Website Refresh – Jessica Green Photography

Hi friends!! Happy Tuesday! I hope everyone is having a great start to their week. ? Are y’all so excited that Fall is right around the corner?! I know I am. It’s my favorite time of year – sweaters, hot apple cider, pumpkin picking, apple orchards, family time… you name it. Fall is my JAM! You know what else is my jam? My new website refresh!

I sure cannot believe that we are 9 months into 2020. This year has been crazy to say the least, but I’m so grateful for all the love and support my clients and friends and family have shown me throughout such a tough year.

GOALS FOR THE SITE REFRESH:

Something I realized as 2020 went on longer and longer is how I’ve been yearning to photograph more portraiture work and make my site more inclusive to my portrait work rather than be solely based on weddings.

This is not to say that I’m throwing in the towel with weddings – there could be nothing further from the truth! Unique love stories and weddings will always have my heart. I also always get butterflies every time one of my couples share their first kiss and their first dance. 🙂

BUT my business has grown! A LOT. There are so many new aspects to my business that weren’t showcased well on my previous site, so when I reached out to my site designer, Brandilynn of West and Free Company, I told her that I wanted a site that represented myself and my company better during this phase of my business.

CHANGES IN MY BUSINESS:

For starters, when we moved to Culpeper in November 2018, I became a mother shortly thereafter. Becoming a mama has changed me in so many ways, but for the better. I’m SO emotional at weddings now, haha! ?

I started working with past brides who had entered the motherhood phase of their lives as well and my passion continued to grow. It’s only natural that when I became a mother, I gained more areas of passion. I am obsessed with baby toes, their little eyelashes, and just watching them grow up. Babies. Don’t. Keep. I adored being able to capture them in their tiniest phases so their mamas and dadas would have these images to remind them just how small they once were.

It breaks my heart thinking that I have a toddler now and he’s no longer a “baby”, but I’m SO grateful for the images I have of him when he was younger. When I look through those images, it brings me right back to those days and that is such a gift. My most important gift. I’m SO grateful my photographer took the time to document the little details for me to remember.

NEW ADDITIONS TO MY BUSINESS:

So with that being said, you’ve all watched my business change and grow over the past 2 years into something that I never imagined! Motherhood portraiture has truly captivated my heart and I love being able to offer these sessions to my clients, whether they are past wedding couples or not. Everyone deserves beautiful images to remember such an important time in their lives when they are stressed out trying to learn how to keep a brand new little human alive, haha!

Something I instituted in my business when we moved to Culpeper was a brand new studio! My husband and I completely revamped an area of our home. This area is now a dedicated space just for my clients. I want them to come to the studio – a hot mess and all – and feel relaxed and trust that they’ll leave having created beautiful artwork to display in their homes…

We added a sitting room as soon as you enter for clients to enjoy complimentary snacks and beverages from our fully-stocked fridge. There is also artwork sitting on the coffee table for them to look through while I photograph the newborn baby/children alone. We also recently added a complimentary wardrobe for mamas and babies up to size 3T! We have a studio bathroom with all of the emergency items you could think of that a family or postpartum mama would need…

CHECK OUT THE WEBSITE REFRESH!

I’ll definitely be writing a blog post to give you a virtual tour of the studio, but until then, come check out the website refresh and all of the exciting things we updated! I am SO excited and hope you are just as excited as I am!! 🙂 You can walk yourself through the new site here, or you can scroll below and see some of my favorite changes we’ve made. 🙂

One of the first (and most important) things that we did with this website refresh was to create a page specifically dedicated to families. I wanted my website to be 50/50 weddings and families, since that is what I’m now doing! Previously, it was much more geared towards weddings and only had little snippets of information for my portraiture clients. I wanted to make sure everyone understood they were equal and no one felt left out.

There’s a little peek at our studio wardrobe for mamas to look through and get excited about! They can scroll through the gallery to get an idea of the dresses that we keep in the studio. We definitely keep adding and changing out outfits throughout the year, so it’s always evolving. This is why we include a complimentary styling consultation for all sessions. At the consultation, clients will come to the studio prior to their session to try on wardrobe pieces! This gives them peace of mind knowing that they’re ready to go. 🙂

I LOVE this section of the families page. It’s an updated section of our portfolio and I just love how much more clean it is now. 🙂 You can click on families to see examples of my family portraiture work. You can also click on babies to see images from my baby plan experiences. Baby plans include maternity, newborn, and milestones (sitter, crawler, walker, 1st birthday) sessions!

