2021. Oh my goodness, what a year. First of all, I have not done a post like this since December 2019 (eeek!). I skipped 2020, which seems appropriate as that year did not even seem to happen. As I have said in the past, I love reading posts reflecting on the past year. If you are just interested in some cute photos, recapping all of our shoots this year, feel free to skip the monologue ahead! If you are like me and care to read about my year professionally and personally, buckle up! It is going to be a long ride! Haha, just kidding…not TOO long… 😉

2021 was an amazing year for Elizabeth Alice Photography, and I have my wonderful clients to thank for that! We did 64 photo sessions…whew! I feel like some of my best professional growth happened this year. In the spring, I finally decided to start using Honeybook to make the booking process much easier on me and my clients! Feel free to weigh in if you are a client of mine, but I feel like this has been a game changer for me! Photographer friends, if you are not using this yet, I highly recommend. I also was able to really sit down and think about some business goals for future Libby and achieve some of them this year! I feel like my mini-sessions improved and were much more streamlined this year (which was a huge issue for me in the past), I have my editing routine down to a science, and I was able to book quite a few seniors and newborns this year which makes me so happy! I love doing those types of shoots!

Top 5 professional moments of 2021 (in no special order, just the order I thought of them):

5. Doing a headshot session with Danielle James Photo! She was sweet enough to offer free headshots as a giveaway for launching her rebrand, and I had an amazing experience with her! She even let my hubby jump into a few shots.

4. Shooting senior sessions for 5 kids that I taught from 3rd-5th grade. This was so special for me! Also, why am I so old…

3. Nephew’s newborn session! I love welcoming my little nieces and nephews (haha…ONE nephew) into the world and doing their newborn sessions. It is so special to me to be able to capture this time when they are brand new. I look back at my older nieces sessions and cry because I love them so much! My nephew is ADORABLE.

2. The amazing fall colors we got at our sessions this year! I could not believe the vibrant colors of the leaves this fall.

1. Not to be cliche…but all of my AMAZING clients! I especially love photographing families yearly and seeing the kiddos grow! 2020 was a rough year all around, especially because we did so many less photos due to Covid. It was amazing to see everyone again.

Five things to improve in 2022 (I need to look back at this list next year!)

5. Editing time after mini-sessions. Future Libby- stop working for 11-13 hours straight when you do mini-sessions! The next day is just as good for culling and posting sneak peeks! You guys. I cannot express how burnt out I would be after some of my fall minis. I would work, work, work until well into the evening. Obsessed with culling every single shoot. It just is not physically possible to do that with 10 shoots a day. Next year, we stop this and take care of ourselves!

4. My website! It is cute and all, but I need a fresh look.

3. Learn how to make Reels. I don’t understand. Someone help! OK, but seriously, ya girl loves to watch and make tiktoks, so why is it so hard for me to make reels?!

2. Connect with other local photographers! I used to be so good about this and it was something I really enjoyed about this job. My personal life and covid took over in the past 2 years and I kind of stopped reaching out to other photographers. If you are reading this and you are a photographer in the Raleigh area, I would love to connect with you! Photographer friends are the best!

1. Learn how to balance mama and professional life.

….And that brings us to my personal reflection on 2021! I am not going to get into the nitty gritty of our personal year, but I will say, this year was the most challenging and rewarding year of my life. It is no secret that my husband and I have been struggling to start our family for 4 years now. I am very open about this fact. I think that more awareness needs to be brought the the trauma and grief of infertility and loss. It affected our lives in so many areas. This year, we definitely hit rock bottom in our journey, and it is true what they say, it is darkest before the dawn. In February, after learning our 5th IUI failed, we were deep into a spiral of an adoption process with an agent who did nothing but flake out on us, manipulate us and lie to us. I remember telling my friend, “If I was not in so deep with this agency, I would just do IVF. We can’t afford both.” Then one day, the Lord led us exactly where we needed to be. Somehow, we were able to get a *partial* refund from this person (I say partial because she kept thousands of our dollars for literally nothing…but that is another story), and it ended up being the EXACT amount we needed to start IVF. We were desperately trying to start our family and on our last rope. Thankfully, we were able to announce that we were expecting in June!

We found out our sweet daughter will be joining us in February 2022 and every day since has been better. We are so thankful IVF worked so well for us, and we also know many families who have not been so lucky. IVF is not always the answer, but it was the answer for us. We cannot wait to become mommy and daddy next year! Although it is still going to be a long road of healing, we are doing so much better. We are also SO thankful for those few people who stood by our side through the thick of this 4 year journey, and those who never pulled back, even when all seemed hopeless. We could not have made it through without the people we had by our side bearing the burden with us. Thank you to those who stuck around. We will never forget the love and kindness. <3

As far as personal goals, I was pretty much sleepwalking through life in the earlier part of the year (dealing with the above), so in the first part of the year I will say my number one goal was to get pregnant and stay pregnant. After the morning sickness from the first trimester slowed down in the fall, I started feeling more like myself every day. We were able to do some small improvements to our home, which has been huge for us! We were also able to do a lot of purging and organizing! For next year, I have LOTS of goals! I would love to get back to running (shout out to my friend Karen for getting us the BOB jogging stroller! Baby girl and I will be taking on the greenways in no time!), work more on my calligraphy and obviously my business. There will be some big changes around here in 2022! We are also THRILLED with such a generous and thoughtful gift from our best friends, Matt and Sara, to be able to do a maternity and newborn shoot in the next few months with our amazing wedding photographer, Graham Terhune! This is so special for us and we cannot wait to have these images to cherish for years to come. <3

Other non-pregnancy related things that happened this year- my hubby and I went to Shenendoah National Park in September and then Asheville in December for a Christmas-y babymoon! My baby sister got married in October on the most beautiful fall day! We welcomed our newest nephew in May and celebrated lots of nieces birthdays this year. I started my 10th year of teaching (what)! Our sisters and moms threw us a DREAM baby shower a few weeks ago. It truly was a dream come true to celebrate with everyone who walked with us on our journey.

So, that is my year in a nutshell. If you made it this far, thank you for caring about my journey in 2021! 🙂 Now, for some cute photos of my amazing clients who made this year one of Elizabeth Alice Photography’s very best!

I finished off the year with the sweetest little newborn session of baby Millie! Thank you so much to my sweet clients for an amazing year at Elizabeth Alice Photography! Now, a few highlights from our personal year… 🙂

Thanks for the memories, the ups and the downs, 2021! Now, onto our biggest adventure yet… Mom and Dad to this peanut in 2022!

….And a few big changes to Elizabeth Alice Photography next summer. Stay tuned! <3