Why, Hello there, 2011!!!

It’s HERE!!!!  2011!!!  This is the year of our 10th Anniversary at Collin M. Smith Portrait Photography.  Collin and I have tried and tried to come up with the words to express how grateful we are for the past 10 years.  There’s just no way to do it.  We are unbelievably amazed at the ways we have been blessed through this little adventure that we set out on ten years ago.  We absolutely without a doubt know that it is ALL because of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, that this “little adventure” has grown to what it is today.  We are nothing.  He is everything and it is through Him that all blessings come.  And so first and foremost, we want to give Him the glory.

As a direct result of this studio, we have seen places we more than likely never would have.  We have learned some really tough lessons about business, our marriage and our family.  We have heard insanely hilarious things come out of the mouths of some of the cutest kids around  (seriously, you would NOT believe some of the things kids have told us!).  We have met countless amazing parents who have made us challenge ourselves as a mom and dad and taught us some very valuable lessons.  We have witnessed incredible joy in some of “our” families as well as unspeakable sadness.  We have laughed a lot and cried a good bit, too.  But we have learned that what it all comes down to is this: Relationships.  People.  We have loved getting to know people.  We have made incredible friendships for ourselves and our children.  And more than anything, that is what we are thankful for.

We want this year to be FUN.  Fun for you, fun for us, fun for the community.  So many times, in both business and personal life, I stress.  Collin gets on me about it all the time.  😉  The Lord has given us what is really a very short time on this earth.  I want to make it count.  This year, with our kids, each other, friends, and everyone we come into contact with, Collin and I want to make it real.  We want to celebrate this life.  And, basically, that is going to be the theme of our year, both personally and professionally.

Each month, we will celebrate something new.  And with each celebration, we will offer you something at the studio.  Take, for instance, January.  This is our first “Celebration” month of the year.  This month we are celebrating two things.  The first we have already mentioned in a previous post…Dance!  We are celebrating the energy, beauty and joy that little girls get from dance.  We are so excited about this Limited Edition!  To get more information, search “Let’s Dance” in the blog search window.  And stay tuned to the blog…we will have more sample sessions coming soon!

Our second, and biggest, celebration for January is New Life.  If you are a regular blog reader, you know that we are pretty crazy about photographing babies.  There’s just something so special about that first year.  Never again will a child be that tiny and new, and we love helping you hang on to that first year forever through portraits.  That’s why we created The Baby Plan.  It is a plan that gives you portrait sessions at key developmental stages during your baby’s first year.  During the month of January, as a celebration of new life and a gift to you, we are offering The Baby Plan for only $50!!!  This plan may be purchased for a baby that you already have (as long as they are under a year of age) or in advance for a baby that you are expecting later this year.  We have never put The Baby Plan on sale and I am so excited to offer this to you!  The Baby Plan may be purchased at the discounted price only during the month of January.  Please give us a call and we will get you all of the details!  665-4646

Very soon we will be putting a calendar on the blog and website outlining our year of Celebrations, including our first ever photography contest for High School juniors and seniors!!!  The grand prize will be $500 in scholarship money.  Details on this will be on the blog soon, but if you know any juniors and seniors, encourage them to “like” our facebook page for rules and information.   I can’t wait to share all that we have planned!

And lastly, the biggest celebration, and one that will last the entire year, is centered on two of our very favorite things:  Family and Disney World!!!!  There is nothing that Collin and I love more than some good quality family time.  And our favorite place for family time is Disney World!!  We’re a little bit obsessed.  We love it because our kids love it so much and there are so few distractions that take us away from each other while we are there.  For us, it is the perfect family vacation spot.  And as a thank you gift, we are giving away a trip to Disney this year.  Or rather, we are giving away Disney dollars to be spent on a trip to Disney.  We want to let you choose all of the fun details like resort, length of stay, when you go and so on.  Because this is such a “family” place for us, we are centering this prize around family portraits.  To qualify for the trip, you will need to have a family session done this year (by the end of November) and purchase a family portrait, 20 inch or larger.  That’s it.  Then your name will be in the running for DISNEY!!!  The winning family will be announced in December of this year.  We are SO EXCITED about this!!!  I seriously CANNOT wait to see who wins this one!

There is so much more to tell you.  More than I could fit into one post.  So keep checking back.  Mainly, though, we want to say thank you.  We love serving you and we value the friendships we have made in the past ten years.  Can’t wait for many more!