and it’s a dream job — but you can still harbor a sea of doubt in your own heart, no matter what...Until this kind of love finds you.
When I say THANK YOU for all the support you amazing souls have shown me on this dreamy love story of mine, I MEAN IT, HARD.
It’s been just under a year so far, and it’s been such a good ride already — I can’t wait to see all that’s next and you people already know too, that I can’t wait to share it with you! Thank you for allowing me to do so, and making me feel like y’all do!
Brian… I see you creeping on this post, I LOVE YOU TO THE MOON.
