About Us
My name is Lindsay and I am the wedding officiant and “creative” behind Live. Love. Elope. I grew up as a dreamer with a heart full of happiness and good intentions. I was given a camera to play with one summer and I fell in love with the images I could create. It was then I knew I wanted to do something more with this new found talent.
I was not entirely satisfied with just being a photographer but I didn’t know what else to do. It wasn’t until I was going through the trials and tribulations that come with planning a wedding that I realized exactly what I wanted to do. I wanted to become a wedding officiant and create wedding elopements or very intimate weddings for couples who are looking for something small but special and close to the heart. This is how Live. Love. Elope. was born.
How We Got Started
I was trying to get into the wedding photography business but marketing is not my strong point and there are new photographers popping up everyday. I needed to create something that stood out and was different. I don't feel nervous speaking in front of a crowd and so that is why I decided to become ordained to perform weddings.
The products and services we offer
Recommendations Received (2)
"She is a wedding officiant & a photographer. If you are looking for either one and identify with..."
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"She is a wedding officiant & a photographer. If you are looking for either one and identify with her profile.. I would recommend her! "
Products & Services
PACKAGE COST: $400
Package Includes:
Sweet and simple wedding ceremony with wedding officiant included.
Wedding site location help.
A fanta...
PACKAGE COST: $700
Package Includes:
Sweet and simple wedding ceremony with wedding officiant included.
Wedding site location help.
A fanta...
PACKAGE COST: $1200
Package Includes:
A wedding officiant that will personally work with you to make your ceremony special and unique to the ...
Gallery
Recommendations Given (5)
"She is an officiant and if someone needs an officiant for their wedding I would recommend using..."
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"She is an officiant and if someone needs an officiant for their wedding I would recommend using her. "
Recent Activity
Something like leather and tobacco with some sandalwood thrown in to give it a hint of sweet. I also really love forest scents.
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Something like leather and tobacco with some sandalwood thrown in to give it a hint of sweet. I also really love forest scents.
The best thing that you can do for your art business is get it on instagram and apply to some accounts that are called feature accounts to be shown. I am in the photography world, but it is similar to selling art in that we have to market our skills as photographers. Feature accounts are accounts...
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The best thing that you can do for your art business is get it on instagram and apply to some accounts that are called feature accounts to be shown. I am in the photography world, but it is similar to selling art in that we have to market our skills as photographers. Feature accounts are accounts with a high following that take a payment to showcase your work on their feed. I found a ceramicist that makes "interesting" cups and vases on a blog that a major company featured her work in. The only problem with instagram I find is that if you do not have an interesting enough backstory then most feature accounts and blog accounts will not want to work with you because they will not get the attention that is needed. I have been trying to get featured but because what I do is not "interesting" I don't get written about or noticed as much. If you sell your work online another way that you can do so is to start your own blog and your own website, if you haven't already. The biggest thing that I have noticed is that it is all about SEO, or search engine optimization. If you have that then people can find you more easily. If you don't know how to do that it is best to start by calling the people at google and talking with them about what to do. The only other thing I can think of is to go into places that sell helmets and ask them if they would be willing to feature your helmet artwork and sell it. This might be the best way to get the most people seeing your work.
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The biggest challenge is creating a brand that stands out against everyone else out there. We live in a time where you need to be completely unique, yet at the same time offer similar stuff to everyone else. Couples are more willing to hire people for their wedding when they provide a good story...
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The biggest challenge is creating a brand that stands out against everyone else out there. We live in a time where you need to be completely unique, yet at the same time offer similar stuff to everyone else. Couples are more willing to hire people for their wedding when they provide a good story into their business and brand. On this his subject I was following a thread for a question that someone had posted about how to dress for photographing a wedding. Most people gave the standard “black on black” but some you could tell were being sarcastic, while others were telling the truth in that they chose to wear super comfy clothes instead of looking professional. This got me thinking because clothing shows the world what type of person you are. As the saying goes, “Dress the part you want to play.” They were wearing the clothes that showed couples and prospective clients what their personality was, and in turn indirectly attracting the clients that they wanted. Inversely the way you dress also attracts a certain dollar amount. If you dress like a grungy hipster I am personally not going to be wanting to pay as much because you look like you don’t care about money. You dress more professional it shows clients that you work hard and are polished. Something as simple as that is pure psychology. There is tons psychological stuff that you can do to attract more clients to your business, but what it really comes down to is what your brand is. Figure that out and then throw it around social media. Younger generations rely solely on what they see online more than what someone says. If you have a good story and consistently great images of what you do the more willing they are to work with you.
