I hope you enjoy these wonderful “newbie” throwback pictures in this post. I assure you I’ve gotten much better since then 😉

Starting this blogging thing off right at the beginning – “So how’d you get into wedding photography?”

The question seems simple enough, but when I reflect on all of the tiny little pieces that fell into place in order for me to wind up running a business that I am indescribably passionate about, I am left reeling at how blessed I really am. For the sake of time (and your attention span), I won’t go into every intricacy, but know that it is a crazy story, and I’d love to share it with you sometime!

When I was about 10, my aunt asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I told her a photographer. This aunt, the former Secretary of Education for the State of Kentucky and head of Kentucky Education Television, is incredibly successful in everything that she has done. She is and always has been a hero of mine. So when she sweetly advised that photography is a wonderful hobby to have, but very difficult to make a career of, I listened. When it came time for me to pick a major, I remembered that advice and opted to pursue a more stable job in the medical field as a physical therapist.

While I was in college I bought my first “big girl” camera to start my photography hobby. It wasn’t great, and I definitely didn’t know how to use it, but I loved it. I started out dragging my then boyfriend – now husband, Brian, out to a pretty location, posing him, setting the camera on self timer, then running to hop in the picture with him. Fancy, huh? I would edit on a really terrible Facebook program, and post. (Are you cringing yet?)

From that I had several people ask me to take pictures for them. I happily agreed. Realizing this was starting to cost me money, I began asking “clients” for $20 for gas money to and from sessions. This was the beginnings of Megan Rose Photography.

Not long after I started my Facebook page, I had an acquaintance sent me a message. Her name was Leah, and she told me she had been following my work. She was on the road back from assisting her first wedding, and she excitedly explained that she wanted to be a wedding photographer. “You need two people to shoot a wedding, and I think we should do it together!” From that conversation, Leah went from acquaintance to business partner, and Roselle Photography was formed.

Looking back on it now, it’s so hard to believe that things worked out the way they did. We were two kids, who really didn’t have a clue what we were doing, but we had confidence – and I guess that is half the battle. Now I know that people spend years assisting and second shooting before taking on their own weddings. I will say, I feel VERY lucky that we didn’t get ourselves in trouble, and don’t recommend just deciding to be a wedding photographer without any knowledge about it. But I can laugh about it now!

We put everything we made back into our business, allowing us to quickly upgrade our lenses and equipment. We constantly gave each other feedback on what we liked and disliked about each others pictures, and what we were learning to make our images better, our workflow more efficient, and our clients happier.

Roselle Photography booked 30 + weddings the first year in business. That is really crazy for me to think about now.

Seeing how fast we grew in such a short period of time, and how much fun I was having, made me realize how unhappy I was when I was in school. Some of our professors wanted to make it a competitive environment, so despite being on the Dean’s List every semester, I was constantly stressed about not performing well enough to make it to graduate school. Even thinking of the end result of being a physical therapist didn’t make me happy. I had this looming feeling that I would be bored with my job.

Ultimately, at the end of 2013, I took over as the sole owner of Roselle Photography, and decided that while I would finish my degree, I wouldn’t be pursuing graduate school as a physical therapist. I was going to be a wedding photographer.

Looking back on it now, it’s so obvious to me how God perfectly weaved my life into exactly what I needed. I never would have had the courage or the vision to have pursued my own photography business without God laying it in my lap the way he did. I’m not saying it wasn’t hard. At one point, I was working two other jobs BESIDES the photography business, was in school full time, studying for the GRE, balancing sorority life, AND planning a wedding. I have put my blood, sweat, and tears into this business, and I thank God every day for getting to do something I love.