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

Brittany, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s kick things off with talking about how you serve the underserved, because in our view this is one of the most important things the small business community does for society – by serving those who the giant corporations ignore, small business helps create a more inclusive and just world for all of us.

As a lesbian, I find it important not only to employ a queer staff, but also to display queer love in media. Whenever you search on Pinterest for Wedding inspiration or wedding photography/ videography you get a lot of straight weddings. Based on the feedback I’ve gotten from my couples and looking at wedding inspiration myself, Its very hard to find wedding details that represent a queer relationship. I love shooting LGBTQIA+ weddings and I always want to provide a safe space for couples who may be worried about finding a queer friendly vendor, especially here in the south.

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?

Hi! My name is Brittany O’Dell. I started this business in 2017. As soon as I did my first wedding, I fell in love because I get to glimpse into people’s lives and capture their entire relationship! It is such an important day to be a part of and I take such pride in making my couples comfortable. One of the most important things that I pride myself on, is making sure to capture audio. I have experienced a lot of couples that have dealt with a death of a family member after receiving their wedding video and the most comments I have gotten is thanking me for capturing their loved ones voice prior to their passing . As someone who has lost my mother, I know how important it is to hear someone’s voice, and to see their face afterwards, so I really take careful intent on making sure those voices are captured and memories are savored. I also love to make couples comfortable posing because I know that is something that makes people uncomfortable especially if they haven’t done a Photoshoot before. Recently, I’ve created a new addition for my couples, a content creator. Rather than asking a friend to take photos for the day you can employ one of our staff to take excellent photos and videos of your entire day on the latest iPhone! This will result in an immediate capture of your entire day, that you can share with all of your friends and family, who may not have been able to make it to your wedding day! I’m excited about this because I know how important it is for couples to share their wedding day immediately after and I know how hard it is to wait weeks/months before your photos/video come back. I genuinely enjoyed getting to know my couples (and getting invited to the after parties!) I want to thank everyone who has employed me to be a part of the most special day, because I do genuinely appreciate it.

Any advice for managing a team?

I would say my biggest advice is to pay your team what they’re worth. My team are my friends, so it was easy for me to see them as necessity and to see their devotion, but I do believe you should genuinely see how much work they are putting in to your business and employ them as such. Treat your coworkers as family, especially seconds shooters, who are often overlooked In this industry.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

I did not know about Musicbed.com earlier, which I wish I had! You cannot use unlicensed music on your wedding videos and you can get in trouble for that so be sure to use a music licensing website for your videos prior to delivering. Musicbed has a ton of great music perfect for wedding videos and I would highly recommend them.

Contact Info:

• Website: Woodellproductions.com
• Instagram: @woodellproductions
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/woodellproductions
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittany-o-dell-37875a129
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCqqYTAAjbbftgIYycWEt_lA

Image Credits
Sheila Mraz