I think writing these blog posts may be the hardest part of every workshop experience. How in the world do you summarize 20+ hours of incredible new memories!? I try to find the right words each and every time…and I always feel like I come up short. But, here I go…giving it another shot!

On Tuesday evening, I said goodbye to 12 new workshop alumni from all over the country (AND Canada!!) after spending two full days together at Paisley and Jade in Richmond, VA. We dove head first into the workshop experience starting on Sunday with an adorable meet and greet event featuring cookies, hot cocoa and a gorgeous cake made by my sweet momma! We broke the ice sharing all about our goals for 2018, where we were in our businesses and where we wanted to be by the end of this year. I felt so lucky to hear the hearts of all of these incredible women, and they were so brave in sharing their testimonies, struggles and triumphs that they experienced leading up to the workshop. It made me even more excited to be spending two days with them! We finished off the evening with a hilarious round of “Heads Up” and then headed back for a restful evening before the workshop officially kicked off early the next morning (but not without seeing the JT halftime performance…don’t worry.)

Day one of the Hope Taylor workshop is deemed “wedding day” – because we cover any and everything related to photographing weddings! We talk about photographing a wedding day (lens selection, timeline, strategy, camera settings, light set-ups and more) and then we break down my entire client experience from social media marketing to gallery delivery (and everything in between!). The highlight of this day is always the wedding styled shoot put on by an incredible team of local vendors (sneak peeks below!!!) and it did NOT disappoint!

Day two came quickly and is “senior day” – we cover everything related to senior photography (think senior experience, shooting/posing/lighting, senior rep programs, marketing to parents, creating community and more!) After a fully styled shoot with 5 (!!!) models, we finished off the day talking about personal marketing, vendor collaboration, time management, blogging, editing and workflows (and we eat carbs…lots of carbs).

This workshop was a special one because it was my FIRST workshop to kick off 2018 (woohoo!!!), my LAST workshop in Richmond before they are hosted in my home and it included so many sweet friends of mine on the vendor teams. I have to give a huge thank you to lots of people, but we’ll start with the incredible workshop sponsors:

Twila & Co | Honeybook | Black Rapid | Monkee’s of Fredericksburg | Paisley and Jade | Dear Sweetheart Events | Courtney Inghram | Sorby Sweets | Bridal Impressions | Bombshell Bridal | Prairie Letter Shop

And there are a couple more “thank you’s” in order…

Erika & Natalie: Thank you so, so much – from the bottom of my heart – for being some of the best friends on the planet. I couldn’t ask for more support, love and encouragement than I get from you two! You are the best BTS photographers, food preppers, back-of-the-room-head-nodders, insta story pros and post-workshop-margarita-drinkers that anyone could ever ask for.

Josh (of Joshua Bryan Cinema): Thank you for modeling alongside your hot fiancé, helping with set up and surprising me with such a fun recap film. But, most importantly, thank you for finding a Greatest Showman soundtrack remix to use – it was kind of the highlight of my week.

Mom & Dad: These workshops really just could not happen without you.  From packing my car, running around helping with errands, packaging gift boxes (especially tying bows) and making the desserts…I don’t know how I would function without your help! I feel so grateful every day to have such supportive and wonderful parents like both of you.

And now, time for the fun part!!! Here is a recap of all of the fun we had at the February 2018 workshop!! First up, here is the amazing recap video Josh put together from the second day of the workshop!! He surprised me with this and I just love it!!

 

LOVED putting these new gift boxes together for attendees!!! 🙂

Clearly I really love Josh and Erika…

“WAIT I gotta get this on insta stories!!!!”

This bridal bouquet that Courtney put together BLEW MY MIND!!!

Clearly something was funny…and I love my passion tea lemonades.

Miss all of these gorgeous girls already!!! One of these attendees traveled from Canada…and she’s in this collage twice because one attendee couldn’t make the head shot portion of the day and I needed it to be even!!! 😉

Here are some of my favorite BTS pics pulled from the #hopetaylorworkshop hashtag on Instagram!!!

Love these two and so thankful or all of their help!!!

Here are some gorgeous sneak peeks from the styled shoots…more to come next week!!! AH!

If you enjoyed this post, you may also love:

Supporting and Parenting a Young Entrepreneur 

Business Intensives are BACK for 2018! 

FREE Download | 5 Programs Photographers Can’t Live Without