A New Name.

Ohhhhhh man y'all. To say my heart isn't beating a million miles a minute right now is a complete understatement. The butterflies in my stomach are fluttering SO freaking fast.

It's time to announce the new photography name y'all...

Are you readyyyyyy?

AHHHHHH! OKAY...so before I do. I wanted to tell you about WHY I am changing the name of my business. DO NOT SCROLL DOWN YET OKAY!?!?!?!? I MEAN IT. DON'T DO IT! YOU MUST LISTEN TO MY TYPICAL LONG-WINDED EXPLANATION OR ELSE!!!!! ;)

You didn't scroll down yet, did you? Okay, good. ;)

It wasn't an easy decision, and I'd be lying if I didn't say that I was kind of sad to see my old one go. Having a business...and owning your own business is a big deal in so many ways. It's your baby. It's your pride and joy. Letting go of it and CHANGING something that is that important to you...is well...a big deal. Atleast to me it is. Especially when you have been under that name for a couple of years and people already KNOW your business name. Why change it?

Change is good.

Especially when you like your new name, better. ;)

As you might already know, Drew has been my second shooter for the last two years. I never planned on making him shoot with me, it just kind of happened because he's been my number one cheerleader and motivator. And well, as our business has grown (SO THANKFUL FOR THIS), he's grown into the craft as well. He has assisted me on every single session of mine (besides the ones on weekdays) and he assists me at every.single. wedding. He has practiced-practiced-practiced and made me so proud. He's read a million tutorials. He's pretty dang good, y'all. We are a team, and we have discussed the possibility of being a legit husband and wife team one day. Our current clients know he's my second shooter, but they don't know this until AFTER we meet up and they are always totally on board with it.

The hardest part for me was thinking if I was forcing him to do this with me. Did he really enjoy photographing with me? Was it as fun for him as it was for me? Was he good enough? Have I taught him enough? This isn't his dream...it's mine...am I being selfish? These were all the questions I asked myself, and HIM a million and one times. I ONLY wanted him to WANT to be a part of this if he wanted to and I think I asked, "ARE YOU SURE!? 100% SURE BABE!? We can keep this my baby...either way, I am happy."

Y'all...when it came down to it...we both knew that we love being together. We love working together. AND we actually work really, really WELL together. Individually, we have our own strengths, obviously. However, when we are together...we are just, better. We are a team in life...and we want to be a team in business. He will still continue to work his 8-5 job, because well, we have bills and he will still continue to do what he loves. If he ever got sick, I will still have wonderful, talented friends and back-ups to help assist me, no doubt. However, Drew is my right hand guy. I will still be the front store of my business, NO doubt. He does all of the behind the scenes things like, invoices, taxes, and is kind of like my own little mini-manager. He's my number one support system and he pushes me, aggravates me, and does all those things that I have a love/hate relationship with, but I also know I need this push in order to be a better business. We still are a work in progress, but we constantly strive to be better and I know one day I will get those kinks worked out. I just know I have a partner, a compadre, a helper, and a constant support system right there to walk with me as I try to achieve those dreams.

We are just so much better together. We are more inspired than ever to showcase what we are good at...and that's loving each other, working together as a team, every single day together through this life. We are good at marriage. People are good at SO many things...and at the end of the day, we can both agree that our best quality is each other. It's okay to admit that if we're never good at anything in this life...atleast we know that we can both say, We ROCK at LOVING EACH OTHER.

And that was it. Our deciding factor. "Let's really make this a team effort from the inside out," we said.

It was time for us to decide...Do we keep it like it is? Keep it as Shalyn Nelson Photography and have Drew just be the number 1 second shooter? It wasn't a bad option as it's been working for us this far, right?

Then we played around with the idea of changing our name to actually reflect the both of us.

Letting go of that idea of someone seeing a picture I took and them knowing it was mine. "Oh, Shalyn Nelson took that..." or "That's Shalyn Nelson's work." Having MY name associated with my work was a cool thought...and I'm not quite there yet, and I am okay with that. However...I do know that when people think of me...they think of Drew. They think of my relationship...my marriage... and we both quickly realized that the most prized possession we have in life is in fact, each other.

We are good at being us. Our marriage, our teamwork...that's our strong point.

Also, I've always been someone who likes to stray away from the norm. It's just in my blood. I like to walk to the beat of my own drum. The names in photography world are hard to remember unless you've been around for awhile, or if you've been published (a dream of OURS one day) and well, thinking about not having a "First name, Last name Photography" name was kind of intriguing. Scary to let go, OF COURSE, but in my heart, and in Drew's heart...we know this the step we both want to take.

We hope and pray you are excited for this change guys. We feel like this name reflects us and is just perfect. It doesn't have the word "Photography" in it either. I realize that it might be confusing for some to not have that word in the name, but like I said, we wanted to be different. We just pray that when people hear this name in the future, that they will automatically know, "Oh, yes! That's that super awesome husband + wife team that rock!" HA, wishful thinking. :)

One more thing...

We played around with so many names. I wrote down names ALL day, every day. I wrote them all over my chalkboard wall...I texted names to close friends and family. We toyed around with Golden Heart Photography, Two Gold Hearts, Heart of Gold Photography, Shay and Drew Photography, Shay Hearts Drew, ... SO many names were thrown around...and then one day I was listening to music in my office. I was having a productive day. I was doodling on my notepad and wrote the following:

"Love."

"Shalyn...Drew...The Nelsons"

Drew texted me and said, "Babe, don't forget to write that card to my Aunt today okay!?"

"Sure thing babe!"

I'm one of those people that procrastinate a lot (EVIL trait, y'all) but I am learning to know my habits better, and thought to myself, "Shay, do it now or Drew will remind you again and you need to show him you can do something immediately!"

Haha.

I got out my card and I wrote the letter to her.

When I signed the card...I wrote out what I signed my cards with all the time, but in that second, my eyes LIT up. I smiled so big, and I texted Drew and said..."BABE! I GOT IT!!!!!! OMG OMG OMG THIS IS OUR NAME! I JUST KNOW IT! OMG OMG OMG! I KNOW OUR NAME! NO MORE THINKING! THIS IS IT!!!!!"

I sent it to him. He said, "Wow...I really love it."

I texted the same close friends and family and every. single. response was "HECK YES!" "LOVE IT!" "THAT'S PERFECT!" "YUP. NAILED IT!"

And then our name was decided. We've been holding on to it since January. We got it legalized...and now we are here to announce it.

Ready?

Set.

GO.























Muhahahahaw.

Love, The Nelsons

We are kind of digging it. :)

Dare we ask...What do you think!?!?!?!?

We hope you love it. We also hope this wasn't a let down! Either way, WE LOVE IT! It's us. :)

This is JUST the beginning y'all. I have a feeling it will be worth it...as scary as it is for us. We appreciate ALL of the support and love we've received so far. It truly has meant the world to us...and when we say that...we mean that.

I will still continue to label my photos with "SHALYN NELSON" until we get our new logo and website. The next couple of months are going to be awesome...

Cheers yall! Have an AMAZING Easter weekend with your loved ones. I'm actually in Lufkin right now with Drew's family. His Mom is waiting on me to help with lunch, but I just wanted to get this off of my chest and SCREAM IT TO THE WORLD!!!!

WHOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! Dance party? Anyone? Anyone?

Have a beautiful, blessed weekend y'all!

Wait for it...wait for it...

Love,

The Nelsons

BOOM! :)