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More than likely 90% of my customers find me online, but I run an elopement wedding company, which is actually different than a full scale wedding company. I have been in business for 5 years now and I have had only a handful of people come to me from a personal referral. That being said I do...
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More than likely 90% of my customers find me online, but I run an elopement wedding company, which is actually different than a full scale wedding company. I have been in business for 5 years now and I have had only a handful of people come to me from a personal referral. That being said I do have face to face meetings after I have been emailing back and forth with a couple. I have very simple set ups and I do not allow for couples to have very many things because the locations I use do not allow for any chair set ups or decor to be used. The couples that are looking to really save money, but also try to see if it is, just maybe, if they did it and tried to be super fast and sneaky, that it would be totally possible to have a traditional wedding with chairs and decor and the whole nine yards for under $1,000. So I have to look like the bad guy and say no. Absolutely not. If that is your plan you need to work with someone else because I am not going to get fined and possibly banned from doing what I love just because you have to have that "look". Only three people have thanked me and then never contacted me again. The others have stuck with me and had a great day.
There are two types of customers: the ones that are driven by money and the ones that are driven by experience.
The ones who are driven by money have only one concern and that is to pay as little as possible and get as much as possible in return. These are the customers that will do everything...
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There are two types of customers: the ones that are driven by money and the ones that are driven by experience.
The ones who are driven by money have only one concern and that is to pay as little as possible and get as much as possible in return. These are the customers that will do everything in their power to get the lowest price and have no concerns for your feelings or your business. On top of that, for some customers if you don’t give them what they want they will try to destroy you online by giving you terrible reviews.
The customers that are driven by experience do not care about money, because they have more than enough of it. These people are looking to be pampered and taken care of. Once they feel that they have been taken care of they will hand over that money hand over fist to you and they will tell all of their friends that have money about you as well. This customer is very rare and unless you are already Established in the community they exist in you will have a hard time breaking into their circle.
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If you are selling goods the best thing to do is what everyone else has suggested and get with a few planners and venues as a vendor. The other option is if you sell goods then you can go the Etsy and amazon handmade route. The biggest thing for selling on Etsy is keywords and probably the same...
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If you are selling goods the best thing to do is what everyone else has suggested and get with a few planners and venues as a vendor. The other option is if you sell goods then you can go the Etsy and amazon handmade route. The biggest thing for selling on Etsy is keywords and probably the same for amazon handmade. Pinterest is great too because they have an option to sell direct on the site. Another thing you could do is some at cost, or lending of your goods to photographers that are doing styled shoots. Oh another place to possibly advertise your goods is on green wedding shoes. You can also post pictures (make sure they are commercial photo quality and not taken with your phone) on Instagram and add the max amount of hashtags you can for people to see your wedding wares. I cannot stress enough that you need to have commercial photo quality shots because believe it or not people will pay money for goods that “look good” in a photo over a beautiful piece that is better quality but shot at a bad angle, in a dimly lit room, possibly with a flash. The way to remedy this is to look on Craigslist and find anyone that is willing to do commercial shots for you for free and then give them permission to use those photos and to hashtag the crap out of them too. Double whammy because you post and they post.
Sorry if I sounded harsh-ish but it really truly is all about the quality of the photos you have. It is just a psychological thing that is humans do. Being in the wedding industry is partly having to know the psychology behind what makes people pay money for things. Once you figure that out you will be doing really, really good.
I established my business in 2014 and I remember when I did everyone thought I was crazy. I run an elopement and small wedding company with my basis being low prices but high quality photos and service. My family thought I was going to have a fun side project that would get me maybe a wedding...
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I established my business in 2014 and I remember when I did everyone thought I was crazy. I run an elopement and small wedding company with my basis being low prices but high quality photos and service. My family thought I was going to have a fun side project that would get me maybe a wedding once a month. Even my husband had a hard time really understanding my vision, but he majored in business so he helped me. He did all of the work that was needed behind the scenes that I didn't know about like SEO, keywording, and using Google adwords. He did so much work behind the scenes that didn't really start to show until about last year when I started to get one wedding every week.
My results in the beginning were awful. I second guessed myself every single step of the way until last year when things turned around. This year was amazing for me because between May and June of this year I had 30 weddings! That is an insane number of weddings for a single person to be handling, but it also felt amazing because it finally validated me to my friends and family that I actually had a pretty awesome idea to begin with.
