Ottawa Wedding Photographer | Nicole Amanda

Creating Community | Photos start long before your wedding day

7/28/2015

I’ve said it before and I'll forever preach about wedding photography being so much more than just the photos after the wedding day. Your photographer is probably the second vendor that you will book after your venue! Why? Because after the flowers have wilted and the guests go home, you will have memories, and photos to provoke (or recall) memories. My go-to comparison is always that high school photo. Everyone has that one high school photo that everyone says they look fabulous in, but you hate it. Everyone says you shouldn't, but you still do. It's usually because you remember how awkward that exact moment was, the way the photographer spoke to you and asked you to tilt your head and lean in. People remember moments.

It's no different than your wedding photography. Your wedding day could be perfect, with the weather and your colours and your guests, and smiles. But if you feel awkward or the slightest bit uncomfortable with your wedding photographer, it will be the same as that one high school photo. Who wants that with their wedding photos?! I won't LET that happen. If I don't connect with a client, I won't accept their wedding simply because I don't want them to look back at their wedding photos and feel that way. I encourage finding someone with qualities similar to their own friends, you're not speed dating for life long best friends, but at least someone they'd feel comfortable going for coffee with.

So much time goes into the whole experience you have with your wedding photographer. You work with your photographer from the moment you book them (often a year or more out from the wedding!!) until 5-6 months after, maybe longer, while designing the perfect wedding album to hold your memories. You chat numerous emails and text messages back and forth about engagement sessions, planning advice, composing the perfect timeline...throughout a while year of talking, you really get to know someone personally. For a lot of my brides, I become more of a friend than a vendor, helping them do up dresses and helping coax their timeline along schedule. I'm with you ALL DAY! So I want to help you, all day.

I want to get to know your bridesmaids that way and help them out with anything I can do! They often try to help me out all day so the least I can do is help them enjoy the day and pay them attention just as much as the couple. Many photographers overlook the bridal party, but they're in that postal for a reason. I want it to be simple and easy for everyone involved. The guys are usually on my side pretty quick because of that, I'm in and out as quick as I can because I know they don't want the glam photoshoot ;) I want the bride to not only be pleased with the photos, but also be pleased with the entire experience from start to finish!

When I went to Katelyn's workshop in September, she talked a lot about how she attributed her success to her community of brides that had developed over time. They coined the term "KJ Bride" themselves. She grouped them all and they helped each other with wedding advice, vendor recommendations, even selling some of their decor to each other! You're all recently married or about to get married, often among the same age group, geographical area, and of taste styles both visually and personality if you all chose the same photographer! Why NOT help each other?

I am part of many Facebook photography groups where we can ask questions, get advice, and meet other photographers in the area. This has been super beneficial to me and also gives me the feeling of being part of something bigger than just me and my business. I want to give this experience to my brides. Make new friends!

I have made a Facebook group for all my past and future brides to join so they can all meet each other! Not only can they use this group as a way to swap vendor recommendations and planning advice, they can also make new friends and watch each others journey from their engagement to their wedding! And they can stay in touch long after the wedding! I’m so excited from my brides to get to know each other and develop a sense of community with each other! If you are a past or future Nicole Amanda bride, be on the lookout for an invite!!

ottawa wedding photographer | destination wedding photographer

find me on…

The Importance of Personality Based Branding

7/23/2015

I've been trying to pour more and more of my heart out on the blog lately. And even just out and about with my couples. I wanted to be relatable and rememberable. For a while, I thought I still wasn't doing enough. I had always thought to myself, "oh, no one wants to hear about that." Katelyn James PREACHES about getting out there, being yourself, sharing your day to day life. That's how you find and connect with real people. If brides are your clients, more likely than not, they can't connect with your small business problems, so why share those?! She always talks about brand boosters, and things that you don't even have to do to have people think of you. And I'm so glad she shares her heart for teaching, because I'm really not sure where I'd be without her at this point.

I feel like I've made a huge progression this month - this is my sixth blog post so hopefully this is becoming a habit. (It still blows my mind how Katelyn blogs like almost every day!!) I'm working to personal challenges as well as some blog challenges within my photographer groups, so I love reading and learning from everyone out there at the same stages in life and photography as I am. The industry seems so cut-throat sometimes, especially around here, so I'm glad that I have friends around the continent that are based on community over competition <3

My month was made, when the other day a past bride texted me. She said, "is it weird that overtime I think of Taylor Swift I think of you?" HECK NO! This is a marketing win on my end. Taylor is my spirit animal. I would be her if I could. So if I'm emulating at least that much, that's a personality branding win in my books. All. Day. Long. It just gives me that much more encouragement to be sharing who I truly am online. If someone doesn't like what I'm sharing, they'll leave, and that's okay. Because the people I can serve the best are those I can truly connect with on a personal level.

As much as I love teal, I still think of Katelyn when I see it. When I think of Disney, I think Jaime Davis. Red lipstick, Taylor Swift (and that's still a relatively new one!) You know what I mean?! I never thought I would be able to have anything like this associate to me. How do you get people to think of you?! But the more and more I share, it just happens.

People read. People remember. It still is so humbling to think about the number of people who asked me how Barbados was when attending a wedding industry function. It's like, what?! People read my blog?! Other people in the industry and not just brides?! Not just my family?!

This is for all of you photographers, even just small business owners, who were like me. "Nobody wants to hear about this..." If it means something to you, it will connect you with someone else. Whether you have 5, 50, 500 or 5000 daily blog readers, they expect and deserve to hear from you. Share your heart.

ottawa wedding photographer | destination wedding photographer

find me on…

Caitlin + Matthew | NDHQ Officers' Mess Wedding

7/21/2015

Caitlin has always been the sporty girl, runner and athlete. Matthew, the complete opposite. Until that one day Caitlin showed up at Matt's apartment because his roommate was to sub in on her sports team day. That was the day Caitie never left Matt's mind, and he tagged along to sub on her team too. Although he had left for BC for a month, followed by a few months in China, they texted like crazy. Their first "dates" were really long emails which evolved into video chats while he was away. They made it official while he was still in China! They had their first real date on a camping trip when he arrived back to Canada.

Since then, Matt had lived to make all of her dreams come true. Caitlin had always dreamed of P.E.I. because she's a huge Anne of Green Gables fan. They headed out that way when friends of theirs were getting married in Moncton, NB. She was already on the moon to be there. He took her to a red sand beach to swim in the ocean & then to a bed & breakfast that was basically next door to Green Gables! They ended the day with a visit to the Lake of Shining Waters, almost running out of gas, and arriving just at sunset. He got down on one knee; crying, she said yes.

These two just have something different about them. I felt connected to them instantly because I felt like they were much like myself & Max; adventure buddies and best friends more obviously than lovers. Very different, but exposing each other to completely new ways of seeing the world. Laid-back and easygoing, they didn't want anything to extravagant. It was a simply lovely day, and the rain held off just for them. You can tell these two just bring happiness to everyone around them. I hope you two have a lifetime full of happiness and can't wait to see where in the world this life takes you.