To follow my new journey, please visit ChloeAurelia.com.

xo, Courtney

There is an opening for a full time, long term, permanent position as assistant/office manager working at my company. If you are looking to work in a positive, fun atmosphere, then this may be the job for you!

A few of the job duties include:
– customer service
– client orders
– office duties
– and so much more

No photography or graphic design experience needed.

Being computer, internet and technology savvy is a must.
(You don’t have to be an expert, just must know your way around a computer, google.. etc and easily taught.)
Having a positive attitude on life is a must.
Willing to travel is a must. (Possibly for extended periods of time.)
Willing to work weekends.

Hours range from 30-50 a week.
Job location is in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
You must already live in Baton Rouge or surrounding areas. (Prairieville, Gonzales, Denham Springs, Walker, etc.)

This position is only available to those interested in making a long term career with Courtney Dellafiora, Inc. If you feel as though that may be you, then please download our job application at the link below and email it to: jobs@dellafiora.com along with your resume. Application must be filled out completely in order to be processed.

Download the application here: APPLICATION DOWNLOAD

I look forward to meeting my next team member!!

Let’s start with one of my favorite designers, Elie Saab. OMG, this designer is an absolute genius! His talent inspires me to no end. And his gowns… well there are no words. Except one: breathtaking! And his website is soooo romantic and dreamy.
Image Source: The Knotty Bride

Oh Monique Lhuiller… your soft and dreamy gowns make me want to get married just so I can wear something of yours!

Sarah Seven – I love these incredibly romantic short dresses that would just photograph beautifully and is something for the bride who loves simplicity.

Vera Wang — enough said.

Looking for an actual vintage wedding dress? I LOVE this website, MillCrest Vintage. They sell real vintage wedding gowns and the prices are super affordable.

Another favorite: Claire Pettibone. OMG, this designer’s gowns are something an angel in Heaven could wear. I am IN LOVE with her designs. SIIIIIIIIGH.

And last but not least, Romona Keveza. Love all the ruffles!!

To each of my clients, I could never thank each of you enough times to express how grateful I am for allowing me to be a part of the best day of your life. I will never forget any of you.

To God, thank you for your many blessings… I am nothing without your love.

Shelly and Andrew‘s super sweet vintage wedding in Houma, La.

Brittany and Jordan‘s intimate wedding at a plantation in Baton Rouge, La.

Leigh Ann & Richard‘s wedding at the Country Club of Louisiana in Baton Rouge, La.

Megan and Daniel‘s Chesterton Square wedding in Ponchatoula,  La.

Star and Wes‘ Chesterton Square wedding in Ponchatoula, La.

Amber and Luke‘s snowy wedding in Colorado.

Julia and Vas’ wedding in Negril, Jamaica. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

Annah and Travis’ Dunleith Plantation wedding in Natchez, Mississippi.

Andrea and Blake‘s Nottoway Plantation wedding in White Castle, La.

Deirdre and Duston‘s Dunleith Plantation wedding in Natchez, MS.

Skye and Scott’s wedding at The Manor in St. Martinville, LA. — blog post coming soon!

Jennifer and James‘ Dunleith Plantation wedding in Natchez, MS.

Lauren and Joe‘s amazing vintage wedding in Hattisburg, MS.

Sarah and Chris‘ Houmas House Plantation wedding in Darrow, LA.

Danielle and Jason‘s Houmas House Plantation wedding in Darrow, LA.

Lindsey and Nick‘s Houmas House Plantation wedding in Darrow, LA.

Keri and John‘s destination wedding to Negril, Jamaica.

Arisa and Judah‘s Glynnwood Plantation wedding in Glynn, LA.

Marissa and Michael‘s destination wedding to Negril, Jamaica.

Angel and Brian‘s wedding in Lafayette, LA.

Shannon and Michael’s wedding in Lafayette, LA.

Ashlee and Brhett‘s wedding in Denham Springs, LA.

Robin and Richard‘s wedding in New Roads, LA. I love the different bridesmaid’s dresses!!!

Amanda and Alex‘s wedding in Baton Rouge, LA.

Caitlyn and Chaz‘s wedding in Baton Rouge, LA.

Whitney and Max‘s wedding in Mandeville, LA.

Megan and Cameron‘s intimate Baton Rouge, LA wedding.

Lauren and Rob‘s New Orleans, LA wedding.

Nina and Rocky‘s wedding in New Orleans, LA.

Kayla and Blake’s wedding in Denham Springs, LA. — blog post coming soon!

Meghan and Jarret‘s fun New Orleans wedding.

Gina and Kevin‘s wedding in New Orleans, LA.

Brittany and Joey’s wedding in downtown Baton Rouge, LA.

