I know, you are puzzled about why I would change my business name and rebrand after ten years in business and 8 years of wedding photography.  Don’t worry, everything has been going wonderfully!  2017 was the biggest year for Photography And Design By Jenny!  For almost seven years, I have wanted to rebrand to my married name!  I’ve always been crippled by the fear of losing SEO, recommendations not being able to find me, and getting lost in all the technical stuff (which definitely happened yesterday).  I’ve always filled my calendar with other projects instead of buckling down and working on this intensive rebrand.  Through months of work, a spiritual renewal, and tons of evaluation it is FINALLY finished!  Jenny Williams Photography is a real thing!!!

Here’s a little background to set the stage…

I first created Photography And Design By Jenny in college in 2008.  I was offering graphic design, branding services, website building, commercial photography, family photography, and hoped to add wedding photography.  I photographed my first primary wedding in 2010.  As the years passed, these services were phased out and wedding photography became my main business focus.  Photography And Design By Jenny was good for my jack-of-all-trades approach, but as I educated myself, gained experience and began specializing in weddings I grew out of the name.  It was too long to type, confusing for people to remember, and no longer encompassed my purpose.  Really, my couples recommended “Jenny Williams” already…sometimes even “Jenny Farnham”.  With 95% of my business coming from word of mouth, my name was always in the forefront, but my branding did not reflect it.

I know it is not all about the name of my business (or website colors, or design).  It IS about the whole-hearted, intentional service couples receive from me. Over the last three years so much in my business has changed.  I revamped my client experience, editing style, editing process, wedding day timeline, equipment, and workflows.  My heart and values have changed too.  I see this rebrand as a promotional bridge to be able to accomplish bigger things in my business, bigger things for God’s kingdom!  I feel like I’m finally able to fully represent the unparalleled experience I offer and the exciting developments to come!

Yes, I’m ten years in, but I have a whole lot more ahead of me.  I love photography and I see so much value in the experience and heirlooms I can give to a bride, groom, and their families.  I love marriage and I know that I can be intentional in my services to have a positive impact on marriages.

So what does the future look like for Jenny Williams Photography?  I have fantastic couples for 2018!  There is only availability for two more couples to join my wedding experience in 2018.  I’m already serving couples with 2019 wedding dates!

Two big business changes to pay attention to:

FIRST, I am extremely excited about offering a full service to my couples!!  Wait, you say, isn’t the wedding experience full enough?  It is, but I realize to fully serve my couples, I need to not only give them the opportunity to create heirloom pieces, but to walk them through the process and design pieces that are uniquely for them.  We will create pieces that will portray the emotion and elegance of those special times. 

Gone are the days of sending out an online image gallery and hoping they’ll do something pretty with 700+ image files.  This is overwhelming for a couple who is starting their lives together.  It takes them months to print pictures and most never have an album to share with their families. From this point on anyone who becomes a Jenny Williams Couple will have personalized consultations with access to professional products that Shutterfly and Groupon could never dream of offering. 

I grew up pouring over my grandparent’s wedding album.  Those 10 black and white 8x10s taught me so much about them.  My purpose is to make sure future generations don’t have to fumble through a cd, usb, or cloud storage to access history.  They’ll know they can go straight to their grandparents coffee table and flip through a tangible, museum archive quality heirloom album.

SECOND, is my Lifetime Legacy portrait opportunity exclusively for previous Jenny Williams Couples.  It has broken my heart lately to have a calendar so full that I couldn’t serve previous couples who I already connected with in their wedding experience.  When you are in business for so many years, your couples celebrate anniversaries, grow their families, build dream homes, and have so many milestones needing to be photographed.  I’m so happy to announce that I’m taking limited weddings each year to best take care of current couples and previous couples photography needs!

Since this post is already loaded enough, tomorrow’s blog post, will be about the fear, comparison, and straight paralysis that comes with this type of business move.  This launch is the fruit of so much change in my life!  I promise it will be an influential read for entrepreneurs, college seniors, stay at home moms, christians, businessmen and anyone in between. Read part two of this post!

It takes a village | Gratitude

Thank you Jeff and Mom for supporting me through this journey of renewal in so many areas of life, not limited to business!  Jeff, you are the greatest man I know!  I’m so grateful you choose me everyday.  Thank you for picking up my slack during the final days (weeks) of this project.  Now it is time to celebrate!
Thank you Ansley (Dovetale PR) a friend who has known me for many years and took that knowledge to help advise me!  She helped me rework wording and other ideas to fit exactly what I needed.
Thank you Refinery Original for creating this beautiful online home for me!  I would still be at stuck at square one without their direction and creativity!
Thank you Show it magicians who helped me through a domain fiasco and then worked late into the night to secure years of blog images in time for launch day viewing.
Thank you to Ally of The Journey By Ally Photography for these beautiful images of my family!  I’m ordering prints right now!!