Are you always the wedding photographer, never the bride? That was me over my last twenty years of photographing weddings… until now! In today’s episode, I’m diving into the details of my thoughts, nerves, dreams, and everything else that went into making my dream wedding finally become reality. 

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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Review The Show Notes:

Shifting My Mindset And Releasing Control (5:59)

The Cost Of Weddings And Our Realistic Budget (10:23)

Understanding Our Money Mindset As A Couple (17:26)

The Wedding Party And Special Moments with Family (20:38)

The Challenge Of Selecting Our Wedding Colors (24:32)

A Million Micro-Decisions (26:59)

My Turn To Be The Bride (30:44)

Mentioned In This Episode:

Book Your VIP Day: quiannamarie.com/vip

Episode 224 How I Knew He Was My Husband Before He Even Proposed: quiannamarieblog.com/2026/01/05/224-how-i-knew-he-was-my-husband-before-he-even-proposed

Style Me Pretty on Instagram: instagram.com/stylemepretty

House of Colour on Instagram: instagram.com/houseofcolourusa

Review the Transcript:

Welcome back to Quianna Marie Weekly. I am recording this episode in the wildest season of my life because for the first time in over 20 years of photographing weddings, I am not the photographer. I am the bride. And let me tell you, this experience has rocked me in the best way possible because everything I thought I understood about my clients, I now feel in my bones.

Over the last 20 years, I’ve photographed over 400 weddings. I have zipped up dresses, I have pinned boutonnieres, fluff veils, crammed garters in my camera, to bring out at the end of the reception. I have calmed nervous moms, fixed timelines that have completely derailed, put out fires before the couples even knew anything was going wrong, and reassured my brides all day long.

While I was in the thick of having a full calendar of weddings pre 2020, I thought I understood what my couples were feeling. I did not. Not until now, because now I’m the one staring at Pinterest boards at midnight. Right now, I’m the one wondering if the timeline makes sense, if I should, plus or minus 30 minutes here.

Now I am the one hoping the photos turn out how I imagine. And now I am the one realizing how scary it feels to be in front of the camera with all eyes on us. Today I’m gonna get vulnerable to share the experience of wedding planning in 2026 and shifting my mindset from the photographer to the bride.

Nothing is off limits. In this chat, I’ll be chatting all about money, budgets, vendors, what we’re DIYing and what we’re splurging on managing our money as one of the first lessons of marriage, and how our money mindsets are completely different. Basically, I have a running list of TikTok videos in my head that I wanna share with you, but I just haven’t had the time to actually make the content yet.

I am recording this before our Valentine’s wedding as the prequel or planning stages of our day, and I can’t wait to get Mike on the podcast to share more about our wedding day after the wedding. So if that sounds like something fun you wanna hear from, please let me know. I think I’m gonna make him do it anyway, but I’d love to hear your feedback.

This season of my life, I’ve had a lot of expectations crushed and even more that go above and beyond my wildest dreams. So a buckle up. I am so fricking excited to give you a crash dump of my thoughts, nerves, dreams, the drama and everything behind the scenes of planning our western desert backyard.

Valentine’s intimate wedding. Think more elegant Western Yellowstone vibes and less NASCAR redneck style, but more on that later. Ready? Let’s get into wedding planning mode now. Welcome to Keana Marie Weekly, a podcast for creatives who love to celebrate wins bigger, small by dancing in the kitchen.

Photographers who are excited to just. Serve their clients and friends who are ready to chase really, really big dreams. You can find all of the resources mentioned in this episode@kianamarie.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.

I was the little girl that doodled my name with my third grade crushes last name in my notebook. I lived for romantic movies like The Notebook and Father of the Bride was one of my all time favorite movies. Honestly, it still is even today, even though I fantasize about these weddings, I related more to 17 dresses, always being the bridesmaid, never the bride.

And at this point in my life, I’ve been in over a dozen weddings as an adult, let alone the handful of times I was a flower girl in family’s weddings too. If my life could really be summed up into a movie, though, I would say I’m literally J-Lo in the wedding planner, except I was a photographer and didn’t break up an engagement as a little girl.

I lived for the approval of those around me and wanted to build my career to be around people in the happiest, most monumental days of their life. I loved the hustle, the nerves, to be at the right place at the right time. It it, to me, it felt like being on the softball field. Fourth batter up base is loaded.

