Welcome to our blog! For our first post we just want to share a little more about us as a couple and a business team.
We live in central Oklahoma on a beautiful acreage. We can walk, from our tiny house on wheels (yes, like the ones you see on HGTV), to Blaine’s parent’s house, which is on the same property. We love gardening and working with animals (we have milk cows and chickens) on the property. Blaine also works with his dad in construction and remodel part time. He built our tiny house and can fix just about anything, Janae says! She loves preserving the food raised on the homestead, and healthy ferments might be her very favorite. We joke that we don’t have children yet because her kefir, kombucha, sourdough, and sauerkraut are her babies! Blaine doesn’t object to her hobbies in the least. ;) Janae grew up working in a family owned and operated kettle corn business, so needless to say she also leads the popcorn charge on movie night – and Blaine whips up a pretty mean smoothie.
If you try to get in touch with us, most likely you will be speaking with Janae (if you receive a message with copious amounts of humor or sarcasm, that’s probably Blaine beating her to it!). She is the builder and manager of this website as well as our social media. We both had photography businesses before we married, but would agree that it is a whole lot more fun to do together! We photographed our first wedding as a duo in October of 2018 at a beautiful location in Missouri. The value of being a husband and wife team on a wedding day has quickly become apparent and puts our clients at ease, knowing that between the two of us we can capture every moment of their day. Blaine works with the groom and guys while Janae is with the bride and her girls while they get ready (and usually have some fun!) before the ceremony.
We have always believed that our business should be a reflection of our faith in Jesus Christ and hope you feel this throughout the whole of your experience with us. Because of that, we take very seriously the marriage covenant between husband and wife and want to give you images which can serve to remind you of the beauty and importance of your wedding day – forever. We will do whatever it takes to make your wedding go as smoothly as possible!
Before we married in June 2019, we lived 1,059 miles (we were very precise in our calculations back then) away from each other, with Blaine in Oklahoma and Janae in North Dakota! We overcame that distance first in Missouri at a family music festival in February 2015, but we had our own friend circles and didn't see each other much. We met for the second time in Minnesota at a different music festival in 2016, and our friendship blossomed over our mutual love of photography (and because Blaine thought Janae was GORGEOUS). We started dating in August 2017, got engaged in June 2018, & married June 2019!
Janae is one of six siblings, was born in Colorado, and moved to North Dakota just before highschool. She loved all things sports in school and put countless hours into track, basketball and volleyball (which was a little bit intimidating to Blaine, who never played competitive sports. Let’s be honest here). She attended a small community college for her freshman year. Only two years after graduating highschool she received her bachelor’s of science in business administration and marketing through TESU. She bought her first camera on a whim with her highschool graduation money and fell in love with preserving photos of her friends and family. In summer of 2017 she started Janae Kay Photography and focused on taking family and senior portraiture. She photographed three weddings on her own and second shot for a couple of weddings before marrying and letting her solo business come to an end.
Blaine also came from a large family, being one of seven siblings! He has always lived in Oklahoma, though his family moved five times when he was younger. Being homeschooled, he was able to start working part time in construction with his dad before highschool, and still does now. He loves design work, in both landscape and permaculture design as well as architecture for the family business. After being volunteered by his older brother to be the videographer for that same brother’s comedic YouTube channel, he realized how much he enjoyed working with the camera, and soon was obsessed with photographing landscape and macro photography – anything BUT people, much to his mother’s disappointment. He began shooting some portraiture on the side in fall 2016 and took whatever sessions he could manage on top of his construction job. Now he is quite thankful for Janae, who can manage the photography business so he can work both careers! He loves Janae, chocolate, and garden soil more than just about anything else. ;)
Thank you for hanging with us! We hope you feel like you know us, and we would love to meet you! Feel free to contact us through the site if you need anything.
Would you be more likely to work with us if Blaine had a beard or was clean shaven (refer to photos)? Let us know in the comments! He NEEDS to know. ;p