Today we’d like to introduce you to Grace Smith
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Sam and I (Grace) started our business after being married for a year and giving birth to our first son. I fell in love with photography in college while studying for my BA in Theatre at Otterbein University, and Sam fell in love with videography while in his high school band. Once we invested in the business we dove in and haven’t looked back. We have both been full-time business owners since 2021 and have been married since 2012.
We moved our business growth much slower than most others we know in the wedding business. We wanted to remain debt free and we wanted to grow our family as well. We have 4 children, all boys, and are happy that we decided to not wait to have our family. It has been a joy growing our business while also learning to parent. Now I am working more part time while homeschooling our littles, and Sam works full time to keep everything flowing! We take every year one step at a time and are always re-evaluating what is best for our business and our family.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It definitely has been a slow journey for us because we opted to take things slowly. I think if we had been more willing to take big risks at the start that our business would have grown much faster than it did, but we definitely saw clear signs of steady growth from the start. We have always had struggles! I think that’s a part of the human condition. The biggest thing we have learned is that how you adjust and adapt to obstacles will show how you grow and thrive. There is no way we would be where we are today without networking, making friends in the wedding industry, and collaborating. I think if we had one suggestion for new wedding professionals starting out it would be this: do not enter into the industry with an us-vs-them mentality. That’s the best way to wreck your business! See the industry as rich, collaborative, and as a community. The sooner you create relationships with others the better! You need each other to be successful.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Sam and I see ourselves as always learning and growing. We don’t believe we will ever master every single trick or possibility when it comes to photography and videography. When we get to that place we would see our work become stagnant and that is NOT what we want as artists. We always want to push ourselves and seek growth and experimentation. To us, there is nothing more boring than stagnant art that never shifts or changes. We want to surprise ourselves and our clients whenever we can!
We are known for valuing our clients as friends, family, and collaborative creators. We seek to build relationships with everyone because we believe everyone is deeply created to be in relationships. We seek to capture people in the most beautiful and surprisingly fun ways we can and we hope that our love for people and connection really shines through in our work.
What does success mean to you?
Success for us is simply making a living doing what we love to do and doing it alongside with others.
Pricing:
- Packages begin at $4100+
- Our most popular packages begin at $9,150+
Contact Info:
- Website: https://samandgracephotography.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/samandgracephoto
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/samandgracephotography
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@samandgracephotography
