Finally! haha I didn’t think anyone would care who it was but I’ve had so many people asking who the mystery new person is! I am so excited to tell you! Mostly cause I am so excited for who it is!

Before I let you in, let me backpedal a little bit. Two years ago, I decided to hire ONE second shooter for my entire wedding season. I’d heard of other photographers having success with it and I loved the idea of working with one person the entire year!

My first year, I was telling friends at a BBQ about it and one of the guys, also a past groom, piped up “I’ll do it!” and so started year one! He is literally the male version of myself, so we worked together fabulously and it was a fun way to figure out if I could hire someone with no photography background at all and teach them my ways. It worked, Dan was amazing and although he decided to pursue policing instead (I guess his career should come first ;) he still second shoots whenever he can!

Last year, I decided to hire again based on personality and I fell in love with Ash my first time meeting her, especially after I embarrassingly realized I knew who she was already. In my defence I didn’t click with her last name! Ash had photography experience already and I loved having her along! Ash had a little baby girl just a few months ago and we are long overdue for a coffee date!!

So over wine just before Christmas, two of my best friends were over and we were chatting about second shooters and what my ideal second shooter would be. I said personality comes first for sure! The last two years proved how amazing that was! And someone who knows social media well would be amazing, to throw up a few insta stories during the day, someone who was extroverted and loved being around people! Someone I worked well with and who had similar life views. My marketing targets a fairly specific type of client, mostly because I want to work with couples who I could be friends with. Who feel like instant friends, and don’t mind spending their entire wedding day with me! I need a second shooter who fits right in!

The next day I had a text from my best friend Jessica asking if she could “apply” for the second shooter position. I got it RIGHT as I went out of service for the entire day. So she probably thought I was thinking of creative ways to say no! I felt so bad! But I am pretty sure I replied a huge HELLS YES as soon as I got home! The more I thought about it the more excited I got! We met working together at a coffee shop 15 years ago, when she quit to work for Freshwater Fisheries, I followed her and she was semi my supervisor for the first year! We worked there for 3 years together. We were bridesmaids in each others weddings, we were pregnant together for both of our kids….we’ve been through all of our life’s BIG moments together. She also is on the marketing team for fisheries and runs their entire social media and rocks it. It started off with me teaching her stuff when she first got the job and now she teaches me so much!

We’ve had a few practice engagement sessions just to make sure she could actually take photos and ohmygosh she went from pretty good to great in about 3 shoots!! Check out one of the ones she got from last nights photoshoot below! I kinda wish I took it! ;)

So without any further blabber, cause I could talk about the two of us for hours. So many stories :) I introduce you to my 2017 (and maybe more?!) second shooter JESSICA!!!

• also note that I told her I was going to take her photo for the blog 3 seconds before this after a 2 hour engagement session where we traipsed through thick fields up chilliwack lake road. And by no means am I saying she doesn’t look AMAZING, but I know she’ll be sitting there saying “ugh I shoulda done my hair better”.

So excited for this year!!!

 

This is one of my favourite stories! My son was 2 I think at the time and asked what the big black bag in my closet was. I told him it was my wedding dress and he asked if I would try it on, so I did. I was so excited it fit I sent a photo to Jess. LESS THAN 5 MINUTES LATER SHE SENDS ME THIS! With the caption “I can do it too!”

See?! She’s a babe!

And seriously, this photo may be one of my favs from the session and it was ALL HER!

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