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I'm Shauna, but you can call me Shay.
I am so excited you wanted to get to know me! So, let's start I was born, raised, and still live in the same neighborhood in South Jersey with my high school sweetheart, Shane, and our 2 boys, Emmet and Gavin. After starting Milestone as a fun side business in 2015 I took a leap of faith after losing my office job in 2020 to take my business and passion on full time and I haven't regretted it once. I have background in the dental field as well as real estate from careers I had prior to going full time. I believe that all of the jobs that I worked prior to taking on my business full time were all necessary stepping stones that provided experience I needed to be successful in my business. I am so grateful for the life I have and I thank god daily for the blessings that I have received and the the ways I get to experience the world.
I am a Wife.
I met my husband, Shane, just a few weeks after I turned 15 at a local youth group event, and we have been together ever since. We were married 3 weeks after I turned 18 and moved away to Arlington, VA while he served in Army before we moved back home to our small south jersey town to raise our family. Shane works in construction and enjoys working with his hands and being outdoors. As the pastor said on our wedding day, we fill each others gaps. Where I lack he can fill in for and vise versa. We make a great team. Our love story is one of the reasons that I love being a wedding photographer, because I know what true love is and I can only hope that others get to experience it the way that we have.
I am a Momma.
Being a mom was really the only dream I had growing up. So when we found out we were expecting I was over the moon. We were very young when Emmet came along, but we couldn't imagine what life would be like without being parents. Gavin came along a few years later after we moved back home. With our hands and hearts feeling full we decided our family was complete. We love our crazy boys and are having so much fun with them now that they are old enough to go on adventures. Our boys love wrestling, motocross and video games. Our boys have big confidence and big personalities! We love every minute.. (okay that is me lying. We love most of the minutes.)
Our Family.
Our family is all about warm weather and going fast. Our summers are golf cart rides, swimming holes, and little adventures. We love hosting friends and family and planning big celebrations. Almost our entire extended family and all of our friends live within a few blocks of us in our small town and we feel extremely blessed for the life that we get to live with them all being so close.
A Virgo for sure.
Look up the personality of a Virgo and you will know exactly what you are getting into with me. But, to save you the time I will give you the summary. I am stupid loyal to everything and everyone I commit myself to. I enjoy cleaning, organizing, and serving others. I was saved and baptized in 2022 and have felt the overwhelming love of Jesus in my life ever since. I have a strong personality and a RBF that can cause discomfort in others, I don't know how to fix it, but believe me once we get to talking you will understand that it's "just my face" as me and my friends say about it. I am an introverted-extrovert. I don't like leaving my house, but once I am out I can be the life of the party. As I like to explain it, I just have a defective starter.
History.
As I mentioned I actually didn't have a dream of becoming a photographer as a child. I just wanted to be a mom and a wife. Everything else that happened was just a bonus to me. I thought I would work in the medical field with children, but when the vocational program I was applying to suggested the dental field I went along.
That was until I went out black Friday shopping in 2013 and found a great deal on a fancy looking point and shoot camera and found a passion for documenting my life. I became obsessed with it and brought the camera with me every where.
Not too much longer after that purchase I enrolled in photography school to learn everything I could. I never imagined I would become a professional, I just wanted to learn how to take better photos of what was now my growing family.
As my husband's time in the Army came to a close is right when I finished up the program at the New York Institute of Photography. It was also the same time we moved back to South Jersey to be with our families again.
I stayed in the dental field and began getting my feet wet offering free or extremely inexpensive sessions to local families. I loved it! I didn't expect to go very far with it. I was just happy to do photography on the side.
After working and slowly taking on more and more clients and gaining experience I took a leap of faith after losing my office job in 2020 and decided to go into photography full time and I haven't looked back since!
I am thriving! In 2022 I documented my 100th wedding since starting in 2015. I have been published in bridal blogs, awarded for my work, and I have been loving on my clients all along the way. I am so, so grateful that I get to do what I love and I get to be the mom I dreamed of being because I can create my own schedule that allows me to not miss a thing.
So when you see me loving on my clients and really making sure their experience is the best it could be, know that it is because of my clients that my life is the best it could be so they deserve every extra bit of time, all the cheesy things I say, and all of the love I put into what I do.
If you have been one of my loyal clients and are getting to read this THANK YOU! If you are learning about my business for the first time I can't wait to bring you into the Milestone Community and show you how much this all means to me.
I am passionate about my work and my business and I love giving my clients an unforgettable experience and a gallery they will treasure forever! I love getting to know my clients, getting them comfortable, and making portraits and posing fun!
I am committed to an experience outside of just a transaction. I want to help my with all aspects of their day by sharing my knowledge and experiences to ensure not just their photos are amazing, but their day is amazing as well.
I can't wait to meet you and learn about you and make you apart of the Milestone family!
Favorite things.