Two outs like it was now or never, right? Like that hype, that energy, that nervousness and excitement. I live off of that. All of the joy, the emotions, excitement, and challenges that wedding day brings. I, I’m obsessed with it. I also sort of had this power trip to know that I had a huge impact on the experiences my couples, the wedding party, their families, and even vendors would have on these highly emotional and intense days.

For decades, I worked hard to understand the flow of weddings. What logically makes sense, not just for the traditional moments, but all of the details that make running a stress-free and memorable day run smoothly. I’ve been dreaming of my day for as long as I can remember, not just the one wedding day, but my marriage.

I’ve been praying for my husband, my future little family, and the homestead of my dreams since I was a little girl. Mike likes to crack jokes that I’ve had this day planned in my head forever, and he’s just the guy to insert himself into the big plan. Since this is coming out after the wedding, I literally have in my vows to remind him that yes, I’ve had dreams and visions of my day for so long, but he was absolutely worth the weight.

None of the details matter if it wasn’t a celebration of us and are love. I’ve had visions of walking down the aisle to a blur of a man, and none of this would make sense until I could see his perfect beautiful baby blue eyes. And his cowboy hat at the end of the aisle, it needed to be Mike and none of this would come together until I could picture him.

Let’s get down to the details and planning this wedding of my dreams. The first thing I had to do was release some control. Okay? This one was tough and I’m not even exaggerating. This one was really hard. As a wedding photographer, I know how things should air quote, go, right? Like should go. And I had to make a decision early on, am I going to be the bride or am I going to be the wedding photographer without my camera at my own wedding?

Because those are two very different people I had to let go of micromanaging every little decision, obsessing over the timeline, freaking out about the weather, details of the shot list, the decor, all of the moving parts, and just trust. I had to release these expectations. Release control. To just trust, which by the way is exactly what my clients have to do when they hire me.

They have to trust me With years of experience as a highly intuitive projector and an empath photographer, I can literally feel the room. I could tell when a bridesmaid was feeling left out or when a mother of the groom was feeling awkward with stepparents nearby the chaos of busy timelines, all of the questions and last minute decisions.

And even what recent political trauma or devastating news was going on in our burning world, I was aware of everything. It wasn’t about control for me, it was more about being hyper aware of imprinting. So side story, commercial break. As a photographer, I love to help curate and direct experiences, so my clients and the entire room around them feel safe, seen, appreciated, and taken care of.

When you feel good, you take better photos. Period. So this was the first lesson in wedding planning for me, letting go and putting my camera down to truly allow myself to be the bride. I want my clients to trust me, so I need to trust myself to trust others too. This one surprised me the most. I got to hire my dream photographers and let them do their thing.

I had to trust someone else to see me, to capture me to document my day, and I mean our day. And I finally understood why clients ask. What do I do with my hands? What if it’s awkward? I don’t know what to do. Right? I literally felt like Jennifer Lawrence in that one meme or that one clip that we see over and over where she’s like, what do I do?

What do I say? Uh, what’s next? Right? Like, I don’t know what to do up here. Right? That’s literally how I felt the moment I became, became a bride, or I should say the moment I was proposed to, like, holy smokes, this shit is real. So when you’re handing over the responsibility of how your memories are captured to someone else, that is a big emotional ask.

And now I feel so much more compassion for my clients, for brand shoots, weddings, boudoir shoots, portraits, speaking events, all of it. I am so grateful. Literally, I could cry that Brett and Brandy Photography will be the ones to step right in to help me feel at ease. Relax and truly capture the moment. I know they will love on me.

They will take care of Mike, our family, our friends, just as I would on a wedding day. I know we’re, we are in good hands. This is another lesson I brought up to Mike because he was so worried I wouldn’t like our wedding photos because I’m so critical about photography. Literally, I’m so bougie. I’m a bougie bitch when it comes to photography, right?

But I reassured him that the brides that love their fiance the most, love their photos the most. Like I always tell my brides, it’s the moments, the candid laughs, sweet kisses, hugs, excitement, and emotion that make a photograph timeless. A good photograph captures the happiness living in the moment. Those are the moments that make photos go from staged and blah to fun, emotional, and beautiful photos.

