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

Hi Marisa , thanks for joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

My husband and I first came up with MSMP Media LLC from the back bones of what it already was, AKA MSMP Photography.

At first it was just a one woman business and once my husband joined me, after covid, he gave me the idea to expand MSMP into a growing partnership/business working alongside other creative and talented photographers & videographers.

At first it was hard for me to trust allowing other people to capture our couples weddings, but Robert (my husband) told me, “how do you think big companies became successful? You will never be able to grow by doing it all yourself. You have to have faith in others.” He was right!

So, I let go. And now we have teams nation wide who our couples love and rebook! We don’t have to turn away brides now when we are booked, we can have our associates capture their day (people we have chosen that shoot similarly to us), we can give them the option of no travel fees and still have our couples receive the same quality photos and customer service that they see in each review we have received, and not only that but we have created a family of creatives that support one another. We help build their portfolio to use for their own endeavors as well. We want to see all people who work with us grow. True success is allowing others to climb the ladder you have climbed too.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I got into the wedding industry with the help from my family hairstylist. I asked her if she was doing hair for any brides and she told me “yes” and I told her I would shoot them for free, since her wedding photographer was not hired for getting ready photos. My prices were so low at the time, we are talking $800 for a 10 hour day!! Obviously I have built my portfolio now to have more than quadrupled that in the 8 years I have been capturing people.

But photos are one thing, I think the biggest motto for me is under promise and over deliver. Customer service and running a business is more important than taking the photos. You may find that weird for me to say, but it is the truth because when you are not making your client feel respected or heard, your business will never take off. Word of mouth will give you the best clientele.

I am proud of how far we have come and how couples can truly rely on us and trust us to not only provide them with beautiful work but someone they can become close to on their wedding day. We pick people that are not afraid to take risks with their art and who know how to work a camera like my husband and myself.

MSMP also offers film rolls as an add on, drone photo and video, content creation and we will be providing mentorship programs soon too since we have had multiple people asking us for photography advice when we are on shoots! We love to help everyone and create amazing relationships around the world. Connecting with people is a huge part of why we love what we do.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

This one is a fun one! You can implement so many creative ideas as a way to build your social.

For Facebook we did something simple and used Facebook ads which I am sure you are familiar with. Instagram is a bit trickier but what has helped us is giving a promotion to potential couples to follow us on instagram. It does not have to be some crazy amount. We take off $5o because of our investment prices but you can do as little at $5-$15 dollars depending on your product.

Just be sure you are still making a profit! Especially when you are throwing sales out there while still having that instagram promo applied onto it.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

One year we had a bride (I will NOT use names) give us the incorrect getting ready location. It stated it would be at the venue. We showed up to the venue space and no one was there besides the wedding coordinator who was a back up coordinator we had never spoken to before the wedding day.

Unfortunately, the venue was covered in wasps (my husband is allergic to) and the back up coordinator got stung in the bottom of her foot while we were trying to figure out from her, where everyone was. Robert being in the medical field before wanted to make sure that she was alright since she had never been stung by a wasp in her life. All of this took 10-15 minutes. After which she began taking calls because I had no service. People were not picking up their phones but we eventually got ahold of the MOH and drove to the actual getting ready location which was about 10-15 minutes away from the venue. When we got there we were greeted with hair stylist yelling at us angry because we missed the getting ready shots that were never even informed for us to do. It became a toxic environment because of the hostility thrown our way on the wedding day and made us so uncomfortable.

The bride complained about many things after the photos were delivered (she loved the photos though). She made us apologize (which we did to keep the peace) and we also added video coverage for free on her day and edited additional photos but was left a bad review on three platforms.

At the end of the day, I learned that we cannot please everyone and I can only do my best. Now we also create our own photo timelines with the brides over the phone. The timelines include day of contact information and addresses attached and we send that to them and the planner so nothing get’s missed. We also changed our agreement to have a safe space for us to work in. So, no wasps allowed!

HUGE learning lesson!

Contact Info:

• Website: msmpmedia.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/msmp.media

Image Credits
MSMP MEDIA LLC: Marisa, Robert & Jordan