02/10/2026
Story time:
I've Been a Wedding Photographer for 10 years. I've been in the DMV for 6 of those years. Shooting weddings here has been such a dream since coming from North Carolina. I was a sheltered college girl studying Psychology to be a therapist and I became a photographer seemingly out of nowhere.
How it started was, I was 19 years old, and I had a friend who was passionate about photography. She started teaching me about her camera a little. I was so interested, and I didn't know why at first. I wanted to learn more and more about photography. I realized that ever since I was a kid, I asked for a camera. I got a new camera almost every Christmas. It was my one Christmas gift I asked for. Of course these were cameras suitable for kids. So, I was obsessed with my friend's real DSLR camera. I started thinking of all the possibilities it could be used for. I started coming up with all these business ideas to help her, but she wasn't interested in my ideas. I later found out she didn't even like me haha.
I decided I wouldn't let that stop me. I sold some technology to get my own camera, and got training from older mentors in Greensboro NC. I later saw photos of weddings, and became obsessed. I did small shoots for a year and did a wedding with an experienced photographer for the first time, and she paid me $75. I was just thankful for the experience back then. I realized my favorite part was people seeing the beauty within themselves after a photo was taken and the creativity behind it. It kept me going. I did other events with her later because she saw potential in me.
Every time I did a shoot, I used it to buy more camera gear. I was a broke college student with no job haha. I didn't realize photography would later become my job. Some people hired me to shoot small weddings after seeing my portrait shoots and weddings I did with the experienced photographer.
My friend at the time started seeing me as competition and told her other friends they were only allowed to work with her. It was an interesting time as I still thought we were friends back then haha.
I shot weddings and events all throughout college. I graduated and started college at Wake Forest University to get into mental health counseling, and I later moved to the DMV area during Covid because I was getting married at the time.
I felt like the DMV held a lot of opportunities, and it was beautiful to me since I came from a small city. Since becoming a LPC, I actually want to do even bigger things with photography now that I've been out of school for a while. Follow me to watch my photography journey. I have some major plans for the next few years.
