“At the Table” is a series of interviews and spotlight conversations with people I admire from within and outside of the wedding industry. These conversations focus on topics related to building an intentional, relationship-first business alongside a present, connected, values-driven personal life.
Introduction:
I first became aware of Sofia & Andre, the powerful duo behind Branco Prata, through my friend Jeannette. Long-distance admiration turned into an Instagram DM-based friendship with Sofia, which turned into several second shooting opportunities alongside Andre, which led to finally spending lingering time together during a many-hours-long evening of dinner and drinks in a tiny NYC bar a few years ago. My admiration and affection for these two grows with every encounter. I’m so thrilled to share our conversation with you.
Follow Branco Prata via their website & IG.
THE INTERVIEW
→ First of all, tell me in your own words what you do for work, and why you do it?
Sofia: I’m a floral designer & stylist, but I like to think of myself as a variety of different things. I am also the creative director of the brand we founded together. Early on, I knew this was my life’s choice, that I didn’t want to do anything else except be responsible for Branco Prata. I feel happier saying that than, “Oh, I am a floral stylist.”
And why do I do it? It was an easy choice. I knew I messed up in school—I did not study as I should, and ended up majoring in an area that I knew, even at 18, would not fulfill me. So when I finished that degree, the first thing I did was try to discover what to do next. And by pure luck, a big lightbulb went off in my head, and I knew I wanted to work on weddings. I wanted to work with people at a time in their lives when they were extremely happy, and I knew I wanted to create things. That was 22 years ago, and this is still what I want to do. I want to make people happy while I’m also happy.
Andre: And I’m a photographer. I have done many different kinds of photography, but for the last 20-something years, I have been a wedding photographer. I don’t feel like an artist, don’t want to call myself that, but I feel like a very capable photographer, very able to achieve what my clients want and what I want as an end result.
I started as a photojournalist, and then I decided to shoot weddings because I love people, and I love love. One of the things that still makes me feel fulfilled about what I do is that I have a high capability for human connection. I can talk with people and know exactly what they’re looking for. Being a wedding photographer is not just about taking pictures; it’s also about talking with people, making them feel good, and supporting them throughout the day.
In the end, if I do a good job, but I don’t feel a connection with my clients, my job is just half done. For me, it’s so much more than getting good pictures; it’s about becoming friends. And I knew when I started shooting weddings that this was my last job. And honestly, I still can’t see myself doing anything else. I will be shooting until my knees don’t work anymore. I might do this from a wheelchair or something. It would be a lower point of view, but I think that could work because I’m already short.
→ What does a typical day look like for you?
Sofia: I wake up really, really early, I exercise from home, then have breakfast, and then time for myself. And then a couple of hours later, I go and wake up Andre. Regardless of what our days look like, we make sure we’re not rushing, that we have time to actually enjoy our morning. We live 10 minutes from our studio, and the first thing we do when we arrive is have an espresso, then turn on the computer, then go through emails together—me, Andre, and our studio manager. It’s our daily strategy meeting, we make sure everybody knows our schedule and what needs to be done.
And then from there, every day is different. I try to block time out every single day for my crazy ideas, where I imagine, get inspired, or write about ideas I want to explore. I sometimes print images that have nothing to do with weddings, but I want to make sure I don’t forget about them. We experiment all of the time. Right now we’re experimenting with colors that we aren’t usually drawn to. And then I work on physical mood boards on little book notes that I have. I need that daily reminder of what we do, that it’s not just for clients. These inspirational exercises, these creative things we do in our studio, I know that in any project that I work on, things that I learned from creative play, my clients will get value from that. So I spend time every day doing that.
Andre: We are a couple that works together, and sometimes it can be a little overwhelming. But we have been doing this for 20-something years, and have been together for a few less years than we have been working together, but we do try to have as normal a life as possible. We might leave the studio early, go home, and have time for ourselves to have a good dinner. I cook, Sofia reads, I’ll watch a show. And then that’s it.
When we’re working here at the studio, we think of it like a lab for ideas, for things we want to do. And sometimes the good ideas we can take them to real work, like shooting a different style, or for Sofia to work with different materials or mechanics. We’re always pushing ourselves. For 20-something years now, we never settle.
→ In her book Dare to Lead, Brené Brown says that every person has just two core values that shape everything else that they do or believe. Do you agree with that idea? If you could boil your values down to just two, what would they be? How do those influence how you do your work & live your life?
