Cha-Cha-Cha-Changes : Two Big Announcements

Hi Everyone!

After a busy fall/winter season (and year!) my little brain as been spinning with how I want to proceed with the new year. 2010 has been absolutely amazing, with 32 weddings, 23 engagements and 18 portrait sessions I couldn’t have asked for a more amazing way to finish out (or kick off!) this decade. But I also have to admit, things were a little crazy at times and as my husband can attest, when I am stressed out I am not a happy person.  I spend about 70% of my time in front of my computer, editing, responding to emails, uploading, updating, blogging, etc, etc, etc. And that 70% isn’t even “shooting” time, it has become all of my time, working all day, most evenings, as well as Saturdays (if not shooting a wedding) and usually even Sunday mornings and afternoons. And that just can’t fly anymore. This girl needs some time off! So over the recently I sat myself down, did some soul searching and number crunching. And after all I found, I have decided that starting March 1, 2011 I will no longer be accepting new portrait clients so I may focus more on weddings and engagements. This was an extremely hard decision for me to make, but it is one that I am confident will only help me to grow more. Weddings and engagements have always been my passion with my work, and having the ability to really focus on them and give my couple’s an amazing experience is very important to me. I will only be doing portrait sessions through February 28, 2011 for any clients who may want portraits after the new year, but they will stop in March. AND, if you are a current portrait client of mine (or have been in the past) I will continue to do portrait sessions for you. I love all of my portrait clients I had this year and want to continue our photo relationship. So no fear to all of you momma’s with sessions! I will still honor everything I have promised you.

Also, I am making a few changes to how I will work outside of shoots in 2011. I love my job and truly enjoy what I do, but I need to get a little of my personal life back and spend more quality time with my friends, family and husband. So what this means is that I will no longer be photographing engagement/portrait sessions on weekends. I hope that you all will be understanding and will work with me to schedule your session at a time that is convenient for everyone involved. I will make exceptions for scheduling emergencies, but I hope to keep those to a minimum. Now that my husband works a regular 8-5 job and has weekends off, I’d like to spend what free time I have with him and our family/friends. I am really looking forward to always having at least one day a week off, I haven’t had a regular schedule since high school! *Any sessions currently booked on a weekend will still be shot at our scheduled time.

I know these are some pretty major changes and I’m sure you think that I have totally lost my mind. I know that sticking to this is not going to be easy for me, I am a people pleaser and always try to do my best for all of my clients. But I know that losing my mind is not something they want, ;) and making these changes will help me achieve that.

So, I wanted to make a note here to let everyone know my current availability for 2011. I currently have 20 weddings scheduled for 2011 and will only accept 5-10 more commissions for next year.  Here is what I still have left:

January – closed for 2011
February – accepting one more commission – available the weekends of the 5, 19
March – booked
April – booked
May – booked
June – accepting two more commissions – available the weekends of the 4, 11, 18
July – accepting two more commissions – available the weekends of the 9, 16, 30
August – all weekends currently open
September – all weekends currently open
October – accepting one more commission – available the weekends of the 1, 8, 29
November – accepting one more commission – available the weekends of the 19, 26
December – Ashley McCormick Photography is closed during the 2nd half of December to fulfill holiday orders and prepare for the following year. Wedding commissions will only be taken through the 18th.

If I am booked for your date, let me know and I will be happy to recommend some of my colleagues to you!

As always, thank you all so much for your support and encouragement. This past November marked 5 years of shooting weddings and I couldn’t be happier. I just love what I do and I am excited to see where 2011 takes me.

- Ashley McCormick

If you have any questions for me regarding what you’ve read, please feel free to ask me! I want to make sure that I was clear in my decisions so if you’ve got a question just ask. :)

Also, starting January 1st I will be launching a Ashley McCormick Photography Newsletter! To get on the list, click on the “Subscribe tab on the top left side of the page. Just enter you info and go!