We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Chelsea Paige a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Chelsea, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Any thoughts about whether to ask friends and family to support your business. What’s okay in your view?

Asking family and friends to support your business should be easy because they are my number one supporters. My family has been there since day one. In today’s world everything is revolved around social media so them just sharing a post every so often helps tremendously. When I first opened my business, I did a lot of sessions for family and friends. That helped spread the word that I was offering photography and opening a business.

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

Hi, my name is Chelsea Paige Gault. I am from a small town in Bridgeport, West Virginia. My love for photography started at Bridgeport Middle School journalism class. Once I started taking pictures, I never put my camera down. Throughout high school, I lived in the journalism classroom. I took pictures for everything I possibly could. I shot sporting events, plays, graduations, community service events and award ceremonies. I even started creating advertisements for business throughout my hometown.  I always knew Bridgeport wouldn’t be my forever home, but I never knew where I would end up. My first time in Charleston, SC, that all changed. Just as most people do, I fell in love with Charleston almost immediately. I was lucky enough to be accepted into The Art Institute of Charleston after graduating high school in 2008. In the summer of 2008, I moved to Charleston to start the biggest journey of my life. I was 17 years old, didn’t know a single person within about 700 miles and was eager to start learning.

After graduated college in 2012, I started my own photography business, Chelsea Paige Photography. In the early years of the business I worked 2 and sometimes 3 other jobs in order to support myself. I worked as a waitress, a 2nd shooter for a well-known photographer, a catering company, a customer service company and just about anything else I could find because I wasn’t able to support myself as a fulltime photographer. In 2015, I decided to start a 2nd business and fully commit to making photography a career. After getting denied by numerous banks for a loan, I finally found the right person at the right time and got approved for a loan. With the business loan, I was able to make my vision of creating a traveling photobooth a reality. I purchased a 1974 Volkswagen bus along with a photo booth camera system and named it The Little White Box. I can remember telling my mom that booking 3 events a month would be a success.

Within 6 months, I was passing up on events because I couldn’t keep up with just one photobooth and I had the loan paid off. Fast forward to 2022 and I have 2 campers and have been a full-time photographer since I took the leap of making photography a fulltime career.

I currently live on Johns Island with my husband Andy. I am a mom of two boys (Haevyn and Karston) and a bonus mom (Carter). I am a huge dog lover and so lucky to have my two fur babies by my side every day in the office. 

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

Word of mouth is my biggest support and where I get most of my bookings – I am lucky to say around 80% of my couples are local. The other sources come from other people who work in the industry that all help each other out. Fellow photographers, venders and planners have all supported me through the years and I try to support them every chance I get.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Building strong connections with the wedding vendors in the area. In today’s world, I feel like it’s more about trusting people and showing up to give 110%. I attend a lot of networking events in the area to try to meet new people and build new connections.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.chelseapaigephoto.com and www.lilwhitebox.com
• Instagram: ChelseaPaigePhoto and Lilwhitebox
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lilwhitebox and https://www.facebook.com/chelspaigephotography/

Image Credits
Catherine Ann Photography Alyona Semenov Photography Craig Harris Photography