This year we decided to mix it up a little and try out the Formal Affair Bridal Show versus our usual Pink Bridal Show.  We have spent months planning and designing our booth, handouts, and business cards…and also did a little website revamp to go along with the new look.  This was our third bridal show and we felt pretty confident about how things were going to turn out…it seems the more you do these things, the less nerve wracking they are.  We felt extremely lucky to have such a great spot in the Chattanooga Convention Center, our booth had great visibility!  We got to meet so many excited and starry eyed brides-to-be…the show really got us all excited about all things wedding related and about this upcoming wedding season!  We really have a great feeling about this year!

Here is a little sample of how our booth went from blah to…BOOM…or should we say BLOOM!!  A big thank you goes out to Kevin, Jacob, and Chad for being our muscles and getting all the big stuff down there for us.  And another big thank you goes to Miss Lyndi, she is always a huge help setting up.  And last but not least, thank you to Dawn for helping us with our flowers!

Hello All. Let us start off by saying we have MISSED you all. We have also missed our blog. Let us explain our absence. Boy oh boy has 2012 been a year for the books! Our very own Skye(Me) had a wee little baby girl, Clair Browning Stone was born on July 4th, 2012 at 2:59 a.m.  I didn’t come back to work until the beginning of September, So Dee ran the show for a while. I guess you could say we kinda went on a hiatus. But now we are back in the saddle? …  Lets just say we are behind the lens! )

We couldn’t have better clients! We really couldn’t! Once we were back from our mini summer vacation e mails starting filling up our in boxes morning after morning and before we knew it, Fall Mini time had arrived! We held them at Red Clay State Park. I think we had a week break before it was time to start our Christmas sessions. They were fabulous as always. But wait, wait, wait! We need to back up a little bit and give yall and update on the sessions we had before we went on our mini summer vacation and before our Fall and Christmas sessions. I don’t really know if having a baby qualifies as a vacay though? Because I didn’t and haven’t really had any relaxation time since the beginning of July.

Anyhow,

The next posts we will be updating will be all of our sessions from April-December of this year(2012). We weren’t terribly busy do to me and my baby bump. We scheduled lightly in the Spring and early summer of this year. But buddy, once September hit it was back on! So enjoy the next posts we will be adding from all the past sessions and weddings from 2012.

Oh but wait, I guess first we will leave you with a few newborn photos and 2 month photos of baby Clair for everyone who hasn’t seen her. Dee and I can’t believe she is almost 6 months!

So here she is in all her Glory! Clair Browning Stone. Blooms newest addition! )

Hey, it’s Dani here.  Well, we have a very important announcement to make!

Our beloved Skye has a baby bump.  We (I say “we” as if we are all pregnant!) are expecting baby girl sometime in early July!  Right now we will just call her CBS, those are her initials…the name is top secret.  We are so excited, we can hardly contain ourselves!  We already know that baby CBS is going to be photographed SO so much, but if she is anything like her momma…she won’t mind too much.  

Skye had her first baby shower thrown for her by Kevin’s sweet Mom, Sherri.  The day of the shower was a beautiful warm spring morning…the weather was PERFECT.  Sherri hosted such a laid back quaint little baby shower, it was almost like girls friends just getting together and having lunch…except for all the amazing gifts that were given.  Skye got a little assistance in opening her presents by pup dog Box 2 (photos below).  Let’s just say that Skye, Kevin, and baby girl CBS are blessed.  We can’t wait to meet her!

The Bloom girls were so excited about our booth this year at the Chattanooga Pink Bridal show!  We made sure to take a few shots of our booth being set up (which went so smoothly thanks to Momma Lyndi Blair).  And thanks to Skye’s crafty boyfriend Kevin we had walls made, which was something we were wanting so badly for this year.  Here is the journey it took to set everything up:

This is what it looked like when we arrived, then after the wall had been set up.

Miss Lyndi and Ryli hard at work!

Skye supervising!

the finished product (almost!)

Our handouts and our buttons that we gave out to brides.  They were really a hit! Our flowers provided by Veo Weddings and Events (more about them later!)

more details

the Bloom Gals are ready to meet some brides!!

Our neighboring booth B Sweet Cake Boutique offered up some super stylish cakes…we love those chairs too!

Our friends from Sunrise Farms had a BEAUTIFUL booth!  We are so lucky to be able to work with such great people.

And last but not least, the fabulous Veo Wedding and Event Planning.  Veronica graciously provided to flowers for our booth (which EVERYONE commented on!).  Thank you for helping us with our booth design and flowers!  We love you guys!

That about wraps up our coverage of the Chattanooga Pink Bridal show!  Thank you to all the brides that we got to meet!  We are really super pumped about this upcoming wedding season.  :)

We are so happy to announce that we are in the process of training a very valuable new addition to our staff here at Bloom.  Help us welcome Miss Ryli Blair to our little Bloom family!

Ryli goes WAY back with us.  She and Skye are sisters so really they go back as far as Skye’s birth…and that’s a long time!  Ryli and Dani have been best friends since they were 16.  Ryli has really been there for Bloom behind the scenes since it’s beginning.  Ryli is a 5th grade teacher and lucky for us she has the summers off!  Bloom has been so blessed this past year and we were able to book 18 weddings!  We have worked very hard to give ALL our clients only the very highest quality images we can possibly provide.  Since we work so hard at that and we are just getting busier we have decided that it’s in our best interest to hire a new employee!  We feel so very happy to have her join our team.  So, new clients…get used to this face!   

