Happy Birthday to us!

Well, kind of. In a really unique way. Yes, we have been in business for 11 (almost 12) crazy years. Yes, we are on the doorstep of my 5^th year of working full time for ourselves and Kyle’s 4^th year of working full time for ourselves. But, there’s another, completely separate reason we’re celebrating this fall.

(Apparently fall is a big season of change for us.)

You see, it was exactly a year ago that we released a really big project that we were crazily, very intensely working on – Rivas Weddings – as you currently know and love it. Otherwise known as “The Rebrand” to some of our very close friends and family. Also known as, “the decision that changed it all” to us. And lastly, “the best decision we ever made even though it made us question everything.”

Because all of that is true.

And while we think we released a Facebook Live video explaining why we decided to rebrand, we didn’t ever talk about it here, in our most free, familiar place. We just kind of sprung it on you all of a sudden. Literally, looking back through our archives one day the logo just changed without explanation.

So, on this really, really special birthday, we decided it might be a good idea to open up and talk about it. Like, really talk about it and share exactly what we were going through. Because, friends, it was completely and utterly life changing. And had we not gone through all of the things we did, we likely wouldn’t be typing this because Rivas Weddings/Events/Photography wouldn’t exist. At all, period. Like we would both have desk jobs.

Yep, we’re getting that honest and open. And there are likely to be some tears on our side, just as a warning.

And probably more information than you wanted or needed. But, we’ve promised to always be transparent and honest, so here we go.

(By the way, because this is such a close to our hearts topic, and because there’s so much to talk about, we’re going to split this up into 2 posts. This one, that talks about why and how we went through the rebrand, and then part 2, that introduces you to Rivas Weddings as you know it.)

Where it all went wrong

Let’s flashback, shall we, to the spring of 2018. We had just sold our house and moved downtown. We were both working full time for Rivas Photography. And we were trying our best to fill our calendar for 2019. (For those of you that aren’t super-familiar with the wedding photography booking cycle, normally we book anywhere from 9-18 months out from wedding day.) Which means by the time May of 2018 rolled around and we hadn’t booked anything for 2019, we were starting to panic.

The brand that we had so carefully and expensively built over the last few years, Rivas Photography, was doing okayish. Heavy emphasis on the “ish.” We were trying to target and build a luxury based clientele and to only book high-end weddings at “the best” venues in town. Our business model and wedding days revolved around the 30 minutes of portrait time we would get with a couple on their wedding day. And if we didn’t get the perfect portrait? The whole day was ruined.

We were running our business using models that other “luxury” photographers claimed worked for them, again, focusing mainly on portraits and not really paying too much attention to the rest of the day. And we were doing okay, and booking enough weddings to keep us afloat, barely. 

But Kyle and I? We were absolutely miserable.

While we loved the clients we were getting to work with, we just weren’t having any fun with anything photography, wedding, or corporate related. Which makes it really, really hard to get up and be motivated in the morning to be creative and tackle the world. And to be completely honest, because we run a business together and live and work together, when there are problems at work, there are problems at home.

We were stressed out, unmotivated, and not sure where to go.

Kyle kept talking about wanting to travel the country, photographing events and weddings. I was working on building up a maternity and newborn business in my spare time because I wanted income that wasn’t seasonal. We weren’t meeting with other wedding professionals, we weren’t marketing, we weren’t creating anything that really inspired us. In hindsight it’s really, really hard for us to admit that, and it’s really, really unfair to our clients.

You guys, we were going so far down opposite paths that I literally had a whole newborn brand and business plan ready to go to launch and we were trying to figure out who to hire that could photograph weddings and events with Kyle that could take my place, and what that dynamic would look like. We were arguing all the time, not booking anything for any part of our business, and stressed out about money.

And the worst of it? We didn’t realize how unhappy we were – we thought it was all part of owning a business.

It got so bad, friends, that I put together a resume and started job hunting. And I can’t believe that we’re even admitting this, but I even had interviews. Which, as a proud, self-employed, business owning person, admitting that you’ve failed and have to “get a real job?” It’s the worst. The absolute worst.

So what happened?

Well, to be honest with you, Kyle started reading. Which might not sound like a super crazy thing, but this guy has never finished a book that he’s picked up in his life. He’s just not a reader. But, he started listening to audio books. (Lucky for me, he only likes to read nonfiction, entrepreneurial and self-help books.) So many books, in so little time. And one day, over breakfast, he said that he wanted to have a team meeting, out of the house, where we could focus and be in public so we wouldn’t emotionally lose it or get upset.

The next day we walked down the hill to Banksia for breakfast. We sat at our favorite table in our favorite window and Kyle said, “I think I know what we need to do.” And so, that morning, we laid it all on the table. For the first time in a long time we were honest and open about how we felt about our business and everything that was happening (or not happening) in it.

Friends, it was just heartbreaking. For both of us.

After all the coffee, and admittedly some tears from both of us, we made a decision. We both loved working for ourselves too much to do anything else. And we both love capturing important moments in peoples lives. But we were so unhappy with how we were doing it and what we were producing.

We decided to completely start over. Clean slate.

