Mrs. Paulson
“Marry your best friend. I do not say that lightly. Really, truly find the strongest, happiest friendship in the person you fall in love with. Someone who speaks highly of you. Someone you can laugh with. The kind of laughs that make your belly ache, and your nose snort. The embarrassing, earnest, healing kind of laughs. Wit is important. Life is too short not to love someone who lets you be a fool with them. Make sure they are somebody who lets you cry, too. Despair will come. Find someone that you want to be there with you through those times. Most importantly, marry the one that makes passion, love, and madness combine and course through you. A love that will never dilute - even when the waters get deep, and dark.”
BEFORE I even get anywhere near into this post, I have to put this out there that the photos below are by Jordan Voth. He is awesome and I am so BEYOND happy with how he captured my wedding.
Okay I'm back! As a married woman! It's been an amazing, incredible, beautiful month of events and time is just starting to slow down and return to normal speed again. I got married on July 11th and it was hands down the BEST. DAY. OF. MY. LIFE. It will never be topped and a little tear sometimes develops inside of me knowing that the day is over. Luckily I have these amazing photos and some priceless memories to forever hold on to. Below are a few photos from the day but please hop on over to Jordan Voth's page to see more from our wedding!
David and I honeymooned in Cancun, Mexico and were gone for 10 days. We ate everything in sight. We drank ALL of the frozen alcoholic beverages. We slept in. We spent endless hours laying around in the sun. It was amazing. Am I making you kind of hate me right now? I kind of hate me right now too. The best part of a honeymoon is the fact that you are given this excuse to step away from the rest of the world and literally give undivided attention to your relationship without any stress from the normal grind of life. After we woke up from a 24 hour coma that first day, I started to feel revived and my brain felt clear! Towards the end of the trip I started feeling more creative and inspired to get back to work.
This led me to what you are seeing now- I've moved my brand. It was a hard decision. I loved my big umbrella brand of Eleven and West where I housed all of my creativity under one name and one website. It was easy for me. But I started to see some problems with it as well. First off, photography is such a personal service. When you work with a photographer you are not just working with their camera and technical skill but also them as a human being. Their personality really is what makes their brand. Because of this, I noticed that when photos I took got mentioned on social media by previous clients, they usually mentioned my name- not my brand. And I don't blame them at all, I think I do the same to my photographer (Luckily his name is his brand so it works out) It just makes sense that way. So I've moved to my new name, Gina Paulson, which I'm still totally getting used to. I've only written it maybe ten thousand times on paper. Totally normal. Secondly, I want this to be a space that is focused solely on my photography. For those who were in love with my calligraphy and hand lettering, no worries, Eleven and West will live on and still house all of my calligraphy, lettering and other creative work but moving forward I'm going to use this space for my Photography work.
Thank you for continuing to support me as I move forward with this and I look forward to diving back into work with this new name! Cheers!
