We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lucy Schultz. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lucy below.
Lucy, 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?
I am an elopement photographer & planner specializing in helping couples craft their dream elopement plan from scratch – while doing so legally in National Parks and new destinations. I’ve been a wedding photographer for over a decade and found myself connecting more and more with couples that wanted to give the middle finger to tradition and those that love the great outdoors like I do. In my free time, I love road trips, hiking, landscape photography and exploring new places, so I quickly made friends with engaged folks who share my love of the outdoors.
I found that many couples don’t want the poofy big wedding with the wedding party attendants, the ballroom, and the crushing weight of other people’s expectations. They want to do something different, but they don’t know what, or where, or how! Throwing out all things “wedding” tends to leave engaged couples with a blank slate, which can be overwhelming. Having been to so many elopements, I talk with couples and begin to paint a picture of what could be. What would you two do if you had your birthdays on the same day? What would your perfect honeymoon take place – what do you see out the window, and what would you do on the day you’re most excited about? That’s where to start with planning an elopement.
I think planning Elopements is a lot more like a trip than an event. I’ve built my life around this – I actually live in an RV full time and have since summer of 2021! This allows me to travel cheaply to all the western National Parks and destinations, so I don’t have to charge my clients travel fees. Living on the road has its challenges, but it gives me the experience of visiting tons of places so I can offer insider insight to my clients who are visiting too. I spend a lot of my time researching photography and special use permits, timed entry requirements, designated ceremony sites, all the different parks’ rules for marriages, and pouring over maps so that I can educate and plan for my couples. I even became ordained so that I can officiate marriages in the wilderness, giving couples who hire me the flexibility to get married wherever they want!
Lucy, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Everyone has crazy stuff happen to them, but often small business owners and creatives, artists and others who are doing something off the beaten path are often hit with things (positive or negative) that are so out there, so unpredictable and unexpected. Can you share a crazy story from your journey?
One of my craziest stories has a happy ending, but seemed like a tragedy until the very last minute! I was contacted by an American couple who wanted to elope in New Zealand – a place I know well and love – and I was ecstatic to help them plan and photograph an elopement that would knock their socks off. The couple shared that this experience was one they were saving just for themselves – they mentioned that they were always giving to others; they had saved up just enough time and money to afford 1 dream vacation and wanted to elope at the same time, surrounded by mountains. They wanted to treat themselves to an unforgettable experience and this was their one chance. Heck yeah, I’m all in for people who want to celebrate and prioritize themselves! We planned the elopement about 5 months in advance, and I traveled to New Zealand about 2 weeks before my couple were set to arrive. But, when I flew from North Island of New Zealand to South Island, most of my camera batteries were confiscated and destroyed by the airline because they have super strict rules on lithium. I felt like a fool and was so anxious that I’d made such a mistake. I was completely panicked, and some friends of mine in another area of the South Island offered to run to a camera store, buy all the batteries, and drive them to me – but right when they were about to leave, they were homebound with a positive covid test. I drove around myself, purchasing seemingly every battery I could on the South Island, and borrowing a specialty flash battery from a kind and giving local photographer. Crisis averted, I got a worst nightmare text from my couple.. I had prepared them with everything – experiences to book, packing list, their own custom leather vow books of New Zealand, maps, guides, visa info, timelines and helped them book a campervan rental to tour the island. A travel visa was required to visit New Zealand, but when applying for theirs, my couple got swindled by a third party website, and charged 3x as much as they should have been. Critically, it also took longer to process their visa through the third party, and when it was time to board their flight, the visa still hadn’t come through and they were denied boarding! They were forced to miss their flight to New Zealand. Now I had been paid in full, and it looked like replacement flights for them would cost more than their whole trip, so how could I fulfill my contract and photograph their elopement if we were on opposite sides of the world?? I was devastated, worried, and potentially out many thousands of dollars in travel cost. Would I have to refund them? Would we go to New Zealand another time? Would I have to leave New Zealand and photograph them in.. DELAWARE?! There was a lot of sweating and crying for both them and me! Then, good news: my determined couple was able to plead with an airline agent, who generously gifted them replacement flights for the same price as they had previously booked. The trip was back on!! They would be arriving late the day before their elopement. Upon their arrival though, they were hit with another setback – their luggage was lost in Australia. They had only the clothes on their backs and, luckily, their vows, rings and wedding dress. The groom didn’t have his wedding pants, they had no toothpaste to their name, and their campervan rental place had already closed by the time they got there – but the generosity of New Zealanders came into play again, as the camper rental staff let them pickup after hours because of their dramatic story. The day of the elopement arrived, and everything was finally perfect: the couple tearfully said their vows in front of a crystal clear turquoise lake surrounded by flowering lupines, they hiked to New Zealand’s tallest peak in a glacial valley surrounded by mist, huge mountains, and icebergs, they ate mince pies and experienced their first swing bridges, they danced in the rain and watched the stars come out as their elopement day came to a close. They were able to pick up their luggage back at the airport the next day, and continue on their campervan tour of the best country on earth! What could have been a business disaster was saved by the kindness of strangers.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
I absolutely love my job – and the best part is being appreciated for it. Hearing back from my clients how much they loved their photos and their experience with me gives me euphoria that can’t be replicated any other way. In a way, I write the story of how the elopement day will be remembered for the couples that hire me. I get to create the images through which memories are kept- and that’s pretty freaking awesome. If I want to zoom out and get a big picture view of their ceremony, they will remember the shape of every cloud in the sky that day because of that photo. If I lay in the meadow and capture the wildflowers in the foreground, every time they look back they will remember the bright blooms that surrounded them. Every candid photo of a parent tearing up or a sibling smirking will be the best photos of their loved ones they’ll get to keep. Creating art specifically for each couple – live, in real time, with no do-overs and no two jobs the same, is a challenge, but one that gets me up in the morning with a grin on my face.
Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?
I think folks can overlook the struggle that creative business people face, when all they see is the end result. The photos you see on my website or instagram are a fraction of what I do. I have to wear many hats that aren’t creative at all: from accounting, equipment maintenance, marketing, financial planning, organization, communication, travel, keeping social media and websites fresh, and so many logistics. It can be lonely to fill all the roles in a play yourself.
Photography is creative but it is also immensely technical. I’m a self proclaimed lighting snob- so I chase good light and sometimes bring my own in the form of flash. Of course, I don’t want it to look like flash, so balancing my lights with the ambient light of the environment is my goal. I am constantly learning more technical aspects of photography and want to push the envelope more with taking night photos under the stars. My dream is to capture the aurora in the night sky – or a couple getting married underwater.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.lucyschultzphotography.com
- Instagram: LucySchultzPhotography
- Facebook: Facebook.com/LucySchultzPhotography
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/lucyschultzphotography
Image Credits
Lucy Schultz Photography