Meet Cassidy Winsor Ty Dowdy | Owners & Photographers

We had the good fortune of connecting with Cassidy Winsor Ty Dowdy and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Cassidy Winsor, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
We started our business to provide elopement and intimate wedding photography to couple who may not feel represented by the wedding industry. Society likes to tells couples what their bodies should look like, what skin color is more beautiful, and who they should love. Society even tries to tell couples what kind of weddings they should have and how their love should be celebrated. We started our business to create a safe space for our couples to truly be themselves outside of the constraints that society may place on them. We document weddings that authentically represent who our couples are as people. We believe that all love deserves to be celebrated – regardless of age, size, or sexual orientation.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
We are a team of experienced elopement and intimate wedding photographers based out of Boulder, Colorado. In addition to being photographers we are also so much more than that. We are also planners, guides, and adventure buddies. We help our couples plan and execute their elopement and wedding visions in a way that truly reflects who they are as people. We started our business in 2018 and at the time we were living in Kansas. In May of 2020, we made the jump over to Colorado to further grow our business. We had to navigate moving our business in the middle of a pandemic, which brought along a whole new set of struggles. We learned to adapt and be flexible with our couples during such a devastating time. Being flexible meant multiple reschedules, location changes, and even cancellations. We applied the deepest amount of empathy and understanding for our couples and supported them through each of their decisions.

We are most proud of our ability to build a safe space for our couples to truly be themselves. We aim to really get to know our couples as people. Most of the time, when we first meet our couples, they are strangers to us. It’s our job to listen to their stories, relate to them, and make them feel heard before we ever pick up a camera. They more we know about their story, the more honest we can document their love. We are inclusive photographers, meaning we celebrate all love regardless of gender, size, race, or religion. We want to represent couples who many not feel seen by the wedding industry. We encourage our couples to have the wedding days that they truly want to have and to not feel pressed by family or societal expectations.

We document couples love stories all over the country. So it’s our job to get them connected with other vendors who also align with their values and fit their style needs. We help our couples do everything from picking their vendors, locations, and wedding day details. It’s our job to match our couples pace and adapt to what each unique couples needs are. Some of our couples love to wake up before and sunrise, hike, and have a private ceremony at an alpine lake. Others like to take limos to national parks and have private dining experiences. We love helping our couples build a wedding day around their favorite activities.

Many people think that being a photographer means a person who takes, edits, and delivers images. That is such a small portion of what we actually do. We have learned so much along the way such as: excellent client communication, timeline building, permitting, vendor relationships, accounting, location scouting, image storage and backup, and so much more. We are constantly trying to learn ways to achieve the best possible experience for our couples.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?

+ Breakfast at Snooze A.M
+ Drive to Brainard Lake Recreation Area and hike
+ Drive back to Boulder and walk Pearl street
+ Must stop at: Savannah bee Company & Piece, Love, Chocolate
+ Dinner and drinks at JAX Fish house

+ Coffee from Market Brewing Company
+ Drive up Flagstaff monition and stop at Lost Gulch
+ Continue driving to Gross Reservoir and hike around
+ Lunch at Dushanbe Tea House
+ Dinner at Shine Potion Bar

+ RMNP Emerald lake hike
+ Kung Fu Tea – Boba
+ Plant shop at Urban Garden
+ Farmers Market (if available)

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I would like to shoutout Maddie Mae at Adventure Instead Academy (also based out of Colorado). Maddie created a course for elopement photospheres and is constantly sharing free resources to help photographers grow their businesses. She also is the creator of the Leave No Trace for Outdoor Ethics program for photographers which teaches practices on how to responsibly use and respect public lands.

How to Leave No Trace Course

Home

Website: https://www.cassandtyphotoco.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cassandtyphotoco/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cassandtyphotoco

Image Credits
Brittney Couture Photography https://www.brittneycouture.com