We were lucky to catch up with Ernie and Fiona Padaon recently and have shared our conversation below.

Ernie and Fiona , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Talk to us about building your team? What was it like? What were some of the key challenges and what was your process like?

When we started our business it was just Ernie and Fiona. We did photography and videography together, but we knew we wanted to once day scale and give others the opportunity to build their own creative branch under the Everyday Forever Brand while still maintaining our artistic style.

When Fiona had her first child, she knew she couldn’t shoot weddings forever and so she began to look for photographers to train to take her place. That first started with an intern who came alongside us and worked to learn the craft for nine months before she officially came onto our team and is one of our top shooters to this day.

Ernie did the same with videography and began to look for team members who could shoot and edit as well.

We looked for individuals who carried our culture and who understood our vision: to create a space for the artist to not only capture gorgeous photos and videos, but who could also creative a thriving business for themselves.

This is what we have built to this day, with over 40 team members in five cities.

Ernie and Fiona , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

We are about to celebrate 14 years of marriage this June and our team has been capturing weddings for the last 8 years. We love it and have an amazing team of photographers and videographers that create magical moments!

It wasn’t always easy and it was in the difficult times that we had to stay committed to our vision and willing to move with the obstacles that came. Much of what we’ve learned is that things will ALWAYS work out and we are the type of people who will step in and step up when needed.

The thing that sets us apart from other creators is our turn around time due and the day-of experience we provide. We aren’t there to just show up and shoot – we’re there to lend a hand in any way for our couples, if a hand is needed, because we understand all the stresses and all the joys the big day can bring!

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

We built our social media following off of a few viral content pieces that we created and we were early on the platforms. We started on Instagram pretty early and TikTok really early as well. We learned to be really consistent with posting and make sure that we create content for our clients.

Let’s talk M&A – we’d love to hear your about your experience with buying businesses

We purchased a photo/video business in 2020 in the Monterey area and purchased a photo/video business in the DC area in 2022. We wanted to expand our business into other areas and so we just started to look for opportunities in those areas. Both have been amazing. The Monterey business has been flourishing in the area and the DC business is starting to build momentum.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://ernieandfiona.com/
• Instagram: @everydayforeverweddings

Image Credits
Everyday Forever Weddings