I am thrilled to announce that a new member has joined the GIVE team! Courtney has jumped in as an associate photographer, which means that the full GIVE experience of bright and sun-kissed editing and kind-hearted service will now be available at multiple price points! Read along to get a little peek into our quirky friendship, how we met, and to see our brand new George Coffee shop headshots!

JOSIE: I met Courtney in possibly the most overworked season of my life. It was a blind friend date at a little hippie cafe and I made the rash decision to squeeze her in during the three days between a trip to Africa and a family reunion out of state. I was still catching my breath and about to dive in deep to the madness that would take place in the month before the annual 5k I would put on to rescue children from sex trafficking. Shortly following the 5k I would have approximately two months to scramble together The Merrrilly Market, a give back Christmas fair that would reveal my brand new business that wasn’t even finished yet. To top it all off, I had a wedding to photograph the next day. There was so much good going on in my life, but not nearly enough of me to go around. I was tired and depleted, seriously lacking self-care, and joyless despite doing all of the things that I loved. 

Courtney was a breath of fresh air! Though we were just supposed to be just friends, it didn’t take me long to see her artistic potential as well as her kind and caring heart. Not to mention, we became instant friend-soulmates (in a non-creepy way of course) and there was just something about our instant friendship that told me we were a dream team in the making.

I slowly started inviting her into my business and before long I offered to make her a full-blown part of GIVE as my new associate photographer and marketing assistant.

Courtney is changing my life and my business. Together we are working to grow GIVE to impact more weddings and as a result, inspire more couples and families to do their part to help change the world. GIVE has always been about so much more than wedding photography, and now that we’re a team, I feel so much more capable of achieving the mission behind it all. I’m grateful to be able to share the burden of the behind the scenes efforts and plan for better self-care which in turn helps us to be the best versions of ourselves in order to offer more to YOU! 

Not to mention, Courtney is an incredibly gifted photographer, the Ann Perkins to my Leslie Knope, and an overall stellar human and I can’t wait to share her with you!

COURTNEY: The stars aligned and my prayers were answered when I met Josie! My husband, daughter, puppy and I had just moved to Texas from Utah a couple months before we met, and needless to say, I was feeling a little lonely in this new state. Josie and I had a mutual friend that reached out to me to tell me that I should meet Josie, and she must have seriously been divinely inspired because Josie and I had SO much in common. And we knew that we both had a lot to learn from one another. We were like each other’s missing puzzle piece in a lot of ways!

A couple of months after we met, I came to Josie with a new camera that I had purchased and asked for her help figuring a few things out. I could almost literally see the gears turning in her head when she realized that I knew how to take pretty good photos; and a couple weeks later, we joined forces as I became a second shooter for a wedding that she was doing! Josie has so generously poured into me and trained me to shoot and edit just as she does. Several shoots, new equipment, and tons of education have refined me these last several months, and now here I am, so EXCITED to be a part of the GIVE team!

Just a little about me: I am a plant hoarding, herbal remedy loving, introverted extrovert soul. I am very artsy and absolutely love reading. Me and my husband have a precious little toddler girl, Rosie, and we are in the waiting stage of the newborn adoption process. Jesus is my jam, and I love that Josie and I keep Him in the center of our friendship and business.
I can’t wait to take some gorgeous pictures of sweet families and brides and I’m so honored to be a part of Give Photography.