Curt Seeden gently interlocks his fingers on the table in front of him and smiles knowingly at his wife of 24 years, Lynn. It’s obvious the longtime Orange County, Calif. natives turned proud Argyle residents are open to sharing every detail about who they are, the countless things they do to stay busy, and the crazy path that led them to Texas three years ago. But they also can’t help but hesitate.
“We came here thinking we’d just tell people we do photography,” Curt said with a laugh. “We’re behind-the-scenes type people.”
Lynn nodded, feeling like she needed to defend herself: “Well… we just didn’t want to overwhelm anyone.”
Clearly, there is more to the Seedens than meets the eye. And judging by their social activities as of late, they’re not very good at flying under the radar. As a result, it was only a matter of time before the byline became the topic. Curt and Lynn knew just one person when they moved to Argyle. Within two or three weeks, they knew more than 100 people, had found themselves a church, and were new members of a local networking group.
Fast forward to today, and Curt and Lynn’s list of close friends is a country mile long — as if they’ve been living here for 30 years. They’re heavily involved in at least three networking groups, though Lynn is already looking for a fourth, and they’re the go-to photographers for this newspaper.
But Curt and Lynn’s activities list doesn’t stop there. They sit on several boards and routinely blow people away with their uncanny ability to organize and run family and business events throughout the area. They selflessly promote local businesses every chance they get and are expanding their own company, Seeden Photography, and their new meeting space, the Seeden Club: www.seedenphotography.com.
Seeden Photography has its own studio on Hwy 377 in Argyle and specializes in corporate headshots. It also offers Santa photos, graphic design, marketing, and high-end portraits for families, individuals, and children. The Seeden Club is in the same space and is perfect for luncheons, workshops, business retreats, client meetings, networking events, and more.
“We’d never heard of Argyle, Texas before, and three weeks later, we were Argyle residents,” Lynn said.
“It is still so clear to us that God moved us specifically to this area. We intended to stay in our hometown in Orange County, Calif., but every door was closing on us. Once we said yes to this unknown town of Argyle, every door opened.”
Lynn added that the last three years have been a whirlwind as they’ve created a new home for themselves and started their businesses. “The best part about being here is all the people we’ve met and become friends with. In the weeks before our move, I joined every local Facebook group I could find and read all the local newspaper articles. I couldn’t get enough of it; we wanted to know about everything and everyone. And when we got here, we were going out to coffee and meeting people almost immediately.”
So, where does this desire to connect and inspire come from?
Curt was a newspaper editor for 40 years. His career included five years as a sports writer who covered professional teams like the Rams, Lakers and Angels. Still, he preferred community journalism because it allowed him to know and report on what was happening locally. Lynn also has a journalism background, but she made her mark as a Master Photographer, graphic design artist, public relations professional, and marketing guru.
Lynn has placed in several state and national photography competitions. She’s also earned 110 international photography awards in the portraiture genre, including family, individual, maternity, and children’s photography. In 2021, she placed No. 10 in the contemporary portraits category of The Portraits Masters competition, an international competition that received over 12,000 entries.
Together, they owned Fountain Valley Living Magazine for 15 years. Community-wise, Curt was on the Chamber of Commerce board in California for 12 years and Lynn was one of the co-presidents of the Historical Society. Lynn was a vice president of the Women’s Club, and they both served as past presidents of the Fountain Valley Kiwanis Club. Lynn and Curt created the Orange County Chocolate Festival and became known for taking on older and smaller events and sprucing them up into events the entire town wanted to be a part of.
“We took over this one event called Christmas in the Gazebo,” Lynn said. “It maybe brought in 30 people each year. After we took it over, that number went to 600. We didn’t want to move from Fountain Valley. We loved it there. Everyone in town knew where we lived. The outside of our house was set up for 50 people at all times, with patios around it. We raised our family there and launched businesses there. People would honk when they drove by. It was a fun place.”
Sadly, the COVID-19 pandemic changed that, quickly ravaging their business and forcing Curt and Lynn to downsize.
“I didn’t want to give up that house. Neither of us did. But we were struggling immensely and didn’t know how long this pandemic was going to last, so we kept hunting and even expanded our search nationwide,” Curt said. “But there was nothing for a long time. Thankfully, a friend of ours had a rental available in Argyle. We’d never heard of it; we didn’t even know what the house looked like or how much it cost. But we said yes and hoped for the best.”
As the saying goes, everything worked out in the end. Curt and Lynn ultimately built a new house five lots down the road from where they were renting and had the enviable pleasure of watching their new forever home be built brick by brick. They rebuilt their friend network and successfully established themselves as local business owners and connectors everyone needs to know.
“Other than that, we’re boring people,” Lynn said with a laugh.
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