what is thirteenth moon?
Long before there was a business...there was a book.
It was a book about my Cherokee heritage, passed down through the women in my family. Its pages had been lovingly read, marked, and returned to over the years. When I opened it one day, one page immediately caught my attention.
It had been dog-eared.
There were handwritten notes in the margins—in my mother's handwriting, and my aunt's.
At the top of that page were two simple words:
**Thirteenth Moon.**
The name found me long before I ever photographed my first wedding. Long before I knew what my career would become. Long before marriage, motherhood, heartbreak, healing, or the life that would eventually unfold before me.
It felt less like discovering a name and more like receiving one.
In Cherokee tradition, the moon has long marked the rhythms of life and the changing seasons, reminding us that life moves in cycles of growth, rest, renewal, and return. That idea stayed with me. The moon is never truly gone—it changes, it disappears for a time, and then it faithfully returns.
Over the years, I've realized that love is much the same.
It grows. It changes. It asks us to trust through seasons we don't always understand. Sometimes it shines brightly. Other times it asks us to believe it's still there, even when hidden beyond the clouds.
That's why the name has never been just about weddings.
It's about hope.
It's about family.
It's about legacy.
It's about believing that every ending can become the beginning of something new.
Over time, I realized that Thirteenth Moon wasn't simply the name of a business. It became a way of approaching people—with patience, intention, and care. Those same values now guide every wedding I photograph, every celebration I help coordinate, and every strategy session where I sit beside a couple and help them find their footing. No matter how someone finds me, my hope is always the same: that they feel seen, supported, and free to be fully present in the moments that matter most.
Today, Thirteenth Moon carries the stories of the women who came before me, the family who shaped me, and the son I hope will one day inherit not just a business, but a legacy of creativity, kindness, and curiosity.
My feet have always been rooted in the earth—in family, in nature, and in the traditions that remind me where I come from.
My heart has always been drawn to the stars.
Somewhere between those two places, Thirteenth Moon found its home.
And so did I.