Sofia: The first one is a client centric approach. The clients are the most important thing for us. I always get so upset when I meet [another wedding vendor] and they say, “If I work with this client, this wedding is going to be featured, and I will get beautiful images of things that are trending right now, and I can post those images, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.” And it’s okay for them, just don’t ask me to do that. My main focus is to work with people, understand what they value the most, and then ask myself, am I the person for this job?
And then collaboration, I truly believe that collaboration is the key to keeping inspired, to wanting to do more, to meeting new people, working with them, learning from them, sharing things with them.
Andre: For me, I wold add honesty. In many different areas, things are just running so fast. And think honesty is one of the things that make us feel as human as possible, and with a deep sense that we’re doing things because we want to. It’s not just about honesty with the clients, but honesty with our work. We don’t accept some projects, sometimes very good projects, because we don’t agree with some of the values that are associated to those events. Business-wise, this can be very complicated sometimes, but at least at night when we go to bed, you have this feeling that “I was true to myself.” We did things as a true representation of who we are. We’re not just doing things for others, we’re doing them for ourselves. And I think when we maintain this, for us, that’s integrity.
→ The British author Alain de Botton has this famous quote: “There is no such thing as work-life balance. Everything worth fighting for unbalances your life.” I tend to agree with this idea, that work-life balance is an unhelpful goal, and we should instead think about aligned values and healthy rhythms in all spheres of life. What do you think about the phrase “work-life balance?” How do keep healthy rhythms & momentum going in both work and personal spheres?
Andre: We recently had dinner with one of our past clients who got married a couple of years ago. This was a very unique wedding because the bride, Caroline, knew at the time that she was dying, and has since passed (one week after their first anniversary). The wedding was here in Porto, and Mike texted Sofia that he wanted to have dinner with us, and asked if we could gather some of the people who worked on the wedding.
He shared about Caroline. She was a force of nature, a very special person. Even after she knew about the disease, she was working, working, working. She was incredible. And Mike said something about work-life balance, something that we already feel. But listening to him share, after going through this tragic situation, confirmed our beliefs. He said, “Work-life balance doesn’t exist when you’re doing something that truly makes you feel happy.” He and Caroline both had busy lives. They were traveling all the time. But you didn’t have to worry about balance because it makes you feel so happy and fulfills you.
And this is true for us too, we don’t even think about it. Especially for us, we work and live together, and to think “Oh, we need to have a life, we need to have time to do things for us.” But we have time. And our work is part of that time. We’re here together, we’re having fun. It’s not an obligation. We come here to the studio every single day at 9. We’re here until 5 or 6pm. But for us, this is not a job. It’s something more of a choice. Of course, we make a living, and sometimes leaving the bed in the morning is very difficult. But I never wake up and think, “Oh my god, I need to go to work.” When I get out of bed, it’s with a smile, because I know that Sofia and I will be together all day, and it’s just fun.
Sofia: For me, the key word is rhythm. In 2022, this was my word of the year. And I loved it so much that I also used it in 2023 because I really feel like it’s a very important word and people tend to forget about it. And we can actually see and find rhythm in everything in life, not just in terms of creativity. You have to listen to the tune every day. It’s like our schedule—every day is different. And your personal life and your work life will have different needs every single day. It’s like a musical scale, it goes up and down.
→ Some people argue that a focus on people and a focus on profit are competing priorities, but I love talking about the ways that running a relationship-first business aids in building more profitable, sustainable businesses. What do you think about this idea? Are they competing ideas? Why or why not?
Andre: In our line of work, there’s nothing else. We work for the people, for connections. It doesn’t make any sense for us to put profits first, and sometimes profit is actually not the most important thing. If we were just thinking about money, we wouldn’t be so grateful for what we do and what we have achieved. But we have hundreds of different stories, hundreds of things we’ve been through with our couples. It’s not just beautiful flowers and decorations and dresses and stuff. It’s about human connection. I mean, profit is good, who doesn’t love money? But it’s not the most important thing for us.
Sofia: Maybe that’s one of the reasons we get to work with people with whom we connect, and why people feel drawn to us and to our work and to our brand, because somehow, it’s something that happens organically. They understand, especially after meetings and talking to us, the importance of connection. Again, it’s a business, so obviously the money is important, but somehow we’ve managed to find a way to choose people first every single time and still have profit.
→ What are some ways that running a people-first business has benefited you? How has it benefited others?
Sofia: In so many ways. I think that by not pretending to be something else, by loving what we do, people pick up on that. Genuine and honest people understand what we are about, and they are drawn to us, and we are happy with them.
