A question I often get is – “Hannah, like what do you do in the winter?..”

Which is very valid lol I’m a full time wedding photographer in New Brunswick and weddings only really happen 6 months of the year. So if I was on the outside looking in, I’d also be curious about what goes on in the other 6!

With spring in the air I’m finally dipping my toes back into photography after taking the winter off, so I’m also reflecting back on how I spent my time over the last 6 months and thought I’d share a little look into that with you. 

Here are a few business related things I got up to:

• I updated and improved all my systems and processes from the previous year so I’m being most efficient with my time during this wedding season and my couples are getting the best possible experience.
• I revamped my “client journey” which ties into the above task. This is me mapping out every single touch point I have with my clients from inquiry to gallery delivery and adding in more value and thoughtful elements anywhere I can.
• Maybe the biggest one, I started a BRAND NEW BUSINESS with my fiancé (check out the very cool Freddy Photo Booth for all your fun photo booth needs).
• I reviewed financial information from the previous year to see where I’m at and where I can improve.
• I stepped away from my camera and let myself creatively recharge while getting inspired by things other than wedding photography (movies, music, nature, emotions).
• I looked at my business from a macro perspective and vision casted where I want it to be (and more importantly, how I want it to feel) in the coming years.
• As a wedding photographer in New Brunswick, my schedule is kind of 6 months on and 6 months off, so I worked on some less glamorous things that there never seems to be time for in the summer, like blogging (hehe hi) and website updates.
• I did an overhaul of my wedding welcome guide to make it the biggest and juiciest (30 pages!!!) resource so that I can help make my clients wedding planning journey as easy as possible.

What my personal life looked like:

• I took a lot of time off just to live my life. If I’m going to work almost 6 months straight, I need that time in the winter to rest and enjoy or I simply wouldn’t be able to serve my couples the way I do or create work I’m so proud of when wedding season rolls around.
• Last October at the tail end of wedding season, we actually adopted the sweetest little 5 year old angel. So I spent the majority of the winter learning how to be a mom!!
• To celebrate the adoption, we took a trip to Disney World in February and it was literally the most magical week of my whole life.
• I spent a lot of time at Uptown Chiropractic and Surface Float taking care of my body. Surprisingly, having 2+ giant cameras hanging off your neck and shoulders for 10 hour wedding days takes its toll lol. I want to be able to do this job for a very long time so it’s very important to me that I do what I need to do to make that physically possible. 
• I walked my dog, like every day. We have a Border Aussie who’s almost 2 now and he has lots of energy of course! I was never a walker before we got Blue but now I’m just as antsy as him if we don’t get our 1.5 hour walk in. Even in the unholy temperatures it drops to here in the chilly months, that time outside is so necessary for me and it’s when I do all my deep thinking.
• I tried some new things! Snowboarding and tennis to be specific. I feel like I haven’t tried anything new since I was actually a child haha so this was very fun and a highlight of the winter. 
• I snuggled up and read lots of books. The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah being my favourite.  
• I got covid and strep throat a few times. Which were not fun but did take up a notable amount of my winter lol

But yes, those were some of the big things! Last year was my first as a full time wedding photographer in New Brunswick so I wasn’t sure how I would feel about the 6 month on / 6 month off schedule but it was wonderful. I feel sooo lucky and privileged that I’m able to do this full time. It’s literally my dream job and I pinch myself regularly.

Now I’m getting ready to start another big wedding season here in NB and I can’t wait!