Are you ready for the magic that will happen when you align with your dreams? In today’s episode, I’m sharing the incredible experience of validation that I had once I decided to stop photographing weddings. Plus, I’m encouraging you to finally go all in and make that decision that could change your entire life and business. 

On Quianna Marie Weekly, we’re chatting about business growing pains, finding genuine connections, and celebrating wins of all sizes through the lens of a photographer at heart. Sprinkled throughout stories and interviews with past clients, photographers and other business owners this podcast is designed to help you step into your purpose and to truly create a life you’re proud of, a life worth photographing and sharing.

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Today’s episode is brought to you by The Green House, my resource garden for photographers! Let me help you AMPLIFY your heart online and in real life to turn bridesmaids into future brides through templates, workshops, and freebies!

Review The Show Notes: 

I Caught The Bouquet (0:57)

Unanswered Prayers (5:53)

I Photographed My Last Wedding (8:08)

I Made The Decision (11:50)

Make Your Decision! (14:35)

The Next Season (15:16)

Review the Transcript:

Hello, my love. Okay. So recently on the podcast, I’ve been interviewing a ton of my favorite humans. And I mean, everyone from my own mentors, the influencers in my real life that I absolutely admire. And I love so much as well as my real life friends and even local businesses that I adore and just need everyone else to know about.

As I always say, my network is your network, right? So I’ve just been having so much fun with these. And I feel like recently it’s been been very heavy on the business side of things, which is important, which is why I started this podcast. But I also think it’s really fun to kind of filter in some real life moments and take you on this journey of my life and business and how we can share and exchange stories and inspiration and just all the fields, right?

So I have some exciting news for you. And I am just so. Frickin excited. Oh my gosh. So just this last weekend I was able to attend a wedding as a guest and more importantly as mike state and I caught the freaking bouquet Literally, I oh my gosh you guys this was like the coolest feeling ever Like it literally just landed in my hands and I have to tell you.

Okay, let’s back up after photographing and attending hundreds of weddings This was my first time ever Ever catching it out of all of those weddings. I’ve never caught it. Now, obviously I’m mostly photographing it, but I’ve been to a buttload of weddings for my cousins, for my family, for my friends, and you know, my booty is always out there trying to catch that damn thing, but I just never did.

And as Beyonce says, single ladies was blaring out of the speakers. I joked and I told our table that I was going to catch it. And it’s my fricking turn. And it was just so cute because we were at this wedding. It was Mike’s buddies, like his good friend that was getting married. And, uh, so it was fun that we were sitting at the cool kids table with all of his friends and they were totally egging me on telling me, you better catch it.

You’re going to get it. And let me tell you, uh, there were some tall girls surrounding me, right? And I was determined. So literally, I boot scoot and boogied. I had my cowboy boots on and I danced myself across to the dance floor. And like I said, you know, all the single ladies was playing and you should have seen so Rachel the beautiful bride She flawlessly Like just tossed it back behind her and i’m not even joking when I say that this bouquet like Literally had this like beam of light on it and like the crowd parted and it just landed in my hands And I don’t know about you, but I’ve been to some weddings or obviously I photographed so many that You Some of those ladies can be aggressive, like single ladies, watch out, right?

Like I’ve seen girls like push girls out of the way, like throw their arms up all crazy. And it just didn’t happen. And like I mentioned before, like some of these girls were tall, like really tall girls. Like they could have easily like, whoop, like just taken it out of my hands before even. You know, landed in my palms.

So that was amazing. And I literally was just, I was just dancing. I was so, so lit up. I was so freaking happy. In fact, you have to check out the show notes and the blog for this episode to see my happy face. And the best part is that Mike was beaming and his buddies are already clapping his back and shoulders telling him congratulations.

And he’s looking at me like, what? Like he’s smiling. And, and let me be honest here. I’ve seen some horror stories, whether I’ve seen them on my for you page or actually in real life, let’s be honest, when the boyfriends are literally running away or rolling their eyes or doing this like cutthroat, like, Oh, like not me, no, like, Oh, right.

