Although we never made a formal announcement or anything, Collin and I made a pretty major business decision for our studio for the year of 2018. We didn’t photograph a single wedding. True, weddings were never the main focus of our business, but they were absolutely a part of it that we enjoyed. Some of our very favorite lifelong studio clients started out as our brides! So if we enjoyed it, what was the reason for our decision? Did we hate working with bridezillas? No way, our brides have always been the best! Truly, in all of our years we have never encountered a bridezilla. Brides are some of the happiest people on the planet, and working with them has always been a joy! So, is it the mothers of the bride? Nope! Those sweet mommas are also enjoyable to be with and we have honestly developed some pretty amazing relationships with them as a result of the weddings we have photographed. Honestly, the things that spurred our decision the most were threefold: our own kids, late nights, and drunk Uncle Bobby. Don’t be embarrassed, we all have a drunk Uncle Bobby. He’s the guy at the reception who’s had way more than a few too many. Just look for him at the next wedding you attend. I promise he’ll be easy to spot. And, really, reasons two and three could be combined into one. There just comes a certain point in nearly every wedding reception where the alcohol consumption has gotten to be too much and the drunk Uncle Bobbys come out of the woodwork, and NONE of that needs to be held on to for posterity’s sake. Just trust me. After laying all of the pros and cons out on the table, Collin and I decided to take a break for a year and just see what happened.
And it was GREAT…mostly. On Father’s Day our family was sitting outside of our Airstream in a small beach town in North Carolina and I picked up my phone and started scrolling through Instagram. When I got to one particular photo I stopped in my tracks and my eyes actually welled up with tears a little. Dramatic? Probably. But I’m a girl and we do dramatic things. There on my phone was a photo that I had taken of a bride and her daddy, just before he was to walk her down the aisle to her groom. Think about that for a second. This man was about to hand off one of his most treasured possessions…the little girl who had relied on him since her very first breath…and deliver her to the man who would take his place. And I was able to be there in that moment to witness it. Whew. I looked over my coffee cup to my own husband and baby girl and then my eyes REALLY got soggy and my entire family looked at me like I had three heads. They tend to do that a good bit. I tossed the phone to Collin and told him to take a look and then admitted that I actually missed weddings. And he said the same. He missed the engagement and bridal sessions and the excitement of a wedding day. Right there in Southport, North Carolina outside of our old camper we came up with a plan to introduce weddings back into our studio. Admittedly, it’s a unique take on weddings and there’s a good chance that it won’t work for many couples. But we feel that, for us, it’s the best solution to the difficulties we encountered with weddings, and we are confident that it will be a perfect fit for some! Here it is:
Three Hour Wedding Package $1250
We are introducing back into our studio one wedding package. This package will include three hours of photography, one hour dedicated to pre-ceremony, one to ceremony and post wedding photos, and one to the reception. All photos from the wedding day will be presented to the bride and groom in digital form for you to print as you choose, with other products available to you if desired. Also included in this package are an engagement and bridal session, with specially priced portrait collections available.
If this interests you…or confuses you…we’d love to answer any questions! We understand that this is not the typical wedding package and it will not work for many. And we have a list of wedding photographers that we would love to share with you if what we have doesn’t meet your needs. We will be very strict with our three hour time limit. We would love to share with you our ideas of how we think a typical wedding will look! Please email to set up a meeting to discuss this further. Oh, and as always, we would be very willing to travel with this wedding package! collin@cmsmithportraits.com
