Nancy Ray Photography: Our Final Year in Business

Gosh I can’t believe I’m really typing this.

After 12 months of prayer, seeking God’s voice, and coming to experience abundant peace,

I’ve decided that it’s time to close the doors of Nancy Ray Photography.
2019 will be our last year serving weddings and families as a team.
Cue the tears! 😭

I’m getting all nostalgic typing this out on this blog in particular. I have vivid memories of me and Will living in Boone 11 years ago, trying to set up this little wordpress blog and upload pictures and understand it all. I did 100 days of blogging in a row, I shared EVERYTHING about my life here. I blogged way too many photos, too many words, and I loved every bit of it. This blog was the start of this whole journey.

Anyway, I know this news might be surprising to you – it’s honestly still a bit surprising to me too! It’s HARD to close something that is good and profitable. It’s hard to close the doors of work that I really do love.

So WHY is this happening?

In short : God has gently made it clear that the season for Nancy Ray Photography has come to an end.

It has been a long season of me praying, crying, seeking, and realizing over the course of a year: God wants me to keep working, but He wants me to do a different kind of work.

It’s time for me to allow Nancy Ray Photography to come to an end, so I can step into something new, and allow others to continue in this beautiful work of wedding and family photography.

The Lord is giving me a new assignment as I step into this new season of motherhood (raising 3 tiny wonderful people!) and teaching (via podcast and online education) that I’ve been feeling a nudge towards for a long time.

I plan to share the whole story soon, but there are a few important things to note, especially if you are or have been one of our clients!:

2019 plans for NRP

• We ARE still accepting weddings this year!! In fact, we are ALL IN for this year. We have 7 more slots available between myself and Olivia for weddings in 2019, and we would LOVE to book every one.

• We ARE still accepting families for this year!! Jen is incredible. We just released our Spring Mini Sessions, and if you’ve never had your family photographed by us but would like to, now is the time!

2020 plans for NRP

• I am OVERJOYED to announce that our very own Olivia Suriano has launched her own wedding photography business and is accepting weddings for 1/1/2020 and beyond! You can check out her new site here. While she is launching her new business, we’ve decided that for clarity and consistency, she will exclusively book NRP weddings for 2019, and she will book 2020 weddings under her new brand OSP. What a blessing to be able to recommend someone who has the exact same style, quality, and care that I do. (I did train her after all 😉!)

• For our beloved families, we are more than happy to recommend a few amazing photographers in the area : Anagram Photo and AJ Dunlap will take great care of you!

• Do I (Nancy) plan to do photography at all moving forward? I’ll always be a photographer. I can’t help but see life through the lens of a camera with the best light and composition. It’s a gift I’ll always take with me. I do plan to take more photos of my kids, my home, and more photos for fun. But I’m not planning on taking any paid work moving forward. However, when my friends and family have babies or big life experiences, you better believe I’ll be there with my camera! And I’ll live my life with open hands, knowing that if God wants to bring me back into this work one day, He will. I’m just taking it one step at a time.

Your Photos and Products moving forward

• For all of our wedding and family clients: your photos will be archived on hard drives at the start of 2020. If you wish to purchase an album, canvas, print, or any digital negatives, now is the time to do so! If you need access to your photos again for any reason (lost USB, etc), there will be a fee to access and deliver your photos to you.

• What if you have a question or concern down the road regarding your photos? I’ll still be here! While I won’t be doing photography work, I’ll be happy to answer questions and re-direct you to any businesses that could assist with products you might want : albums, prints, canvases, etc. But again : if you’d like the quality products and custom design you’d get with NRP, plan to make your purchases before 10/31/2019, which will allow us to fill those orders before the end of the year.

•••

You KNOW how much I love photography, love this business, love this team, and love what we’ve built together over the last almost 12 years. And even though I’ve spent a better part of the past few months crying as I’ve come to grips with letting this good work go, I’m becoming more excited for the time and space it will create in the future for my family, and hopefully a platform to teach lessons I’ve learned from 12 years of business.

A friend recently told me that it hurts when you prune a branch that is fruitful and alive, but that’s the only way to let more fruit grow. I’m taking that message to heart. Today I’m full of tears because of this announcement, but I know it’s making a way for new things to grow.

The GOOD news is that the education / teaching side of this business isn’t going anywhere! I’ll be keeping up with my weekly emails and blogging over at nancyray.com, continuing to teach about business and motherhood and faith and a number of other topics. I’m just weeks away from launching my podcast, and I can’t wait to continue to share more of what God has put on my heart.​

Yep, I’m scared.
No, I don’t really know how to be a grown up without Nancy Ray Photography.
But I believe wholeheartedly that God’s voice is worth following.
And I don’t mind sharing my story as I go, even though I don’t have it all figured out yet.

YOU are a huge reason why we’ve had the success that we have. I don’t say that lightly AT ALL. I am so incredibly grateful for you, and for this space the past almost 12 years. We have determined to make this the BEST year of Nancy Ray Photography we’ve ever had, and I simply wanted to let you know what was going on and invite you to celebrate with us as we end this work on a strong note.

So grateful for you. Truly. Thank you for reading, for supporting me through the years, and for cheering me and my wonderful team on.