CREATE
RIGHT STUFF
MagNolia Pair
Two young wedding photographers combine their talent and esthetic to create a new brand,
a new web site and an accompanying mailer. by Jacqueline Tobin
© magnolia pair, llc
The key To launching a new pho To business is roo Ted
in knowing how to promote your work. when photographers
katherine holly everett and britney smith decided a year ago
to combine their talents and open one wedding photography
studio, they knew the path to their success started with a solid
business plan and a series of steps, the first one being to come
up with a name.
“we each already had our separate businesses—mine in
nashville and britney’s in louisiana—when we discussed joining forces but then always put it on hold because we couldn’t
think of a name,” says everett. “Then came a brainstorming session as we were driving back from the wppi trade show in Vegas
this past February and it just hit us—Magnolia pair.” Magnolia
is the state flower of louisiana, from where everett and smith,
both 25, hail. “plus,” adds smith, “pretty flowers and weddings
just go together.”
after doing some online research to make sure no one else
owned the domain name, they registered it as their own and
went about creating a new web site independent from the
ones they already had. next they hired a web designer to incorporate the elements they knew they wanted on their new
site. The resulting site is clean-looking and simple, incorporating Magnolia pair’s branding colors of yellow, gray and white,
and also utilizes a burlap background. everett says the burlap
was smith’s idea; it lends the site a “natural” feel and, she adds,
burlap is a big trend used in weddings right now, especially in
the south, as part of “tablescapes” at receptions. The site also
has also a blog page that opens from the home page to keep
viewers engaged. “we didn’t want visitors to leave the site and
link to an external page,” says everett. “They might not come
back to the main site.”
© jamie clayton photography
The day magnoliapair.com was launched, everett and smith
also made sure the individual sites promoting their other
Above: The promotion the photographers mailed exclusively to wedding
planners was made up of several elements, including an image booklet tied
with yellow ribbon (top left) and a personalized notecard (top right).
Left: Katherine Holly Everett (left) and Britney Smith are Magnolia Pair.
