What a fun fun fun night… Every year my current Model Cast is invited to pass the torch to the next group of potential models. In years previous this has been done over the course of two different events; one for the current cast and one for the upcoming new models. This year however, I decided that we should have one, big, awesome event where all models, current and new, could have fun together and enjoy each other whilst passing the torch.. and I could go a little more extravagant in my party planning!
I’ve been building a friendship and collaborating with Julie, the fabulous owner of Roadkill Ranch Boutique in downtown Fullerton, for the past few years now. When I started planning this event and explaining how I wanted it to be absolutely incredible and the place to be, she and I started getting really excited about the possibilities. What if Roadkill brought a gold bar and the girls could wear awesome jewelry at our event? How about gold temporary tattoos? A swag bag, eh, YES! We had so much fun making plans and playing around with a gold theme.
Last year I asked my friend Joel over at Studio EMP to borrow his incredible studio. Because Joel is easily the most awesome and easy going person ever, he’d said yes last year. This year, his studio moved to this gorgeous loft over at Found Vintage Rentals (his wife Jenny’s business). I wondered if Joel would let me use the loft. Crossing my fingers, I sent him an email asking if he’d consider it. His immediate response was yes of course, because he’s awesome and easy going like that. What a gift! The Studio EMP Loft is like a movie set in a cool Greenwich Village, New York, romantic comedy… all exposed beams and incredible natural light flowing through distressed warehouse windows.. I mean, it’s incredible. I couldn’t think of a more hip, glam, cool venue.
We had the theme, an awesome venue and now it was time to plan a fantastic, memorable event! Invitations were sent out and I started planning, pintrest style (check out my board here). Gold sparkly table linens and a mock tail bar, we wanted our night to be glamorous and swanky. I made custom napkins with a gold foil embossing for an incredible giveaway. $500 worth of merchandise from Roadkill.. amazing! The floors were covered in photos from the 2015 Cast and balloons wore filled with fun gifts from FLY, Roadkill & The Grand (care of our amazingly talented stylist Bree). Our nominees were asked to wear an LBD and come ready to be ‘dipped in gold’ for a night of glam. As they entered the foyer of Found, Julie and her sensational stylist Barb outfitted our nominees and current cast with blingy jewelry from Roadkill’s Gold Bar and even helped the girls with gold tattoos. Next the ladies were lead upstairs to the loft and greeted with a mocktail of their choosing. We spent the night sipping our gold-rimmed champagne glasses, looking at FLY products and photos, and learning about what it means to be a FLY model. Our night opened with a look into our Trash the Formal Photo shoot, check it out here:
I thought it would be fun to include a mini gag-awards ceremony for our current models. I had 5 awards: Model of the Year: Kara, Pose of the Year: Corinne, Face of the Year: Bethany, OC Style Award: Mia, and FLY Ambassador of the Year: Annie. We took photos red carpet style, and welcomed the new cast into our FLY family. As our lovely guests departed, they were given a fabulous swag bag filled with a cute little chocker necklace, a gold clutch and a sparkly gold nail polish & lip gloss, al care of Roadkill Ranch. Julie really went all out! I think everyone had an incredible time!
I couldn’t be more excited about our new 2016 Cast. We’ve got some incredible ladies this next year and I’m SO excited to get to know them and photograph them for their Senior year!!! Keep a lookout for an intro to these fabulous FLY girls, coming up this spring!!! Enjoy...
Love and Hugs,
Jess
PS…. A few thanks you’s should be mentioned… HUGE thank you to Jen Disney, for these awesome photos of our night! She’s totally pregers and was STILL totally willing to join us and shoot! To Bree, my incredible stylist, thank you for loving these girls as much as I do and for joining us for our glam night. You are a rock star and my body of work wouldn’t be the same without your incredible talent. Big Big thanks (which of course is in no way enough) to Julie at Roadkill for helping make our night so insanely GLAM. And a huge thanks to Joel at EMP and Jenny at Found for the incredible space and vintage pieces that made our event so beautiful!!! Thank you to my mommy for playing bar tender and being such a great support! And lastly, a big big thank you to my insanely gorgeous husband, Fabio. Thank you for allowing me the space to dream and plan such fun events for FLY, and for always supporting me no matter what! You are incredible and I adore you. Until next time…