a Mama and Daughter story and a talking quilt?
- tathelmillerwriter
- May 2, 2023
- 7 min read
Lisa Parker and Emily Brown are more than just mother and daughter. They are videographers, entrepreneurs, authors, storytellers, and most of all dear friends.
Videographers. Entrepreneurs. Storytellers.
Our Story Video Creations
Aspiring to start their own business, Lisa and Emily were uncertain what that kind of business would be. However they were certain of a few things–they wanted it to be fun, completely different from their day jobs, and something they could do together.
“We had always wanted to do a business together,” Lisa says. “Not nursing or anything related but something completely different. Something for fun–something we could do together. We came up with a hundred million different ideas and nothing stuck.”
Emily adds, “We both had this feeling/burden that something was coming and we had to get ready. It was just the oddest thing.”
The mother and daughter duo never had plans to start a wedding video company, however the need for such a business came about after Emily’s wedding.
“It all started when I got married in 2015,” Emily explains. “I didn’t have a videographer. I had a co-worker and family member taking pictures and I can remember walking down the aisle and panicking–we don’t have a videographer! It never crossed our minds to have one!
“I hadn’t talked to Mom that morning, but she had packed up her own home video camera before coming to the venue. And when she gets there she chunks it at someone and says, get what you can get and she passes it around to two or three more people. And they got the important stuff. Then Mom takes the video home and our wedding video was the first one she put together.”
“I knew nothing about putting a wedding video together,” Lisa says. “But I had done a few little projects at church and knew enough to get started. At her wedding the DJ played the wrong song when she came down the aisle and so two weeks after the wedding I decided to put something together for her. And I thought I could fix that for her–put in the right song. So I put photos together into a video with the right song. I invited her and Joey over to the house and they sat down at my table and I showed it to them. And she cried and cried. And I thought to myself–this is fun. To make something that touches people like this.”
And thus, Our Story Video Creations began and as with any new business, Lisa and Emily learned in order for the business to do well and succeed those first few years, they would have to work countless hours.
“We started Our Story Video Creations and the first year we had seven weddings,” explains Lisa. “But it was hard in the beginning. We learned real quick we had to work day and night to get started. It has gradually grown over the years. We have 14 working for us now and we can do up to four weddings in a day. It’s hectic. It’s a lot of packing bags, charging batteries and making sure everyone has what they need. We are at a point now where we don't go to weddings and we stay at the office in case someone needs us. It’s different now. I edit all of the videos myself. And the past two years we have done more than 50 weddings.”
Along with weddings and other projects, Our Story Video Creations has branched out and now creates and shares human interest stories on their YouTube channel.
“We were asked to do a video of a 100-year old lady’s birthday party who lives in Boone,” says Emily. “We visited her at her home in Boone and we spent two days interviewing her. She played the piano for us and we learned she was in the first graduating class of teachers at ASU (Appalachian State University).”
“This experience piqued our interest in doing these kinds of videos and we really have a heart for the human interest stories,” Lisa says. “We hope to do more of these in the future.”
Authors. Storytellers. A Gift from Above
Dear Little One, Did you know I was made just for you?
As Our Story Video Creations grew, their jobs began including commercial and other digital related projects. Kathy Higley, Lisa’s sister, requested Lisa and Emily create a commercial for her church’s upcoming quilt show. And out of that project came Lisa and Emily’s children’s book, Dear Little One, Did you know I was made just for you?
“My sister in Florida has a quilting group with her church,” explains Lisa. “They make quilts all year long and then they do a quilt show at the end of the year and it’s a way to raise money. All the quilts and money go to a local pregnancy center in her town. She called me one day and wanted us to make her a commercial for Facebook to advertise her quilt show. She suggested maybe like a couple of girls coming out of the building in conversation about them going to the quilt show.
“I just kept thinking I want to do something else. I remember it very clearly. We were in the kitchen talking and it just hit me all of a sudden and I looked at Emily and said, the quilt needs to do the talking. And it just went from there.
“I’ve never written a book before. It was certainly a gift from above. Emily helped me along the way–we collaborated together. I would get to a part and get stuck and Emily would help me get over the hump. We wrote the book and it was a little short version and I thought we were done.
“It wasn’t very long later that I thought–there needs to be more to the story. So I went home and wrote more and I called Emily and told her I would share it with her the next day. I wanted to see her reaction when she read it rather than reading it to her over the phone or sending it to her by email. I went and picked her up and we were sitting in my car and I started reading it to her.”
Emily says, teary-eyed, “From the first line I was crying.”
“She was just boohooing,” Lisa adds. “I was like, we’ve got something here. We asked Bill (William Vance) Nichols to do the illustrations for us and he came to our office and did all the illustrations there so we could watch him. He wanted to be here as he worked so we could tweak anything if we needed to.
“And he was so sly because he drew the Mama in the story to look like me in the illustrations. I used to have dark hair. We went to church with him for many years and he is one of the nicest people you will ever meet.”
Lisa and Emily also teamed up with the Wilkes Pregnancy Center and Ultra Precision Quilting in Florida with their children’s book A portion of the sales of Dear Little One benefits Wilkes Pregnancy Center. Another aspect that makes the book special is a reader can order a quilt kit from Ultra Precision Quilting that matches the quilt in the book. The quilt kit comes with everything needed to make a small baby quilt.
Family. Our Biggest Fans
Lisa and Emily both agree that their family has been their biggest support and have stepped up to do whatever they could do to make Our Story Video Creations a success.
“My mom and my dad have always been our biggest fans for this business,” says Lisa. “Set builders, always extras in the videos. They would do anything to help us. They were in so many projects.”
“One of my fondest memories of him (my Papaw) was when we first started this business,” Emily shares. “He was always telling us to charge appropriately. He was always keeping up with what we were doing. At the time our office was in their house in the bedroom. We would tell him when we posted a new video. And I could hear him walking or in the wheelchair going to his office and we could hear him clicking on his computer watching our new video.”
Lisa’s dad, Emily’s Papaw passed away in 2019. And to show their love, their book Dear Little One is dedicated in his memory. “For Papaw. Whom we miss more every day.”
Vision for the future
When asked what the vision for the future of Our Story Video Creations looks like or if they have plans to write another book, their answers weren’t locked into any concrete plans but what they were certain of is this–they will continue to lean on each other, recognize, keep dreaming, take chances, and laugh often.
“I got here today and she (Lisa) said, ‘I have an announcement.’ Okay?!” Emily says with a laugh. “She is the typical 70’s child, a dreamer and I’m just your run of the mill millennium child.
“We are at this style shoot. I’m following the photographers. I call myself the pack mule. I’ve got all my gear with me and I’m shooting and watching the photographers. And I was like, where is my Mother? And literally there she is in grass waist high and she looks like she is trying to catch butterflies with her camera.”
Lisa smiles agreeing with her daughter and says, “Emily is my confidant, trusted advisor, my best friend, and I couldn’t do all this without her.”
To learn more about Our Story Video Creations or order Dear Little One visit their website at www.ourstoryvideocreations.com or email them at ourstoryvideocreations@outlook.com
or call Lisa Parker 336.984.8616.
Social Media
A portion of proceeds from sales of Dear Little One benefit Wilkes Pregnancy Care Center in North Wilkesboro, NC.
A humble and sincere thank you to Lisa and Emily for taking the time to share their story.
Emily and Lisa are amazing! Thank you for sharing their story.