Business Story: The Carolina Inn Bridal Showcase

I thought this past weekend was going to be a quiet one filled with... well...nothing!  We did not have a single thing on the calendar and I could not remember the last time we had a weekend like that.  Friday afternoon we were presented with the last minute opportunity to participate in The Carolina Inn's Bridal Showcase (honored that one of our images from Tyler and Alexis' wedding was used for the masthead, shown above).  So far we had chosen not to participate in wedding shows, but the smaller, more intimate feel of this show (and a last minute offer we could not refuse) led us to decide to kiss our quiet weekend goodbye and pull together a booth in 36 hours!

Here it is:

(you can see me, Ashley, with it here on Chapel Hill Magazine's site. We are sad David was not in this shot.)

Off topic... here are some of the amazing Carolina Inn wedding ladies.  Thanks for your hard work!

We were very intentional about everything we included in our set up.  The whole theme of the booth started with the image you see in a glass bottle on the top, left beside the "SP" letters.  My grandma LOVED old glass (I must have inherited this obsession from her) and she would put pictures inside these jars and bottles (it's almost like she was "putting up" her memories... like that use of canning terms?).  In the bottle I have pointed out she had a print form my parents wedding.  So in that corner of the display we had four images from couples in love from our families- parents, grandparents, great-grandparents.  Not only do your wedding images tell your love story for you to remember in your life time, but then they show generations to come the love that you shared.

The hoosier that we chose to haul over to the Inn has been in my Dad's family for quite some time.  We weren't able to display the coolest parts about it, and yet its still an awesome piece of furniture!  I'm going to zoom in and show you the display from bottom to top...

We decided to bring one large canvas to display.  We LOVE this shot of Chase in the tree during her "after the wedding" shoot.  She is so relaxed and happy... I love the vibe it sends out, I love the colors, I love the setting.  Several great conversations happened around people noticing this canvas.

Over to the side you will notice that we have a blue typewriter set up.  We thought it would be awesome to have interested couples give us their contact information on the typewriter... we like to stick to the story telling theme, you know? :)  People had the best time trying to type their names and email addresses on that thing!

So on the table part of the hoosier we had an iPad loaded with Carolina Inn wedding photos we had taken, our business cards, random Story Photographer stickers that we use in our packaging (came in handy for a few brides that came through with little kids), and a few copies of the Carolina Inn Weddings Brochure since a little over half the images included are ours.  Then in that silver bucket...

... were a few hundred of these guys!  I had the idea to hand make these little booklets to give everyone that came to our booth (this is a good time to thank my Mom and David for trusting me with this vision... and doing a LOT of cutting and stapling through out the day on Saturday).  We wanted to remind brides that, amongst the craziness and sometimes stressfulness of the wedding planning process, they can always stop and remember that the whole point of it all is that they are in love with someone.  Not only that, but also they have this love story with another person and that story is important enough to invite everyone they love to a big party they are throwing complete with an exchange of sacred vows, music, food, dancing and displays of love.  So we told everyone we gave a love book to that they could take time to jot down their love story for safe keeping, or write a love letter, or even make simple notes about the exciting things happening at this point in their story together...

We chose to display 4x6 prints for several reasons.  First of all it drew people into our display area, giving us the opportunity to have conversations with them about their wedding and their plans.  It also allowed for us to share more images than if we just displayed canvases (we did not know the space we would be given ahead of time).  Honestly it seems that people are more "comfortable" with 4x6s... it's what they are used to.  We do try to show people that large prints and canvases are beautiful ways to immortalize these moments in their home and are nothing to be afraid of, but 4x6s are still the most popular print size.

The only albums we put out were a few boudoir albums.  We had several ladies stop by our "booth" who already had a wedding photographer but were interested in a boudoir shoot.  I was happy to show them some examples and talk more about such an awesome, empowering shoot!

Now we get to the left side of the top half of the hoosier... and this is where we featured love stories from the past. Like I mentioned above, the print in the bottle is from my parents wedding day, the blue background picture is my Mom's parents, the square shot beside that is David's great-grandparents.  The image in the gold frame is my "Aunt" Gail's (a close family friend) parents wedding photo- its the only one they have so I decided to leave it in the frame.

More Story Photographer wedding, bridal and engagement shots... plus Ikea twinkle lights.

I loved this little tray in the cabinet door.  We chose to store a bunch of loose prints there that people could flip through themselves.

And then one more chance to remind you who we are, "SP", and a few more moments in jars.

Thanks for taking the time to read about how our booth came to be.  We hope that it helps you know more about who we are and why we do what we do.