Every now and then in life, we run across something that directly mirrors what is going on in our lives.  As Oprah says, we have a little ‘Ah-ha’ moment.  Well, while perusing Pinterest.com (which we are shamelessly addicted to) at the studio yesterday we ran across this lovely quote from Anais Nin. 

Photo credit: bejoyful7.tumblr.com

The definition of risk as provided by wikipedia.com:

 Risk is the potential that a chosen action or activity (including the choice of inaction) will lead to a loss (an undesirable outcome). The notion implies that a choice having an influence on the outcome exists (or existed). Potential losses themselves may also be called “risks”. Almost any human endeavour carries some risk, but some are much more risky than others.

We are sure that all new and small business owners feel doubt or fear about taking that big chance.  There is fear in taking a risk.  But we love that in the defintion of risk, it states “ Risk is the potential that a chosen action or activity (including the choice of inaction) will lead to a loss (an undesirable outcome).”  Wow.  Risk is the choice to act or to not to act.  To change or not to change.  To move or to stay still.  To stay separate or come together.  To get a studio and go for it or continue the way it was.

Although we feel we are extrememly blessed and that our business is going wonderfully…there is always that little voice in the back of our heads that echos “Have we made the right choices, have we done the right things?  Is this going to end up the way we want it to?”.  We think worry is a natural thing, and it means we care about our little business.  We love our job so much it’s not really a job at all.  We have the most amazing clients, supportive friends, and caring families.  We have everything we need. 

So thank you Anais Nin for writing this a long time ago, your passion has effected our lives and our way of thinking. 

And we believe that the risk to bloom was the right risk to take.

Bloom Photography is currently in search of Senior Rep Models for the 2012 graduating class.  We are looking for one girl and one guy from each high school in Hamilton, Catoosa, or Bradley County.

A Senior Rep is a spokesperson from high school that will help promote Bloom Photography through their FREE SENIOR PHOTOS.

The senior rep should have a wide variety of friends, be heavily involved in school activates and should most importantly be super comfortable in front of a camera.

THE CRITERIA

*Be a high school junior graduating in 2012.

*Go to high school in Chattanooga and surrounding areas.

*Agree to share their experience with friends and classmates about Bloom Photography and share your pictures with them. 

*Have parents/guardians sign a model release form.

*Agree to only represent Bloom Photography in regards to senior photos.

*Provide your favorite ‘self’ portrait for use on our facebook page.

WHAT YOU WILL GET IF CHOSEN

*The senior reps will get a FREE session, which will include multiple locations and outfit changes within about a 2 hour time period ($300 value).

*A magazine type album of their best photos.

*They will also get senior rep cards.  This is where your hard promotion work will pay off.  If you refer 5 seniors to us (and they book a senior session with us) you will get an additional session, FREE.

 *Lots of love on the Bloom Blog and Facebook site. Your pretty face will be pretty much everywhere.           

Sounds awesome, right? 

Do you fit the criteria?

If so, please email us at bloomchattanoga@gmail.com to get an application. 

Once we collect an adequate number of applications, we will hold a contest on our facebook page with the applicants.  Your friends and family will be able to ‘vote’ for their favorite applicants.  If we don’t get enough applicants, we won’t have a contest…so…that means you should encourage your friends to apply too.  Then try to beat them!

Here are some examples of what your session could look like:

Looks like fun, right?  Don’t you want some pictures like this?  Don’t you like free stuff?  

OK…GO!!

Just wanted to show you all this birth announcement we just put together for sweet baby Malyn.  If she doesn’t give you baby fever, we don’t know what will.  

Our studio is pretty awesome, and if you haven’t been here…it’s not fair that you have no idea what it looks like.  So we decided to take a few shots here and there around the studio and show you guys around.  But, you should come visit anyways…

Our gold “Olivia” chair (as we named her) now has a twin.

We have lots of props, this is one of our newer finds….this is Pete our little Pony.  He will making an appearance at the Fall Mini’s!

Even if kids aren’t sitting in them, little kid sized chairs are so cute!

Skye testing out the new chair…yep…it’s  Skye approved!

Our office area, notice some of our beautiful clients are on the walls.  This is where we spend LOTS of time.

little table for clients to peruse albums.

our best find ever…a military type cabinet that holds all our office stuff and knickknacks.

Coffee and tea station/refrigerator closet.  This area gets pretty much worn out.

If you visit, you could have a seat here…

We love this photo…it’s when it all started.  …

Yes, we have Bloom mousepads (or would it be micepads?).

type, type, type, click, click, click.

oh tisket, oh tasket we love all our baskets. (ok, no more coffee…)

the scary entryway…

our door!

the meters are mean.  they just look disgruntled.

We dont’ know who it belongs to, but we love the Datsun.

Market Street, the street where we live.

“Go in the blue door, then upstairs to the left.”

Ok, thanks for visiting…we hope to see you soon!