dear Vanessa,

This monster of a site would not be what it is without you. Your patience and dedication to make it just what I envisioned day after day is admirable. Many creatives aim high and end up shooting really low. But not you. You definitely found a way to deliver everything we ever set ourselves to achieve. Abigail Vigoa Photography has a new home thanks to you. Words seem to fail me every time I try to express my profound gratitude. Everything you have done for me will forever be appreciated and remembered with the biggest smile on my always tired face. We were quite a match my friend, I cannot wait to see what the future holds as we continue to collaborate our creative minds together. Thank you and thank you again.

When I think back on the past three months of collaborating with Vanessa Cabrera of V&Co. on how we were to create a website that reflected my ideals for my past and future clients I am in awe of how far we have come. Vanessa happens to be a mom-preneur just like me, all the more reason we clicked. It all started with her willingness to make my online presence better. Whatever it is I had before wasn’t good enough… she wanted me to shoot for the moon and stars here. I don’t know about you guys but it’s very rare to have someone ask you, what would your dream website look like? I was so surprised with the thought I didn’t even know what to answer. Just because in all my years of following other photographers with custom websites and having my own dose of customizing there was so much I wanted to say and it was quite honestly ALL OVER THE PLACE. I had to really dig deep and conceptualize into what Abigail Vigoa Photography stands for.

Genuine, Emotional & Intimate Photographs

Those were our three words to focus on. Everything about the website had to reflect a genuine feel to who I am and who it is I am photographing. Those staged shoots had to go out the window and any font that felt too high-end and fashion forward was not cutting it. We needed “me” in code. Vanessa found a way to bring “me” to code. “Me” on a website. It wasn’t easy for her, because boy did I give her a hard time. My trusting issues were not easy to deal with at first and that was until one day we just talked about everything else under the stars that had nothing to do with websites or photography. We were just two moms talking as friends about being with our loved ones and the struggles of our every day life. Vanessa was from then on not my web designer but my friend who happens to be a wiz at coding. I would from then on talk to her as my conscious… the good and the bad, whatever I felt about our project, and she patiently listened and gave me feed back on all my thoughts. There were nights that turned into mornings because there were… inspired and busy creating. We would also have one on one meets either at her home or mine where we were able to get so much accomplished because we were seeing the exact same thing and she wasn’t only reading into my voice but my gestures and facial expressions… those days were so vital to our project. Vanessa was fully able to get to know Abby the photographer, Abby the mother, Abby the wife, Abby the creative and so forth. So when we put this website together, I knew she was doing it for more than Abigail Vigoa Photography, she was doing so for the friend she found in me.

All along this process I would excitingly comment to my clients and friends the progress we were making. Everyone was anxious to see what it was we were up to and they all had pretty much the same question, when is it going to be finished? I thought the same thing too. Every single day. Not because I was waiting on her, but because I couldn’t wait to see everything come to life. Because I was busy most nights contributing one way or another into making this as personalized as possible. Thoughtful branding it’s called. Or in my own words – I’m just being anal and Vanessa wants to run and hide – but then again there she was the next day, “Hello my friend..”

So if you friend reading this are considering marketing your business or have been craving to start a blog (about whatever it is your heart desires to write about), send my friend here a message. Not because she is my friend, because before we started my website we were total strangers, but because you won’t regret it. Vanessa takes the time to find out your needs and your design ideas. She wants to reflect you as an individual and a company through the design and aesthetics of the website. Can’t come up with who “you” are just yet? Let her help you. Open up your heart and mind to all the possibilities that are out there when you customize your web experience. Anyone can play around with a preset – but it takes a skilled professional to bake you a website from scratch. She did this for me and I know she will be able to deliver for you. She won’t sleep until she does, I promise.

Vanessa’s side-kick happens to be one of my biggest fans and friends that I have ever encountered. One of the most wonderful things about our creative venture was that we were both nocturnal and home bound buds. She would FaceTime me and I was still in my pajamas from the night before. Hair a mess. The kid’s lunch all over me it seem like and there we were, chatting up about AV.. and then all of the sudden little Jacob would come around. I would light up and he would be excited to see me and share his latest Netflix find. He found hot-mess me pretty and that right there my friends would melt my heart every time. Watching her work while having Jacob around was such an insight as to what it will be when the boys are his age and I’m editing away the latest family session.

One of the days I was there visiting I brought along my camera ( and just that because I totally forgot my camera bag with everything else ) and snapped a couple of shots for her upcoming blog. I will be documenting her family soon, but for now enjoy these behind the scenes of our one-on-one plan meets while we collaborated as to what AbigailVigoa.com was going to be.

Oh Jacob, you sure know how to make all the girls blush! Love you both so much!