I cannot contain my excitement to share my brand new website and blog with you! It’s been a long time coming and the day is finally here! I wanted to write a little post about the “why” behind this new brand. But first, I decided to share a little look back at my old website. In the past, when I’ve seen other businesses and friends rebrand, I always want to see a side-by-side of the old site and the new one, so here it is:

My old “blogsite” was created using a template and customized by me. While this worked great for a long time, I knew that in order to continue to grow and really find my ideal clients, I needed to update my site and really focus in on the heart behind Lauren Jolly Photography.

The other BIG reason behind the rebrand was that I’ve decided to head in a whole new direction with my little business. I’m so incredibly excited to officially announce that I’ll be focusing on birth and motherhood photography going forward. I’ve been photographing weddings for almost 4 years and it’s truly been an honor to capture such beautiful moments for my clients, but I’ve felt a real calling to move in another direction. Throughout my pregnancy and the birth of my son last May, I discovered a passion for birth and empowering women to believe in their bodies and know their options during labor and delivery. I found myself (and still do) researching everything there is to know about birth – I couldn’t get my hands on enough information. Then, when my birth didn’t go as I’d hoped, my photos were so helpful in my healing process and I will treasure them forever. This naturally transitioned into a desire to give this gift to other women by offering birth photography services.

So. I’m excited to finally reveal the new LJP brand! Ravyn of 315 Design worked so hard to really dig deep with me and figure out the heart behind LJP. My branding words were “Personal, Inviting, Relaxed, Happy, & Emotional.” We exchanged countless email conversations about every little detail and I couldn’t be more thrilled with how it turned out! I want to share some of the bits and pieces with you here:

This beautiful logo was hand-lettered by Lauren of A Fabulous Fete. I wanted to stick with a hand-lettered logo because, to me, it feels personal and inviting (two of my “branding words!”). We came up with the tagline of “portraiture for real life” because my style of photography is documentary and my goal is to capture the beauty of your real life. In a world filled with perfectly styled photography and beautiful Instagram feeds, I want to remind my clients that their “everyday” is perfect just the way it is.

I absolutely LOVE the lotus elements that Ravyn included throughout the site and on my stationery! The lotus flower represents growth and BIRTH – how perfect is that? I love that it adds a “girly” aspect to the branding while also having a meaning. The fact that they are watercolored and imperfect speaks to the “real life” aspect of my brand, as well.

The color scheme was something we decided on pretty quickly. I think the blush and grey are calming and relaxing, and the mustard adds a bit of an unexpected touch – plus it’s my favorite color! You won’t see a ton of the mustard on the actual site (unless I link to something) , but it’s included in my packaging and tangible pieces.

Lastly, I wanted to share our original design board that we worked from. This was created using Pinterest and some of my own images as well as calligraphy from A Fabulous Fete. Even now that the site is completed, I love looking back at this design board – it represents the beginning of this journey and I really love how closely we stuck to it. I may just have to print this out and hang it in my office one of these days.

Thank you for being part of this journey! I hope you enjoy the new site and direction I’m going in – I would love to hear from you about what you think! Feel free to email me at lauren{at}laurenjollyphotography{dot}com to connect!

Happiest Friday to you all!