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

Hi Joshua & Chelsi , thanks for joining us today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

So this is kinda our third rebrand so to speak, the first was by accident. I (Joshua) started doing photography back in 2007. Back then I just went under the brand “JL Photography” It was simple, it was just a play on my name Joshua Lowe. I had built a website, I had emails set up, etc. Well, 2 years in I let my domain name lapse, and someone bought the domain. So that kind of forced rebrand. I believe that was in 2010, so I just shifted everything to Joshua Lowe Photography. Chelsi and I got married in 2011, and she had always helped me with sessions, but now she was not only helping me but also doing a lot of the things behind the scenes, like booking sessions, running social media, etc. So it was more about us and not just me anymore.

Over the last year, we have had several conversations about rebranding, because over the years I have been shooting a ton of live concerts and built a name around myself for the music publication I also run. People knew I was a photographer, but they knew me as a concert photographer. They knew I took pictures of some cool bands, but when I mentioned family pictures or weddings a lot of people didn’t know we did them. So over the last year, we started weighing a rebrand, a way to separate what people think of, from what we want people to know us by.

Deciding on a name for a brand is hard. There are so many things you have to think of and consider. We knew we wanted people to think 2 things about our brand. First, we wanted people to know this was a husband-and-wife team. So that’s on every Bio and About me, that’s out there. Wedding photography and Portraits, so we wanted something elegant. Something that when we told people what we did it reflected our services. That’s how we came up with the name Grace & Lace Studios. We felt like it reflected both the Wedding & Portrait side of our business. We also chose “Studios” versus photography, because 1 we do have a small home studio for Portraits and our yearly Santa pictures. But 2 also to we offer videography for weddings and small businesses.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

We’re Joshua & Chelsi Lowe. We’re the owners of Grace & Lace Studios in Spartanburg South Carolina. We provide our clients with both Wedding and Portrait photography, as well as videography. Chelsi and I were high school sweethearts, and we’ve been together since 2003 and got married in 2011. We also have 2 children, Jackson and Ellie. We got into our industry several years ago, but just recently chose to do a rebrand to focus more on Wedding and Portrait photography.

One of our core beliefs as a business is to be affordable for everyone. So many times in the photography industry I have seen photographers turn away business because it doesn’t make them enough money. Well, we’re in the business of making memories and capturing moments, so we offer packages for all types of weddings and budgets. We want to provide our clients with the best possible photos for the best price. That doesn’t mean we’re not here to make a profit, it means that Chelsi and I are going to work just as hard for someone who spent $500 with us as the couple who spent $5,000 with us. We’re still going to provide you with a quality product.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

My business partner is not like most, my business partner is my wife. She’s been by my side from the beginning of my photography journey. We met in 2003, we were high school sweethearts. I started doing photography in 2007 under the brand of Joshua Lowe Photography. In 2011, Chelsi and I got married, and naturally, she began helping with sessions. Fast forward to 2023, we started having conversations on a complete rebrand of our business. We wanted to separate the brand Joshua Lowe Photography from our wedding and portrait side, because 1 we wanted clients to know we’re a team. We wanted clients to know it’s not just Joshua or it’s not just Chelsi, we’re a team. 2 We wanted this to focus 100% on weddings and partners and not be overshadowed by bands that I take pics of under the Joshua Lowe Photography brand.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Our rebrand was tough for me. You know, they say husbands should listen to their wives because most of the time they’re right. Well, for over a year, I fought with Chelsi on the idea of a rebrand. We would be out to dinner and be talking about things, and she’d comment on rebranding and getting away from the concert photography side of things. In my mind, thinking like a guy, and slowly come to realize that Brides and Mama’s, which primary market we were trying to reach, didn’t care what bands we had taken pictures of. In Chelsi’s words, “We needed a woman’s touch”. So I, as a person, had to sit back and set my ego to the side. We were at a point where if we truly wanted to be successful, then I’d have to get past the idea of “over the last 10 years I’ve built this,” and shift focus from thinking “This is what I’ve built,” to “This is what we’re building.” If I’m honest it’s still tough sometimes, but it’s been great, we’ve been blessed with new clients, and returning clients and I wouldn’t want anyone else beside me through this journey.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.GraceandLaceStudios.com
• Instagram: instagra.com/GraceandLaceStudios
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GraceAndLaceStudios
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/GraceandLaceSC
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@GraceandLaceStudios

Image Credits

All photos were captured by Grace & Lace Studios