This year has been a wild one. One of the challenges this year has been blogging. For the first time in 8 years of business, we took a step back from it, and we have missed it so much. We’ve always shared weddings and engagement sessions with you, but we have also shared so many major milestones in our lives over the years. Whether that was adding a pup to our family or announcing we were building our first home, it has been a joy updating you! Big or small, we’ve shared it all.
So, to end the year, we’re back with a fun announcement blog and life update that really encompasses a few major things we’ve been up to!
We’ve Added on Wedding Films in 2022
We’ll start today’s update with the one directly impacting Katie & Alec; we’ve started offering wedding films! We never felt led to make a formal announcement and instead opted to do a soft launch on our website, so SUPRISE! This change came after a lot of prayer and the desire to provide our couples with a cohesive and seamless experience for their photos and wedding video. As we’ve started this, our heart has truly been to love and serve our couples well while providing them with incredible highlight films to remember their wedding day.
This wasn’t a huge surprise for family and friends since Alec has worked for the past decade doing videography for multiple local churches and as a freelancer. Fun fact, his college degree is actually in documentary filmmaking!
We have worked on this since the start of 2022 and even worked alongside an incredible business coach to launch things well. He’s spent the entire year delving deeper into wedding film education and refining his skills to serve our couples well. It’s been an honor to see the love, hard work, and attention to detail he’s been pouring into this launch. We’re so excited to say we’ve already done several films and have a handful on the calendar for 2023! It’s been so wonderful watching this take off!
Katie Started Another Photography Business- The Beloved Pup
Yep, Katie decided to go and start another business this year as a dog photographer! While she LOVES weddings and will always be, first and foremost, a wedding photographer, she wanted to have a fun, creative outlet on the side. She has always loved dogs, and it was honestly just an experiment at first to see if she could do it. In April 2022, the Beloved Pup Photo Studio was started. Honestly, there were no expectations of it becoming legitimate or announcing it to the world, but it has blown up, and in just 10 short months, she has photographed nearly 200 dogs!
It has been such a joy for her to have this little side business, and she will take it to Nashville soon for her first travel studio date in Winter 2023. If you want to follow along and see adorable dog photos on the regular, make sure to follow her on IG!
We Bought Alec’s Dream Car
The last of our big updates is that we bought a new car! This year we celebrated two huge milestones: Alec turning 30 and celebrating 5 years seizure-free. To honor the fact that 5 years ago, we didn’t know if he’d even be able to drive again, and now he’s cured, a new car felt right (as well as Katie’s car was on its very last leg). So, we ordered a new car in March, and the company surprised us with delivery 4 months earlier than scheduled. While it was stressful having it come in so unexpectedly, it was a blessing to get it in and be done with the waiting!
A couple of weeks ago, we drove out to Kenesaw, GA, and picked up Alec’s brand-new Tesla Model Y! He has loved Tesla for years and always wanted one, and we both strive to be environmentally conscious and wanted an EV. Thankfully, we were able to save diligently this year and were able to pay cash for it on the spot, so this baby is 100% ours! He’s been having a total blast driving it and texts me about 5 times a week about how much he loves it or about a new feature he’s found. It’s been a joy to see him so excited and thriving.
Besides these 3 big announcements, the biggest blessing of 2022 was joining a marriage freedom group with our church at Church of the Highlands. We were so blessed to make incredible friends and have such an amazing support group for the year’s second half. While it isn’t as “big” as starting a new business or launching wedding films, it has been transformational for us. This group has been there for us through a busy, draining season that was testing us. We love each group member and could go on and on about them! This blog post wouldn’t be complete without us mentioning it!
Horrible photo quality, amazing friends.
As we share all this wonderful news, we don’t want to forget to mention how challenging 2022 has been. We don’t say that for sympathy but more so we can share what life truly looks like. We’ve had some major disappointments and setbacks this year, grieved, spent time growing, and moved forward. Life isn’t just a highlight reel; we know that seeing fun announcements like us being able to pay cash for a new car can be tough for some. We spent most of the year aggressively saving and caring for sick family members behind the scenes. As the year comes to a close, we’re honestly just so ready for a break and to enjoy time to catch up on so many of the things we’ve been putting off for Katie & Alec to function at the level it does.
We are truly thankful we’ve seen many amazing things happen this year alongside those challenges. We’ve seen God show up and answer prayers in so many ways that we prayed for long ago. If you’re waiting for an answered prayer or for some hope, we can say God has done miracles for us, and we know He can do them for you too. Our prayer is that this Christmas season will be filled with peace and hope for you and your family as you end 2022.
Blessings,
Katie & Alec
