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

Alright, Chastidyi thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s jump right into how you came up with the idea?

Back in 2013, we lost our home in a fire. We had just lost my grandfather to complications from a car accident a little over a month before, and my grandmother passed away in the fire. It was a really rough time for us. We had to scramble to find a place to live, plan a funeral while we were still grieving from a previous death, deal with PTSD, and I had to borrow photography equipment from other professionals in the area until insurance came through to shoot the weddings as we were just getting into season. It was overwhelming, and terrifying, and sometimes I wonder how we survived it. After a few months of house hopping (and a stay in a really sketchy apartment), we ended up leaving behind the idea of rebuilding on the property I grew up on and moving to a small but beautiful piece of property out in the forest. I was a few years into my wedding photography business, and this moved me further away from the Smoky Mountain area I had been traveling in for photography and equally far away from the Knoxville area weddings that I was trying to expand into. As someone who doesn’t enjoy being on the road, 45 minutes to 1.5 hours of driving each way for a wedding or photo shoot did not bring me joy so I slowly backed off on the number of weddings I was photographing and took a graphic design job. I kept trying to brainstorm ideas to pivot my business into something more manageable, and I stumbled on a picture of a little chapel facade a photographer built for a proposal. It made me wonder what we could do with our property, and I started doing some research. It turns out that Sevier County is second in the country only to Las Vegas for the number of weddings that are performed here each year. After photographing so many weddings in the area at cabins and at some of the local chapels, I thought providing couples with a rustic micro wedding alternative that had a more neutral look would go over well. I wanted to create a space that I would enjoy using for photography that was different from anything else available. It took some convincing, but I finally talked my husband into taking a chance on things. We had just taken out a loan on our house to build an addition, and we coopted a portion of the funds to create our little chapel. The way we had it set up, there wouldn’t be a lot of overhead (aside from the initial investment) so it seemed doable. I was honestly so nervous that it wouldn’t do well, but after a few styled shoots and some judicious marketing, we started to garner some attention.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I initially got into photography back in high school (a million years ago, lol) when my mom and grandparents purchased my first “fancy” camera as a graduation present. I talked one of my friends into letting me take 30 pictures of her eye as one of the first photo shoots I did. I ended up taking some photography courses in college, and I tried wedding photography on a whim in 2007. My first couple of weddings look completely different from what I offer now. I loved the drama and excitement of couple photos so when we built Chapel in the Hollow, I really put a focus on that. We get the very best parts of the wedding day — the ceremony, the family, and the couple.

I think what sets Chapel in the Hollow apart from other wedding chapels is that we offer a true mini wedding experience. A lot of the wedding chapels are more of a set style. We tried to keep our place like a blank slate with lots of options to customize so you don’t feel like you miss out on all of the details and options. We started out just offering officiating and photography because my husband and I could offer those services ourselves, but we ended up collaborating with an amazing event management team and a videographer to expand our offerings. I think having the option for real wedding professionals makes a huge difference — so many of our clients want the ease of having services included but they want those services to still be quality, and we are happy to offer that for them. For the services that we don’t offer in house (cakes, hair and makeup, rentals, etc.), we have a curated list that we share with our couples of amazing professionals in the area that we’ve had the pleasure of working with in the past that have consistently provided amazing service.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I think that consistency is the main thing that has built our reputation within the market. We provide a very consistent experience for all of our couples from the initial email to a super quick photo delivery after the wedding. We want all of our couples to have the wedding of their dreams so we have have tons of information on our website to help inform them throughout the process including pricing, property rules, etc. We try to be very up front about expectations and show things as they are. One of the things I love hearing is, “This looks just like it did in the pictures! I love it!”

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

This is going to sound a little sappy… After our house fire, we weren’t able to salvage a lot. We got really lucky that there was a plastic tub of photos hidden away in the basement that we had set aside to digitize. They had some water and smoke damage but some of them were still salvageable. My mother and I spent several hours laying them all out flat to try to get them to dry so that we could save them. These are some of my most prized possessions. We found a photo of my grandparents from when they were young and either still dating or recently married, and it sits prominently in my living room so that I can see it daily. The most rewarding aspect for me of being in this field is that we get to give our clients an experience, and then they have photos from it that they will cherish for the rest of their lives. Their descendants will have little windows into these memories that we helped create. It’s like a tiny touch of immortality.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://chapelinthehollow.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chapelinthehollow/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX6_YWyaH6tvknTP633aMbw
• Other: Tiktok https://www.tiktok.com/@chapelinthehollow
  Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/chapelinthehollow/

Image Credits

Star Noir Photography