But it was just so cute to see that Mike was smiling and he was laughing about it. He actually was photographing me, which I don’t know if you know this, but like in past relationships or just typically in general, like. Nobody photographs a photographer, right? And so I was just, I was just so happy. Now, if you’re unfamiliar with this tradition, catching the bouquet means you’re next, like you are the next single lady to get married.

So my love, it’s my fricking turn. Oh my gosh. I have so much to tell you. Today, we’ll be chatting all about life and business and alignment and how it really only takes one decision to completely change your life. This episode is going to be packed with some personal experiences and a big sister motivational speech to encourage you to check in with your own life and celebrate your own timeline.

As business owners, we often become our businesses and our businesses become an extension of us. Literally, as photographers, an extension of our arm. Where I know you are incredibly passionate about your industry and what you’re doing and it just kind of blends, I, I call it watercolors, right? It just kind of blends together.

It’s not black and white. You’re not two different entities. It’s just one living brand and that’s a beautiful thing, but it also can get kind of sticky and kind of messy when we are playing that comparison game and just not feeling like we’re, we’re exactly where we’re supposed to be. Right. So I’m just so pumped to remind you that we are always on our own journey.

So sit tight. I’m going to be sharing some vulnerable truths like we’re just grabbing a coffee to chat. Welcome to Quianna Marie Weekly, a podcast for creatives who love to celebrate wins big or small by dancing in the kitchen. Photographers who are excited to serve their clients and friends who are ready to chase It’s really, really big dreams.

You can find all of the resources mentioned in this episode at kiana marie. com slash podcast. Join me as I share weekly motivation, chat about growing pains, finding genuine connections and celebrating your wins through the lens of a photographer at heart. Come join me for a dance party. Ready? Let’s go.

Okay. So back to this fricking bouquet and the life lesson I’m excited to get into. If you’re new here, welcome. I’m so grateful to share this life and business journey with you. I have a background of photographing weddings for the last 15 years. And during that time, I literally photographed everyone else’s special moments, milestones, and the happiest days of their lives.

Weddings, proposals, engagements, boudoir, high school seniors, prom photos, newborns, product photography, brands, landscape, sports, fundraisers, you name it. I even photographed a handful of funerals, aka celebrations of life. I’ve literally done it all. I remember a time when I would photograph my dream weddings.

Then cry in the Taco Bell drive thru on my way home because I couldn’t understand what I was doing wrong. When my current boyfriend at the time wasn’t taking our relationship seriously or when it like when would it be my turn to get married and start a family and then I actually experienced a good stint of being single for almost five to six years thinking what the heck is going on.

Flash forward to today and just like the classic unanswered prayers song by Garth Brooks, I’m seriously so thankful for every decision and choice that has led me here today. Ever since 2020, I’ve been growing my branding and content side of the business simply out of necessity to make some money to pay my bills, and I quickly fell in love with it.

I love the creative freedom, flexibility, and I love that I don’t have to have a year to two years of my life on the calendar. Over the last couple of years, my wedding inquiries have been coming in, but I’ve been very selective with what I actually book. It’s been scary to slow down on weddings because not only am I passionate about them, I freaking love weddings.

It has been my bread and butter for over a decade. Weddings helped me purchase my first home, helped me move out of state, paid off my 2020 RAV4, like literally paid off, I just pay gas and insurance on that, like it’s insane. It funded, all of my weddings funded my education and travel for conferences, workshops and adventures and truly gave me the freedom during the week to paint with Eliana, my tiny bestie, or walk around Target with an iced coffee at 10 a.m. on a Tuesday, right? Like that’s the life.

I want to be very intentional to share how grateful I am for weddings and the amount of opportunities and joy they brought into my life. On March 30th, 2024, I photographed my last wedding. Now, never say never, even though I’m shutting the door on weddings, I’m not throwing away the key.

Who knows if I’ll pick them back up one day, but having that skill set truly is an honor and I’m embracing the unknown for the future. Now, before I move on, I just kind of got this thought bubble, and I really want to share that this last wedding was for one of my dear friends, his name is Scott, and his beautiful wife, Jensen, and Scotty, in fact, that’s how long I’ve known him when his nickname used to be Scotty, was on my brother’s baseball team.

