Celebrating Full Time Self-Employment as a Wedding and Engagement Photographer

Wow! The past few weeks have felt surreal leading up to this moment.

I've been photographing weddings and engagements for over 10 years alongside school and work. Photography has always been a source of joy for me, and this last year more than ever I felt the pull to spend even more of my time on it. As a result of the postponements of 2020, 2021 was a big year for getting married. I had the opportunity to book weddings nearly every weekend of the summer, and I knew that was exactly what I wanted to be doing. It became increasingly more difficult to balance it all, and I made the choice to finally go all in. In September I switched to part-time at my day job and put in notice for the end of the year. Yesterday marked the end of six and a half years working in foster care, including over four years at my most recent nonprofit. I worked with an amazing team and licensed foster parents who wanted to care for teens and older children. We started as a small, new program, and I feel so proud and grateful to see what it's become.

I'm a big believer in celebrating life's important moments--that's part of why I love weddings! So today I had a tiny celebration filled with custom cookies from Bellingham's Morgan G Cookies, on-brand decorations, platters full of local snacks, and lots of laughter with a few friends. This marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter of my small business journey, and I'm ridiculously thankful for everyone who has cheered me on along the way. Thank you for being here and making it possible for me to do what I love as a career!

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I'm a wedding and engagement photographer based between Bellingham and Mount Vernon, WA, available for travel throughout Western Washington. Learn more about me here!

The watercolor logo pictured here was created by Bellingham artist Quinnarie.