Behind the Scenes of Yesterday's Photoshoot!

Good morning all!  Whew!  After some much needed sleep I'm ready to share with you a behind the scenes look at the first Laura Whitney Couture photo shoot!  This was probably one of the most exciting and gratifying days of my professional life!  To see all my hard work of the past several months come together was just exhilarating.  We had the most wonderful team of models and hair/make-up artists and of course our talented photographer!  For 5 hours everyone put in 110% and it was really a collaboration of ideas and solutions to unexpected challenges which resulted in such a successful shoot.  I was super busy running back and forth throughout the whole shoot but I did manage snap some pictures with my little Canon Powershot.  Enjoy!

Packing up the car early in the morning & heading out. Clearly I am both tired and nervous!

Getting organized at the studio in St, Paul.

Irma and C.C. doing hair & makeup!

Finishing touches ...

Our photographer Ali begins shooting!  Beautiful! 

Switching out accessories...

What I'm Working on Now.

Okay so I've been awake for 19 hours as I type this and I've been working about 16 of those hours.  That's not an exaggeration.  BUT progress has been made!  I finished the gown I started on Monday and also started a new gown this evening after a very strong cup of coffee at about 8:30pm.  It really helped me power thru a few more hours of work but now I've got that really odd mix of wired and tired.  So just real quickly here are a couple pictures I snapped this morning (tuesday) and then I'm going to bed. 

I spent a couple hours like this hand stitching tulle fringe.

Ok, it's a grainy not so great picture but you get the idea. 

Monday Monday

It's Monday.  I am well rested and ready to work.  I'll be workin' my butt off all week actually because our first big photo shoot for Laura Whitney Couture is on Sunday!  As such, I've issued a self imposed ban of friends and alcohol.  Friends, because I need to spend my evenings in the studio working with no distractions, and alcohol so that I have the most possible energy and also because even one drink with dinner could cause me to slip into a food coma and lose an entire evening of work.   So yeah, harsh but justified.  Also, I may or may not take the time to blog every day.  Sorry but it's crunch time! 

As I begin my week of highly focused heavy production I may need some inspiration when frustration and fatigue hits.  I will keep these things in mind.

*I want to have this poster in my studio when I start hiring employees*

And perhaps most importantly...

What I'm Working on Now.

It's been a really long time since I've posted any progress photos of the new collection.  I've been super busy this summer with my normal wedding season work as well and making time for building the Laura Whitney Couture collection.  So I thought I'd put up a few pictures I have taken in the workroom this week showing the progress. 

my label sewn inside a dress! 

Happy Monday!

Good Morning Lovelies!   I am back and very happy this morning!  I am well rested thanks to an air conditioner in our bedroom (it's getting to 99 degrees today and a huge storm has made our humidity as a rain forest!), AND once I ship a package this morning I have almost two whole weeks to just work on the new collection!!!!   And that is what I am the most happy about!   Also that I will have time to blog again!   Over the weekend I finished a gown design (woot!) and started another one which is going very well so far. If I can stand this heat there will more sneak peeks from the new collection soon so stay tuned.  That's all for now.  See ya tomorrow!

Sunday Edition - Laura Whitney Couture Update!

Good afternoon all!  It has been a while since I last posted and I thought I'd give you an update on what's happening with the new line.

I have been sooo busy with orders lately but I think the whirlwind is ending... or at least I'm in the eye of the storm!   It's calm for a moment, allowing me to catch my breath and also to do some much anticipated new design work!   I'm also very excited to announce that we have a date set for our big photo shoot (August 14th!) as well as a very talented team including our photographer, Ali, our lead hair & make-up artist Irma and her assistants, and two beautiful local models, Sandra & Amy!   I soooo want to spill the beans about every detail but I can't!  So sorry but no sneak peek pictures today of any of that.

Okay and lastly one thing I made time for today was to buy a new sofa finally!  Yay!  I'm saying goodbye to our trusty old antique sofa and in doing so connected with another Twin Cities wedding business, On Solid Ground Vintage Rentals, run by husband and wife team Sarah & Kyle Dreher.  I'd often been wondering why Minneapolis didn't have a rental company specializing in vintage goodies and I'm delighted that someone has started one up!   Hopefully my Victorian sofa will make the perfect addition to Sarah's curated collection of aged accessories, furniture, photo props, & oh-so-lovely china. You can see some of her artfully arranged items below (psst!  She also offers styling services!) and see the full post here of this photo shoot by  photographer Dani Stephenson.

Taking a Break

My workload is pretty insane right now and last night as I lied awake in bed going over everything on my increasingly full plate I realized something has got to give.  So I'm taking a break from the blog posts for a while.  It's not really much of a relief but one of the easiest things to unload.  I'll be back posting in a couple weeks when things (hopefully) calm down a bit!  

xoxo-Laura

Overloaded.

Happy Friday!

Happy Friday everyone. I have a TON of work to get done before Monday & it's also CouchFest so this is not going to be my most relaxing weekend to say the least!  With that in mind, a few scenes from the workroom over the last couple weeks.

Little Hercules, we had to eventually give him away to a friend, sadly.

My desk on a rare occasion looking very clean and pretty!

Thank you card sent out with a veil order

New Packaging!

Getting a couple veil/hairpiece orders ready to ship.

Testing out glittery bunting as a photography prop. Still not decided...

A gown for the new Laura Whitney Couture collection, very much "in process".

Monday Monday

What a weekend.  It really had it's highs and lows.  The high being a wonderful birthday party for a friend at the lovely St. Croix Vineyard, the low being lots and lots of rain coupled with a very leaky roof!  There was much running up and down stairs and bucket grabbing and I even climbed out an attic window onto the roof in the rain storm (I know, this was probably one of the stupidest things I've ever done.) to discover the missing shingles causing all the leaks.  But a couple hours later when we didn't feel quite so soggy anymore, we hopped in the car and headed out to the vineyard!  Amazingly, the weather got sunny and warm about a half hour before the party started so there was much eating and drinking (okay, massive amounts of drinking!) around picnic tables and strolls through rows of newly budded grapevines.  I'm just sorry I didn't remember the camera!

I will not forget the camera tonight however!  This evening we're attending a red carpet industry party at the Guthrey hosted by ForeverTV.  I'm pretty psyched!  I've got a pretty red cocktail dress & I made a red silk flower facinator to wear, Dylan's got his vintage tuxedo and is wearing one of my hand-made slim cotton ties, and weather permitting we'll arrive in style in the Comet!  I normally don't love networking events but this one sounds really fun and after reading this interview on 100 Layer Cake of some women in a design collective in So. California I'm totally geared up to meet my future friends and colleagues!   These lovely designers and event planners have the right philosophy of being friends not competitors because after all, there are plenty of weddings to go around!  They did a really cute Kate Spade inspired photo shoot and also video taped the shoot.  I loved the video especially and was thinking, "Yes!  Some day this will be what my workday looks like!"  lol!   But seriously, I really really wish I had some other women (or dudes) that I worked with from time to time.  I wish I had a partner actually!  Working from home and for yourself you kinda miss having co-workers to bounce ideas off of and to collaborate on projects with.  Ah, some day! 

Ladies who lunch?  More like ladies who LAUNCH!   Hooray for female business owners!