My Indie Wed Experience

Hey all!

So if you've been keeping up with me, you know that last Saturday was the Indie Wed show!  It's funny because when you get ready for these shows or expos, they are like a wedding itself in a way.  You take months and months to prep and then it's all over in the blink of an eye.

For those out of the loop (like I was for the last few years)...Indie Wed is a wedding show/market geared toward super artistic people or people that plain old want something a little different for their wedding day.  It's held at the Ravenswood Event Center in Chicago which I must say is in a fantastic neighborhood and would probably be one of my first choices for a wedding venue in the city.  :)  Maybe when Johnsie and I do our 10 year vow renewal...  :-D

Anyway, Since the show was so full of vendors, there wasn't enough room for a fashion show, but Kelly (the lovely owner and operator of the show) suggested bringing wandering models if you were a fashion vendor.  So of course I asked the beautiful Kayla to come along, help me unpack, look pretty, and most importantly make me laugh.  She succeeded at all of it.  :)

Between the fact that I am NEVER on time as it is and the crazy weather we had, it's safe to say...we were late.  We pulled up to the entrance, ran everything in, and then went to search for parking.  Surprisingly enough, it wasn't too hard to find and we made our way back in no time.  I set up the whole booth in about 40 minutes, which was all I had until they started letting everyone in so it all worked out great!  Here's the booth...

I thought it turned out really cute, and I was super proud of all the diy I had going on.  All of my black coverings were made out of flat sheets, and my "rug" I made out of black faux fur.  My vintage ladies were sitting in shelves I made from milk crates and white faux fur gave them a solid bottom for the easels to stand on.  The rest you've already heard about a few posts ago.  :)

In the meantime, I had thrown Kayla into her first gown (a fun 50's style) and put her hair in a side bun and threw the mini hat on.  She looked adorable and went to do a lap or two.  Soon after she said she saw someone doing hair in the next aisle and was going to try and see if they could fit her in.  I didn't think much of it, but sure enough she was back in 10 minutes with a professional updo.  It cracked me up, that not a half hour into the show and she was already getting the royal treatment.  So thank you to Antje Kastner Studio for the BEAUTIFUL vintage hairstyling!

After that, she was coming back with all kinds of random food people were offering her as she walked around.  One guy looked at her and said: "Here.  You look hungry."  and handed her a tamale.  One time she came back with a taco.  And I would say throughout the day, I probably saw her eat about 5 cupcakes.  Must be nice.  :)
We did a few costume changes throughout the day.  Here's her in her favorite gown.  :)  I guess a guy came up to her all confused asking if she was walking around in a different outfit earlier.  She told him yes and he said good because he thought he was going crazy.  I told her she should've freaked him out and said no.  :)

Don't you just love the vintage signs and the cool cars in the background?  See there was even something for the grooms there...lol!

For most of the show I just had to stay put, as I didn't want to miss any potential clients.  I had a lot of fun talking with people and handing out my "swag".  All the women went crazy for the choices of colors and thought it was so awesome that I gave scarves out.  Some of them looked at me dumbfounded.  They'd say really?!  Kind of like "Ok, what's the catch?"   It felt good that they appreciated the gift and it made me think I had accomplished what I wanted to...offering them something useful and memorable to remember 27 Dresses Designs by.  :)  I met so many different kinds of people and it seemed like everyone who came in the booth was genuine and really liked my work, so hopefully I will get lots of business from the show.  Time will tell!

I also ended up hitting the neighbor jackpot.  :)  The booth next to me belonged to a lovely girl named Carolyn.  She owns The Bread and Butterfly which does a little bit of everything.  Backdrops, decor, flowers, day of coordination, and even will do a headpiece or boutonniere if needed.  :)  She was just so...Nice.  Maybe you are thinking, there are a lot of nice people out there.  But let me just say without going into too much detail here that "nice" in this business is refreshing and harder to come by than one might think.  She is going to provide the decor for a future photo shoot, so I can't wait to see what she comes up with!  This is Carolyn...

I also met another nice girl a little down the way...
Once the day slowed down a bit I had Kayla man the booth and decided to explore a little bit myself.  I had scoped out some of the vendors online before the show and had a little mental list of who I wanted to make sure I spoke with.  One of those peeps was Calli with Color & Cake Photography.  Her photos are an awesome combination of soft, chic, and fun.  I thought she would be perfect for an upcoming shoot Michelle and I are doing together so I asked if she would be interested in shooting it.  She said absolutely and we even traded some of our swag.  :)  We are so excited to be working with her in the near future!  So here's Calli (playing tool man to her booth)

The others I was most interested in checking out were my competition.  lol!  So I took a walk around and did that.  There were some awesome designers there!  One came up and introduced herself.  She was so sweet and we realized we have a lot in common.  For example, we would rather be at home right then making headpieces.  Haha!  In the end though, I just felt like I fit in with them and that none of us were "better" than the other.  I think we all do great work and we are all completely different.  I even felt like maybe all of my nervous butterflies before the show were pointless.  I can hang with those city designers if I do say so myself.  :)

And with that all said, here were a couple other noteworthy things at the show...
#1 Awesome photo backdrop...This was on the second floor.  I didn't catch the name of the business that designed it, but it was really stunning!

#2 The 3rd Floor Lounge...  They made the top floor of the event a Vaudeville style circus lounge full of can can dancers, hula hoop tricksters, and even vintage music.  I missed all the exciting stuff, but I had to run up and at least snap a pic before I had to pack up.  Check out the awesome furniture.  I would love that rust colored couch for a photo shoot!!!

#3 Umbrellas!  They also had hanging umbrellas in the amazing window of the 3rd floor.  It looked so cool, I had to catch that as well...

It was definitely an amazing event and I'm so glad I got to experience it all!  Made some contacts, got booth ideas for the future, talked to some cool vendors, and hopefully made some new clients.  :)  Hope you got an idea of the show and if you are a wedding vendor looking to broaden your horizons, check it out and maybe try to get in for next year.  :)

Indie Wed Site

Mwah!