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

Raven, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. One of the most important things small businesses can do, in our view, is to serve underserved communities that are ignored by giant corporations who often are just creating mass-market, one-size-fits-all solutions. Talk to us about how you serve an underserved community.

There are a lot of issues in the wedding industry that pockets of folks like me have been working to change over the years. There are entire groups of people still being ignored or underserved in the wider industry, people who aren’t seeing themselves represented or even spoken to by companies and wedding vendors. A huge part of my mission as both an artist and a service-based vendor is to create safe and comfortable spaces for people to see and be themselves. I want everyone to see my work and imagine themselves in these happy or emotional moments, to see their love reflected back to them, to see how beautiful they and their love are.

Raven, 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 got my first wedding photography gig off of Craigslist. It was a second marriage for two 70-year-olds. They only had five guests. It was a Thursday afternoon. There was no white dress. No cake. No pomp. No circumstance. Next-to-no budget (I think I got paid around $100). It was the best wedding I’ve ever been to. And the one that changed my mind about weddings altogether.

Before that day, I swore to myself I would never become a wedding photographer. All those cheesy shove-cake-on-your-face moments and family portraits filled with fake smiles? Hell no, not for me. But that wedding…It showed me that a wedding can be whatever you want it to be. That it doesn’t matter how old you are, what size you wear, what abilities you have, which God you worship (or don’t)…weddings are a celebration of two people finding each other in this wild world. And that celebration should represent your love in whatever way you want it to.

“Tradition” and “normal” and “should”? Eff ’em. I wanna help you do this thing your way. And I’m honored that you’d trust me with your love story.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Especially at the very beginning of my photography and business journey, I thought there were certain rules. Ways you had to do things. Ways weddings had to look, ways photography had to look, ways you had to interact with your couples. I spent a really long time unlearning this lesson, that I got to decide how I made my art, how I interacted with my couples, and that they got to decide exactly how their wedding looked.

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

I’ve remained a genuine, honest, and open person throughout my entire experience. I always strive to be myself in front of everyone: fellow vendors, couples, past clients, everyone. And it’s because of this dedication, I believe that I’ve developed a reputation out of those goals. Allowing myself to be myself means creating a space for my couples to be themselves, as well!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://ravenshutleystudios.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ravenshutleystudios/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RavenShutleyStudios
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ravenshutley