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Life With A&J

Our First Blog Post

We're Amy & Jordan
We're here to help you take amazing photos, build a successful business and live a beautiful life. We're high school sweethearts, parents of three and teachers at heart. 
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Happy Monday, friends!

Well, we’d by lying if we didn’t confess that today’s a little bittersweet for us. Why? Because, tomorrow, we say goodbye to the old and hello to the new. It’s been over four years since Amy hit “publish” for the first time on her first blog on February 10, 2011. She found the template for free online, and its ‘s one it’s still on today! But it wasn’t long before Jordan was just as much in this adventure as she was, so by 2012, we’d renamed our business to “Amy and Jordan,” and designed our first real website with Showit. Looking back, our first website was pretty embarrassing! Like really embarrassing. We had absolutely NO idea what we were doing. But we built it ourselves. It was ours. And we loved it. Fast-forward to the spring of 2013, We were still teaching elementary school when we refreshed our website (ourselves) to the one you’ve seen for past two years (the one that’s still up today, for just one more day!). A close friend from church helped us tweak our free blog template one afternoon over lunch at Paradise Bakery. And ever since then, we’ve been running and gunning, throwing everything and the kitchen sink at our dream. At this life.

It’s been five years — five years — since we bought our first professional camera (Jordan coached youth soccer on nights and weekends to save up enough money to buy it) and we still remember how it shook in our hands as we held it, because we really weren’t sure how to use it, and were especially unsure if this dream of ours would go anywhere. It’s been three years since we made the decision to go full-time and almost two and a half years of actually being full-time. And nothing’s come quickly or easily. But the best things in life don’t, right? But, today, on the eve of one of the biggest moments in our career, a new brand launch that we’ve labored over for months with one of the most talented designers in America, we’d be remiss if we didn’t, before we look forward, take just a moment look back — because, as someone wise once said, you can’t know where you’re going unless you know where you’ve been.

So, today, we want to share something near and dear to our heart: Amy’s first ever blog post. From 2011. We didn’t have Google Analytics or tracking software on our blog at the time, but we’re almost positive that the only people in the world who read it the day it was published were the two of us. And maybe our moms. But this year? We’ll have over a 100,000 unique visitors. And that’s why this first post is the most special to us… and why we hope it’s the most encouraging to you, too. Because everyone starts somewhere. We started blogging to an invisible audience. And now, that audience is real. It’s you! We hope this can be a reminder that success isn’t for the chosen few. It’s for those who choose. It’s for us. And it’s for you. Because if two high school sweethearts turned elementary school teachers with a dream of one day becoming full-time wedding photographers can do it, you can, too. We’re here to tell you that the dream you have that feels too big and scary to work is possible. Because we’re here living ours.

So, today, on the day before the most professional version of us the Internet has ever seen hits screens everywhere tomorrow, let’s walk down memory lane together to a time before anyone in this industry had ever heard our names. Because, friends, if we could sum up the most important blogging and business lesson we’ve learned in the past five years into one neat package, it’d be this: no matter where you go or how high you climb, never stop being who God made you to be, exactly and authentically who you are, on a mission to love and serve everyone around you. because, at the end of the day, when it’s all said and done, you’ll be able to look at the work that you did… and feel proud.

*     *     *

Hello World!
February 10, 2011 • AmyDemos.com

When I was eight years old, I bought a Lisa Frank diary. Girls, you know you remember Lisa Frank. Bright rainbows. Neon dogs, pandas, unicorns and anything else that would make a boy want to throw up. Lisa Frank. I would insert the mini key into the heart shaped lock and open up to a blank page of rainbow colored paper. I didn’t know how to start a diary entry, so I decided to list all my favorite things instead:

Favorite Color: Purple

Dream Job: Artist

Favorite Band: Spice Girls

Dream Boyfriend: AJ from the Backstreet Boys

Favorite Candy: M&Ms

Now I am attempting my first ever blog post, and all off a sudden a list of my favorite things on neon colored paper sounds pretty good. This is what I would write:

Favorites: Carpooling to work with my best friend, who just happens to also be my husband. Ice cream. Deep cleaning the house to Glee music. Winter scarves. Holding my brand new niece. Taking good notes at church. Kettle corn. Laughing like a kid with my friends. Mystery shows. Pei Wei takeout. Game nights. Venturing into this passion I love.

