Today we’d like to introduce you to Chastidyi Parrott.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I’ve always been interested in photography. My mother and grandparents actually got me a nice film camera as a graduation gift, and I tried it out on my friends. The pictures were not great, lol. After college, I decided to start a photography business in 2005. Knowing what I know now, I did everything backward by jumping right in the deep end instead of doing any sort of assisting. I charged $150 for my first wedding, I shot digital, and I put every filter known to man on those photos.
Thankfully, the last 16 years have given me time to grow in my craft. After migrating from smaller weddings to the beautiful venues in Knoxville, I decided it was time to try something a little different. Four years ago, I talked my husband into starting a wedding venue, and it took off!
We are blessed to be able to offer elopements and intimate weddings to some of the sweetest couples, and we partner with some great independent wedding companies (Custom Love and Yugen Productions) to offer an all-inclusive ceremony. I still get to create art and wonderful memories, and we’ve expanded to be able to hire an assistant (Beth, one of my best friends) so we are now a crew of three.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
It has not been a smooth road. Trying to get into the wedding industry as a photographer was difficult. There can be a very competitive mindset among photographers, and the market is very saturated. I was lucky enough to stumble across Julie Roberts Photographic Artist who offered a photography business class, and it really changed the way I thought about my business. This was around the time that I had finally taught myself enough with SEO that I was starting to get found (yay!).
Unfortunately, right as all this was starting to take off, we lost our home in a house fire. This time was very difficult emotionally because we lost a family member and several fur babies to the fire. It was also difficult financially because all of my equipment was gone. We were struggling to find a place to live temporarily, I had to try to replace equipment before we had access to any insurance money, and I was still trying to keep in contact with current clients and book new ones for the upcoming season.
We were lucky to have some wonderful family members to lean on. We bought our current property about three months later not realizing that it would one day be home to our current business.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
As a wedding photographer, I specialize in more serious posed photography and real smiles (mostly gotten with dirty jokes). I try to keep my work with a fairly classic edit so that our couples will still enjoy looking at their pictures well into their ’80s. (No selective coloring, lol.) I shoot digital so I’m able to offer them a generous amount of photos that we offer with a print release (and printing suggestions) so that they can get them printed at their leisure.
I also work with an editor that allows me to promise a quick turnaround time and a consistent product. A lot of our couples come to the venue specifically for the photography, so it has definitely helped to boost the way we are thought of as a prospective ceremony location.
As venue owners, we try to go above and beyond for all of our couples so that they feel like they are getting the full wedding experience (even though it’s a smaller size). We strive to offer stress-free weddings, and it seems like we get the sweetest most laid-back couples. We are cultivating the property with photography in mind so we keep adding new photo ops which are great for the couples (and fun for me — keeps things new and exciting).
We are on the lower end of the pricing scale so most of our couples feel like they are getting a deal on a great experience. We have florals on hand for the couples who don’t want to have to source their own, and we offer photography (of course, lol), coordination, officiating, and videography as add-ons.
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
For me, Knoxville is the place to go for delicious food and fun times. We tend to shy away from Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg because they are so busy, but Knoxville lets us have a good time without feeling overwhelmed by people.
Market Square is one of my favorite spots because there are so many options there, and we especially love the bowling alley/restaurant on Gay Street. We also love that we can get a little culture with the plays and shows.
Pricing:
- Venue Rental $300-$1300
- Photography $300-$1200
- Officiating $150
- Videography $450-$1000
- Coordination $200-$300
Contact Info:
- Email: info@chapelinthehollow
- Website: www.chapelinthehollow.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chapelinthehollow/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chapelinthehollow/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX6_YWyaH6tvknTP633aMbw
- Other: https://www.pinterest.com/chapelinthehollow/
Image Credits
Star Noir Studio