Take you back to that feeling. That is why I am so protective of the energy, the imprinting and emotions of my clients. So when they see those photos, they’re teleported back to those feelings of love, happiness, and joy. Even for my branding clients, right? Like this is why I am literally your biggest hype girl, because I want you to feel confident.

I want you to take yourself back to that moment and remind yourself, oh, this is why I’m taking these photos. I know I’m a badass. I know I’m overqualified, and it’s just time to be seen, right? I wanna kind of bottle up that energy and like I said before, imprint it, bake it into those photos. Now that I got in my head around shifting my mindset from my photographer brain to simply being the bride, let’s chat about how stupid expensive weddings are.

Okay? So if you have a free hand, I want you to head over to Instagram. Sorry, if you’re driving, please don’t look, but just take note of this. Okay. So grab Instagram, open it up, and want you to search Style Me Pretty. That’s S-T-Y-L-E. Style Style Me pretty. This is a gorgeous wedding page with luxurious weddings from all around the world.

Now just take a little scroll. I want you to do this with me. Like if you can, if you’re at home doing chores, if you are sitting at your laptop, editing, look up Style Knee pretty, take a scroll. And I bet you didn’t realize that most of those weddings photographed have wedding budgets of a hundred thousand dollars or more, even some of them in the millions for one day.

Sure. I bet you can do some lurking to find some beautiful intimate elopements with smaller budgets. Those are legit base prices for these elaborate wedding days. The decor, the tablescapes, the venues, the luxury vendors over the top floral arrangements and installments, let alone the style attire, jewelry, hair, and makeup.

The food, the list goes on with venues across America averaging 5,000 to $15,000 as a base price. Yeah, that price includes the location. To be able to park, turn the lights on and have access that often does not include the table rentals, linens, glasswork. Did you know that you need to rent forks and plates?

Like literally, this is just beyond. Beyond crazy, right? Okay, so call me crazy, but when I was in the peak of my wedding photography career. I was at the tip of high-end luxury weddings, right? So like I was in the luxury market, my clients were paying me upwards of 8,000 to $12,000 or more for their photography collections, right?

Like once you start adding in albums and travel and additional shooters and content, like, oh my gosh. It just, it just kept growing and they kept paying. And that wasn’t even including their boudoir sessions, right? Like anything extra, they were adding it added up pretty quick. It was a pretty penny. I’m forever grateful for each and every one of my clients that have invested in me.

But I knew that they were hosting these elaborate and beautiful days, but was I living under a rock to not even realize how expensive everything else was? Like I literally was shocked. Right? So Mike literally was having a heart attack trying to grasp the pricing of everything. At one point, we were considering eloping and grilling burgers or picking up pizza to enjoy a sunset at Superstition Mountain, which is like, we’re right here in our backyard.

We can literally see Superstition Mountain from our backyard. With our closest family and friends, he was shook, like he just had no idea. Plus, I love my husband and he works really hard. He, he provides above and beyond for us. But he’s also like an old school grandpa. Like I literally call him Poppy sometimes because he just, like, he’s the type of guy that will literally complain about the cost of a gallon of milk, just because how much of inflation has affected all of us, right?

Like, I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s a thing, right? So not only having those, like those money thoughts and like money stories already, let alone being completely shocked by like this wedding tax. Threw him for a loop, right? Like he was just like, what? What is happening here? This is so ridiculous. Right? So to take all of this into consideration for a budget, Mike and I agreed on a $10,000 budget.

He literally pulled that number out of the blue clear sky. And I laughed and I literally told them like, okay, so $10,000 we’ll cover our catering and our photographers. That’s it. So we bumped into 12 K and I can honestly say we damn near double that already. Okay. So like I said, weddings are expensive.

Okay. We’re saving money by hosting our wedding in our aunt’s backyard in Arizona. We’re beyond grateful for our aunt to graciously host, not just the wedding weekend, for the welcome night, wedding day, and possibly brunch after, but also allowing us to build our wedding benches in their shop as well.

Having that space has been a huge relief to be even more productive with staining and building everything without having to work on them in a driveway like piece by piece. In, in small batches, we can do bigger batches of staining and clear coating, all the things, putting them together. We just had space and we’re forever grateful for them to allow us that time at their home.

