Today we’d like to introduce you to Lauren Warnke.
Hi Lauren, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
So I started my career in photography in 2017 as a country music photographer (@texacanaphotography). I shot everyone from Randy Rogers Band and local Austinite Josh Abbott & Bart Crow. That’s actually how I met my husband because he was Bart Crow’s tour manager at the time and a year after meeting, I moved to Austin. A year after that, we got engaged October 2019 and five months later, we got married. If you do the math there though… that leads up to when Covid hit Austin. I remember it like it was yesterday to be honest. My wedding was the 22nd and my bachelorette party was supposed to be the weekend before. I remember my bridesmaids called me and said, “should we come given this weird virus thing?”. They were all in Dallas, and at the time Dallas had it bad and Austin, as of March 12th, had zero cases. So I told them, “yall are literally safer in Austin because we don’t have any cases.” And that all changed literally the next day. (I swear I am getting to the point). So we attempted to have my bachelorette party but the city was pretty empty already at that point. Sixth Street (compared to what it normally is) was empty.
So that following Monday, the 16th, we moved forward with continuing with the wedding. We ran out to Georgetown to get out license just in case we went into shut down before. Of course, we decided to go ahead to grab groceries from HEB because we kept hearing they were running out of food. In the frozen food aisle of HEB, we got the text from our wedding planner that our wedding would have to be reduced from 150 people to 50 due to restrictions. And we looked at each other, cried in the middle of the store, and said “we doing this regardless. At the end of the day, we will be married.” So we proceeded to reduce the guest list and two days later, we found out it could only be ten people or less. So in 72 hours, ALL the work I had done to plan was gone.
Our wedding day was quiet. I had one bridesmaid there because he husband also happened to be our videographer. We had our immediate parents, a photographer, a videographer and the officiant. AND IT WAS ABSOLUTELY PERFECT. It was a bit of a rainy day but the rain let up for the ceremony. My dad and stepdad both walked me down the aisle. We had a very intimate wedding and then we got to walk around the Blue Hole in Georgetown to take incredible photos. I could not have asked for it to have been better.
But then… 24 hours after our wedding, we went into full shut down. I remember seeing people on Instagram posting these really awesome to go specials. Specifically, I remember it seemed everyone was going to Gabriella’s and getting these to go drink and one was a spiked horchata and I WANTED IT BAD. So I went and got one and started posting about different foods we were getting. I wanted to get my camera back out and feed my artistic side since I could no longer shoot concerts. So food is what I turned to!
Very quickly, it seemed to take off which was really cool! For a long time, I wanted to be a blogger and the pandemic kind of lead to this opportunity that I might not have done prior to. I learned how to grow a social media account and really learn how to grow a business on Instagram.
Since then, I went through a process of realizing how much I really loved marketing, photography and social media management. My degree is in Sociology and Counseling but I realized THIS is what I wanted to do. And my husband and I worked it out for me to quit my job and allow me to pursue this passion I’ve found to really make it a business. He’s been so supportive and helpful through all of this. There are a lot of things that you see on my Instagram that he had a lot of hand in. We joke all the time about “insta-husbands”. He’s been really amazing to stand with me to build this. I’m really thankful for him.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Gosh no! I mean I started during the Summer of 2020 during a pandemic. It’s definitely been difficult trying to learn how to do everything. It’s SO MUCH MORE than posting a picture and miraculously getting likes. There is so much more behind it to really learn the business and the algorithm of Instagram. So many people and even business think “what you just take a picture and throw it online.” But my goodness… it’s WAY more than that. There is hours behind many Instagram posts that you don’t see.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I like to think of myself as a content creator and part of what I love about that is the photography side. Really more so, the editing part of photography. I might not know the full ins and outs of a camera (though I am learning, five years under my belt and I am still learning) but I :LOVE editing. Even when I was shooting concerts, I loved editing to find the balance of skin tone and lighting. Now I love to find the balance of making something pop. When you think about it, a lot of the foods we eat are fried and just a very generic golden brown. I love taking that and creating something beautiful with it. Finding magic in making this burger look incredible!
On top of that part of my work, I love showing off local businesses. I really enjoy trying all kinds of different foods and just bringing light to local business that deserves a spotlight! Some of my favorite experiences are when the owners get to sit with us and tell us why they started a business or what inspired them to create a dish. It’s so cool and adds so much more to the experience. And I love sharing that with my audience because the owner can’t sit with everyone all the time to tell them these stories. But if I can help with that, it brings me so much joy!!
Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
I think if anything I learned about myself and where I was putting my time. I left my full-time job with benefits, 401K, etc to follow a passion. Sure there was a consistency in my old job but I wasn’t passionate about it. I didn’t wake up excited to do my job. But I do now. I had to ask myself this question “is the money really worth it?”. I started struggling with my own mental health and that’s when my husband and I had to have these tough conversations about “was this really worth it”? At the end of the day, I now love what I do, I can see myself happier. And that is worth more than gold to me.
Contact Info:
- Email: atxandchill@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/atxandchill/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/atxandchill
Image Credits:
Bridget O’Connor Photography (wedding photos)
