Meet Bridgette Ambrose and Peter Charles of Lace & Lapel Photo and Film

Today we’d like to introduce you to Bridgette Ambrose and Peter Charles.

Bridgette and Peter, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
We love sharing our story because we never imagined we would become wedding photographers (and actually love it!).

Growing up, Bridgette quickly became the unofficial photographer on family trips, always getting everyone together and snapping away on a little point-and-shoot camera and documenting every moment. Peter, on the other hand, concentrated his creativity into music by singing in church choirs, performing in school plays, and eventually learning the guitar and writing his own songs.

We met and began dating in 2008, never suspecting that we’d ever be in business together. We were both creatives but didn’t think our artistic skills would align. Over time, Bridgette’s love for photography grew into a passion that led her to take film photography courses in college as she was finishing her sociology degree and teaching preschool. She also had the opportunity to second shoot a few weddings and started taking family photos for friends.

During that time, Peter continued to pursue his music and released his first original album while playing shows around Los Angeles and getting a few songs placed in TV shows and movies. Then one day, a friend asked Bridgette to photograph her wedding–a terrifying idea at the time! Despite her reservations, Bridgette took the opportunity.

After that first wedding, she was instantly hooked and began immersing herself in wedding photography. Years later, Peter began causally shooting with Bridgette when she needed an extra hand and discovered he loved it too! Not long after that, Peter officially joined the business, and we decided we wanted to experiment with adding video to our wedding services.

Then, during an engagement photography session, Peter shot some video for our couple and put together a short highlight film from the footage. We surprised them with it, and they loved it so much that they asked us to film their wedding!! After that first wedding with both photo and film, interest began to grow, and now over half of our 2018 bookings included video!

With the addition of video and our intentional effort to build new relationships with our clients and vendors, we saw our business quadruple in 2018! On top of that, this year is already surpassing the previous one! What’s even more exciting is that our creative business journey has gone hand in hand with our personal one.

As our business grew, our love for each other deepened, and on Sunday, December 16th, Peter popped the big question and proposed to Bridgette on our 10-year dating anniversary! With both our passions and lives aligned, we’re so excited for the future and look forward to continuing to work together as we capture so many more love stories like ours in the years ahead!

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
As with any business, we’ve had our ups and downs. It’s never a straight road to success, and “hustling” has become our mantra. Comparison, doubt, and fear are always present and constantly work against you to steal your drive and creativity. We will be the first to say that we’ve struggled with that as much as anyone! We’ve been told SO many different things when it comes to photography and business, but the most important thing we’ve learned is that relationships are the greatest currency.

Relationships–the right ones–push you forward exponentially, open doors you could never reach on your own, and sharpen your resolve. The right relationships encourage and support you as well as remind you of your worth and that you belong right where you are. Some of our biggest struggles have stemmed from feeling alone, not good enough, and too far behind others in our industry.

Thankfully, we have been surrounded by the right people who’ve poured into our lives and understand the challenges we’re facing, while being a sounding board for our fears.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Lace & Lapel Photo and Film – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
We’re wedding photographers and filmmakers based out of Pasadena, CA. We love telling stories and capturing joyful, authentic moments from a couple’s most precious day. We pride ourselves in helping our clients feel comfortable in front of a camera, even if they’ve had a bad experience in the past.

What sets our business apart is that we are two people who love LOVE and love each other! We have the unique ability to capture every aspect of a couple’s wedding day by offering both photography and videography, so we can fully meet our clients’ needs. We find so much joy in serving our clients from the initial inquiry to final delivery of their photos and films.

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
This year, we’re going to be making some big changes at Lace & Lapel Photo and Film!

Most significantly, we’ll be launching a complete rebrand of our business to better serve our clients. In addition to changing our brand name, so more of our personalities shine through to our clients, we’ll begin offering photo albums, new wedding videography add-ons, and expanding our team with more up and coming photographers and videographers.

We’re also working to elevate our client experience by creating new wedding planning resources for our couples, incorporating thank you gifts, and shortening our turnaround time for photo galleries and wedding films. It’s going to be a great year, and we can’t wait to meet all of the new wonderful couples we get to work with!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.laceandlapel.com
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: @bridgetteambrose @hellopetercharles

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