It’s Monday morning and I am exhausted (please excuse the potential errors in the post). Why? You may ask. Well, this weekend was the Charleston Bridal show. The preparation for this show spanned about a month and all the planning, running around, and setting up culminated with Sunday’s big show. With the help of some wonderful friends and family we got to the Charleston Marriott on Saturday to set up my booth. We were allotted a time slot of noon to 4 and we took up every minute of those hours. It was not an entirely easy task but I was super pleased with the outcome. My vision for my booth was to set a mood or sort of vibe that represented a little bit of who I am. I love all things vintage and antique. So I wanted my booth to have that kind of feel to it while maintaining a bit of my personality as well. After all a couple is not just hiring me for my work, they’re hiring ME as well. So I wanted to showcase a little bit of me in my booth through props and furniture, all of which came straight from my living room. Plus a lot of what was there I have used in various photo shoots, so it really tied it all together nicely.  There were so many people that helped me pull this thing off. I cannot thank them enough. First of all that big 50 inch plasma that you see in those photos below, that came from Steve Brown at Fox A/V Rentals. He is the bomb with anything lighting, audio, video and more! If you need something for your wedding or event, he’s totally the guy to go to. Thanks so much Steve!!! The plasma worked great and showcased my images so well! Also my wonderful, lovely, super talented side-kick Lori Bowen helped me out from keeping me sane to talking to sooo many brides yesterday. Thank you Lori for standing on your feet for HOURS, smiling and having fun the whole time! Then of course there’s the infamous Oreo truffles I had at my booth. They were a huge hit! If this photography thing doesn’t work out, I am sure we could go into business making these things. My mom spent some weeks making roughly 500 Oreo truffles. She also bought these super cute plastic bags to put them in and stapled my business cards to them. She rocks!! I am beyond grateful for what turned out to be a super huge hit at the show. I had people coming back to my booth to tell me how good they were. I may be forever know as the Oreo truffle photographer, and I am okay with that. Thank you mom, for rocking those things out and helping at the show. There were so many other people that put in lots of time and help behind the scenes. I want to just mention a few of them, because they truly are wonderful, selfless, and always willing to serve people. First my amazing in-laws, they helped me build, paint, transport, and set-up (& tear down) the structure for my booth. They also provided that super awesome antique chandelier. Speaking of that, my good friend Brooks Harvey re-wired that chandelier because he insisted that I have it working or it wouldn’t look right. Thank you so much for doing that and for helping build the booth on Saturday. You are a life saver! There were many others that helped me out along the way as well. Too many to really list here. You all know who you are and I am super grateful for you!! Lastly, I need to thank my husband Josh for putting up with me through this season. I definitely had plenty of moments of high stress (planning your first bridal show in under a month with Christmas thrown in there can really be a challenge) and lots of days where I just needed to focus and do my work—sometimes into the evenings (or shop long hours during the week). He’s just the most wonderful human being I have ever met and I am super grateful for all that he does!!

Here are some images of the booth:

One of my favorite chairs and some props from past photo shoots. Also those flowers were from OK florist in Summerville. Thank you for providing those.

some other details and a side view of my booth

Some more details of my booth. My super awesome friend Tanya made these cute chalkboard signs for me.

A wider shot. They placed me right by the door. That was super fun!

Me standing in heals which I NEVER do (it’s usually flip flops all the time)!

Check out that huge plasma on the right!! Thank you Steve!!

These bad boys were a HUGE hit!! Don’t they look delicious?

I was super pleased with the way my booth turned out!! Stay tuned for a blog later this week about one of my favorite vendors that was at the show. A killer florist. The company name is Wildflowers Inc and they truly do some amazing work. I would refer to them as flower artists, because they really do some creative— “out of the box”—stuff.