Now these benches will be the beginning of our future rental business. We’re planning to offer pop-up off the grid, elopement and backyard weddings, supplying the benches, arbor lighting, garbage cans, and the ceremony details. I could pinch myself that my first real tangible piece of my future dream wedding venue is coming to life like it’s real, and the best part was.

It was Mike’s idea, like I was down to just rent, um, benches or rent some chairs. Um, I was really adamant about making sure that we had benches, or sorry, that we had chairs or seating, I should say, for both the reception and the ceremony. I’ve been to a handful of weddings and there’s no shame in this.

Like it happens, I get it. It’s budgets, but having to pick up your chair from the ceremony space or just having all the dudes do it, like that’s not what I wanted for our wedding. I wanted it to be set and done. So that was important to me. So we started talking about it and that’s when Mike decided, Hey, can we make a business out of this?

And I’m like, yes, yes we can. I feel like my entrepreneurship brain and my heart is kind of like rubbing off on him, so I’m on board, right. Alright. So just like any backyard wedding saving on the venue cost upfront has been a miracle, but we do have the expense of bringing in pretty potties. It’s a really cute trailer, uh, with nice portable restrooms.

That cost us about a thousand dollars. Uh, the table and chair rentals, trash cans. Yes. We even bought trash cans, which of course we’ll use for future rentals, but that’s an expense that we didn’t expect to have. Right? The lighting and the string lights. Mike rented a light plant. Uh, so you know those big, bright lights that are in parking lots at the fairgrounds or on construction sites?

Well, we need one of those for the parking area on the side of the property of aunt’s of Auntie’s house because when it gets dark out there in the desert, it gets dark. We had to prep the dirt for the, that, like parking spot or that kind of like little mini parking lot that we made next to Auntie’s pool.

Um, we wanna shout out our family friend Spencer and his son Waylon, for helping us move some dirt around for the parking area and for our ceremony space too. There was a lot of love that went into this gifted venue, all with a price. So if you’re considering a backyard or popup wedding somewhere, consider the hidden fees that add up quickly.

Weddings are expensive af and if I can go back in time to my inner child, I would remind her to start saving now. Like literally like, just like, oh my gosh. Like if, especially for any wedding photographers that are listening now, if you are planning your wedding in the future, or you’re not even engaged yet, or maybe you haven’t found your person yet, girl, like, please put away 10%, 15%, 20% of every wedding after you pay off your taxes, after you pay off a little savings, after you put money back in your business, pay yourself, of course.

You should absolutely start that wedding fund. Now this brings me to our money mindset. Real quick before I get into more details. So Mike and I are a lot alike in so many aspects of our lives. This is why we are so compatible and I’m so excited to share our life together. But I will say planning a wedding is like marriage 1 0 1.

Without harping on anything and taking us off track as an entrepreneur and blue collar couple, we have very different mindsets about money. When we’re tapped out, Mike wants to take things away. What can we remove? What can we not do? What can we take out or not spend money on? And I’m on the complete opposite end of that spectrum with thinking, okay, we’re here.

We can go without, but what can I do to make more money? You see, Mike, aside from working more over time at his construction job, he can’t make. Me on the other hand, I can release a new mini session date, host a photo shoot, send a couple dms and book more shoots, and boom, it’s like the money fairy drops money and just flies away, right?

So like it’s possible, I’m always looking at the po, like what’s possible? We need each other. He’s the steady constant, and I’m the rollercoaster of big five to 10 figure cash days. And then sometimes weeks go by without any pay, but it all works out somehow. Right? So as you can imagine, that’s been fun navigating the funds as we plan our wedding.

It makes me laugh when Mike thinks I’m being bougie about some things and I literally roll my eyes because back to the style, the pretties squirrel, right? So like looking back at those luxurious weddings, he has no idea what I’m actually saying no to. And what I’m actually prioritizing. Come on babe. I could be asking for so, so much more.

I just laugh and say you should be so, you should be so grateful. Like it’s not that crazy. Right? So speaking of saving and DI wine, some things, I’ll be doing my own hair and my own makeup, and we are arranging Trader Joe’s flowers with Bud VAEs and tea light candles on the table. I’m even purchasing live plants and flowers for the ceremony space so we can use them to help fuel my aunt’s future greenhouse and give them to family and local friends to keep as a piece of our ceremony to live in our backyards.

