We recently connected with Megan Hadley and have shared our conversation below.
Megan, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today So, let’s start with trends – what are some of the largest or more impactful trends you are seeing in the industry?
I’ve been working in the wedding industry for about eight years and have seen a major shift in couples choosing a smaller, more intimate celebration. The wedding industry as a whole has become a costly and profitable industry that has couples scraping the bottom of the barrel just to have a decent-sized wedding. Because of this, we see couples having microweddings with 40 of their closest people, or we see couples having elopements where they travel to a stunning location with a photographer and privately say their vows. Especially in Colorado where’s there no shortage of beautiful views, adventure elopements have become a huge part of the industry.
The pandemic was a huge reason for this shift, as wedding venues were not spared from shutting down during the height of 2020. This forced couples to change their plans and have much smaller and safer celebrations. These were some of my favorite weddings I’ve shot because there wasn’t any added pressure to be a huge wedding; everyone was just happy to be there celebrating the couple. Since the pandemic, I’ve seen people continue this trend and I think it will only grow. This, paired with inflation and the current state of the economy, I believe people will continue to choose a smaller, less expensive, and more accessible wedding. I’ve had clients tell me that they’re choosing to elope because they’d rather their money go towards something more sustainable like a house or their savings.
Having worked large weddings, microweddings and now elopements, I firmly believe that a smaller celebration gives room for more intimate moments, more joy and for the couple and the guests to be more present throughout the day.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I’m a Colorado-based Portrait, Elopement and Wedding Photographer that specializes in authentic lifestyle photography. I grew up with cameras all around me as my parents owned a Commercial Production business in Kansas City for over thirty years. I learned how to handle a camera early on and I have so many memories of my sister and I having “photoshoots” in our backyard as kids. The entrepreneurial spirit was passed on to me and my siblings tenfold and has led us all to owning our own photography/videography businesses or freelancing in the industry.
I got my start in the wedding industry in 2017 in Kansas City when I was making recruitment videos for my sorority, and was asked if I would shoot video for a friends wedding. I asked my sister, who had just moved back to Kansas City from LA, to help me shoot that day and it snowballed from there. We had so much fun the day-of and received overwhelmingly positive feedback, so we made the decision to create our own business after that, and after a few whirlwind years of hustling, growing our name, and finding sucess, within a few years we were nominated for Best Videographer in Kansas City in 2020. I moved to Colorado in 2021 and stepped back from the business I started with my sister and shifted to photography in Colorado. I was working a full-time job when I first moved to Colorado but have since stepped back into pursuing photography full-time.
Megan Hadley Photography was born from my previous experience in the wedding industry and my love for the outdoors. In a location like Colorado, there are endless opportunites to merge these two things and create a memorable experience for my clients. I believe that the client experience is just as important, if not more, than the high-quality images they recieve. The wedding and elopement industry is a people-first industry, and I keep that at the forefront of my business. If you’re comfortable and have fun, that’s reflected in your photos. My ultimate goal is always for my clients to look back at their photos and say “these feel like us.”
As a business owner, you wear all the hats! You’re the CEO, accountant, marketing manager, admin, social media guru, wedding planner, advocate for the couple and so much more. You’re client facing for half of the job and doing the back-end work for the other half. Not to mention all the education that comes with shooting, editing and staying up-to-date with the industry trends. You have to have the people skills to communicate effectively, provide a comfortable environment for people to trust you during shoots, and have the hard-working grit that is necessary for owning a business. That’s why most people in this indsutry love their jobs – because they’ve worked really hard to create it!
There’s something to be said for working towards every penny your own business makes at the end of the day. I’ve worked in different, more “corporate” settings before and did not have the same motivation and desire to succeed as I do when I work for myself. When you’re your own boss, there’s a mindset shift from “I’ll try to make this work” to “I have to make this work”. I find so much value in providing for my life by doing something that I love and creating a sustainable business that continues to grow.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
I learned early on in this industry that boundaries are crucial and burnout is real. When you’re the business owner, it’s difficult to turn your job “off” at the end of the day. Especially when you’re working in your creative passion, it’s easy to blur the lines between what is necessary for the job and what brings you joy. This ultimately turns your passion into a job. As a creative, it’s pivotal to keep the magic alive and to create “just because”. When you start your business you’re looking for any leads or clients to take a chance on you and it’s easy to fall into the trap of saying yes to everything that comes across your lap. And I believe that there’s a time and place for saying “yes” to everything when starting a business, but you have to know when to stop because you will overload your plate and you’ll find yourself overwhelmed, exhausted and unable to fall into your creative groove.
I learned this when I first got into the industry, so much so that I had to take a step back from the business with my sister. I moved to Colorado after that and didn’t think I’d return to the industry in the same way. After a few full-time jobs where I didn’t find the same fulfilment, I decided to give running my own business another go and take all the things I had previously learned and do things differently. My goal is to create a successful and sustainable business while keeping work-life balance at the forefront. This looks like increasing my prices so I take less projects on throughout the year, saying no to clients when I don’t think we’d be a good fit together, creating a strong brand from the get-go so clients know what they’re getting, and giving myself time to create “just because” through styled shoots, shoots with friends, personal projects etc.
What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?
Growing your clientele can be challenging at first when you’re starting from ground zero. Social media is the biggest marketing tool for photographers and I leaned into Instagram when I started Megan Hadley Photography. I reached out to my personal community first by following everyone I knew to get my name circulating, started interacting with other vendors in the industry through social media, styled shoots and weddings, and started using hashtags and SEO that were aligned with my brand. Social media and SEO can take you really far when you have an effective strategy. That’s why as a business that’s just starting out, it’s important to have a good sense of your brand and what you want your business to look like. For example, if you want to shoot adventure elopements, you want your portfolio, website and social medias to reflect that. You have to market yourselves for the jobs that you want.
Half of my inquiries come from Instagram and the other comes from word of mouth. This is why it’s equally important to create positive experiences for your clients because you never know who they might know that’s looking for a photographer. Creating an honest and positive reputation for your business can take you far and since wedding photography is in the business of people, you have to prioritize the people you’re working with and ensure they leave with only positive things to say.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.meganhadleyphotos.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meganhadleyphotography/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61568282324218
