We were lucky to catch up with Sydney Marie recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Sydney thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Do you manage your own social media?

As a wedding photographer, a lot of our inquiries generate from social media (mainly Instagram & Tiktok). After 7-8 years of shooting, I would say about 90% of our inquires come from social media.

I feel that social media always has been such a great way for potential couples to get to know me and my team, & ultimately understand what we provide as a business. It has helped us share our favorite pieces of work – wether it’s through photo sharing or video content, catching the eye of millions of couples looking for wedding inspiration.

For years, I did everything myself – following the trends, making sure I was interacting with followers, posting every single day, educating myself on new marketing techniques. I loved understanding the way users think & interacting with other through social media & branding. In January of 2022, I finally hired an intern to take over for me & post + shoot video content for my company. In just a few months, we gained over 50 thousands new followers and reached about 10-30 million new accounts per month. I had never seen growth like this before. From the backend, we’ve seen a major growth in inquiries, website views and overall bookings.

Even though I understood marketing & have a marketing strategy for me and my team, I didn’t have the time or energy to properly execute my plans. For any business owners reading this, I would highly suggest hiring someone who has the time, creativity & knowledge to create content that may not come easily to you.

Sydney, 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?

My name is Sydney Marie and I am a luxury, somewhat destination, wedding photographer.

I have always been an entrepreneur at heart. Once I finished high-school, I had an interest in photography and would casually shoot friends and family. It wasn’t until I learned about the photography industry, wedding specifically, that I truly started taking it seriously. I worked as a nanny to earn the money I needed to buy professional gear & all the equipment to run my own business, all while taking classes at a local community college.

After 2 years of pushing myself creativity, mentally & physically, I finally quit college (with only two classes to go) to pursue wedding photography full time at the age of 20 years old. Many said, “You had two more classes! Why not just finish?” But just 6 years later, I am running a six figure business traveling around the world to shoot the most beautiful weddings with clients who have become great friends.

Was this my dream job? Was this the plan after high-school? Absolutely not. But it’s become a dream in itself. It’s given me freedom to be myself, pursue other avenues of the industry, while enjoying every minute of my job.

At the moment, my team and I shoot 30-35 weddings per year. Our style of photography is a mix of editorial & documentary – bringing the beauty out of the every day moment. In 2020, I also wrote a wedding planning book with my friend Athena Koppe called FOUNDRY: the wedding guide. After getting so many wedding planning questions over the years, I wanted to create a resource for the modern-day couple that represented today’s values & aesthetics.

The best thing about this career is that I get to invest in my business in many ways. I never wanted to be “just a wedding photographer.” I wanted to create new things, be a part of exciting projects & ultimately exercise all of my skills and passions. We have a few things still up our sleeve that are still in the works and will hopefully get to share these amazing projects with the world soon!

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’ve found that most non-creative people have a hard time understanding the creative path to success over the college route. When I graduated high school, most friends were off to college. I, on the other hand, felt stuck in college and the routine it created in my life. I felt that I needed more variety, risk, excitement and challenges than just filling out homework questions. I would express this to not so creative friends at the time and I felt that I was very misunderstood. It was hard to connect with people my age (ages 18-21) who enjoyed the college experience, enjoyed studying textbooks and couldn’t see any other path in life.

Looking back, I now know that the feeling of being misunderstood absolutely helped launch the career I have today. I took a major risk – quitting college with only 2 classes left to pursue a creative career that most people didn’t know was accessible or profitable. Heck, I didn’t even know if it could be profitable. I followed what I knew was right for me and my journey in life, even though it was the complete opposite of what most people were doing & what most people were telling me to do.

This was truly possible because of my supportive parents & family. My parents never pressured me to get a college degree. Instead, they encouraged growth, creativity & passion in my hobbies and dreams. This was a game changer for me. This support created a confidence in myself that I didn’t see in other people my age at the time. And that confidence helped me take the risks I needed to pursue a career & build a business with skills that were completely self taught.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of wedding photography, specifically, is that we get to basically stop time, capturing a feeling or a moment between humans.

We’ve created art from genuine emotions that our couples have felt on their wedding day. We’ve photographed grandparents and other family members dressed in their best – photos that our clients will truly cherish for their entire life. We’ve photographed when our couple sees each other for the first time – butterflies and all, their first kiss as a married couple, their first dance and everything in between.

We create a tangible product to help our clients relive the best of their life and share with many generations.

Knowing all of this is truly the most rewarding feeling.

Contact Info:

• Website: sydneymarie.co
• Instagram: sydneymarie.co
• Other: Tiktok: sydneymarie.co

Image Credits
All photos shot by Sydney Marie Co :)