Hannah and Garret‘s wedding in Baton Rouge, LA.

Allison and Jonathan‘s Playa Del Carmen, Mexico wedding.

Amanda and Danny‘s Rip Van Winkle wedding in New Iberia, LA.

Julie and David‘s wedding in Denham Springs, LA.

Jennifer and David‘s wedding in New Orleans, LA.

Christina and Jeff‘s wedding in Virginia.

Christina and Jason‘s wedding in Gonzales, LA.

Emily and Chris‘ wedding in Prairieville, LA.

Mindy and Mark‘s wedding in Baton Rouge, LA.

April and Darryl‘s wedding in Baton Rouge, LA.

Brittany and Adam‘s wedding in Baton Rouge, LA.

Colleen and Jake‘s wedding in Baton Rouge, LA.

Callie and John David‘s wedding in Baton Rouge, LA.

Rachel and Chris’ wedding in Baton Rouge, LA.

Alex and Jason‘s rainy wedding in Baton Rouge, LA.

Melissa and Shawn‘s wedding in Baton Rouge, LA.

Caroline and Will‘s wedding in Baton Rouge, LA.

This blog post is LONG overdue. Better late than never though. Let me start by saying, in the most humblest of ways, that I am truly blown away and amazed by the comments, emails, tweets, messages I receive on a daily basis from photographers all over the world. When I decided to go into business for myself a couple of years ago, I never in a million years imagined I would ever have “fans” of my photography. Especially from all ends of the planet! Just a couple of months ago I received an email from a photographer in The Netherlands telling me how I helped inspire her to open a boudoir studio. Emails like that just blow my mind!! It’s truly my heart’s desire to inspire people all over the world, but when I receive a message like that, the reality that it’s truly happening touches my heart on a whole ‘nother level. It is so EXTREMELY flattering that people in the same industry as me would not only take the time to get in touch with me, but would have any desire to want to learn from me in any way. I’m just a girl who LOVES being a photographer and LOVES her clients to pieces. I found my passion for this career many years (13 to be exact) ago but it was only in the last couple of years of being in business for myself that I have truly been able to “find myself” as an artist and really create my own personal signature look and style that comes from deep within my heart. I in no way think I have arrived to where I want to be as business owner and photographer. My goals right now are to completely focus 100% on my business and clients. I am an extremely hard worker and very dedicated to my passion of this form of art. I wake up every day, thank God for blessing me with this talent and for sending me wonderful clients who love my work, and then I spend the rest of the day continuing to build my business to grow to where I want it to be.

When I started my business a little over 2 years ago, I was working around the clock 24/7 to get it off the ground. I knew if I was going to make a successful career with my talent I was going to have to work really, really hard. I believe God gives us gifts to use, but it’s up to us to meet him halfway with them. While I believe with all of my heart that God has given me so much favor and blessed me with incredible dreams, talents and passions… I know that nothing has been handed over to me easily. Everything I have today is because I worked very, very hard to get it. My motto in life, “Live the Dream” is what I preach and believe to the very core of who I am. I have proven to myself and others over and over again that you really can do ANYTHING you want and achieve any goals you set for yourself. I tweeted in the past “life will give you exactly what you ask for” and I really believe that. If you ask for MORE, you will get MORE.

Since I have started my own business, I get emailed questions quite often from photographers about different aspects of my business. For both my wedding and boudoir brands. While I wish I had the time to email everyone back, the honest truth is I don’t. I feel so awful not being able to respond to the emails I receive from photographers. : ( But if I spent time responding to photographers, my clients and business would suffer greatly. I am being completely honest when I say, my clients will always come first. They are the reason I have a business in the first place, and they are the reason my business continues to grow successfully providing me with a roof over my head.

I most commonly get asked the best advice I can give to a photographer who is just getting started in the industry. I am not sure that there is an answer that would be true to all new photographers, but I am willing to share a quick version of my personal story of how I got to where I am today. I got my first camera when I was 15 years old. (I am 28 now.) It was a film Nikon camera that I was obsessed with. I fell in love with the hobby of photography and pretty much just shot whatever was in front of me. I am the oldest of 4 siblings so my 3 younger kin became instant models in my eyes. ; ) I practiced practiced practiced. I did this for 3 years and then when I was 18 I got a job working for another photographer. During this time I learned a lot about the business side of things while continually honing my skills and talent as a photographer. It honestly wasn’t until I began my own company that I really was able to “dive into” my true talent and gifts as a photographer. It took many years of practicing and experience to get where I am today. But I can honestly say I learned almost everything I know from experience. So what is the best advice I can give you? PRACTICE. I recommend if you are just starting out to do it as a hobby for the very minimum of a year until you really get a lot of experience under your belt. I’ve seen so many people start charging clients too soon, before they are really ready and experienced, and it ends up causing so many problems for both the client and photographers. You need time to learn and grow… you need time to find out if you have the gift… because not everyone does. Anyone can buy a camera, but that does not mean everyone has the “gift” of being a true artist. Also, some may have the gift of being a true artist, but might not necessarily have the gift of running a business. Both things go hand in hand in achieving a successful photography business. Not only must you be good at photography, but you must know how to make wise business decisions. So the key to learning whether or not you are gifted as a photographer and a wise business owner boils down to PRACTICE and EXPERIENCE. Being a photographer is hard work. I know that I, along with others, make it look super fun. But at the end of the day, it’s still hard work… just like ANY successful business. The reason I am where I am today as a photographer, is because I practiced for many many years and I worked super hard to get to this place. Nothing has come easy for me… determination, motivation and a GREAT attitude go a long, long way. If you want to be a success in anything you do, those 3 little things are KEY.