My little hobby turned into something that actually allows me to help support my family while working part time hours. I never thought in a million years that I would be this successful with something, but it is possible if you, 1. Surround yourself with people that can help you and, 2. Be patient. Patience is not my strength and these past years have taught me how to wait and let an idea build into something.
I would say that personally neither happen to be very popular among people to be married. Both hold very special meanings to people and they don't want to share the celebrations of a holiday with their wedding date.
The main reason people would like to be married on those dates is because they...
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I would say that personally neither happen to be very popular among people to be married. Both hold very special meanings to people and they don't want to share the celebrations of a holiday with their wedding date.
The main reason people would like to be married on those dates is because they need a significant date to remember when they were married. I know I would remember the date that I was married much easier if it happened to always fall on the same day every year and coincided with a significant holiday date.
Whatever your reason for asking which is better, the answer would be neither from a marketing stand point, but especially not Christmas. Valentine's would be my first choice to do some sort of wedding marketing if I wanted to attract business. I mean it is a day dedicated to the celebration of love. Christmas has such a significant meaning with so many people that it would be hard to market Christmas as the time of the year to get hitched.
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Being a photographer it is really split down the middle with pricing and image quality. There are lots of people out there who are not great photographers, but they have really low prices and that gets people in the door. Other photographers have really high pricing, but that is because they do a...
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Being a photographer it is really split down the middle with pricing and image quality. There are lots of people out there who are not great photographers, but they have really low prices and that gets people in the door. Other photographers have really high pricing, but that is because they do a lot of post production work on the photos to make them look the best.
Many photographers will also take, lets say, 300 photos in a one hour session. From that one hour session a photographer will select what they think are 10-20 of the best images from all of the photos taken and will spend (many) hours editing those photos and then they send them to you. Typically they will send 20, because that is the industry standard amount of pages that you can have in a photo book from photo printing websites before you get charged to have extra pages. They will also "give" you all of the photos from the session, but very likely they will be covered in a watermark so that you are unable to use them on Social Media or print them. Photographers are very protective of their image.
So, from the other side being a photographer, the first and most important should be image quality followed by pricing and what is included. One thing to note: If you go to a photographer's website and they don't have any pricing listed then they will give you their set pricing and after that you are able to negotiate. Photographers want to work and they are willing to bend their pricing (a little) to book a session. But don't expect to get booked if you try to low ball. There is no chance a good photographer will work with someone who tries to get a session for half price, and they will become defensive and unwilling to be accommodating if you become demanding after your photo session.
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I am a wedding officiant that works with lots of clients who want to have an intimate wedding or an elopement style wedding. From attending other weddings and hearing the complaints from guests the biggest one is always that the ceremony was just way too long. The other is that it was either dull...
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I am a wedding officiant that works with lots of clients who want to have an intimate wedding or an elopement style wedding. From attending other weddings and hearing the complaints from guests the biggest one is always that the ceremony was just way too long. The other is that it was either dull or the officiant took the opportunity to preach and said inappropriate things in front of everyone.
The number one rule: LEAVE YOUR OPINIONS OUT OF THE CEREMONY. PERIOD.
The second biggest thing to remember is that it is best to keep it vague yet specific. Specifically talk about marriage and the meaning of it. When I have to write a personalized ceremony for a couple and they answer their questions honestly, sometimes you might read details that should not be mentioned in front of guests. Remember the couple is standing in front of their family and they might have been open in their questionnaire to you, but that does not mean that it gets repeated out loud. Always make it sound light, happy, and possibly funny. Even if it is a couple getting married for the sole purpose that they are having a baby that is not an open mic for you to sling out your opinion on the matter. Instead take joy in the fact that they are happy with one another enough to know that there is a chance that they can make it together with this child (I have had a few of these since I have started my company that is why I mention it).
You are literally performing. It is like being on stage and you are acting out a scene. That is why is called "performing the ceremony" not "reading the ceremony". Certain words need more oomph, phrases with meaning have big hand gestures, at specific times look at the bride and the groom separately so that your message deeply connects with them.
The other thing is that I do not charge nearly as much as other officiants do, but at the same time I also do not offer what the ones who do charge more offer. Most of the time when I perform my ceremony I am done within 10 minutes, but I am being paid to perform, not read. I am being paid to show up early, to wait, to help, to organize, and then to mail off the license. I make sure to talk to the guests and the family. I check in with the bride and the groom to see how they are feeling. I do not just show up and then stand in a corner until someone tells me it is time to start.
Basically what you want is an officiant that can give you something special. It goes by so fast for the couple so just remember to talk slowly, enunciate, look at the couple, give words and phrases meaning, and above all wear a smile.