Denver Wedding Photographer | Colorado Wedding Photography

 

Today’s “Fabulous Female” is Kendall Rodriguez, Vice President of The Yes Girls. She has always loved people, building relationships and seeing them gather together and have a wonderful time! She graduated from Texas Christian University with a degree in Communications with an emphasis in Human Relations and a minor in Psychology of Leadership. While at school she always found herself loving to host parties and events with friends! She even created a “fake wedding” that her friends still talk about today!

She grew up watching her Mom plan events as well as weddings. It just seemed like the perfect fit to take her love of people and events and direct it towards planning weddings and creating unbelievable marriage proposal ideas. And she gets to work with her best friends? Enough said!

{I am so excited to be partnering with The Yes Girls as their Denver engagement and proposal photographer. So c’mon men, contact The Yes Girls today to start planning that proposal to the woman of your dreams!}

To stay in the know on who is up and coming in the “Fabulous Females” interview series, be sure to connect with the Laura Gravelle Photography Facebook page.

There is still time to enter the Amazon.com gift card giveaway.  I will be giving the prize away on my birthday, March 8th.

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How did The Yes Girls begin?

Heather, our President, started the company in 2008. Originally conceived as a wedding planning business, The Yes Girls decided to focus on proposal planning after internet searches showed that there was no custom service like that available.

January 2009 marked the website launch and a week later Heather landed her first proposal. Kendall started off part-time, but has been full-time since 2010.

What services do The Yes Girls offer?

We have three different packages.

1. Brainstorm Package-$95 A client completes our relationship questionnaire and within 3 business days we send them 2-3 personalized and custom proposal ideas unique to their relationship.

2. Planning Package- Starts at $900 If a client already has an idea, we can execute and arrange the idea from start to finish.

3. Simply Perfect Proposal Package- Starts at $1000 This package is a combination of the first two. You get two personalized ideas and, in addition, we help plan and execute everything!

Tell us more about the different women on your staff.

We are all best friends from Orange County, California where we attended Mission Viejo High School. Actually, Heather, Lindsay and Becca have known each other since elementary school. Heather and I are the only ones who work full time on proposals, while Becca and Lindsay pitch in when we need extra creativity with the ideas! I live in Orange County and I will be celebrating my one year anniversary with my husband next month. Heather and her husband are stationed in Vacaville (Northern), Ca. Her husband is a pilot in the Air Force. Becca lives in Virginia Beach, VA and she just got married to her Navy Seal husband in November. Lindsay also lives in Northern California, but will be moving back to Orange County after her wedding in July. Heather and I feel so blessed that as best friends we get to work together at something we love.

What cities are you currently offering your services in?

We offer our proposal services all over the United States. We have even done international proposals

How will a guy proposing to his girlfriend know that his proposal plan will be unique to them as a couple?

We are all about personalization! We never use the same proposal idea twice. To guarantee that the proposal will be personal to the girl and couple, all of our clients fill out our relationship questionnaire. The questionnaire gives us an inside look into their lives. We ask about everything from all of her favorite things (ie: flower, food, music, color etc.) to what they did on their first date and dreams they share as a couple. We ask, “When did you first say, I love you?” and “What is your love language?” Our proposals are based around this questionnaire and any other information the guy gives us.

Why should someone hire your company to help them plan a proposal rather than just doing it themselves?

The Yes Girls specialize in PERSONALIZED marriage proposals. Secondly, we provide you with a female’s perspective! No proposal is alike or recycled like the ideas you will find by surfing the internet. Our consultants believe in originality and matching marriage proposal ideas to your relationship. Proposing marriage is a sacred moment, which is why each of our clients receive an individual consultant to discuss, create, plan and customize their marriage proposal. There is no reason for you to use another man’s marriage proposal idea. Furthermore, we will gather quality vendors within your budget, and handle all the day of coordination involved so all you have to remember is to bring her engagement ring!

