Today we’d like to introduce you to Sara Thrush.
Hi Sara, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
It all really started with planning my own wedding. I came out of the experience thinking, “Damn, I’m actually really good at this. People should pay me to do this.” 😂
That was the beginning of what eventually became Iris Rose Weddings & Events. As I started thinking seriously about wedding planning and coordination as a business, I was also looking for other ways I could branch into the wedding industry. Photography kept standing out to me because it was something I had always wanted to learn.
I had bought a super basic camera from Costco back in 2020 but never really did much with it. So in 2023, I picked it back up and decided I was going to figure it out.
And honestly, that’s pretty much how I built everything. I just started.
I offered free sessions to friends and family so I could practice. My first paying photography client paid me $75 for family photos. I photographed my first wedding for free for friends and then had another bride take a huge leap of faith on me and hire me to both photograph and coordinate her wedding.
Those early weddings became the foundation for Iris Rose Photography and Iris Rose Weddings & Events, which are now based in Tucson and serve couples throughout Southern Arizona and the Phoenix area. Today, I work as both an Arizona wedding photographer and wedding planner/coordinator, often providing both services for the same wedding.
When I look back at some of that early work now, part of me cringes because I was still very much figuring out my style and learning what I was doing. But I recently read something that completely changed the way I look at it. It was essentially about how beautiful it is to look back at your early work and feel embarrassed by it because it means you were brave enough to be a beginner.
I really love that.
There’s something I’m incredibly proud of now about the fact that I was willing to try something I wasn’t great at yet. I was willing to learn publicly, make mistakes, get better and keep going.
And I learned everything I could. I crash-coursed my way through building a website, contracts, business management platforms and all the other things you suddenly realize you need to know when you start a business. I spent countless hours on YouTube and behind the camera trying to understand manual mode and learning through trial and error.
I slowly bought equipment as I could afford it. I found a second camera body in a photography group and bought a better lens on Facebook Marketplace. In the beginning, I would take little “loans” from our family’s W-2 income to buy something the business needed and then pay the money back as the business earned it. Eventually, Iris Rose Photography reached the point where the business could buy the cameras, lenses and equipment I had once only hoped I’d be able to afford.
For the last three years, I have just absolutely grinded.
I worked in the mortgage industry for 16 years and kept my full-time job while building and running the businesses. Then, in 2024, I had a baby, because apparently I didn’t have enough going on.
At about eight months pregnant, I photographed an elopement that required hiking about a mile and a half up a mountain. I was committed to getting the shots and taking care of my clients, so up the mountain I went. By the time we got back down, I had dilated three centimeters. 😂 At nine months pregnant, I remember photographing a quinceañera feeling approximately the size of a whale and waddling around with my cameras, but I got it done.
Also in 2024, because again, my plate wasn’t full enough, I started Rose Pedal Creamery, a mobile ice cream tricycle for weddings and events. I thought the concept was adorable, I hadn’t seen anything quite like it in Tucson and when I think I have a good idea, I have a really hard time not doing something about it.
Ambition, determination and probably an unreasonable need to succeed are pretty deeply ingrained in my personality. Some of that comes from confidence and knowing what I’m capable of, and if I’m being completely honest, some of it probably comes from a lifelong feeling that I have something to prove. There are pros and cons to being wired that way. It has pushed me farther than I ever thought I’d go, but I also don’t always know when to shut it off.
For a long time, life meant juggling a toddler, an almost-teenager, my husband, a full-time career, wedding photography, wedding planning and the ice cream bike. My husband, Ryan, has been incredibly supportive through all of it. He has handled more weekends of solo parenting than I could count while I was photographing or coordinating weddings and he has jumped in as a second photographer or helped me coordinate when I needed him. My friends and family have supported and believed in me throughout this entire process too. I definitely built these businesses, but I also know I was fortunate to have people around me who gave me the space and support to do it and I’m so grateful for that.
My first year in business went pretty well. In my second year, I more than doubled what I had brought in the year before. Year three has been even stronger.
About a year ago, I started seriously planning to bet on myself and leave the career I had been in for 16 years. At the end of July, I finally did it.
It was terrifying. And exciting. And one of the things I’m proudest of doing.
Now I get to live and breathe weddings. I’m primarily a Tucson wedding photographer and planner, but I’ve been expanding into the Phoenix wedding market as well and I’m excited to continue working with more couples and venues throughout Arizona.
More importantly, I get to spend my days building something that belongs to me while also being home with my youngest and being there when my older daughter gets home from school. I get more time with my husband and my family. My days are definitely still full because when I see something that needs to be done for one of my businesses, I have a really hard time putting it down or thinking about anything else until it’s handled. That sense of urgency doesn’t always extend to laundry, but, hey, you win some, you lose some. Now my days are full of work I genuinely care about and a life I have more time to actually enjoy.
The last few years were hard. There is only so much energy and bandwidth one person has, and when you’re working a full-time job, raising kids and building businesses on nights and weekends, something has to give. Sometimes that was dishes or laundry. Sometimes it was time with friends or date nights. Sometimes house projects. Sometimes it was hobbies or just having time to do absolutely nothing. Now I’m super grateful to have some of that time back.
