We had the good fortune of connecting with Katie Blackwell and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Katie, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking.
I’m all for a risk! Taking risks got us where we are now in our business and I think you’d be limiting yourself to not be open to them. Just one example, I took a huge risk quitting my full time job to further pursue wedding photography in August of 2020. Looking back on it now seems absolutely crazy being that that was still the height of the pandemic and weddings were being postponed left and right. We were by no means established wedding photographers in the area yet, it hadn’t even been a full year since our first wedding so this was a big leap for sure. I was ready to fully focus on growing my business and I couldn’t be happier that I took that risk even though it was scary! Being a little uncomfortable forced me to be that much more driven to make this work.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I’m the most proud of how individualistic our experience with each of our couples is! We get the opportunity to work with the most fun, unique couples that are having highly personal weddings and it truly never gets old. Every wedding is SO different from the next, we never get bored and we’re able to go into each wedding day with a fresh set of eyes. Our couples hire us for our laidback approach, and primarily documentary style photos. Most of them don’t take a lot of photos day to day, aren’t comfortable in front of the camera, and are unapologetically doing their own thing. It’s so rewarding being able to uniquely, authentically capture that for them in a fun way, without the usual wedding industry expectations.

The wedding industry is so crazy and I think there’s a lot of expectations for weddings these days with social media that are unrealistic for most people, or just flat out not important. We try our best to help our couples quiet the noise of social media, societal pressures, & traditions when planning their wedding to create the most meaningful and intentional day possible. Planning our own wedding really changed the way we saw weddings and helped shape and refocus our priorities around shooting weddings that we’ve carried with us for years now. Several of my own favorite wedding photos I would’ve never been able to plan for or pin to a Pinterest board, like the photo of my 90 year old grandfather sipping margaritas and mingling on the porch during cocktail hour. Or us last minute asking my best friend since middle school to sign as our witness on our marriage license. The best moments are the ones that are real, not orchestrated for the perfect Instagram post or portfolio piece.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Thrifting for sure! Grabbing a coffee and stopping in a few of the many thrift & antique shops Nashville has, we love browsing those on an off day! A good chunk of our wardrobe is secondhand, I’m particularly always on the lookout for vintage denim!! We live pretty close to the lake and always make sure to take people to the restaurants out this way and the parks to enjoy the lake! A few of our favorites in that area are Tailgate, Lyncoya, & Cafe Rakka. The Rudder is always a good spot to take guests to since it’s right on the water!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My previous boss, Sarah Pasco! She was my first (and only) boss in my previous career as an esthetician. She unknowingly kind of kickstarted our career in weddings when she asked us to photograph her own wedding in October 2019. We’d never shot a wedding before and Morgan had just started coming along with me to couples shoots that summer, she definitely put a lot of trust in us! By the time that wedding rolled around, we’d already booked a couple more. We realized we loved the energy at weddings and we were hooked. It really never slowed down from there, we had bookings that somehow tied back to that one wedding for years to come! She was always so supportive even though she knew the busier I got, the less I’d be able to work for her own business and I’m so thankful she took the chance on us!

Website: https://bykatieandmorgan.com/

Instagram: @bykatieandmorgan

Facebook: By Katie & Morgan

Other: TikTok & Pinterest – @bykatieandmorgan

Image Credits
All photos taken by us

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutTennessee is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.