I love this review section for my portrait clients. It’s easy to use, clean, and a perfect excuse for more cute pictures of babies! 😉

The blog got a facelift during the website refresh too! There used to just be one standalone “featured post” up at the top. We changed it to have a few different featured posts you can click through! I just love that people now have the option to do more than one. 🙂 We also condensed the amount of blog posts shown on one page so everything looks more uniform.

Our contact form also got a little touch-up too to make it more clean and easy to navigate! It was a HOT mess before, let’s be real. But I love how Brandilynn condensed it down to “portraits” or “weddings”. That way, wedding clients can go their own way, and family portrait/baby plan clients can go the other way.

During the website refresh, the FAQ section got a DEEP re-do. We tried to think of all of our most commonly asked questions so I could make sure everyone knew what they were signing up for before even inquiring! 🙂

I also love the way the new galleries look! I feel like they’re a lot easier to navigate with the arrows on the sides. You can also drag the images to scroll through them. The galleries will even auto-advance if you want it to do the work for you!

Lastly, I just want to thank Brandilynn of West and Free Company of doing such an INCREDIBLE job on making my vision come to life. Her questionnaire process got me thinking about exactly what I wanted my new site to convey. She succeeded and I truly believe this refreshed site is a perfect representation of my business right now! She’s so dedicated and talented at what she does and I would recommend Brandilynn to anyone! 🙂 Also, thank you to Showit for being such an amazing site to host my website through. Thank you to Tonic Site Shop for this template that Brandilynn customized and refreshed!

My website designer is also offering $350 off a template customization throughout the entire month of September with code JGPLAUNCHDAY! Email Brandilynn for more information here!

Oh, and guess what?! If you made it this far, THANK YOU so much for reading through all of that and getting to know the reasonings behind our website refresh. I truly appreciate all of your time if you got this far. 🙂

To thank you, I’m doing a family portrait session giveaway!

HOW TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY:

In order to enter to win a free family portrait session with me or the $350 off template customization, there are a few rules you need to follow! These include:

1. Comment on this blog post the reason why you’d like to win, and don’t forget to include your email address!
2. “Like” my Jessica Green Photography page on Facebook or follow me on Instagram!

BONUS ENTRIES:

• BONUS ENTRIES: For each person you tag in the comments on my giveaway posts on Facebook or Instagram, you receive an additional entry to win!
• “Share” the Website Launch Giveaway photo on Facebook publicly so I can see that you’ve shared the post!!
• You can share the post EVERYDAY for an additional entry, so make sure you do!! 

Winner Announcement:

YOU HAVE UNTIL 12:00PM NOON EST 09/05 TO ENTER. WINNERS WILL BE DRAWN/ANNOUNCED AT NOON EST 09/07!

Thank you so much for entering and supporting me throughout this wonderful journey of mine! I’m so excited for where the business is evolving and I can’t wait for you to come along for the ride! 🙂 I hope you love the website refresh and new brand as much as I do! 🙂

Fine Print:

1. You MUST “like” Jessica Green Photography LLC on Facebook or follow Jessica Green Photography LLC Instagram to be considered for this contest.
2. Session comes with a 1 hour session for up to 5 people within 60 miles roundtrip of Culpeper, VA. Session also includes an online downloading gallery with printing/sharing rights.
3. Session can be used for an outdoor family portrait or maternity session – cannot be redeemed for cash value, it is non-transferable, and it cannot be applied towards print credit, wedding payments, or newborn/milestone sessions.
4. If you win the portrait session, 60 miles roundtrip of travel is included from Culpeper, VA. Travel fees may apply if you request a location outside of that radius.
5. Session must be redeemed/performed within 6 months of winner announcement date! If it is not used by that time, you forfeit your winnings.
6. Session does not include artwork such as prints, albums, canvases, USB’s, or framed prints.