Today, bookings come in steadily and I genuinely love the couples I get to work with. Whether I’m photographing a wedding, coordinating one or doing both, I get to be there for one of the biggest days of their lives, bring good vibes into the room, solve problems, make things easier and give them photographs and memories they’ll have long after the day is over. It feels good to know that this is my job.
But I think the thing I’m proudest of is simply that I built something from literally nothing.
I’m six years sober, and there was a time in my life when I wasn’t living a life I was particularly proud of. So sometimes I look around now at my businesses, my marriage, my kids, the career I created and this really beautiful life I get to live and just think…wow. I did that.
I certainly didn’t do it without support and I’ll forever be grateful for the people who stood beside me while I did it. But I also know what it took for me to get here. I know how many nights, weekends, mistakes, tears, scary decisions and hours of work went into becoming the person and business owner I am today.
And I’m really proud of her.
And I’m really proud that the version of me who had no idea what she was doing in 2023 picked up that Costco camera and decided to try anyway.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Definitely not a totally smooth road. I think the biggest struggle has simply been accepting that there are only so many hours in a day and only so much of yourself you can give before something else starts paying the price.
For a long time, I was trying to give 100% to everything at once. I was building multiple businesses, working a full-time career in the mortgage industry, raising a family, adjusting to life with a new baby and trying to feel like myself again after having her. I was also working really hard to get physically strong and fit again, which was important to me but required another chunk of time and energy I didn’t necessarily have to spare.
I think I put myself into a self-induced state of fight or flight for a while. There was always something that needed to be done, something I could be doing better or some next goal I was already thinking about. I am an overthinker by nature and I really value feeling prepared, so being new at something is particularly uncomfortable for me. Not knowing the answer, not knowing exactly what the next step should be or not knowing how to get from where I was to where I wanted to be consumed a lot of mental space.
And the truth is, that stress didn’t only affect me. My family and my personal relationships took the brunt of it at times. I’m not always the nicest or easiest person to be around when I’m highly stressed. Having a baby can put pressure on any family and we were no exception. Adding a demanding career and growing businesses on top of that didn’t help. There were times when I was so focused on keeping everything moving forward that the people closest to me didn’t always get the best version of me and that’s something I’ve had to be honest with myself about and try to make amends for.
I’ve also had to learn that just because I can take something on doesn’t mean I should. Rose Pedal Creamery is probably the funniest example. Did we need to start another business while we had a new baby, full-time jobs and two other growing businesses? Absolutely not. Did I insist on doing it anyway? Yes, of course. My determination can be one of my greatest strengths, but my insistence can also become a problem, and not just for me. When I overload myself, the people around me inevitably feel the effects too.
Being a new business owner has also meant making mistakes, which is incredibly hard for someone who holds herself to very high standards. I’ve had hard drives fail and lost photographs that can never be recreated. Those were some of the worst phone calls I’ve ever had to make. I did everything I could to make those situations right, but knowing I had let someone down was truly awful.
I did learn from it though – today, my files are backed up in three separate places. That’s been true of a lot of my mistakes in business. I let myself feel terrible about them for probably longer than necessary, then I figure out exactly how they happened and build a system to make sure they don’t happen again.
I think that’s really what the difficult parts of this journey have looked like. It hasn’t necessarily been one giant obstacle. It’s been learning how to be new at something when I desperately want to already be good at it. It’s been making mistakes and having to own them. It’s been having more things I want to accomplish than hours available to accomplish them. It’s been learning that ambition without boundaries can take a toll on the things you’re working so hard for in the first place. I’m still learning that last one.
Leaving my full-time mortgage career has given me some breathing room for the first time in a long time and I’m learning how to come down from that constant sense of urgency. I’m trying to be more intentional about where my energy goes and remember that success isn’t particularly meaningful if I don’t have the time or mental space to enjoy the life I’m building it for.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Iris Rose Photography and Iris Rose Weddings & Events?
Iris Rose is really two sister businesses under one roof: Iris Rose Photography and Iris Rose Weddings & Events. I’m based in Tucson and work with couples throughout Southern Arizona and the Phoenix area as a wedding photographer, wedding planner and coordinator.
With Iris Rose Photography, my style is centered around documenting weddings as they actually feel while also creating photographs that just feel beautiful. I want my couples to have the gorgeous portraits, incredible light and well composed images that make them stop when they see their gallery, but I don’t want their entire wedding day to feel like a photo shoot. I’ll step in and direct when direction is needed, help people feel confident and natural in front of the camera and chase really beautiful light when I see it. Then I want my couples to be able to go enjoy their wedding while I document everything happening around them.
I love a photograph where the sunset is killer and the bride looks like she belongs in a magazine just as much as I love the completely unplanned moments. I love catching the way a groom looks at his bride when you can see exactly how much he loves her, a parent watching from across the room, someone laughing so hard they make an objectively terrible face or the absolute chaos that can happen on a dance floor. To me, great wedding photography is both. I want to create the photographs you’ll want framed on your wall, but I also want to give the ones that immediately take you back to how the wedding actually felt.
