The week that made it all real. Part 1.

One week ago yesterday I was just getting in the car to make the 7 hour trip back to Santa Barbara County from Las Vegas.  I was overstimulated, under-rested but just plain happy.  It’s taken me a week to gather  my thoughts and come back down from the excitement!  I experienced so many things while in Vegas during WPPI (Wedding & Portrait Photographers International, a yearly conference/trade show).  So many that I’m thinking about dividing it into two posts!  It was an incredible week of learning, growth, self-discovery, and making friends.  My eyes were opened wide.

On to the good stuff!

Day 1, Sunday 2.20: The drive to Las Vegas:

The drive was beautiful.  At points while driving down the Pacific Coast Highway I was seeing the Pacific Ocean to one side and snow-capped mountains on the other!

Taken with Instagram on my way out of California

I arrived with plenty of time to get settled and then meet up with a few Twitter friends who I’d never met in person before for dinner.  Alison Howard, Kelsy & Butch McCartney and my roommate for the week, Kate Botwinski. We would spend a lot of time together over the next few days and we all hit it off from the start!

After a delicious sushi dinner at The Grand Wok at MGM it was time for my first in-person Making Things Happen event: the Making Things Happen Meetup.  With WPPI being a conference for photographers and Making Things Happen (MTH) being an Intensive where the majority of attendees are photographers, there were a number of MTH Alum in attendance at WPPI.  The Meetup was for Alum, “friends of MTH” and was also open to my MTH Vegas class (our Intensive would be in 3 short days on 2.23).  For me, walking into that conference room at the MGM Signature was like the walking into Disney World and the first day of school combined.  I have immersed myself so deeply into the MTH movement for the past 4-5 months and finally, finally being able to walk into a room full of people who had done the work and wanted to continue to grow and improve?  I was excited.  To say the least.  After a few minutes of mingling with strangers who would turn into friends (Nancy Ray, Caroline Joy–heart you!), our fear-conquering leaders Lara Casey, Gina Zeidler and Natalie Norton arrived and greeted the group!

Taken with my iPhone

The MTH Vegas Intensive that would take place on Wednesday was/is the last scheduled MTH Intensive and it represented for them a long, rewarding year doing the work.  Inspiring others, making changes, and Making Things Happen.

This picture of Lara and I is from after the meetup :)  My thought bubble should say: “I made it!  I’m here!  Finally :)”

Taken with my iPhone

Sunday night was spent celebrating Alison’s birthday by dancing the night away!  I’m not usually a dancer but something about the electricity of the week had me leave that behind and let go.  I’m definitely better for it.

Day 2, Monday 2.21: Monday morning and it was time to head back over to The Signature from the joined MGM for a branding/marketing/strategy/publicity/power workshop called The Total Package again with Lara and also with Harmony Walton, owner of The Bridal Bar–a place where brides can take advantage of a complimentary planning experience and browse the pre-screened best of the best in wedding vendors.  On my way over I came upon someone I recognized from the Meetup, Melissa Oholendt.  How could I miss her?  She’s soo fashionable and I just loved her outfit:  bright yellow sweater, white and navy striped skirt, adorable navy scarf with white whales/fish/piranhas on it (we couldn’t decide) and tangerine Tori Burch flats.  So cute!  You can see her in the picture below :)  

Taken with my iPhone

The Total Package was something I wasn’t planning on attending but was given the opportunity to just before going to Vegas, so I jumped on it and I’m so glad I did!  Lara does luxury wedding market consulting in addition to her work with MTH and producing/being the Editor-in-Chief of Southern Weddings Magazine, and as a result has a really solid knowledge and experience basis for growing and branding successful businesses in the wedding industry.  She shared a ton of great information with us about the essentials of branding/consistency and gave lots of pointed homework questions to help us fine tune our goals.

Later in the workshop Harmony Walton, who is also a contributing editor for a number of national and regional bridal magazines and has extensive experience with having work published, brought us through the fundamentals of having publishable work, as well as the scoop on when to submit to certain publications and productions.

Lara and Harmony also brought up each attendees website for the room to see and offered a critique on the first impression and overall design.  Later they did the same for all of our business cards.  This was so interesting!  You could really see everyone’s distinct styles and it was so valuable to have feedback from their perspective (the other attendees’ also)!

Since most of you haven’t seen my business cards yet, here they are:

Thank you so much Lara and Harmony!

I almost forgot to mention: while walking through The Signature I noticed JASMINE STAR and her husband JD in their gym clothes chatting with someone and out of sheer excitement and feeling hurried to get to The Total Package I interjected a quick hello, introduced myself and got a hug from Jasmine.  After the workshop was over I realized I wish I’d gotten a picture!  But it’s all good.  I still almost can’t believe how real it all got for me that week.  It was pretty amazing :)

You may have noticed that there’s been a big change in the look of the blog . . . I couldn’t leave it the same after such an inspiring week!  There’s always so much room for growth and I want to move forward with a cleaner slate.

Lastly for this post, on Monday night there was an epic black-tie event called Airplanes & Blazers where I saw Jose Villa for the first time in person–he’s another giant in the wedding photography business–and again, danced the night away.  All the while being led and inspired by Gina Zeidler to let loose and have fun!  And have fun, we did:

Pictures from the amazing and super fun Smilebooth

Loved hanging with you Nancy, Caroline, Marissa Kloess, Melissa and Gina!

You see why I have to break this up into multiple posts?  It was such an amazing trip and I really can’t bring myself to leave anything out.  So here you are.  Part 1.  Thanks for being with me!

xoxo,

Erin

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