No one will mourn the loss of Simply Knot Photography (and our cute little dots logo) more than I will, but as they say, all good things must come to an end.  Truth be told, changing our business name has been a discussion on the table for a really long time.  We’ve almost made the leap several times, but there was always some reason not to.  I’m sure the burning question in all of your minds is “why?”

Let’s put it this way, our reasons were 3 fold . . .

ONE:

Simply Knot Photography is kinda hard to communicate. We learned a few months into our biz that the name was one of those “good on paper” kinda ideas.  Since day one, we’ve struggled with having to literally spell it out for people. Sample dialog:

Person on Phone: What’s your company name?

Us:  Simply Knot Photography

Person on the Phone: Not Photography? So … do you guys take photos?

Us: Yes.  We take photos. Its knot like “tie the knot.” K-N-O-T

Person on the phone: Oh! I get it. Like weddings? That’s kind of clever.

Us: (sigh)

We can tell you from experience, if your idea for a company name is clever, but you have to explain it save yourself the time and run the other way as fast as you can. This dialog is much less delightful after the hundredth time. LOL!

TWO:

We ARE our business. When our couples and favorite vendors talk about us, they say, “You have to check out Ryan & Denise! Oh yeah, and their website is Simply Knot Photography.”  (Enter sample dialog from reason one.)  LOL!  When we launched our ShowIt website back in April 2011, one of our main goals was to make our branding more about US.  When we started out, we kinda thought that people were booking us because we were good photographers.  What we didn’t see at the time was that when you’re a bride looking for a photographer, everybody’s website starts to look the same to you, even if some photos are better than others. What stands out about us is who WE are. When people connect with us as people and as a couple, they are much more likely to remember us and think about what it would be like to have US as a part of their wedding day.  Over the last year, we’ve accomplished what we set out to do with our brand.  Making the leap to Ryan & Denise Photography brings this transition full circle.

THREE:

Last month, we went to an awesome photography conference in Vegas and had the opportunity to hear an AMAZING business coach named Jeff Jochum talk about the state of the photography industry.  Jeff said that putting your own name on your business instills confidence in potential clients.  If you’re willing to put your name on it, you’re saying to the world that you’re all in.  If you don’t deliver on what your brand is all about, you’re not only sacrificing your business, your literally giving yourself a bad name.  That statement rang really true to both of us and helped solidify the idea that was already in our minds.

So there you have it. We’re biding a fond farewell to Simply Knot Photography and welcoming in the new era of Ryan & Denise Photography with open arms!  That of course means that there will be a lot of changes going on around here for a while . . . new logo, new website url (ryananddenise.com), new emails and all kinds of fun things.  The next couple months will be a time of transition for us, but we’re so excited to finally just do it!