Iris Rose Weddings & Events is the planning and coordination side. I offer everything from smaller coordination packages to day-of and month-of coordination, partial planning, full-service wedding planning and wedding styling. My role is ultimately to make the wedding feel manageable for my couples. There are a thousand tiny decisions and moving pieces behind a wedding, and I really enjoy being the person who knows what’s happening, where everyone needs to be and what needs to happen next so my couple doesn’t have to.
One thing that makes Iris Rose a little different is that photography and wedding planning live together. Couples can hire me for either service independently, but I also work with couples who want both wedding photography and coordination. Having experience on both sides has made me better at each of them. As a photographer, I understand how the timeline, lighting and logistics affect the photographs. As a coordinator, I understand what the photography team needs to create great images without throwing the entire wedding day off schedule. I’m constantly looking at a wedding from both perspectives.
I also think a big part of what couples are hiring when they hire me is *me*. Weddings are personal and you’re spending a lot of time with your photographer or coordinator on a pretty important day. I take the work seriously without wanting the experience to feel overly serious. I’m organized, direct when I need to be and very invested in making sure things are handled, but I also want to bring good energy into the room. I want my couples to feel comfortable with me, laugh with me and know that if something goes sideways, they don’t need to panic because I’m already figuring it out.
Then there’s Rose Pedal Creamery, my third business and the fun little sister of the group. Rose Pedal is a mobile ice cream tricycle primarily for weddings and events, so apparently even when I branched outside of photography and planning, I still couldn’t actually leave the wedding and event industry haha.
What I’m most proud of across all three brands is the experience we’ve built. I don’t want Iris Rose to ever feel like a wedding factory where a couple is just another date on the calendar. I genuinely get attached to my couples and invested in their weddings. I want them to feel taken care of from the first conversation through the wedding day and beyond.
Tucson will always be home base for Iris Rose, but I’ve been expanding our wedding photography and coordination services into Phoenix and would love to continue working with more Phoenix couples and venues. Ultimately, whether I’m photographing a Tucson wedding, coordinating a Phoenix wedding or somehow convincing everyone that an ice cream bike is an essential wedding expense, the goal is pretty much the same: make the experience easier, make it fun and help people have a really damn good wedding.
How do you think about luck?
I have a complicated relationship with the idea of luck. I absolutely think luck exists, good and bad, but I also believe pretty strongly in the universe, manifestation and some version of divine intervention or fate. I don’t know exactly what I would call it. I just have this deep-rooted belief that the universe has my back.
At the same time, I believe very strongly in personal accountability, so luck is rarely the first place my brain goes when something happens. If something goes wrong, my first question is usually, “What did I do or what could I have done differently that might have changed this?” Even when something genuinely was outside of my control, I want to know if there was anything within my control that I could learn from.
I think the same thing applies to good luck. Was I lucky that people took chances on me when I was brand new? Absolutely, probably. Those first clients could have hired someone else. They gave me opportunities that allowed me to build a portfolio, gain experience and start believing that this could actually become something. But I also don’t know where luck ends and everything else begins.
From the beginning, I had an unreasonable belief that I was going to make this work. There really wasn’t much evidence to support that belief yet. I had never built a business like this. I was still learning photography. I was figuring out the wedding industry as I went. When people expressed doubt or concern, there was this part of me that was just like, “Nope. I’m going to kill it. Watch.”
At the time, that confidence was probably a little delusional. Looking back, maybe it wasn’t.
I’ve overcome a lot in my life and I’ve had to rebuild myself in ways that were much harder than building a business. Maybe somewhere underneath all of that confidence was the knowledge that I’d already survived things I once didn’t know how I was going to survive. Starting a business was uncertain, but uncertainty wasn’t exactly new territory for me.
So I decided I was going to win. I believed it and then I behaved like I believed it. I worked, learned, invested, made mistakes, adjusted and kept going. I think there’s something powerful about deciding what you believe is possible for your life and then consistently acting in alignment with that belief.
But I also don’t think I can take credit for every good thing that has happened to me.
There are moments in my life where, statistically or logically, things could have turned out very differently. There is a pretty strong case to be made that I shouldn’t even be alive today. So whether you call that luck, fate, divine intervention, being blessed or simply the universe having my back, I don’t really know. Maybe all of those things can exist at the same time.
I can acknowledge that I’ve been lucky and still be proud of how hard I’ve worked. I can believe that there are forces at work that I can’t see and still take responsibility for the choices I make. I can be grateful that certain people and opportunities found me while also knowing that when they did, I was willing to do something with them.
I think that’s probably where I landed on luck: I believe the universe has my back, but I also believe it’s my responsibility to meet it halfway.
Pricing:
- Wedding Photography: $1,400–$3,700
- Day-of Wedding Coordination: Starting at $1,500
- Month-of Wedding Coordination: Starting at $2,200
- Partial Wedding Planning: Starting at $3,500
- Full-Service Wedding Planning: Starting at $5,500
Contact Info:
- Website: www.irisroseevents.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/irisrosephoto (@irisrosephoto) AND www.instagram.com/irisroseevents (@irisroseevents)
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/irisrosephotoaz AND www.facebook.com/irisroseweddings
