I don’t quite know how to announce something so exciting! I kind of want to do some mega count down or drum roll (but let’s be honest, it’s awkward to do those things alone in an office!) Today I am FINALLY announcing, sharing, and showing off the new webspace of Jenna Kutcher. It’s been months in the making (and completely under wraps!) So how? Why? When? I’m sure you’re wondering so I want to break it on down for you just a little bitty bit!

WHY:  Well, I’ve had the same website since I started back in 2011 (yes, I kept a site for a solid five years!) It was beautiful and simple but it looked and felt just like every other photography site to me. As I’ve honed in and owned my brand (and just me, in general) I realized I was totally done blending in. I wanted elements that I had never seen before like a “Choose Your Own Adventure” component, a handwritten Cosmopolitan style quiz, a few little video snippets, and other pieces that just felt like ME and what I love.

As I have expanded my brand from just photography to so much more, I wanted on space on the web that contained all of the crazy things that I love from mission work to teaching, photography to blogging, collaborating to watercolor and so much more…

HOW: I met Jen Olmstead at a workshop in January (thank you, Justin and Mary!) and fell in love with her. Over a Gin and Tonic and a cheese board, I knew she was my kind of girl. She has built incredible spaces for some of my sweetest friends in the industry so when it came to someone just “getting it,” I didn’t hesitate (I actually didn’t inquire to a single other person, when you know, you know.)

Jen flew out to our home in Wisconsin to hash out our ideas together, to pull in the new brand, and design the new space. I made her eat her first ever cheese curd (yum!) and we got to work! Having that face to face time was so wonderful! I was able to shoot images while she was in the space to fit the new site and create the hand written elements on the spot. It was a beautiful way to collaborate (and a lot simpler than an email chain!)

WHAT: So what was it that I wanted in a site? It was easy, I wanted: high end, laid back. That’s exactly who I am. I do quality work, I serve my clients, believe in the experience, but I’m a girl who feels best in yoga pants and a tee shirt, who believes dry shampoo is better than sliced bread, and who just genuinely loves to keep it real. I wanted a site where anyone who needed me could enjoy the experience from brides to students to friends!

The page I wanted couldn’t alienate one crowd from the other and I wanted people to click on and feel like they knew “me.” Not just photographer me or teacher me, but the real “me!” It’s all about the story, the experience and so I was going to go through the trouble of redoing every corner of my webspace, I wanted it to just feel right, cozy, and fun! It’s impossible to teach people to “go their own way” if you’re following the crowd and so with this site I wanted to prove that you can, in fact, be exactly who you are and attract people to you in a real, authentic way!

So now what? I want you to poke around, click around, enjoy the experience! I want you to “feel the feels” and see the heart Jen and I have put into this new website. Sure, it’s just a little corner of the world wide web, but to me it feels like an exciting new home! One I want to send everyone and anyone to, because it’s simply: me.

Site Design: Jen Olmstead of Tonic Site Shop //  Platform: Showit // Video Clips: Vaughter Films // Tech Support: Arielle Hale