CENTRE COUNTY, Pa. (WJAC) - As a wedding photographer who's self-employed, Jana Scott is not only facing tough decisions in the uncertainty surrounding COVID-19, but she's also providing support to her clients who are now facing a difficult decision of their own: Moving a wedding they have already invested so much in.
A picture's worth a thousand words, but there are some things you can't put into words. Jana Scott, who is the primary wedding photographer for Jana Scott Photography in Lemont, says, "This has been a really trying time for couples who planned sometimes over two years in advance for a day and now they're having to look into postponing it to maybe a season or next year."
She says COVID-19 is leaving its impact on the event community, many vendors self-employed with bills still coming in while the money is not. "We're trying to figure out how to best deal with the clauses that we already have in our contracts and to support our clients at the same time because a lot of us are full-time and make our living this way," Scott says.
Picking up her first flash camera as a child, she adds, in all her years of looking through a lens, she's never seen anything quite like this.
Scott has had her own photography business for 12 years. Shooting over 300 weddings, she says these small businesses are now looking to each other for support, "This is unprecedented and it's very scary for all of us self-employed people because there's not unemployment for us. There's not a safety set. I've not seen anything like that. Certainly I've had clients have to change dates due to different circumstances in their lives, but it's usually - if it's one per season, you know that's a lot."
Her priority at this time is to rally around others in their time of need, "Some vendors, they've only been in this wedding industry for a few years and this is probably really scary for them."
However, the support doesn't begin and end with pen ink on a contract. For Scott, the promise runs much deeper, "I'm more than just a wedding photographer. I'm there to bustle their dress, wipe their tears, give them advice about timelines during the day, game-time decisions. So, it's pretty natural for me to step into this role of just supporting them."
She advises engaged couples to reach out to their venues and vendors immediately, "Ask all your vendors dates they have available, so that if this gathering ban continues, then you can have already kind of the game plan of who's available for what dates."
She continues to say that couples should not lose sight of why they are having a wedding in the first place: their love, "That's what it's all about."
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