Recap of The Wedding Workshop with Chelsy Weisz | Lone Oak Farm Venue Ayr, ND

October 4, 2021

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The first Wedding Workshop with Chelsy Weisz was an absolute success. I learned so much about myself, and about how I teach best, and each of the attendees walked away with a lot of homework, and tons of new skills.

We started out on Sunday night with a BBQ at the brand new Lone Oak Farm Venue just northwest of Fargo, near Ayr, ND.

Attendees stayed at the farmhouse where we did our classroom teaching. One of my favorite parts of the classroom sessions was the Branding and Marketing section. We went around to each of the attendees and workshops their brand pillars and nailed down their ideal clients.

The room was so electric with energy as we rolled through each photographer’s brand pillars. One of the attendees Kelly said it best “I feel like I can see each of our ideal clients and I love how distinctly different they are even though we are all photographers” Finding your brand pillars really is the social sauce to creating a personal brand.

The first evening of the workshop we photographed the engagement sessions. The rain was coming so attendees got to work on their feet in less than ideal conditions to make it work. Had this been a regular engagement session I would have possibly tried to reschedule, but you don’t always get the luxury of rescheduling so we worked with what we had!

The next morning we were back in the classroom for a few hours before the venue was transformed into a mock wedding. Our amazing team of vendors did such an amazing job bringing my visions to life. — Yep I said visions. We created three different looks to help attendees create full portfolios!

We started off the wedding shoot with styling bridal details just like we would on a wedding day! One of the neat things about this workshop was I included three different invitation sets one for each theme. Since each invitation suite varies so much from wedding to wedding I wanted to ensure workshop attendees got to practice with elaborate invitations like our citrus theme from Designed with Amore to moderate suites like jewel-toned velvet theme suite provided by the paper vow as well as simple invitations like the ones we chose for the boho theme from coral balloon. Not only did attendees get to style all three sets, but they also got to take one of each set home to continue to practice with!

It was hard to choose a favorite theme. Boho neutrals embodied the very popular theme of 2020 and 2021. Steph of Botanica Floristry used beautiful strawflowers, dahlias, and my favorite koko loco roses for the bouquets. This was also our ceremony set up which also included hucurellas, shrubs, and cosmos.

Lizzie of Faces by Lizzie set the tone for our day with makeup for our models. This former Miss North Dakota certainly knows her way around a makeup pallet and I’m so thankful to have found her last minute on Facebook!

Affairs by Brittany of Fargo brought in an entire rack of dresses for our two models to wear throughout the day. Amanda the manager at Affairs by Brittany was so wonderful to work with, and even stepped in to be our honorary bridesmaid helping our brides get dressed, and styled! Amanda even brought some jewelry from her shop Etsy shop Clay and Fern Co. for models to wear.

Lexi and Bryan our NDSU athletes who recently got engaged modeled for the citrus pop theme and the boho theme. Maya and Chris who just celebrated their wedding had time to model all three looks, which meant lots of dress changes for Maya, and a few suit and tie swaps for Chris!

Tayler of Taylily Lettering created the most delicate and personalized details for the wedding from vow books, and love letters, to a GIANT hand-lettered seating chart on a beautiful mirror from White House Co. She also created beautiful seating cards for the citrus pop theme in bright colors, on handmade paper! The beautiful handwritten quote above the guest book for the boho theme was also done by Tayler! – If you are in need of any personalized touches for your wedding definitely reach out to her! She ships almost anything— with the exception of mirrors!

Marie of Mama H Sweets and Treats was also one of our models for the engagement session shoot! Marie and her husband Paul, and their two girls were such troopers in the rain! Her cakes are seriously works of art! I could not believe how beautiful the boho cake was when she unloaded at the venue. It featured glass candy! The citrus pop cake was delicious! Our models Maya and Chris cut the cake and everyone got to enjoy a slice of cake! — a well-deserved treat after two days of teaching and learning!

The girls at White House Co. in Fargo were gracious enough to turn me loose in their warehouse to pull pieces of their collection to bring each of the themes to life, including plates silverware, glasses, candles, pillows, and tablecloths. You should have seen how loaded down my car was to and from the venue!

I learned a lot from hosting my first workshop. There are definitely some parts of the workshop that will get revamped, and taught in different ways. Other sections will be condensed and some will be elaborated on. I am so darn proud of this workshop and I can’t wait to watch how it evolves, and how attendees grow after our time spent together.

Sure there were things that were not perfect, but done is better than perfect, and this workshop was just the starting point for many to come. If you are interested in joining me at the next two-day intensive workshop click here to get your name on the waitlist!