222 – DARING to Work as a Husband & Wife Team with JEREMIAH & RACHEL

June 1, 2022

EPISODE SUMMARY

Today on Dare to Develop we have Jeremiah and Rachel with us. They are two destination photographers who happen to be married and live in Montana. We can’t wait to dive in and learn more about how they grew their businesses separately and then joined together while also getting married themselves. Today we are learning from them about  how they run the business together as both lead photographers and so much more. 

JEREMIAH & RACHEL DARE YOU: 

We dare you to strive to make business personal, especially in the wedding industry. Let it be personal sometimes. We can all get bogged down in the industry and put up walls and to protect ourselves. I understand those things, especially being in the business for 10 years, but at the end of the day, especially after 2020, it was the best thing to actually be back in the flow of weddings.

Once those canceled weddings started happening again, it was an amazing gift to be crossing that finish line with people and getting those rescheduled couples married. And it just reminded me of how wonderful it can be when you do let it be personal, because I think it can get too ordinary, but it’s worth it to put yourself out there and risk it.

FAST FACTS ABOUT JEREMIAH & RACHEL:

What do you shoot with?

We primarily shoot with Leica digital cameras and then we use a medium format Contax 645 as a primary film camera.

What’s your favorite pre/post wedding snack? 

  • Jeremiah: I’m the weirdest, I almost don’t eat on wedding days.
  • Rachel: I eat anything I could get my hands on after a wedding. On the way to a wedding, I’m usually downing a protein bar or something like that. 

What’s your favorite creative pump-up jam?

  • Jeremiah: “Blinding Lights” by The Weeknd is my thing these last couple of years, I don’t know why.
  • Rachel: For me, it would be any classic rock or Celine Dion. I love a good 90’s power ballad. But sometimes honestly, on the way to a wedding, I want pure silence. Sometimes, we won’t even talk to each other. I’ll go through the timeline and our questionnaire, but I’m very focused and just kind of getting in my headspace and also needing some quiet time before the chaos of 12 hours is about to unfold.

What is your favorite thing to do outside of your business? 

  • We watch movies. We really love stories so we go to the movies a lot and watch a lot at home. We’re very introverted people, honestly, so a wedding day takes a lot out of us.

    But also, we love to travel and road trips. We have two golden retrievers who are our pride and joy and they suck up all our time too. 

What’s the best education you’ve learned from? 

  • Jeremiah: For me, learning was the second shooting and reaching out to other photographers and people who I thought were where I wanted to be in the beginning. And just learning from them. That was the best thing for me. 
  • Rachel: We both learned very hands-on. So second shooting and assisting for people, when I first started, was the best way I could learn. In addition to that, I would say community is probably the biggest source of education for us. Even our best friends are wedding photographers and they’re also a husband/wife team. They just really understand where we are and where we’re coming from.

What is one daring leap you’ve taken in your business?

  • Jeremiah: I would say it was getting married and joining the business all at once. That was, that was chaotic. 2012, 10 years ago, was a very big year for us. We merged our businesses a couple of months later, then we got engaged, and a couple of months later we were married. That summer we had an insane summer of like two businesses doubled up on the weddings that summer. I don’t know how we did it, but we literally would drive 5 hours from one city to another to shoot weddings, and then drive back and then drive back to the wedding.

    We don’t do that anymore. So that was very daring of us. We would never do that now, but merging the business before we even married, was very daring as well.

What is one thing you feel like you’re really great at in your business? 

  • Rachel: Jeremiah has a really great attitude on wedding days. He’s extremely upbeat and smiling. Even if I know he’s dying inside. He’s very professional on the wedding day and can handle stress really well at a wedding. Jeremiah is extremely technical and very smart and figures out everything first. He has figured out our systems and packs all our gear for us. I never have to think about any of that, which is so it’s such a mental load off for me.
  • Jeremiah: Rachel is amazing at what she does. Our couples love having someone who understands a wedding from a bride’s perspective. I understand it from a groom’s perspective, but there are just so many things that I think having someone who really genuinely sympathizes with all the things that are going through a bride’s mind is very valuable.  Rachel sees the wedding day the way a bride does, she cares about the details in a way the bride does. And when it comes to making the timelines and giving people all those little detailed things. I don’t think I would have ever gotten to that point without her. 

Where can our listeners find you?

Dare to Develop Podcast Sponsor – Photovision

Don’t forget to head on over to photovisionprints.com to claim your free roll of their Signature Process + Scan service using the code DARETODEVELOP . Looking to continue your photography education further? Be sure to check out their full library of photography tips! 

OTHER D2D EPISODES YOU MIGHT LIKE

Another Husband & Wife team we loved having on the podcast was Erich & Amy McVey. Check out their episode here.

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