Here’s a small secret about myself. Taking photographs isn’t my favorite part of this job. Do I love it, yes. Is it my favorite, no.
My favorite part of this job is the design element. I’m a sucker for amazing magazines, gorgeously detailed rooms, and phenomenal websites. The design process of my job includes, designing my website, creating promotional material, laying out wedding albums, and seeing blog posts come to life with beautifully paired images that tell a wedding day love story.
Recently, I was invited to join a team of inspirational creatives at West Elm for the Art of Wedding Planning event. An amazing group of wedding industry peers and I gathered at one of my favorite locations to enjoy an evening of cocktails, fashion, and wedding planning. I got to see some of my best friends, too. So, it was a beautiful night.
But rewind several weeks before the event, and I was stuck. I wanted something new to hand out to potential couples. It needed to be compact, but still show off my body of work. And affordable. Instantly, Chatbooks came to mind. Chatbooks boasts “beautiful photo books, easy, automatic…” and they are soooo spot on. Chatbooks takes your Instagram feed and turns each sixty entries into a compact, gorgeously bound, simplistic book. I have been using Chatbooks to chronicle the lives of my little boys for a while now. It makes the guilt of digital photo hoarding disappear. We all hoard photos on our phones… if we don’t print them… that is where they will stay. And likely never be seen again. Printing your images creates little time capsules for the generations that follow you. I’m pretty sure my great grandchildren won’t be looking at my Facebook feed from 2015. But I’ll bet my ass that they’ll find these gorgeous books and treasure them dearly. At least they better, or I’ll climb right outta my grave and smack them… forget just turning over in it.
So, then it clicked! I have both a personal Instagram newsfeed, and a business newsfeed. So why don’t I turn my business Instagram feed into Chatbooks too?! Put a bow on it, and call it a day. Beautiful photo books. Easy. Automatic.
The most amazing thing about Chatbooks is that each time you Instagram another sixty photos they automatically ship you a new volume for your book. I am currently on my eleventh volume of my personal Chatbooks, and my kids look at them all the time. But only after I clean the Cheetos off their fingers and then I hover over them like a vulture ready to swoop in the moment one of them gets to rough with the pages… ha ha ha!
If I saw you out at West Elm last Thursday night then I am so happy you got to receive one of these books!! They are most coveted business collateral!!