Do you have a favorite proposal that you have planned?

I have sooo many favorites, but this one popped into my mind first. This proposal was inspired by the Disney movie, “Up.” The movie reminded the bride-to-be of her grandparents’ relationship, so we created their own special “Up” setting in the middle of a grand Las Vegas Pool Deck. Here is the link to the full post with pictures and video. http://www.lovetheyesgirls.com/index.php/2011/11/up-inspired-marriage-proposal-janel-steve/

You are also wedding planners. Are those services available to brides in Colorado?

We primarily plan weddings in Northern and Southern California, but are available to plan proposals anywhere. In October, former proposal clients are flying us to Sante Fe, New Mexico to be their wedding planners. The bride was so impressed with her proposal that she wanted to work with us for the wedding! So we are open to traveling.

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Here is what men are saying about their experience with The Yes Girls (view actual proposal photos HERE) -

“The proposal was awesome and I accomplished my goal of creating a story that she will never forget. The roses were beautiful, the photographer was fantastic and the staff was friendly, excited and nervous. It was such a fun experience. I can’t thank you enough for all your help. I consider myself very lucky to have had such a great secret weapon in my corner.”

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“You pulled it off, the experience and memories have left my friends in awe. I could have never done this without you. The little touches made the day! With my busy schedule, I was able to count on you for all the details. You did a tremendous job and I cant say thanks enough for all your help!”

The Yes Girls donate 5 percent of every Simply Perfect Proposal Package’s profit and 2 percent of their wedding package profits to Rahab Bazaar. Rahab Bazaar is a non-profit organization based out of Bangkok, Thailand that financially supports, educates, and provides safe housing to women and children escaping the sex trafficking industry.

Connect with The Yes Girls:

{The Yes Girls Website}

{The Yes Girls on Facebook}

{The Yes Girls on Twitter}

 

 

Jamie Delaine is a very successful wedding photographer based in Langley, British Columbia. I have followed Jamie’s work and blog for several years now. Jamie is only 21, but she began this journey when she was 16.  Talk about an inspirational lady!  Jamie’s photography blog recently changed to the name – Desire of My Heart. I highly recommend following her frequent postings about life, photography, faith, and so much more!

 

Jamie has been featured in: Destination Weddings & Honeymoons magazine, Professional Photographers of America magazine, Green Wedding Shoes, Style Me Pretty, Elizabeth Anne Designs… & many more. She was recently honored on Weddingbells list of top 25 most inspiring photographers of 2012. Way to go Jamie!

To stay in the know about who is up and coming in “Fabulous Females” series, be sure to connect with the Laura Gravelle Photography Facebook page.

There is still time to enter the Amazon.com gift card giveaway.  Come on over and enter the contest HERE.

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1. You are a very successful business owner for your age. How old were you when you first started your photography business and how did that come about?

Thank you so much! I was seventeen when I first officially started shooting weddings.

{This excerpt was taken from Jamie’s blog post called “Getting Started.”

In 2006, I started using my dad’s DSLR camera, a Canon Rebel XT. I had never used a camera before [that I really remember?] and we took it on a family vacation to the east coast and I had some fun. I used it in automatic mode the entire time and came home thinking, I wonder if I can find out what all these buttons do? I went to Google and I read everything I could find about camera basics. I read my manual cover to cover. I bought a book I found on Amazon about wedding photography. I practiced taking pictures of lamps and chairs and stuffed animals and my dog. In the winter of 2006, I found a photography forum called the Open Source Photo forum — I was googling for wedding photographers [I liked looking at their portfolios!] and OSP popped up. I signed up and started reading.

