***All images in this post are copyright Joy and Garrett Nudd unless otherwise noted***

Above image by Alice Park.

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How long have you been in business? And how did that come about?

Garrett started photographing portrait sessions in 2000 about the time we got married. He photographed his first wedding in 2001. He and I have been working together as a team since 2003.

I worked as a registered nurse until 2005 when our first daughter, Graycen, was born. At that time Garrett was still working his corporate job in marketing and public relations. That year we photographed about 30 weddings.

In 2006 I was consumed with being a mother and supporting the back-end of the wedding business. Garrett was still working, until about 1/2 way through the year, when he finally left his corporate job. That year we photographed 44 weddings.

Since then we've worked side by side. We've been fortunate that our work has allowed us to travel around the world and experience everything together. We've photographed weddings in Norway, Switzerland, Scotland, Italy, France, Anguilla, Jamaica and many other exciting places.

You have some amazing relationships with vendors, magazines, and so many other leaders in the industry. How did you create those relationships?

Anyone who knows us knows that we're not "surface" people. Most of our relationships run pretty deep. Sometimes it feels like it takes a while to develop relationships, but once we do, they are usually lasting. We both take the approach that we'd rather have a few really close relationships than lots of surface relationships.

You have been published like crazy lately! What do you do to get published?

About 18 months ago we determined that we needed to be much more proactive about getting our work published. Garrett used to work as a magazine editor so he's somewhat familiar with what they are looking for. We sought out the help of someone who was very familiar with wedding publications specifically. Previously when we would photograph a wedding, we would do so primarily with the client in mind. She taught us that we could continue that approach, but also shoot with publications in mind. When we started doing that everything changed. Our photography changed and consequently we saw an increase in the awareness of many of our brides as they realized that adding great details to their wedding increased their chances of getting published.

It's definitely a lot of work putting things together for publication, but clients appreciate it and recognize it as one of the marks of a great wedding photographer. Each time we submit a wedding we put together a nice folder, a disk of high-res images, contact sheets, and a questionnaire completed by the bride.

You’ve just had a baby, what was the process you went through to keep
things running smoothly?

We are blessed with many family and friends nearby who helped us so much with our new addition. We are really involved with the church community so we had so many people offering help with everything from making us meals to helping watch our 4-year-old-daughter to helping clean the house. When it comes to our business, we outsource our album design and post processing so, in that repect, our workflow didn't change much. Photographers from all over the country offered help and we are truly thankful for them.

Did you take a maternity leave? How did all of it coordinate with Garrett? What things did you decide to let go and what things did you decide to keep doing?

Yes, at least mostly with shooting. I shot with Garrett my last wedding when I was almost 8 months pregnant, (most of the remaining weddings were travel). The wedding was in Washington DC and the weather so bad that it took us more than 24-hours to get there (by plane), with what is usually a 9-10-hour drive. My first passion is the business side so it wasn't hard to give up shooting. We have had an associate shooter for awhile now and he second shoots with Garrett most of the time. We had so many photographers offer to shoot
weddings with Garrett while Irecovered and eased back into being a full time mom to a newborn, it was really amazing how much help we received. I did let go of a lot of travel, speaking/teaching opportunities, working with Garrett on a daily basis at our storefront studio, and in person networking, whether it was with wedding vendors and/or photographers. Garrett maintained all of that. I kept doing what I do on the backend for three months after having the baby: making slideshows, image uploads, followup with clients, contracts, marketing, etc, by pacing my schedule and giving myself longer deadlines.

You moved from Florida to Tennessee. How did you make that transitionand get your business going in a new area?

We moved from Florida to Tennessee in the fall of 2006. Garrett had grown up in Tennessee, all his family live here and that's where he and I met in college. When we went to Florida in 2003 we always knew we'd someday return to Tennessee to raise our family. We have a great community there and a wonderful church group. Since our work requires us to travel, we realized that we could live anywhere. We met with all of our vendor partners in Florida and carefully explained to them that we were moving to Tennessee, but we were keeping our real estate in Florida and we'd be there a couple times a month.

