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The Story of Us

The Story of Us: Off to the Real World

December 26, 2018

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Off to the Real World

Now is the part of our series where I have to break the news that I am, in fact, one year older than Bret. I didn’t really want to admit that, but it had to come out sometime, LOL. It was May 2009 and I was getting ready to graduate from South Spencer High School. I was about to enter into the scary land of adulthood. Bret stayed back at South Spencer to finish out his senior year of high school while I enrolled at a local college for a degree that I honestly was not super pumped about. And that, my friends, is where the next part of our series begins.

During my first few months of college, I was pretty unhappy. My life & my dreams were left feeling unfulfilled. There was a constant nagging calling on my heart, and I knew ultimately what my heart wanted. At one point in college, I thought to myself: “I am young, so chase all the dreams because I have the rest of my life to do everything else”. One day, I randomly heard the chorus from Carrie Underwood’s song, ‘Crazy Dreams’ that spoke these words to me: “thank God even crazy dreams come true”. Not long after the lyric spoke to me, I found myself re-enrolling at another local college that offered photography classes.  It was time to follow my heart.

I immediately felt as if weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I was finally headed in the direction I wanted to be in!! (I will be the first to tell ALL of you that you should ALWAYS follow your heart and even the craziest dreams!!) I have always had an interest and passion for photography (anyone else remember the Picnik days?!?)! The thought of being a professional photographer was something that I always carried with me throughout my first little bit of adulthood. You guys, getting the chance to finally pursue that dream was beyond amazing!! 

After the first few weeks of chasing my dreams, my business started to flourish. At the very ripe age of 20, I met with my first accountant & lawyer. Meeting with an accountant and a lawyer that young was truly mind-boggling. #adulting Ahh! SO amazing to think about.  For the very first time since starting college, I was 100% truly happy!! At that point in time, I was just doing sessions sporadically for family & friends. I was racking up senior sessions, family sessions, and headshot sessions! I was tackling whatever I could get my hands on!! I had an itch to take all the pictures… all the time.

Fast forward to May 2010 and now we have Bret graduating high school. That could only mean another rendition of “Graduation” by Vitamin C, LOL. Bret spent that summer with me watching my passions grow. He watched my business flourish and take off to great heights. At this point, his interest started to peak. He was finding himself more curious about photography which eventually led him to picking up his first camera. I am not lying when I say that guy had a natural gift for photography. This “gift” led him to take a few courses for photography. These courses sparked his creative side and we spent the next few years taking any and all the creative course we could. We enrolled in creative design, graphic design, and allllll the business courses.

In the midst of all those classes & projects, my photography business was growing at a very successful rate. I had found my niche and was finding a good rhythm with my business. By this point, I had shot a couple weddings on my own & I was about to shoot another…But, I had this burning desire in my brain to add Bret to the picture. I approached my couple, Molly & Shon (two of the sweetest, most adorable humans on this planet) and asked what they thought about Bret tagging along. I let them know that I would be the primary shooter, and that Bret’s role would be somewhat small, but I thought their wedding would be the perfect wedding for Bret to try out! Thankfully, they agreed and were over-the-moon excited!!  

Now the hard part…proposing this crazy idea to Bret. He was very hesitant at first and immediately said no. He kept telling me that weddings were a big deal and that there would be a lot of pressure. He definitely wasn’t thrilled with the idea and it overwhelmed him a little bit. I kept telling him that I had the utmost faith in him and knew he would be great! Like I stated earlier, Bret has such an eye for photography and he is such a people person. He finally agreed to shoot the wedding with me!!

So, we shot our first wedding together and it was everything I had imagined and MORE!! The whole day was a magical, effortless tag team effort. We loved working side-by-side.  Watching him at that wedding was like watching a butterfly emerge from its cocoon! We got in the car after that evening and we both exchanged excited glances. In that moment, we both saw our future. Fireworks started exploding in both of our brains! This was the very beginning of our beautiful dream!

Stay tuned for the next part of our series to learn how Bret and Brandie Photography became what it is today!!

Part 1: High School Sweethearts
Part 2: Off to the Real World
Part 3: Building our Dream
Part 4: Our Disney Proposal

(A photo of us at the first wedding we shot together!) #babies

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Husband & Wife. Creative Entrepreneurs. Photographers. Artists. World Travelers. Coaches. We’re here to take you along with us as we chase our wildest dreams, build big businesses that feed our souls, capture memories for epic humans, and see this beautiful world... together.

BRET & BRANDIE