It was amazing. Page after page of this forum was filled with full-time photographers making a living shooting weddings and/or portraits. There were threads about marketing, engagement sessions, wedding timelines, initial consultations, album predesign, album companies, camera gear and lenses, off-camera lighting, websites, blogs, literally every single part of the business side of photography. I read every forum. Kid you not. After a few months I was convinced I could do this. At the same time, I practiced on a few friends — my youth leader had a cute little toddler and I took some photos of him one afternoon. I took one of my best friends out on her farm to photograph. I bought a Bludomain website for $200, put up a bio and a few galleries and I was open for business. I booked my first paid portrait session in June 2007, the same month I launched my website.

At the same time I launched my website I started a blog. I knew from reading OSP that it was important to make yourself different, to show why a client would need to hire you to take their family portraits for $300 over another photographer for $100. Similarly, I started a facebook page — started linking to my blog and website, uploading every shoot, tagging photos, inviting my friends, inviting my brother’s friends, inviting my mom’s friends. Come one, come all. News spread fast. I started emailing other photographers in my area, asking them if they needed assistants, asking them if I could take them out for coffee or out for lunch. I was still involved heavily in OSP forum and I started making online friends all over North America. These photographers gave me some great advice and inspired me through their work and many are still my close friends today! I ended up second shooting two weddings in August 2007 and that started my wedding portfolio.

I put those two weddings up on my website and added a section to my website that said “wedding prices” and listed them for $1000. I got an email, a bride wanted to book me. I shared up front that I had not shot a wedding by myself, but had second shot two of them and was “very confident I could do a wonderful job.” She booked me and it was an incredible experience: love love love dean + tamara to this day. That was in May 2008 and that summer, the year I graduated high school, I photographed 10 more weddings — making it a total of 11 my first year. Every 3-4 weddings i would book, i’d raise my prices a couple hundred dollars. At the end of 2008, I think I doubled them: my goal was never to be a $1500 photographer — I knew where I was headed and I knew what quality work was worth.

But it didn’t come easy. Every vendor I worked with, was about to work with and wanted to work with got a personal email. They all received images after the wedding on a disc with a handwritten note and a folder with my business cards. I would look up their facebook pages and post, I would comment on their blogs and post, I would email them after the weddings with a link to the blog post where I linked to their site.

Behind the scenes, when I wasn’t shooting or editing, I was marketing. I was thinking about how to make my website better, how to increase the consistency and quality of my blog posts, I was improving packaging and scheming up client gift systems. I was making a list of vendors I’d love to meet with, I was emailing offering vendors complimentary sessions for whatever they needed. I read every business book I could get my hands on, including going through david jay’s [founder of OSP forum and showit sites] list of recommended reading — about 50 books total. I soon realized O couldn’t be the kind of marketer I wanted to be if I was doing my own editing and album design: so I outsourced both of them and suddenly had 12-15 more hours in my week to work on the things that mattered.

In the 2009 season, I managed to book 15 weddings by repeating all of the above paragraphs. I added in steps like creating sample albums for wedding venues, organizing styled shoots to create portfolios for dress designers, florists, etc., submitting to online blogs and magazines for increased exposure. In 2010, I booked 28 weddings and in 2011, I scaled it down to 21 weddings. There have been no secrets and no new strategies, there has been hard work and a lot of learning and above all, God’s incredible blessing on my business. I love a quote I heard once… that we are to pray like it depends on God but work like it depends on us. I have certainly done that. I am such a firm believer in God being the one who gives us the ability to create wealth [deut 8] and to this day, every wedding I book is a gift. This may seem crazy to a non-Christian, but literally every exciting email I receive, my heart thanks the Lord. Always.

jamie delaine || photographer from Hello Tomorrow on Vimeo.

The flexible schedule. I’m pretty stinkin’ independent and find it hard to imagine a life where someone tells me where to be at what time.

3. What advice would you give to other photographers who are just starting out in their business venture?

These are such fun questions … but this is so difficult! I am absolutely in love with Montreal. I spent three weeks in Quebec this fall and cannot get enough. Another favourite city of mine is Edinburgh — I would love to go back someday. Montreal and Edinburgh. There you go.