The other thing I advise is once you have decided you indeed want to be a full time photographer, and you know you have what it takes… choose what you want to shoot and stick to that. Meaning if you love photographing children, specialize in that and rock it out. I find too many photographers try to shoot it ALL and in the end their business suffers greatly for it because they are fragmenting their style to suite every different kind of photography there is. If a painter is good at painting landscapes he will specialize in that and not portraits. Sure he can paint a portrait but he true “gift” shows when he paints what he is best at.

I get asked to teach workshops on a regular basis. While this may be an option in the future, it is not in my heart right now. God did not give me the gift of teaching. No… I mean it. Ask anyone who knows me!! I am a horrible teacher and I will tell you why. I was homeschooled my whole life. Yep, it’s true. The particular curriculum my mother chose to school my siblings and I with was VERY self-taught oriented. Because of this, I learned from the time I could read and on to be very self-dependent. Almost everything I know I taught myself. Photography, web design, graphic design, HTML, video editing, Photoshop, whatever.. you name it, I probably taught myself. I honestly do better teaching myself things than being taught by someone else. This is the reason I did not go to college. It was never in the cards for me.  But the downfall to all of this is that I am not gifted when it comes to teaching someone else because I naturally expect everyone else to be able to learn something on their own or pick up something quickly. I know that most people do not operate like that, but even if I tell myself that, doesn’t magically make me a good teacher. Because of the fact that I realize I still have a long ways to go when it comes to this area in my life, I do not feel prepared to be able to teach others at this time. Again, not saying that I will never teach… but it’s just not the right time for that quite yet. Not to mention I still feel that even I have so much to learn before I can teach someone else anything at all.

The good news is there ARE several photographers out there who are INCREDIBLE and ARE naturally gifted when it comes to teaching. There are many amazing photographers who thrive off of teaching other photographers their tricks of the trade. I encourage you to find the truly talented photographers who have been doing this for a while, that are teaching workshops, and attend them. I am certain you will learn a lot. When and if I decide to start teaching workshops, you’ll be the first to know. ; )

I encourage you, no matter what career choice you make, to do it with excellence. Find what you are good at, what makes you happy and ROCK IT OUT with all of your heart. And again, thank you to every single one of you who have ever believed in me, sent me a kind email or message or left me a comment. I sincerely appreciate every single one more than you could ever possibly know. Keep living the dream.

xoxo

I leave you with this shot taken by me at age 15… of my little baby brother Stephen. He is still THAT cute. ; )

With that being said, the winner of the contest is Courtney and Chris!!! Their wedding is later this year and I am so excited about being a part of their big day!!

Thanks again to all who participated!!!

**I do not have the proper equipment for moon/space photography, but I just had to try and capture what my eyes saw as best as I could.

So what exactly is being you auctioned you ask? A 60 minute mentor session via phone or video chat. If you’re a photographer who is looking for some advice in photography, growing your business or just want to say HEY HEY to some amazing photographers out there… then this is the perfect opportunity for you to do so… AND your money would be going to an AMAZING cause! There are also tons of products being auctioned off as well. To see a list of all the photographers donating their time for these mentor sessions, please go to www.fstopbreastcancer.com for a complete list of the 50 photographers participating… including YOURS TRULY!!

Lydia is trying to raise $10,000 by Oct 24, 2010 to donate to the foundation. The auction will run Thursday, October 14th – Tuesday, October 19th on EBAY. You can view a little promo video that Lydia put together on the F Stop Breast Cancer website or by clicking here.

I will be posting the link for the auction once it goes live on October 14th.

I am SO excited about this amazing idea that Lydia came up with. She is so inspiring to all of us!! I am just so truly honored and flattered to be a part of it and I hope you’ll participate!! F STOP BREAST CANCER!