The Story of Us: Building our Dream

Alright, friends…Let’s pick up where we left off! Soooo, we just finished shooting our very first wedding together & we were on our way home when the fireworks started erupting!!! That is one night in our lives that I am certain we will NEVER forget! That whole ride home our hearts were on fire as we dreamed big! It was so amazing to be able to love and serve Molly, Shon and their families as a team that day and the feeling afterwards was indescribable!! We felt an adrenaline rush immediately and we knew in our hearts and souls that this dream was going to become a reality! We wanted to become a husband and wife wedding photography team.

Our hearts were on fire and we were ready to work, sooo our next step was hashing out a game plan. We knew if we wanted our dream to really happen, we were going to need to be intentional. Without a plan, our dream had nowhere to go!  Thankfully, the fire in our hearts fueled the entire planning process and the long hours that were to come.

Bret and I are huge Dave Ramsey fans so we knew that first off we needed to be financially fit. With that being said, we both tackled full-time jobs as well as photography on the side.#workworkwork  We continued to take alllll the courses that we could get our hands on because we were constantly hungry for more education, but we were still working full-time jobs, too.  By keeping our jobs & working like crazy, we were focused on chasing a dream of being debt-free, building our business without loans, and wishing/hoping/praying for a smooth transition to being full time wedding photographers. We were ready to hustle hard all in the name of being ‘financially stable’. I like to think of us back then as ‘Weekend Wedding Warriors’!! We would work so hard during the week, squeezing in sessions after work or whenever we could, and shooting weddings on the weekends. It was hard work, late nights, and crazy hours but the payoff was inching closer & we knew it!!

Our business continued to flourish during that time…Bret and Brandie Photography was officially thriving!!  All the long hours were paying off…we were finally at a point where one of us could dive into the business full time!! WHAT AN AMAZING DAY.  I (Brandie) transitioned first. At the time, we were renting a studio/office space so I would clock long hours at the studio during the day and Bret would meet me after clocking out at his day job to work throughout the evenings with me.

These days were the hardest…Even with me being a full-time photographer, there was still soooo much work to be done within the business.  We were relentlessly chasing our dream. But, the hustle was worth it…because the time finally came!!!  Bret was able to leave his retail job to join me. Our finances were secure, the numbers added up, and it was time. Our dream was finally becoming a reality!!

Fianally working together full time was SUCH a pivotal moment for us!  But, the hard work couldn’t stop (and still hasn’t!)  We’ve continued working on our skills and nailing down a great work-life balance.  Working together and nailing our rhythm was such a fun adventure!!

After all of our hard work & long hours of chasing the ‘full time together’ dream, we knew that our next big step was going to be the ‘husband and wife’ title. Now the pressure was allllll on Bret!! As our girl, Beyonce would say, “If you like it, then you should put a ring on it”…Stay tuned, because Part 4: The Disney Proposal is coming soon and this you do NOT want to miss!!

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

(Our First official Headshot)