Can you tell it’s been a busy season around here?! π Oh my goodness gracious! We literally cannot even believe that we are finally sharing this today, and we certainly can’t believe the news we’re about to share with you all! YES, that is another husband and wife team above in that photo with us, and YES, they are now officially a part of the Caitlin & Luke Photography brand!! But first, let us backtrack a tiny bit! π
Ever since Luke and I decided to focus our business efforts on weddings several years ago when we went full time, we have been dreaming about what it would look like to have a team one day. I’ve always been incredibly inspired by businesses with multiple teams heading out to different weddings on the weekends, serving so many more couples per year than just one photographer could, and fostering the atmosphere and culture of an awesome team as a business. We’ve been praying for a long time about 1. if this was God’s plan for our business specifically, and after that, 2. when the right time would be to launch this new venture. (Y’all know we added our incredible Lifestyle Photographer, Tori, to the team earlier this year, which has been incredible! You can go meet her right here!!)
Obviously, as photographers, we are simply unable to serve all of the inquiries that came our way, but we realized that this this doesn’t have to be our reality. After talking with a lot of brides who had their hearts set on working with us and either chose a date we were already booked for or couldn’t afford our Collections, we decided the solution to this problem was growing our team. Logistically, having MORE photographers means we can serve MORE of the inquiries we receive, while really limiting the amount of brides we’d have to turn away, ESPECIALLY those who truly loved our style and the experience we offer! (You don’t know how happy that makes us!)
Like a lot of things lately, it seems, things fell into place quickly and at just the right time, which we are SO darn thankful for. God literally led these two right to us, and this opportunity came at the exact right time for all four of us. After a whole ton of emails and texts, a meeting or two, plenty of Starbucks and Moe’s (are you surprised?!), and a SUPER fun photoshoot to get these two some images together and some of all four of us… HERE WE ARE! Ahh!!
The absolute sweetest part about this entire process was when we realized that God had literally dropped another husband and wife wedding photography team in our laps… talk about God doing immeasurably more than all we could ask or imagine (one of our fave verses). My goodness. When we prayed about the possibility of expanding our team, and later on, for God to bring exactly who He wanted us to add to our team at exactly the right time, we never even DREAMED He’d drop another husband and wife team in our laps!!! SUCH a blessing. I still can’t get over that.
So, friends, meet our wonderful new teammates Hayley & Hank! We joke all the time that all of us aren’t fans of the phrase “associate photographer,” so we’ve fondly started referring to these guys as simply team members of the Caitlin & Luke Photography brand… ha! π “Team members” just does a much better job of encompassing the way we want this to be run! This is truly a team operation, and we want that to be so apparent in everything we do.
So… what does it mean to work with Hayley & Hank instead of us?!Β Let us fill you in. Essentially, if we are unavailable for a wedding date or out of a couple’s price range, we are now able to pass along that inquiry to Hayley and Hank, and Hayley and Hank will shoot their engagement session and their wedding day. Hayley and Hank have been fully trained to shoot, edit and care for their clients exactly how we would, and our couples will receive the same amazing experience and same style of photos when working with Hayley and Hank as they would with us. (Right on down to the same editing preset, workflow, and even our Bridal Welcome Package- literally, everything!) However, our couples get to work with Hayley & Hank for a smaller investment than it would be to work with us, which is SUCH a blessing to be able to offer this option for our couples!!!
From there, Hayley & Hank will be their couples’ point of contact and will be there to help them with absolutely anything they need, all the way through their engagement session, timeline planning, and their actual wedding day! However, our vision is truly to partner with Hayley & Hank so that we are still able to be a big part of your wedding experience, too, even if we aren’t able to be present on your wedding day! (If you have absolutely any questions about the logistics of working with Hayley & Hank, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at hello@caitlinandluke.com and we’d LOVE to help you out!)
Hayley & Hank have been accepting inquiries for the majority of the summer, but we are so excited to be OFFICIALLY launching them today! We are all already so excited for what God is going to do in and through Caitlin & Luke Photography as we partner with these sweet people to reach even more brides, serve them, and love them exceptionally well in such a beautiful and unique season of life. (Gah- it makes me tear up and get the chills just thinking about it! Our hearts are so full.)
Before we wrap up this post, we wanted to go ahead and let Hayley & Hank share a little bit about the two of them with y’all! Here are some fun facts about the two of them. π (Are they not the actual cutest EVER?!)
- We met in the nerdiest of places – our first college computer science class. It definitely was not love at first sight… but Hayley eventually won Hank over with her riddle solving skills. π
- We got married on 06.03.17, celebrating with our incredible friends and family and a LOT of Chipotle (including all of the free guac that you could dream of)!Β Β
- Hayley launched into the wedding photography world as a senior in college and eventually wrangled Hank into the business a month after getting married!
- We are both HUGE advocates for personality tests and personal development – from the Meyers Briggs to Strengthsfinder to our favorite, the Enneagram. It’s exciting for both of us to learn not only more about ourselves but how to better understand those around us!
- Traveling and exploring new places is always a favorite past time of ours – whether it’s walking through forest preserves in Illinois or hiking mountains in Asia, we are up for an adventure!
- When we aren’t taking photos, you can often find us jamming together, taking lots of walks, watching cute puppy videos, or eating chocolate (but that’s mainly Hayley ????).
- We just brought home the cutest puppy ever, Gwen!!
- Hayley is our primary photographer that will help you coordinate your wedding day and direct most of the shooting, and Hank is our secondary photographer that is always making you laugh and feel comfortable during your wedding day! π
And so, after months of prayer, dreaming, training, planning, shooting, and yes, even more planning, we are here!!Β It’s finally the big day! Woohoo!! Xoxo!
Caitlin & Luke