We continue to photograph the majority of our weddings in Florida. We're up front and forward with our brides and share with them that we don't live there, but we do most of our work there. Not once has it ever been an issue. And honestly, I think they find it intriguing to "fly their photographer in."
The only challenge is that the distance between Chattanooga is such that each wedding that we photograph is essentially a 3-day commitment: two days for travel and one day to shoot. Since the birth of our second daughter, Campbell, a few months ago, I've taken a significantly less active role in shooting weddings. So Garrett has a pool of photographers that he brings with him, depending on their schedules. We've been fortunate to have been surrounded by good friends and colleagues who have come to shoot with him. All the while knowing that we'd do the same for them if ever they needed it. When it came to launching the portrait business, it was an easier transition, since we have a large church community we stayed involved with even when we moved away. We knew more people in TN than FL including some of our wedding clients and their families when we first started and are now using our portrait services with their growing families, etc.

You have a new portrait side of your business. How do you do it all??

The "new" portrait business has been such an exciting adventure. We worked on a separate name and brand for our portrait business in mid 2007 and launched the website in 2008. We came up with a name that was inspired by the traveling we did in Europe for several weddings (2007). We really focused on marketing the portrait side locally as well as in FL (our main wedding market). Our goal was to do less weddings and travel and more portraits so that we could stay home more. We moved out of our first commercial space studio and we opened our new storefront studio space last September, after spending 4 months building out the space. We had tremendous
help from family, friends, and a couple of interns we had from the university we graduated from.

The portrait brand has allowed us to forge a new identity in Chattanooga while keeping our established identity in Orlando in tact. The name is intriguing enough that it keeps people interested. The buzz around town has been really positive. And when it comes to buzz, we don't do all of it. We surround ourselves with so many supportive and encouraging people, they spread the word and create buzz for us whether its family, friends, clients, vendors, etc. When we hosted our grand opening we prepared for 75-100 people and nearly 175 turned out.

Balancing the portrait and wedding business with our growing family is sometimes challenging. As you know, the photo business can be all-consuming. We work hard to carve out time for our family, taking long weekends here or there, and occasionally accompanying Garrett when he travels for weddings to fun and exciting locations. When I do travel with Garrett, the girls stay with the grandparents. They have been amazing and gracious with all the travel we have done. We are looking into hiring a part-time studio manager as well as associate portrait and another associate wedding photographer to help keep up with the demand.

What do you think are the most important things you do as a mom every
day?

Make myself available to my girls, emails and workflow stuff can wait. They grow up so fast and I don't want to miss out on any of it. Let them know how precious they are and instill confidence: tell them how much we love them, they are beautiful, intelligent and they can do anything!

Be a good example: language, etiquette, manners, high standards, common sense, learn about charity and giving, etc. Garrett and I are raising two girls and we want them to be a part of the future generation of nice and socially competent girls!

Laugh often!

Show to our girls their mom and dad are happy and in love. When Garrett hugs me, Graycen comes running to us and wants to be a part of it. She may not understand the meaning of a happy marriage, but I know that she will remember these moments. I think if she sees that we are happy she will really appreciate it when she is older. This is a big one for me as I come from a broken family and never met or even knew my biological dad.

What three products or things help you stay organized?

1) iPhone

2) Google Calendar and Gmail (anything Google...I am now trying out Google Voice)
3) ShootQ (http://www.shootq.com)

What 5 tips do you have for women to help them maintain a balance in
their lives between everything they have to do?

1) Have a mentor- its a must!

2) Outsource the work you do not enjoy. For us its album design and post processing...and bookkeeping.
3) I live in two worlds: church world and photography world. It really helps keep me sane to have friends from church, college, and within the community. we can talk about our kids, life in general, and be involved with non-photography ideas and projects. Its nice to not have to talk about whats going on in the photo
world everyday. That would be too much. And its also good to have photography friends who understand what its like to run the business, and talk shop.
4) Excercise: Yoga, Pilates, Aerobics... I hear it clears yourmind and its good for you ;) Its something I need to do more of!
5) Ask for help. You can't do everything especially those of yourunning a business by yourself. How will you have time for your family? if you do not work with your spouse or another person, ask for help (family, friend, etc) or hire someone whether it be an intern, part-time person, etc.

To see more of Joy and Garrett’s work:

http://www.garrettnudd.com (weddings)

http://www.garrettnudd.net (blog)

http://www.cobblestonerue.com (portraits)
http://www.twitter.com/joynudd
http://www.facebook.com/joynudd

***All images in this post are copyright Joy and Garrett Nudd unless otherwise noted***

*Below Family images by Amber Holritz.

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**Image of the Nudd family on the bed by Tina Wilson