So they grew up playing baseball and they were actually on the same Phillies team when we got the news that my father had his accident and had passed away. And so like our families have been connected for so long. His mom is a little bit of my super fan. Um, Denise Lucas is seriously the best. Um, you know how we have those like friends of our moms that are just like our cheerleaders on Facebook.

Literally that’s Denise, but in real life. And I want to take a moment to just share this quick story. So it was about sixth grade. So my dad had his accident on his Harley when I was in the fifth grade and then in sixth grade, just that next year, I was in middle school with Scott and we were in a social studies kind of like history class or something together and it was time to do a family tree.

Project. And so, you know, which is cool because it’s all about our ancestors and the history of the American history and all this really cool stuff, right? But all of a sudden it just hit me, um, that, you know, I didn’t have my daddy. And so, my teacher, bless her heart, just didn’t really know what to do with me.

Like, I was just, you know, crying and kind of, you know, just being disruptive to the class, obviously, um, but she just kind of excused me out to the hallway. She was just like, just take a moment, just take a moment to breathe. It’s going to be okay. And so I did. So I stepped right inside of the hallway and it was Scottie that came out with a box of tissue.

And just, he just looked at me and smiled and said, I think you might need this. And he gave me a hug. And literally as a little sixth grader, just having that friend, someone that knows without having to have an explanation or ask you questions just made me feel so loved and so appreciated. And he was just a good friend.

So to go out on my last wedding to photograph him, literally Scotty and his beautiful wife Johnson. It was just. such a blessing. It just felt like a full circle moment. And I got to be with his family. In fact, the table that we sat at was a table of boys that I grew up with that played baseball with my brother, Mikey.

Like it was just so incredible. And I just was filled with love. And I, I felt really good about making this decision. So I just wanted to kind of share that story. I told you I’d be sharing some vulnerable stories, um, but that is just something that happened. All right. So let’s get back to exactly what we’re chatting with today.

So over the last couple of seasons, I’ve been booking more brand shoots, selling out of lucky 13 quarterly content parties, which have been so fun by the way, booking intuitive content coaching calls. So if you are in a kind of a funk or recent pivot and you need help coming up with ideas and just really fun content and, uh, Just really great, like client experience, engaging post to share.

Like, call me up, babe. I have ideas for you. And then of course, on top of all of that, I’ve been developing my online shop, which is called The Greenhouse. It’s the resource garden for photographers and entrepreneurs. I’ve been busy. Right. So even just the thought of releasing weddings, even though that was a huge, huge part of my business, I still have a lot going on.

I still have a lot of projects in my hand and everything. So the lesson of today’s episode is to share that on March 30th, I shot my last wedding and on April 12th, just two weeks after I got to attend a wedding as a guest, I caught the fricking bouquet. I declared to myself, to God, and the universe, that I made a decision.

Although it’s been a drawn out decision, let’s be honest, and it’s been a few years of going back and forth, I finally decided. I made a choice. And it’s amazing how quickly my prayers have been answered and how the universe conspired to work in my favor. Now you may be thinking, okay, Kee, take it easy, catching the bouquet doesn’t mean you got a ring.

And I know, I know that, like, let’s not get ahead of ourselves, we’re gonna, let’s just take it easy here. But symbolically, it’s a validation I needed and the sign I was looking for when I decided to no longer photograph weddings. For years, I’ve been wondering, when is it my turn? Why am I so unlovable that no man wants to commit to me?

What am I doing wrong? When in reality, every choice and every decision has brought Mike into my life. When I was in the prime of wedding season, I missed out on a ton. I missed out on last minute pool parties, camping trips, even some family birthdays, and friends get togethers, simply because I was busy working and even traveling the world for weddings.

And it literally got to be so bad, um, especially as, like, Snapchat became really popular, and Insta stories, and all these fun things about social media. It got to be so bad that I would see my friends getting together for wine nights or heading to the beach or just doing really fun things without me.

And I would comment or I would say, Oh, it looks like so much fun. Like I’m like super passive aggressive like that. And then a friend would DM me or text me and say, Oh, I’m sorry, we didn’t include you. We just, we just assumed you couldn’t make it. And literally that was my life and, and I just, I have to share that, um, with so much grace and love that you are going to have to sacrifice some of those things when you are building your business.

