Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves… – Phillippians 2:3
Hello Lover,
Welcome to the blog. Yup. My blog. I feel it’s only appropriate to kick this baby off with a good old fashioned intro. Obviously, I’m a wedding photographer. Why else would you even be here? Engagement sessions, elopements, destination weddings, boudoir are my life. I am passionate about love and telling stories through my lens. As cliche and gross as that may be to say…well, meh, it’s just the truth, haha!
But what about ME? Who is the person behind the camera? Well let me tell you. First of all, I hate talking about myself. Unfortunately, I’ve recently learned that blog posts should be between 800-1,000 words but I’ll do the best I can. Let’s talk about ME. Muahahaha.
I am…a dork.
But I embrace it so it’s fine. I am addicted to traveling and adventure. Climbing mountains, swimming in oceans and soaking up the glorious sunshine is what I do best. However in the quieter parts of my life I love watching anime, baking shows, watching videos of chubby raccoons (or red pandas….I freaking love red pandas) and reading books about history and war. I know, it makes no sense. I keep a very tight inner circle of close friends who are my prize collection of the best people in the world. Yet I am a friend to all! I love going out with my peeps and their peeps and their peeps’ peeps over some drinks and LOTS of food…oh how I love food. Dear DudeAtTheBar, don’t buy me a drink, buy me nachos. I am an extrovert to the max and it definitely helps me out for weddings with LOTS of people. I just want to be everyone’s friend and what better way to do that than in a job where I literally get to spend all day being everyone’s hype girl?
Now for the man in my life…
My son, Henry. I don’t think I ever truly ever understood love until I spawned a Henry. For the time being, my love story has unfolded in the form of loving this tiny man. It’s just the two of us and I almost (almost) wouldn’t want it any other way. He is the man in my life and I couldn’t be happier. He drives me to be better every day and is a big part of my success. I love taking him on adventures and teaching him all about what life has to offer.
The MOST important part of my life. My faith.
I save this section for close to last, not because it has less value…..but because it’s the perfect book end for this post. I do love me some Jesus, and I want it to be known and reflected in how I run my business and how I treat those I serve in this business. As it goes in the verse I posted at the beginning of this blog, I want to value others as greater than myself. I am certainly not perfect in this, but it is my desire to serve you and support you and even LOVE you as you deserve to be loved.
It is such an honor to be in this business and it is only by the grace of God that I have stayed in business this long. It truly makes no sense. I have been in this business since 2013, self taught, with barely any advertising. 99% of my business has been word of mouth or random inquiries with zero promotion. When I felt called to take a leap of faith and do this full time, as a single parent, with this as my ONLY income…I was HORRIFIED. However the Lord has never ceased to provide. I would be down to a few dollars in my bank account, feeling like a failure and feeling it was time to quit and find a more stable source of income…and WHABAM. Suddenly I would get an inquiry that would pay all the bills above and beyond. Here I am now, almost 10 years later running a successful photography business that provides for all of my needs. I can only give credit to God.
Money is not the only thing that God has provided through being a photographer. I have countless, incredible people in my life because of it and many of my brides have become very dear, close, inner sanctum friends. It has been incredible to see how this business has strengthened my faith and provided me with so much love in the form of sincere bonds of friendship. Do you know how awesome it is to do what you love to do and make some of your BEST. FRIENDS while doing it?!
ALL are welcome at the table.
This is important to me. Following sharing my faith and where it has brought me, I feel like sometimes people see a photographer being very forward about their faith means they won’t get along or they will refuse to work together. Don’t assume, my friends. I am a firm believer that just because we believe differently does not mean we won’t get along! I have done countless weddings of people who believe differently with me and have formed the most beautiful friendships along the way. I have done Hindu weddings, Muslim weddings, pagan weddings, Buddhist weddings, and yes, even LGBTQ weddings. All sorts of weddings. That’s not to say that I agree with these things, I have no shame in sharing or standing up for my beliefs. However, if I refused to do a wedding because I were to place myself on the high seat of judgement, I couldn’t even participate in my OWN wedding! Haha. Hello. Single parent….Never married….let’s all just put two and two together and recognize that I have most certainly fallen short of the glory of God, haha! It is important to me to stand in my beliefs while sharing the love of Jesus with all. No one will be discounted or judged for believing differently than me.
My friends, I want you to feel so so loved and seen when we work together! I hope sharing this tad bit of info about me makes you feel welcomed into my world. It would be my greatest honor to work with you and get to know more about you too!
xoxo, Victoria
