We recently connected with Lucy Leora and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Lucy , thanks for joining us today. Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?

While being the owner of the my business has its challenges, I’m so grateful I have the privilege of doing it!

I previously worked for a high-tech corporation for ten years. While the benefits were always great, there was nothing that motivated me to stay.

Since leaving, I have the personal freedom to take care not just of myself but also of my family. I’ve been in wedding photography since 2015, but it wasn’t until 2021 that I went full-time after a diagnosis my son had. While, at the time, it felt earth-shattering, I have since leaned into this opportunity of business ownership. I left my corporate job to stay home with my kids, working on weekends and from home.

At the time, leaving my corporate job felt like a death sentence. The consistency of pay, the health insurance, and overall connection were enough to keep me there until my kids needed me more!

I won’t look back. I have been tried and tested to my limits. But without those challenges, I would not have expanded and grown intellectually or as a person. I can teach myself skills that are important to me, rather than relying on a large corporation.

I feel like I am not longer stuck in the daily rat race of a big city but instead an invigorating marathon of creativity. It’s been empowering.

Lucy , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a wedding photographer born and raised in DFW, Texas, now living in the greater Austin area. I am a wife and mom of two, who are the driving force behind my photography business.

When a friend asked me to document her wedding in 2015, I fell in love with weddings. I love the atmosphere, the excitement, and all of the design details that go into weddings. There’s something compelling about verbally professing a love for someone in front of a group of people. Weddings give us that opportunity not only for the bride and groom but for our dearest family and friends. The display of commitment to a specific type of love and life is already powerful in itself, but then to have that power turned around and given back by your loved ones is something I’ll never get over! It’s amazing!

With my clients, I strive to create a sincere body of work. I specialize in quiet luxury weddings across the U.S. and try to highlight and emphasize the importance and sanctity of marriage. While I do love high-end editorial moments, they need to be grounded in purpose. Quiet luxury is precisely that. Quiet luxury clients, of course, love design and art, but they use it to highlight their story, their interests, and purpose. It’s not luxury for the sake of luxury.

I’m proud of bringing that conversation into the wedding world. Weddings, by nature, are very luxurious. I often find clients getting lost in the details of that luxury and struggling to find their place within it.

My hope and goal is to keep my clients focused and educated throughout the wedding planning process, so that on the day of the wedding, they can actually enjoy it. When my clients have that freedom, it shows in their photos. They can relive that day over and over.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

For many years after college, I worked for a large tech company, where I spent my days hustling. I was incredibly patient with the speed at which I was climbing that proverbial “corporate ladder”. I worked hard and did my best not to complain (because, let’s be real, I was not suited for a desk job).

After the birth of my first son, I took a massive pay cut for a more consistent schedule at that same company. I was grateful that I could do this, but it was a difficult decision to make. It felt like years of work had taken me a step backward. However, I was incredibly eager to spend more time with my son. It wasn’t even a question.

Shortly after that, I had my second. It became clear shortly after his birth that his eyes were different. After weeks of seeking a diagnosis and spending time in and out of the hospital with specialists, we discovered he had albinism and was legally blind. We were introduced to a whole new world and weren’t sure what was in store for us.

I was still working from home at the time, but when they began calling us back into the office, leaving both of them was no longer an option. I left after almost eight years, in a career that had built upon what we had started. It was terrifying.

It was then that I decided to jump back into my wedding photography again. I had missed it so much and knew it was the next best option, allowing me to stay home with my kids.

While having a child with different needs is heartbreaking and challenging, it became the driving force behind what I need to fight for: my faith and my family. Because of his low vision, my son works at a different speed than 99% of the world. My business may have initially started as a way to earn a supplemental income, but it quickly evolved into an opportunity to slow down and reconnect with what is truly important: family, friends, connection, beliefs, values, and love.

Through many failed marketing plans, several rebrands, late-night searches of albinism, lots of tears, and so many Lightroom presets later, I have finally landed in my happy place in business ownership. The resilience I have built through the hardest years of my life has taken this vast open field of opportunities down to a clear path I can follow

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Sincerity and genuine love for my craft go a long way. I’ve told myself that if I can’t run my business in a way that fills me up and supports my family, then I won’t do it.

I take on a limited number of projects each year to ensure my clients receive the attention they deserve. While I do have an underlying style in my work, I do my best to make sure to approach each wedding with its own sense of purpose.

As I’ve committed to this, I often find that is what couples are looking for – honesty. While couples obviously want their photos to look as good as they feel, they also want their gallery to bring value to their memories. Lighting, color, and composition can significantly impact that.

If I have any reputation at all, my hope is that my clients see how much I love what I do, and that at the end of the day, it’s not just about photography. I hope I can help set the stage for them to fully experience life with nothing holding them back.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Www.lucyleora.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lucyleoraphoto