First off, we're really just glad you're here. If you're reading this it probably already means that you're our people. We are a blended family of 4 with two kids and we love travel & photography. Micah and I are always down for an adventure and we kind of like story telling if you couldn't already tell. So, if you want us to help tell your story or you just want to read other's stories... Congrats! you're in the right place!
Preface: This post is going to be a nice little blend of personal and business talk, and one that I am proud to share with you.
The Rising Tide Society is home to a creative movement sweeping across the nation and world by storm. Their goal is to promote #communityovercompetition within the creative world in order to break the barrier on the stigma that so often comes with being associated as a creative business entrepreneur. You know what I am talking about, right? The idea that in business you cannot befriend a competitor or that if you lift up another business you are in turn committing small business suicide. Well, The Rising Tide Society- or RTS- believes that by lifting up others you in turn lift up yourself. Their motto comes from the legendary quote by JFK- “A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats”- Hence, The Rising Tide Society.
Well now that you have a little back story on RTS, let me tell you that being an active participant in the movement has been a monumental life change for me. It has allowed me to cultivate friendships across the world with people I would have never met. One way that it allows it’s members to connect and have community in the creative world is by creating local groups across the nation for the national members to meet other creative entrepreneurs in their own community. This local group is called Tuesday’s Together. For every Tuesday’s Together group, there is a Tuesday’s Together Leader. This is someone who not only leads a local meet-up once a month, but also someone who gets to stand beside countless other leaders to be the back-bone of RTS. We come alongside our Founders, Natalie and Huey Hayes and Krista and Davey Jones, and support them and help provide them with ideas and changes that we would love to see. We have an annual RTS Leaders Retreat (the last one was in Charleston and it was AWESOME!) and we cultivate community one leader at a time.
If you haven’t already put it together, I have the honor of being the Baldwin County Tuesday’s Together leader. We began our small but mighty group in January and just completed our eighth meet-up! Our Baldwin County group consists of members coming from all over Mobile, Gulf Shores, Baldwin County, and even a couple from Biloxi, Mississippi! On average we host about 6-12 members at our monthly meeting and we have over 100 members in our facebook group. Our members are made up traditional painters, jewelry designers, watercolor artists, event planners, photographers, non-traditional artists, bridal store owners, marketing companies, make-up and hair artists, bakers, rental companies, florists, and we even have a nationally renowned Tu-Tu artist!
The RTS Founders issued a challenge to all of its TT leaders to host a group wide local styled shoot. That meant pulling together members of all creative realms and working together to produce a shoot that was worthy of publishing. That meant a lot of planning, communication and work. To be honset, our group was still so small when the challenge was issues that we didn’t initially claim this as our official “RTS STYLED SHOOT”. However, when the day came and I looked around at the participants at this shoot, it was entirely made up of RTS members from our local area!
These images are just from what my camera captured. We had 5 photographers on scene, two stylists, a cake baker, our models- Jillian and Adam Holt- who are the ultimate entrepreneurs, an on-location oil painter, and the crew from 251Now providing videography and reporting on RTS and our styled shoot!
I absolutely love our group, I love this shoot, and I loved getting to work beside some of the most talented individuals in our industry. Thank you RTS for allowing us to cultivate community and be on the look-out for another Baldwin County TT Styled Shoot soon!
Vendors Involved:
Rentals + Styling- Hemstitch Vintage Rentals
Models(H+MU)- Jillian Jensen Holt + Adam Holt
Florals- Abigail Wellinghurst
Videography- Ben Redman of 251Now
Cake- Heather Pelham of Emerald Coast Custom Cakes
Oil Painter- Cat Pope
Photographers-
Jessica Smith- Southern Edge Photos
Kimberly Lovvorn- Nostalgia Studio
Baylee Jackson- Baylee Rae Photography
Rachel Graham- Rachel Graham Photography
Abigail Wellinghurst- A.Wellinghurst Photography
Venue- Blakeley State Park
Watercolor Announcement- Sarah Hicks
daphne, Alabama | wedding & portrait
Photography | experienced world wide