I may be a little older and a little wiser than I was when I had that Lisa Frank diary, but one thing is for certain, I still don’t know what I am doing. I didn’t know how to write a diary entry then, and I don’t know how to write a blog entry now. What I do know is I love taking pictures. I love capturing memories. I don’t think I was too far off when the eight-year-old Amy wrote about how she wanted to be an artist. I’ve just been waiting for the right outlet. And I’ve found it.

Unbeknownst to me, a friend took this shot while I was shooting during a wedding ceremony, and even though I look pretty goofy, I just had to share it. That’s a face of someone who loves what she’s doing. I like to take the camera away from my face for just a second, and soak up the emotion of the moment. And he caught me. Soaking it in.

AmyDemos

And that’s it! Our very first post! Wanna join us LIVE online tomorrow as we celebrate the launch of the new brand? We’d love to have you!! Click here to reserve your spot! And we’ll see you there! Just don’t forget your trumpet.

meet us

Amy & Jordan

We're high school sweethearts who had no formal training in photography, but went from being elementary school teachers to making six figures as full-time photographers. We're teachers at heart (with over 30,000 online course students) and are here to help YOU take amazing photos, build a thriving business and live a beautiful life. As parents to three littles, we're all about making every minute count and love to share what we're learning along the way. We're so glad you're here!
 

Hey friend! we're

meet us

Amy & Jordan

We're high school sweethearts who had no formal training in photography, but went from being elementary school teachers to making six figures as full-time photographers. We're teachers at heart (with over 30,000 online course students) and are here to help YOU take amazing photos, build a thriving business and live a beautiful life. As parents to three littles, we're all about making every minute count and love to share what we're learning along the way. We're so glad you're here!
 

Hey friend! we're

meet us

Amy & Jordan

We're high school sweethearts who had no formal training in photography, but went from being elementary school teachers to making six figures as full-time photographers. We're teachers at heart (with over 30,000 online course students) and are here to help YOU take amazing photos, build a thriving business and live a beautiful life. As parents to three littles, we're all about making every minute count and love to share what we're learning along the way. We're so glad you're here!
 

Hey friend! we're

meet us

Amy & Jordan

We're high school sweethearts who had no formal training in photography, but went from being elementary school teachers to making six figures as full-time photographers. We're teachers at heart (with over 30,000 online course students) and are here to help YOU take amazing photos, build a thriving business and live a beautiful life. As parents to three littles, we're all about making every minute count and love to share what we're learning along the way. We're so glad you're here!
 

Hey friend! we're

meet us

Amy & Jordan

We're high school sweethearts who had no formal training in photography, but went from being elementary school teachers to making six figures as full-time photographers. We're teachers at heart (with over 30,000 online course students) and are here to help YOU take amazing photos, build a thriving business and live a beautiful life. As parents to three littles, we're all about making every minute count and love to share what we're learning along the way. We're so glad you're here!
 

Hey friend! we're

meet us

Amy & Jordan

We're high school sweethearts who had no formal training in photography, but went from being elementary school teachers to making six figures as full-time photographers. We're teachers at heart (with over 30,000 online course students) and are here to help YOU take amazing photos, build a thriving business and live a beautiful life. As parents to three littles, we're all about making every minute count and love to share what we're learning along the way. We're so glad you're here!
 

Hey friend! we're

don't miss it!

In this FREE online class, we'll show you three major photo mistakes (and how to fix them) so you can take beautiful photos with whatever camera you have! No prior experience required!

your teachers, amy & Jordan

FREE ONLINE PHOTO CLASS

learn how to take amazing photos

Instagram

Let's connect on Instagram! Click here to find Amy on Instagram and follow along!

@amy_demos

don't miss it!

In this FREE online class, we'll show you three major photo mistakes (and how to easily fix them) so you can take beautiful photos with whatever camera you have! No prior experience required! 

take amazing photos

FREE ONLINE PHOTO CLASS

3 MaJOR PHOTO MISTAKES

free class!

Don't take another photo without learning the most common photo mistakes most people make (and how to fix them fast!) Get our secrets for amazing pics no matter what camera you have in this online photography training for FREE! No experience required!