I cannot wait to have that arbor set up. So Mike’s making our arbor. We’re gonna put that in our garden, and I just can’t wait to have plants go around it and just have it be a piece of our daily life. I just think that it’s so cool. My brother made his arbor for him and Lauren’s wedding, and it’s in their backyard and it’s just so symbolic.

I just think it’s so beautiful. So instead of just having a whole bunch of cut flowers that die. We even, we even discussed renting flowers, which I think are absolutely beautiful and an incredible, a little bit more affordable option for florals. I have some great referrals for that if you’re interested in that, but I just wanted live plants.

Also. I am so grateful to Christie and uh Tara for gifting me to BOGO plants, and I literally named the plants Kristy and Tara, and they’re thriving. I was so nervous when they gave them to me for my birthday, which we actually did a little surprise dinner December 1st. Before my birthday and before I went to Nashville for the Bachelorette, and I literally was like clenching my cheeks.

Like, oh my God, I hope I don’t kill these before the wedding. Uh, they’re alive, they’re thriving, they’re still blooming. They have one more week to go. Come on baby. I hope they stay alive. But yes, we’re, we will be doing live plans for the wedding. With so much experience with weddings and even my own personal experiences with cousins and family drama around wedding parties, I told Mike in the beginning that I didn’t want a wedding party.

I envisioned an elopement with just the two of us and my uncle Todd officiating us and my brother walking me down the aisle. But that’s it. I wanted it simple. Intimate and easy without hurting anyone’s feelings. Mike, believe it or not, he has opinions about his wedding too, and he wanted to go the traditional route to have groomsmen in his wedding.

Of all the things I love about my husband, his honor, respect, and traditional values, it literally made me cringe. To have to make a decision about our wedding party. So I decided on my best friend for over 30 years. Sarah, I was her maid of honor in her wedding over 10 years ago, and my cousin Kayla, who was my very first best friend, she’ll be in the wedding as well.

And then of course, Eliana, my little bestie will be my maid of honor. She’s the only one in my life that isn’t married yet. She’s eight. Okay. So like when I say I’m the last to get married, I am the last to get married. I’ll have my brother walk me down the aisle and then stand behind me as my man of honor to stand with the girls on my side.

Then Mike will have four of his best friends on his side with our nieces and nephews as flower girls and ring bearers. The very first wedding Mike and I attended together, Marshall and Emily had their parents and grandparents write letters to them to open on their 10 year wedding anniversary. They collected the letters during the ceremony and nailed them, shut in this really sweet wooden box with a bottle of wine to share.

10 years later, Mike and I were only dating for about eight months, um, when we attended this wedding, and I noticed him all teary-eyed, holding my hand during their ceremony. He looked at me and whispered, we’re gonna do that. He couldn’t stop talking about how special that was and how lucky they are going to be to have those beautiful letters, even if some of their family members might not make it to that 10 year celebration.

And mind you. I was freaking out. ’cause I was literally smiling. I was so emotional and it was so sweet. And I’m like, oh, I guess we’re getting married. Like the way he smiled at me, right? He’s like, we’re gonna do that one day. And I’m like, okay. So here we are. We are doing that. So my brother Mike is making our wooden box for us and we have family members already planning to write their letters.

One of the biggest surprises during wedding planning that I didn’t expect was all of the planning and one-on-one time with just Mike and I, moments sharing stories and laughs with my aunts while building our benches, celebrating our showers and fun national bachelorette memories, and even going over the ceremony and answering questions that Uncle Todd, our officiant had had for us while so like while he was planning out his ceremony, like what to say and all the details.

It was so fun to answer those questions. Bring us back to stories about how we met Uncle Todd was sharing stories about my dad, some of the stories that I had never even heard of either, right? Like just so fun getting, getting to witness my future husband and my uncle who has been there through every moment of my life.

Like all my biggest milestones was just so cool to like share those experiences. Like that was something I wasn’t anticipating and I just. I love that time, right? Like we were sitting in our home, our little fixed wrapper, and our home just feels like my big nana’s house to us, right? Like it’s a little bit of an older home.

