Over planning kills magic

I've always said, 'over planning kills magic' and the ironic thing about me thinking and saying that is that I also consider myself to be a type A planner. You may not know this about me, but when I am not photographing life as we know it, I'm a part-time marketing project manager for larger companies. The project manager in me constantly needs to know what the plan is, who I need to coordinate and bring together and what the due dates are so I can make sure I execute on time. But this shoot with Tammy of First and Bloom and Callie of Holcomb Weddings & Events proved to me that you don't always need a detailed plan in place.

It was the Monday before Thanksgiving when I had reached out Tammy and Callie about doing a shoot focused on some winter tablescape designs the following week. (I wanted an excuse to work on my product photography skills since it's now slow season for portraits and thought I would recruit some help.) The three of us weren't exactly sure what we were going to do, but we knew that we just wanted to create something….something that would bring out the best in each of our crafts and related to the holidays of course. So when we all got on the phone together we started getting the creative juices flowing. We ended up getting our inspiration from the latest Dec 2016 / Jan 2017 issue of Brides Magazine. There is an article in the issue that talks about pastels being the new hot color palette for winter weddings.

While we weren't set out to do a wedding themed table, we loved the ideas from this article and thought why can't this be a theme for your every day table at home this winter season? Once we nailed that concept down and talked about what each of us could bring to this shoot the following week, we hung up the phone and trusted each other to follow through. -Oh and one thing I didn't mention earlier - Tammy and Callie didn't even know each other until the phone call. They were both my contacts (and friends) within the business that I brought together on a whim. This shoot would be not only their first time meeting in-person, but working together, which in some ways can be a risk. Let's face it, some personalities can clash with others at events like this…

The morning of Friday, Dec. 2nd rolled around and it was shoot day! The shoot location for the day was at Tammy's house, so I piled all of my photography equipment into my car and Callie piled all of her tabletop décor pieces into her car and we drove out to Tammy's house in the Fall City countryside to do this shoot with a lot of excitement and a bit of anxiousness since the three of us had never collaborated together.

As I pulled up to Tammy's house I had realized that Callie had beat me there and she and Tammy were unloading Callie's car, laughing and smiling…I had a quick sigh of relief. So far so good. I unpacked my car and as the three of us got settled in Tammy's dining room, the energy level went from high to off the charts. We were like three little girls in a candy shop. Tammy's floral arrangement design for the shoot was amazing and all of the décor pieces that Callie brought were equally amazing. I knew this was going to be great from that moment on.

In just three hours we were able to pull off three different tablescape themes full of inspiration and ideas for your holiday table top decorating over the next couple of weeks. Here is the first of the three designs based on a general winter theme. You can see the cool pastels that inspired us from Brides Magazine incorporated into the centerpiece, paired with the gold metallics. This design just goes to show that a winter theme really doesn't have to be all about green and red or blue and white and we are so excited to share with you this new kind of traditional look for your home this winter. To learn more about the table design, I recommend you head over to Callie's blog post and to learn more about the floral head over to Tammy's blog post.

What a fun day this turned out to be with very little planning and prep. I think my favorite thing about this shoot is that it was a great example of women entrepreneurs trusting each other and helping each other without having worked together in the past. -Sometimes it's just about bringing what you can offer to the table and seeing what comes of it. I'm lucky to have such great contacts and friends that I can call on to create beautiful and exciting shoots with.

I can't wait to share with you, our next design which is Christmas themed. Stay tuned and until the next post, I hope you enjoy these pics!

Cheers, Missy

P.S. Is Tammy's dog, Dim Sum, not the cutest in this pics?! She insisted on being in the shoot, so Tammy whipped up the ribbon flower collar so she would fit in with the decor. So perfect and sweet!

P.P.S. Stop by my Facebook Page where you can see behind-the-scenes video of the making of this shoot!