Um, especially in the beginning, like this is your sign, like if you want to come out the other side where you’re more intentional and you can be more picky with your clients and what you got going on. But like, also, like, the little girl in me is like, Um, excuse me? It’s not up to you to decide my schedule.

Like, I still want to be invited. Like, I’ll probably tell you no, I can’t make it, but I still want to be invited, right? So, um, that’s just a little hint into my personality. But that’s how it’s happening, right? With this next season, I’m looking forward to slowing down and not having to worry about extensive wedding planning for everybody else.

I mean, don’t get me wrong. I’m already pinning stuff for my wedding and I’m going to be focusing more on branding and content. Something that’s booked out three weeks to three months max in advance. I’m sharing this to encourage you to make a decision. Just make a fricking decision to simply decide and pick your own lane.

The beauty of your business is that it has seasons. Once you have a skill set and grow to be an expert, you can offer different services, share different experiences and focus on different things at a time. When we’re spread too thin with five to 10 different ideal clients or offering too many things, we’re only giving like 20 to 30 percent of our efforts to those small offers.

But when we decide to go all in on one thing, you’ll be amazed how fast opportunities come your way. I’m beyond grateful for my camera and the life it has provided for me and my family. Now it’s time for this next season. If you’re still hung up about thinking that the bouquet is just a small sign, before we wrap this episode up, I want to share some more good news.

So this March of 2024, I’m literally creating this podcast as like a timeline of my life so I can go back and. Check out these dates. Um, but just this last March, Gilbert City Lifestyle reached out to partner with me to become one of their photographers and content creators. Before I even shot my last wedding, it’s like the world conspired to help with this transition.

It truly was meant to be all within the right timing. This month, I’ll be celebrating Articles and covers that I photographed. It’s truly a dream and it will open up so many doors to more photo shoots, great connections and local introductions. The signs are everywhere, babe. We just have to ask, simply decide what you want out of life and business and ask, ask for what you want, ask for what you need and how you want to feel.

Okay. I have this like literally in bold. Actually focus on how you want to feel, then take action. We can pray and manifest all we want, but if we’re not intentional with our time and efforts, we’ll just keep praying. Let’s turn those prayers into blessings and chase after the life of our dreams. If no one has told you today, you’re incredible.

You’re making an impact and people want to pay you for what you have to offer. Show up for them and shine, baby. Cheers to making decisions, looking for the signs and following your intuition. Make sure to tune in next week with special guest, Tracy Jasmine, we’ll be covering a ton about finding alignment with your business, tapping into your intuition and understanding the power of science, spirituality, and strategy for your business.

It’s going to be a juicy one. I’ll keep you posted on what’s going to happen next with that bouquet. Um, in fact, Mike just called me on my way over here to record this podcast. So I’m still recording podcasts in my home here with my mom in our office. And he just called me right now to like, ask what our plans are for supper.

And then he asked what I’m doing this weekend, because we might be able to go camping. And literally this is the whole point of this, because if this was my schedule and my life in the past. There would be no way that would even be possible, right? So anyway, that was just another little like validation cue that I wanted to share with you.

But I’ll keep you posted. So yeah, so I’ll keep you updated on that bouquet. I have it hanging upside down to dry so I can preserve the flowers. I’ve already been pinning these cute, they’re like resin coasters to make out of them. Like, I don’t know. I just think that’ll be so cute and such a great conversation starter in our living room, right?

I mean, I don’t know. That’s where my brain goes. I think about those kind of things. Okay, my love, I am so proud of you. I am so grateful of the life you’re building. And as a gentle reminder to this is your life, you get to decide. And I feel like my own timeline of photography over the last Like literally 15 to 20 years has just been kind of going with the flow and jumping on opportunities And i’m so grateful for each of these seasons that i’ve been able to experience and now we get to share together So I love you so much and i’m so freaking proud of you and keep on dancing, baby.

Okay. Love you. Bye That’s a wrap on another episode of Quianna Marie Weekly. Thank you so much for your listenership and support. You can find the resources and show notes for this episode and more QuiannaMarie.com/podcast. I’d be honored if you’d show your support by leaving a review and rating on your favorite podcast app until next time, keep on dancing.

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