It’s tiny, but it’s just filled with so much love. And those are the memories that I’m like, Ugh, like this just feels so good. So in case you missed it, check out episode number 2 24, how I knew he was my husband before he proposed to learn even more about our relationship and the dumpster fire of the dating pool that we pulled each other out of.

So those are some of the conversations that we had with uncle, with Uncle Todd that night. And um, so yeah, if you’re feeling FOMO about why I decided to pick Mike as my husband and how you can help use those tips and tricks and just conversations and situations to help determine your next relationship, definitely check that out.

That’s episode number 2 24. Okay, so back to wedding planning. I do wanna mention the debacle, an extremely hard decision for selecting wedding colors. I was leaning hard into the Yellowstone elegant Western wedding, and I love the browns and the creams and touches of brass and gold with that western autumn color vibe.

I, I think that’s beautiful. I was also obsessed with shades of greens, emeralds, and teals, like my branding colors. I’ve always loved shades of green. Then with it being Valentine’s Day, I wanted to give a nod to love reds and blushes without it feeling like a high school dance. Right? Or like, like Cupid threw up everywhere, right?

Like, I didn’t want like red and cherries and black and white. Like I, I didn’t want that kind of like cliche Valentine’s Day wedding, right? As a bad decision maker, I was so lost. I’ve seen it all and I’ve also loved it all. I just, I, to me, I had too many options that I loved and I couldn’t narrow it down, right?

Like I wasn’t negative about it, like I don’t like anything. It was more like there were so many beautiful options. Where do I even begin? So, thankfully I was introduced to Michelle through my friend Tara and her Connect Belong community. Michelle is a color analyzer and helped me determine my best colors.

As a cool winter, we quickly threw out the browns and the golds because they don’t help bring out my best colors. And, uh, we were sticking to the winter palette and I decided to go with maroons, burgundys and wine colors with touches of blush. So in addition to those pops of color, I also see just like a lot of greenery, a lot of white flowers and just pops of pinks, right?

Like, I’m not looking for that, like fuchsia, bright pink, um, but more of the subdued. Pinky pastel pinks, and then some of those like deeper burgundies and like wine colors, like, ugh. I just think it’s, it’s just so pretty. If you’re planning your wedding or your next brand overhaul, I highly recommend going to see Michelle with House of Color to see what colors compliment you best having Michelle pinpoint my season to help me make decisions faster.

Oh my God. Best decision ever, right? And now that the wedding is here, by the time you’re listening to this, it would’ve already taken place. And I can share a ton more about the colors to decor details, and even how Michelle helped pick my style and the shape of my wedding gown. She’s a genius, so you gotta follow along with her and get your colors analyzed.

ASAP. So check the show notes to follow along with her as well. All of this to say we have our visions and ideas, and oh boy does it take millions of micro decisions to help bring it all to life. We’re so excited for our dj, DJ D Dub David Watkins, to take care of us. He was really knowledgeable with timelines, formalities, and bringing the details of our ceremony and reception together.

Brie with Sunset sips, we’ll be pouring our Shirley Temple’s signature drinks of Mike’s Blueberry Whiskey and Lemonade, and my signature Margaritas, plus an open bar of wine, beer, and sodas. We definitely went the route of wine and beer with two signature cocktails instead of a completely open bar with random bottles of hap open drinks by the end of the night.

Right? Like we didn’t, we didn’t want like too many options for our guests. We just wanted wine, beer, something simple, and our signature drinks. Oh, and we’re getting to cake. So shout out to Mike’s buddy Larry for supplying the 8 0 5 keg and some lemonade for our whiskey drinks and keeping Poppy happy with his lemonade.

Also, I do wanna add that since planning our wedding, I’ve had the honor of working with two incredible mobile bar services, the Nightcap Mobile Bar, owned by Devin and Michael and the Benefit Bar AZ, owned by my friend Vanessa. Prior to planning our wedding, I searched mobile bars in Mesa, Phoenix, and Queen Creek and Breeze, sunset Sips popped up.

Hopefully now that these incredible mobile bar businesses have their content branding all of their galleries and all the marketing, they’ll have full calendars ahead too. This is the power of booking a brand session. I wish I could hire everyone. Oh my gosh. But I did, I did wanna shout them out to say that they were on the list after I had already connected with Bri.

