SOS Village

Scott  spends most of his evenings and weekends working with and photographing couples who are getting married.  Ironically, whilst creating memorable images of countless weddings, Scott has  experienced a financially aggressive divorce which went on for over  two years.  Despite the `settlement' made in court – which he found a horrible process of emotional bullying which brought out the worst in everyone involved - he still found himself needing to obtain legal and financial advice as new issues arose around issues of child access and ongoing discussions on maintenance amounts.

Scott has been through the usual stages of bewilderment, anger and then acceptance that is similar to the grieving process.  Having had some very bad experiences with the solicitors who represented him during the divorce, Scott has found more success in representing himself (he obtained a defined contact order for his son – not an easy feat!) but it is the support and advice he has gained through getting sympathetic and practical advice from not just the financial and mediation professionals he has spoken to, but also from the work/life balance professionals he has worked with.  He found Fathers For Justice particularly helpful, providing ready made legal forms for him to complete and giving him the confidence to represent himself in court.

Scott has moved forward in his life, building his increasingly successful business and working towards building new and lasting relationships with his children.  By taking responsibility for his own future and learning how to allow others to help him, whether it is as friends or in a professional capacity, starting over has been a painful but deeply rewarding experience.

Scott Collier is the owner of the franchise for Snappy Snaps Mayfair, has his own successful wedding/event photography business and is also an accredited professional on CertainShops (an online directory of professionals whose previous clients have raved about them).

Because of his own ‘starting over’ experiences, Scott sees real value in encouraging people to record memorable, positive and wonderful images of families and friends even when  going through difficult times, which is why he exhibited at the first live UK Starting Over Show event in March 2009, and is exhibiting at the SOS Surrey/Hamphire border road shows with a live photostudio at the event.

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