Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Leah Rozendaal. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Leah , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Getting that first client is always an exciting milestone. Can you talk to us about how you got your first customer who wasn’t a friend, family, or acquaintance?

The year that I graduated college I was also a bride planning my own wedding day. I was part of various Facebook groups with other brides planning out the details of their special day. I have a degree in event planning, but I enjoyed using photography and videography to capture the events that I helped execute. 4 months before my wedding day, a bride posted on this Facebook group that her videographer canceled on her the day before her wedding. She was stressed and scrambling to find a replacement, I reached out to her and offered my help. Even though I had never filmed a wedding, I had plenty of experience planning large scale events and I had a camera that I bought as a hobby. The rest is history! I loved getting to document my first wedding and started pursuing this field ever since.

Leah , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a photographer and videographer who specializes in weddings, branding for small businesses, and family photography. I am self taught and used my event planning degree to provide my background knowledge of the event industry, timelines, working in collaboration with other vendors, and how to problem solve on a wedding day.

I am proud of the way that I use emotion to tell the story of someone’s day. I am a highly emotional person, and I love to highlight all of the moments that take place during any session whether it is a wedding day, a passionate small business owner, or a cozy and loving family session. Video and photos are one of the only ways we can take a step back into the past. Our legacy and our own purpose is often times passed down through these mediums. I provide the space for my clients to soak in all of their emotions without having to worry about capturing these moments to enjoy later on.

My style could be described as an emotion driven documentary experience that is warm and authentic. I love the beauty and simplicity of simple moments exactly how they unfold naturally.

Have you ever had to pivot?

During the COVID 19 Pandemic I had 18 weddings cancel or postpone their weddings. While this was incredibly stressful and new territory, I ended up using this as an opportunity to be creative. During those months, I ended up receiving bookings for small and intimate weddings of around 10 people that I really enjoyed as it was a completely different approach to a wedding day. It was relaxed, fun, and more of an elopement! Couples who hadn’t considered wedding videography previously now were interested since their guest lists were drastically cut. I also provided services like live streamed wedding ceremonies, virtual fashion shows for a wedding dress designer out of New York City, as well as small businesses sent me their products and I created content for their social media and websites with brand photos and videos.

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

Yes, my business became my full time career after one year in business. I was working a corporate event management role while I also filming weddings on the weekend. I reached a point where I matched my current salary with the future bookings I had for weddings for the following year (a perk of weddings are that they book 9-18 months in advance typically). This was a bit of a risk because my husband was finishing his mechanical engineering degree at the time, but I crunched the numbers and made the leap! My first year I filmed 4 weddings, my second year 27, my third 36, and I just kept growing from there. I currently have scaled back from high volumes of weddings during the wedding season as I have two children (a 3 year old and a one year old) but I am proud to say that I have filmed over 150 weddings in the last 7 years.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.leahroseproductions.com
• Instagram: @c.leah.patra
• Facebook: Facebook.com/leahroseproductions

Image Credits
First photo: Shelby Peters with Pete Photography Second Pnoto: Libby Gargano with The Grey Collective Third Photo: Jennifer Weinman with Jennifer Weinman Photography