If you read my previous blog post, you know I had some pretty big thoughts and feelings in there, and honestly this one will likely be the same. I’ll go ahead and let you know, I’m not quitting. Rachael Caddell Photography isn’t going anywhere–God willing. Since I hit publish on that blog post, I’ve had multiple conversations with God, my husband, my parents, good friends, past clients, current clients, honestly a lot of people. I’ve been reminded of my purpose and this gift I have from God. I want to continue to use this gift and this act of service to glorify Him. So I’m going to keep going, there’s no stopping me now.

While we’re on this topic though, I feel it’s only right to be transparent and honest about why I’ve felt the way I have the past few years. It really started back in 2020 when I was planning my own wedding. I had a really horrible experience with a vendor I was looking to potentially hire and things went down from there. Because of that situation, I claimed myself as “a budget bride” and went on to make Tik Toks about ways to save money while wedding planning. In my videos, I highlighted ways to budget each category from photography to florals to coordinators. I would say ex: “Have someone take your photos and you edit them yourselves.” “Have a friend of the family be your day of coordinator if you don’t have the budget to hire someone.” “Use Spotify playlist as your DJ”, “Get florals from Publix or Costco if you don’t have a large floral budget.” The list goes on & on. And boyyyy did I make a lot of people mad in the process. A lot of vendors were upset with me talking about how to save money and they took it as I was saying their services weren’t worth it. (Which they truly are, every service is worth it if you’re willing to pay it.) I’ve also been almost every single vendor before from florals, coordinating, catering, photography, etc. How could I ever say anything about these vendors not being worth their time and money when I myself had been in their shoes before? I felt horrible, misunderstood, and angry. I was mad that anyone would think I would intentionally and/or unintentionally devalue anyone, EVER. This has never been something I have done and never will be.

In the process of all of this happening, some of my industry friends cut ties with me because of the videos and I got hurt even more. I felt like I was being attacked as a bride, like my business wasn’t going to survive this, and losing friends in the process was just the cherry on top. I was a bride just trying to save money and ended up starting a small war. When this happened, I shrunk. I shrunk myself a LOT. I stopped posting online. I started seeing myself as someone who was in the way of others being successful. If I was known as the girl who pissed off specific wedding planners, then other vendors wouldn’t want to be associated with me in fear of hurting their own businesses. And I watched this happen, as I wasn’t invited back to second shoot on a team I had been on for years. I wasn’t invited to certain events anymore, etc. And maybe this was just how life was at the time, but I took it as if I had really screwed up while just trying to help people.

I’ve held onto those feelings for years but I’m tired of holding onto that and holding myself back. People that know me know the type of person I am. And if people got mad and didn’t want to work with me because I was helping brides save money aren’t my people anyways.

And this post isn’t for me to air out dirty laundry and rant about my feelings, but it is a place for me to share why I shrunk myself and dimmed my light for years. I’ve been afraid to post online and put myself out there on my platform again like I used to. I don’t want to say the wrong thing or hurt anyones feelings. I just want to have fun, photograph, and build community. I’ve always been transparent and real ever since I started photography and that isn’t going to stop now. So with all this being said, I feel like I have a clean slate to come back online and share things I used to share. The people in the past who weren’t very nice aren’t allowed to hold me down forever. This is my space and I’m going to use it for good.

Love y’all,

Your photographer, Rachael C.A.