But we are so grateful to work with Brie. She is absolutely just so incredibly talented, and she has been going above and beyond to make sure that our day is perfect. We’re thankful to Mama for hosting our welcome Pizza Night with The Beyond Basil. Uh, they are the mobile pizzeria and cannoli from the Sicilian Butcher.

If my mom could, she would invite the cannoli cowboy we met while we were in Nashville. I’ve gotta make that a real soon. It’s so funny. We got to meet him in the area, like boot store. It was so fun. And, uh, yeah, so no ma we’re not bringing the cannoli, um, cowboy to our wedding, but we will have cannoli at our wedding.

Okay, so back to wedding planning. For me, looking back on all of my weddings ever photographed, the ones that I remember best were the ones that where they said their own vows. The environment or the vibe felt full of love, relaxed and fun. Nothing felt too rushed, posed, or too pinteresty like a performance.

They were sentimental, emotional, and so much fun. I’m telling you, the ones that made me cry are the ones I remember. That’s how I want our wedding to feel. I want it to feel like a backyard nineties casual wedding. Nothing too fussy or too showy, just like a warm hug. Lots of laughs, and making her closest family and friends feel like they belong.

Good food. Oh yes, we’re having our favorite barbecue Caldwell’s. Cater good drinks, good music. We’ll be playing country music and classic rock and oldies all night long. And some fun dance song to dance all night too. With my nieces and nephews on the dance floor while Mike chills by the fire, he’ll be by the bonfire all night long.

Right. It’ll be even better than I can imagine as long as I get to marry my mike. For Mike, this is a wedding he’s been planning since last June. For me, this is a wedding I’ve been dreaming of since the third grade, and when we used to play play up, dress up and host pretend weddings, and Uncle Todd’s driveway with all of our cousins.

Now I get to stand before Uncle Todd. In between my brother Mike and my future husband Mike, and I’ve never been more confident. It’s exactly where I’m supposed to be. All of this. Everything was worth the wait with so many thoughts, expectations, and visions. It’s my turn to be the bride and become a wife this Valentine’s Day, and that’s all that matters.

Being on the other side of the camera will be tough for me. I’m used to being the hype girl, the fixer, the calm one, the confident one, the room energy shifter, like that’s literally, that’s just how I carry myself, and that’s been my job. It’s been my career for years now. I’m the one wondering, where do I put my hands?

What do I do? How does my hair look? Are there any spiderwebs or stringy hair out of place? How’s my posture tell me to stand up straight? And I literally laugh because these are the same thoughts my clients tell me before, every single session, before wedding days, all of it, right? And I get it. It’s vulnerable to be seen.

This whole experience made me realize something really powerful. My clients aren’t nervous because they don’t trust me. They’re nervous because being seen is vulnerable. It’s scary, whether it’s a wedding, a brand shoot, a headshot, a content day, you’re showing up as you. And that that takes courage. And now being in the season as a bride, I understand my clients on a level like I’ve never have before.

And this is exactly why brand sessions matter so much, so much more. Because I know what it feels like to be the one stepping into the spotlight. I know what it feels like to overthink, to want it to be perfect, to feel awkward, to feel vulnerable, to know that you’re investing so much and you wanna make it worth it.

And I also know what it feels like to be guided through it for someone who knows how to make you feel confident, prepared, and seen. So if you’ve ever thought. I need new photos, but I feel awkward. I need content, but I don’t know what to do. I know I need to be seen, but it feels really scary and, and now’s not the time friend.

I get it now more than ever. And this, this is your sign. Don’t wait until you feel ready. It’s time to trust someone to guide you through it. I would be honored to be that person for you. Come book your brand session. Come step in front of the camera. Come let yourself be seen, because if a wedding photographer can become the nervous bride, you are in very good hands.

Oh, oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. By the time you’re listening to this, I am freakin’ MARRIED!! Oh my gosh. I just wanna take a second and just like. I’m literally gonna start crying because I’m just, ah, I just, I can’t wait to share more and keep you updated with all the details. Thank you so much for listening and being right here with me for this journey of life, entrepreneurship, business, sisterhood, and womanhood.

I love you so much, and I am so grateful to do life with you. Keep on dancing, baby. Cannot wait to share more, and I’ll see you next week. 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 and 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 on dancing.

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