A lot has changed the last six months for this business, including a big move. Here is a Business Update for destinations with dana.
Destinations with Dana
Hey, everyone! Dana here. Your favorite joyful and assertive destination wedding photographer. I am so excited you are here. For those who know me, I appreciate your support. For those of you are reading my blog for the first time, welcome.
Blogging has become a way for me to tell stories from wedding days. I love talking about my couples, the experience I had, and what their wedding day was like. This is so I can tell the story to those who were not there. It makes me happy to share beautiful and inspiring wedding photography for any couple planning a wedding as well.
This blog also allows me to be personal with you and share my journey as a destination wedding photography business and I am thrilled to talk about some updates with you!
Business Update
My first business update is that recently, I decided to expand my business and open up the opportunity to photograph weddings in Australia. Recently, I have been inspired by some wedding venues that have shared weddings they hosted. It reminded me of my time I spent there exploring parts of Eastern Australia and how much fun I had. The citizens were welcoming, the food was good, and I loved hiking through the caves and fields learning about history and seeing wildlife that I have never seen before. I felt safe there, happy, and in awh of just the feeling and the experience.
This process takes time to get everything in order for me to take on any weddings, but it is almost done! I have already created the landing page, worked on SEO, and started to find new vendor friends there to build a strong connection. Offering my services to other parts of the world excites me. Not only do I now serve couples in Europe, but soon, in Australia as well. Who knows where this will lead!
Military Life
The next business update makes me nervous yet excited to share and talk more about. Nearly everyone I meet through this business and the couples I serve know that my husband is in the US Navy. Together, we have lived in South Carolina, New York, Connecticut, Hawaii, Virginia, and California. Hawaii is where my business took off and has moved with me ever since.
We never thought we would get the incredible opportunity to move overseas but we did, and now…we are living in Japan for around 2 to 2 1/2 years! Trust me, when we saw the new orders, we were SPEECHLESS. Time as flown by and three weeks ago, we officially settled into our new home in Japan. This was after taking a break and exploring different parts of the country.
Business Update
Moving to Japan is not changing anything at all. My wonderful business is still based out of California, where I get to serve incredible couples wanting to get married in the Monterey and Carmel Area. You can head to that website here. I will still gladly take on any weddings there during the peak season of October and November. In fact, I will be there twice in July and again all of October/November of this year serving some amazing couples this summer/fall and I cannot wait! For them to know I moved here and are still hiring me shows that they trust me to be there and that is an honor!
As for destinations, I know some of you will have questions.
- This will not affect pricing. In fact, this is in your favor. The cost of living here is covered by the military. Which means that I do not need to increase any of my prices to cover the cost of living. The investment will be about the same as if I was coming from California. Flight prices are not much different and neither are the flight times it takes to get to Europe.
- I am open any time to photograph your weddings in Europe. Just because I am in Japan, does not mean I will take on less weddings. It’s my joy to serve you and be an amazing photographer for your destination wedding.
On to new adventures
Living in a new country is so challenging. Moving my business across states was easy looking back at it now but this, it’s much harder. There are days where I am scared I will not like it here. There are days where I feel that my business will face extra challenges and won’t come back from it. But this will make me a better traveler and a better destination photographer who is learning new things about what it’s like to move a business internationally. Plus, looking at the positive side, who gets to say they lived in beautiful Japan for 24 months? Cherry blossoms, so much good found, hiking, oh my!
There are even some styled shoots in the making that I am planning right now at parts of Japan and I am stoked to be creative while I am here.
I hope I continue to get your support and know that in the upcoming months, I will be blogging about our life in Japan as out of state residents, life in the military here, the places we have seen, the food we ate, etc. On top of still sharing with you the weddings I have booked in the upcoming months.
Thank you everyone for reading and here is to new adventures!