When you are not authentic, there will be cracks in the mask, and people will ultimately realize that there’s no authenticity there, and everything will fall apart. That’s what I feel at least. So some people might like it, others don’t like it. Some people may agree, others may not agree. But as long as you’re honest and authentic with your beliefs, and if one of those beliefs is to actually choose people first and then profit, that will shine through for sure.
→ Our culture and our industry is fast—trends come and go in the blink of an eye, and there’s just so much noise, especially on social media. It can be tempting to believe that the only way to stand out is to add to the noise, to follow trends, to make a bigger flash than our competitors. But what if you’re a quiet brand? I have written about the difference between Fireworks and Fireplace brands here. Would you say that your business is more of a fireworks display or a fireplace? How does that influence how you market?
Andre: About the trends: we can’t be stuck in the past, but you also can’t be doing all the things. I think it’s just a matter of balance, in our work. Our couples are getting younger and we are getting older, and we need to understand that this generation is different from the previous ones. They want different things, have different expectations.
I can easily incorporate some trend in my line of work, but for me, the most important thing that I’ve been working for the last 20 years is something I can’t give up on—the sense of the timeless. Of the things that really matter. Couples might say, “Oh, we don’t want to do family photos,” or “We prefer that editorial flash look for portraits,” and yes, there’s time and place for that on a wedding day. But something that I don’t know I’ll give up is a sense of time in the work that we do. The way couples think now is different from the way they’ll think in 30 years, and I don’t want them to look at their wedding photos and regret not taking some. The family portraits are very important to me. It’s a family-oriented party. So you need to take photos with your main family. So the tension is how to work with a different generation, to fulfill their expectation without giving up what I believe is the right way of doing things.
We’re fireplace for sure. We don’t do things to get attention. We do things because we want to, because we are so excited to do them. We don’t want to go viral. I mean, we can be viral doing something that is close to us. But if you shape every year and your line of work based on the trends, you don’t have core values in your company. It’s just you following others, it’s like you’re a sheep.
Sofia: I do love a good fireplace. And I do love fireworks, don’t get me wrong. The problem with fireworks is they tend to end too fast, and that’s not for me. We’ve been around long enough to see trends come and go, and companies come and go. Or even a wedding community comes in with a big bang and then disappears completely. And it’s fine, because I really, really love the sound of a good fireplace. The warmth it gives us, the peace of mind. And sitting next to me will always be people who understand us and can collaborate with us in a way that makes that fire grow even more. As for the fireworks, I will always love to see a good firework, and I will applaud and I will cheer on and I will, you know, try to be as supportive as I possibly can because I do love them, but I don’t trade them for my fireplace.
→ How do you stay authentic when it often feels that “fake it ‘til you make it” energy is rewarded?
Sofia: It’s a very interesting question. We do talk a lot with people who have been in the business for less time than we have. And yes, I’ve seen cases of people who actually made it, faking it. And, I applaud them, I do. But I don’t even want to begin to imagine how exhausting it would be to fake everything in your business.
→ What is bringing you joy in your work right now?
Sofia: At this point, I'm having the best time coming up with different things here in the studio to create and fo Andre to shoot, just because we can. It's like a challenge I give myself. I'll start a new series with a new color, and I don't have a clue what I'm doing. The things we're creating that nobody asked, but we are loving them just because we can, and we do them just because we can.
→ If we were to meet here a year from now, what do you hope we would be celebrating?
Andre: Life. Not achieving, just celebrating life. Celebrating friendships.
Sofia: Life. I was going to say that, too. Family. That’s the best way to honor our late bride. She wrote a beautiful message that she asked her sister to share the day she died, and that’s how we found out she was longer here. One of the things she wrote was, “In life, why not do things?” And ever since, I have found myself asking, “Why not?” and “Why wait?”
We didn’t work with her for a long time, but the impact she had on our lives is so, so massive. I know it will last for as long as I live. Why wait? Why not? Those two questions are a focus from now on. So if I’m able to be here one year from now celebrating life, it will be enough.
For along time now, I have told people that if I die tomorrow, I will die happy. Because I truly feel that I cannot complain about my personal life. I can complain about a lot of things that I don’t agree with. But my life, what I chose to do with my life… I decided to be honest with myself and adventure enough that I don’t’ worry if things go the wrong way. But they never do when we actually follow our instincts and act accordingly. So if I’m here a year from now, I’ll be very happy. I don’t need anything else.
→ Final question: what is the number one book you recommend to every creative entrepreneur?
Andre: I don’t read, so…
Sofia: Never Eat Alone, by Keith Ferrazzi. It’s very interesting and it’s not about what you can take from others, networking with others, but can give them. It’s excellent.