In fact, the top of my notebook from that day says, “If we could start a business now, knowing everything we have learned in the last 10 years it would be…”

So that’s what we decided to do. Build our business from the ground up, as if it hadn’t previously existed. If you’re thinking, “wow. That sounds hard,” it most definitely was.

This didn’t just mean changing our logo and colors, and the photos we shared. It meant changing EVERYTHING. Taking the time to come up with a vision and mission statement that we both feel passionately about. Spending endless hours on our couch every single day for 4 months working through business bootcamps and building activities.

It meant all the change. Not just on the outside, but also an internal mindset change for us. And figuring out not just what we wanted to do, or how we wanted to take pictures, but what we wanted our business to do for us, and not vice versa. How we wanted to feel at the end of the day, and the types of people that we wanted to work with.

Figuring out exactly what we both love to do and mashing it together until it became something that worked.

So that’s what we did. We worked together and didn’t move on until we were both excited and happy about what we were accomplishing. Honestly, it’s the most that we’ve ever worked on our business together, ever. And in the end? We decided to cut off all of our arms and legs, and to just be a wedding photography company. Not a weddings and engagements, events, newborn and maternity, senior and family portrait company. Simply, a wedding photography company.

You guys, it was the scariest decision we’ve ever made, to completely start over.

Halfway through all of this work, I got an interview with a very well known company in Kansas City. (Because don’t forget, I was still actively job hunting.) I had the inside hook-up (thanks to my previous work experience there and golden recommendations from my previous manager). All I had to do was interview to get the job. It was all lined up. And after talking with Kyle, we had both agreed that I should take the job to help hold us over until we were standing on our feet again. The days leading up to that interview were awful. We were both so upset. And even though we were working hard on our business, it didn’t feel like we were making much progress.

I woke up on the morning of the interview, sobbing, because I didn’t want to have to go back to work for someone else. Kyle finally spoke up. And told me that he thought I should cancel the interview. That we were close enough to building something that we both loved and that just might succeed that he thought we could find a way to make everything work.

As crazy as it sounds, I called and cancelled the interview 45 minutes before it was supposed to start.

So. How did we wind up here?

Well, a lot of blood, sweat, and tears, to be honest. 6 months, intensely working closely with each other to frantically make a completely new business. Lots of late nights, lots of coffee, lots of Kyle grocery shopping. (Which always results in a few surprises – like mustard greens instead of kale.) All of the word looking up and defining, re-culling and editing weddings and engagement session we had already delivered to find what we were looking for. But above all, lots and lots of soul searching and complete and utter transparency with ourselves.

On October 5, we launched Rivas Weddings. Vibrant Photography for Bold Couples. And while it seemed like all of the hard work was done? We were actually no where close. Because now we had to get our name out there. And somehow convince everyone to forget the old Rivas Photography.

And the scarier thing?

We only had a few months to get 2019 booked. Which doesn’t seem like such a big task after you’ve changed everything you’ve ever known. But the one thing we couldn’t change? The imagery that we had already created and had to use until we could start to make new imagery that was more of what we wanted. Somehow, we had to find a way to make old imagery fit the new brand. And bigger than that, we had to find a way to create new imagery that we LOVED. Not just that we loved, but that our clients loved even more than the old stuff.

It meant changing our whole, entire shooting style and approach. And to be honest, we had absolutely no idea where to start.

We knew what we wanted to capture: more intimate, honest moments, less posed portraits, more FUN, more US, more of our clients.  Well. Crazily enough, a few weeks before we decided to completely up and overhaul our business, on a whim I signed us up for a workshop put on by the AMAZING Lanny and Erika of Two Mann Studios. The workshop was in Jamaica, and was limited to only 12 photographers from around the world. When I booked it, I knew it would probably help us out a little bit to be better photographers.

But I had no idea just how much it would change our lives.

And trust me when I say that I’m not exaggerating at all when I say that. Kyle and I talk constantly about how different things are now, and how grateful we are to Lanny and Erika. There’s just no good way to thank them for being the voice of reason and guidance and the mentors that we needed at such a pivotal point in not only our business, but also our lives and relationship.

Friends, without the help of this amazing group of photographers from around the world, we would still be lost.

So what happened? The Metanoia workshop in Jamaica with The Manns was literally the final piece for us. In a matter of 6 months we managed to completely rebuild our business, launch it, completely change our shooting style and approach, and book most of our 2019 wedding season. And through all of it we didn’t kill each other.

After all of that hard work? We have a business and brand that we are really, really proud of and completely devoted to. No more of, “well we could do this or this nonsense.” We finally started to book clients that wanted the very uniqueness of what we offered, which is pretty cool.

But if we’re being honest, the best part about all of this?

We fell back in love with wedding photography and being business owners. And we haven’t looked back since.

I’m not crying. You’re crying. (Okay, I’m really crying.)

That’s so much, friends. And if you’ve made it this far, please, please let me buy you a cup of coffee or a drink just for putting up with us.

We are SO EXCITED to fill you in on the current Rivas Weddings, why we made the choices we did, and how things are going today. BUT. Because I’ve already talked your legs off, come back next week for part two, where we dig in to all of the nitty-gritty choices and decisions we made, just how many words we looked up when trying to come up with our tagline, and how it all came to be.