We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sunday Eason. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sunday below.
Sunday, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Alright, let’s jump into one of the most exciting parts of starting a new venture – how did you get your first client who was not a friend or family?
After I had graduated college as a dance and creative media major, I moved back to Woodstock, Georgia to be closer to the city in hopes of pursuing a career in shooting music videos. A friend of mine had actually reached out to me needing help with a filming a wedding in June of 2021. The wedding industry seemed like such a daunting industry because of how much pressure it seemed to be and the fact that I had actually never been to a wedding that I could remember! I accepted the job just to try it out and I imediately fell in love and made the decision right there that this was something I had to pursue despite what I thought was going to be my path in music videos. The 10 hour wedding day left me full of so many emotions. Being able to witness first hand all the love and joy from the couple and their friends and family and being able to be the one who was a part of captuing it was a feeling that truly fulfilled my soul. From there, I continued to second shoot for as many wedding videographers as I could and I did a ton of free work at styled shoots in order to build a portfolio. It took about 6 months to finally book my very own wedding as a lead shooter for March of 2022 and I only charged $850. A photographer I worked with at a styled shoot was the one who referred me over to this couple! This photographer actually also ended up being the one who photographed my own wedding in 2024! I still look back at this first wedding film with such fond memories and it often grounds me back to why I love filming weddings when the busy seasons come.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I have always been passionate about telling stories and I couldn’t think of a better way to unite my passions and career than to capture weddings as well as life’s most precious moments. I fall in love with the little things in life, the intimate moments, and the way love touches each of us. I have been able to do this full time since spring of 2023 and it still never settles in that I get to do this full time. I couldn’t imagine doing anything else!
The couples that come to me for a wedding film tend to be romantics and dreamers like me. I work closely with each of my couples because I want their films to feel like the way they love each other. My approach is candid and familar, allowing them to be themselves on their wedding day and let their love speak for itself.
My work is driven in story and made with an eye for beauty. Beautiful shots coupled with natural emotional moments and the small details that really aren’t that small at all create a work of art that I hope retells their wedding day story like how a movie feels.
With my background in dance, I have a natural eye for aesthetics. This, coupled with my passion for cinema creates work that feels familar to my clients, but also shows them how beautiful and cinematic their lives look through my lens.
Not only do I pride myself on the quality and authenticity of my work, but I also take pride in my relationships that I foster with my couples. Although we only connect in person for one day and part ways, the experience I share with each of my couples is a heart of service and shared excitement. And in many cases our relationship doesn’t stop after the wedding! I always enjoy keeping up with all my couples and seeing their lives continue and grow together. As a christian, I truly believe God has blessed me with a gift of capturing stories and I approach each story with heart and gratitude for the opportunity to bring glory to God in my work and my servant heart. Many of my couples also share my faith and in getting married, I am able to capture a story of God bringing two people together. Not many people have the opportunity to bring their faith into their work so boldy so I am thankful for that.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
I believe that as creatives, we can tend to want to put out our art first and foremost. We drive ourselves to make the best possible work and hope and pray that it’s good enough to get noticed. We know we’re artists, but can sometimes forget we are also providing a service. It was tricky for me to begin to start charging for my art and knowing exactly what to charge and how to sell myself to an audience. I didn’t have any background or experience in business or marketing and there were a lot of things I had to learn. I began to learn how to put a value on not only my work, but on the experience I provide and learn how to put a number on it because at some point, this is how we need to make a living.
By the end of my second year of filming weddings I started to slowly feel myself burn out on the business side. I was obssessed with growing my business monetarily and taking every job I could as well as raising my prices as the demand went. The value in my art and service went down even though my prices were going up because I was trying to take on so much. I later learned there is value in limiting your bookings so that you can truly give your client the time they deserve. By the beginning of 2024 I was full on burnt out. I felt so isolated as the sole owner and employee of my comapny and I knew something had to change in my mental perspective. I was no longer feeling fulfilled because I was obssessing over the numbers of the business instead of focusing on finding fulfillment in what I do. I joined Mastermind by How to Film Weddings in February of 2024. It’s a year long course specifically for wedding videographers. I got to connect with many like minded individuals and it truly refreshed me. I was able to ground myself back to why I decided to film weddings in the first place. We talked about our big WHY and what our mission statement was and reminding ourselves of what fulfills us in this job. It was an reminder I really needed. The remainder of 2024 my mindset had totally changed and my focus was on how I can provide my couples with not only the best film I could give them, but the best experience and service I could give them. I could feel the difference and I believe my couples could too!
Being a creative is so highly personal when you share your work and hear the feedback, but I have learned that when we take a step back and learn to not make it about ourselves and instead shine the light on the people we get to serve, people notice. And although there is still grunt work you need to do to market and get your name out there, the right people will find you.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
My presence on social media has been more of a slow growing one, but I believe quality over quantity gives more of a lasting postivie effect. It’s really not all about the numbers. About half of my inquiries come from Instagram and about another 40% comes from other vendor referals. Many of these referals come because I was able to connect to them through social media first. Instagram has been such a great, free tool in marketing my business. I’ve learned that consistency is key on instagram, even if that means consistently once a week. I also people tend to forget about the importance of interaction on social media. I am very disciplined in sitting down a few times a week and making sure to go through my feed and liking other vendor’s posts and commenting thoughtful responses. Even using DMs to respond to stories or checking in with other vendors is a really important step in networking. I think it’s also important to note that in the wedding industry, everyone makes an effort to connect and network, but it’s the people you truly try to make friends with first and foremost rather than connect with for ulterior motive/referals for work that really stick. I would really encourage anyone to approach social media with just trying to be yourself. I am not someone who posts much or talks to my camera on my personal social media account, but I’ve found people connect more with vendors that do show their face and are willing to put themselves out there!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://sundayphotoandfilms.com
- Instagram: @sunday.photoandfilms – https://www.instagram.com/sunday.photoandfilms/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@sundayfilms-est2020
