“All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.”

Do you know who said that? It was Walt Disney. Grady and I have drawn a lot of inspiration this year from Walt Disney so I thought it only appropriate to open this post with words of wisdom from the man himself. So here we are, it’s the first day of 2014 and there are 365 days to make it the best year yet. For us, that means finding the courage to launch a new business, a creative endeavor and a passion that I have had in my heart since I was 16-years-old. You see, it’s funny because my whole life I’ve never felt like I knew what to say when people asked me, “What do you want to do with your life?” But deep down, I knew. I was just too scared to say it. I wanted to embrace creativity and the way I wanted to do that was being a photographer.  I’m not sure why I was so scared or why I never had the courage the pursue this passion. I think a lot of it had to do with wanting to please others and a lot of it had to do with fear. But here we are now, the first day of 2014 and it’s time to start chasing down some dreams. So how did this all start? At age 16, I received my first film camera. I never even moved it off of auto, but loved capturing life with it. As I moved into my college years, I became obsessed with photography and went through what I’m calling the “studying phase.” Daily, I’d pour over all of my favorite photographer’s blogs and magazines. The passion was there, but the pursuit was not. Meanwhile, Grady was also developing a passion for film making, movies and beautiful imagery. Grady was a film studies major at NC State. Upon completing his studies, he thought he might go to LA and work in this industry, but other choices led him back to his hometown. His passion was also there, but the pursuit was not. Fast forward to 2010. Grady and I met, we dated for 6 months, we got engaged and married in 2011. We had amazing wedding vendors, all that we are so grateful for to this day. We settled into life after our honeymoon. We developed routines and continued to work. One day, I decided I needed a creative outlet. I thought the answer was starting a blog. I could cook, craft, create and write about it. I could also spotlight all of my wonderful creative friends and write about them. Thus, the lovely lantern was born. I quickly realized that the one thing I was enjoying the most about this blog was creating photos for it. Then one day, Grady and I went to Raleigh, to the Titanic exhibit at the history museum, to be exact. We were eating lunch after and out of my mouth, the words finally came. “Grady, why don’t we just try to do the things that we’re really passionate about, photography and filmmaking?” And his response? “OK, let’s start the research.” After that day, in January 2013, we started researching equipment and business, we reached out to friends, we prayed, we made some purchases and we started the “learning phase” which by the way, never ends. We dedicated 2013 to researching, getting the business side of things in order and learning. Learning how to use our gear, learning how to create a business, learning how to communicate with each other as business partners, learning, learning, learning and also some crying (I do that a lot). So what has 2013 taught me? 1. The pursuit of your passion isn’t easy, but it is worth it! This year has brought so much frustration, but much more joy. 2. My husband is an amazing encourager, business partner and friend. We needed to find each other to do this. 3. Be honest with yourself about what you want to do and go after it. You will wish you had started sooner, but there is no time like the present. 4. Supportive friends and family will be very important when self doubt creeps in, and it does, all the time. 5. And most importantly, your spouse, your friends, your family and your passion can never fill the spaces in your heart created for an intimate relationship with Jesus, nor should you ignore that in pursuit of any of the aforementioned, so 2014 will be a year of pursuing Jesus above all. So, wow, you made it to the end of this post, thank you for reading along and thank you for joining us in this journey. We can’t wait to see where 2014 leads us. We can’t say thank you enough to our friends and family for being so supportive of us. And we’re so excited to launch our business, Five Copper Creative – Films and Photography for the love of stories! Happy New Year!