The School of Styling | Part I

I don’t even know where to begin! This is going to be a long blog post but there are just so many fabulous things to say about The School of Styling so I am writing them in separate parts. I attended The School of Styling (TSOS) at the beginning of March in Greensboro, NC at the McAlister Leftwich House. The course took place in a newly remodeled 1875 property. Kaitlin Holland is the owner and operator of this new venue coming to Greensboro. She also runs TSOS! It was such a pleasure to meet Kaitlin! She is one of the kindest people you will ever meet and her attention to every detail is flawless! The way she set up the course made so much sense and it was easy to see she had put lots of time and effort into making everything perfect.  Kaitlin picked specific speakers to come talk to us throughout the week (who I will talk about more later) and set up the timeline between speakers, activities, and meals in a particular order that no one would get bored or too tired. I, personally, hate sitting at a desk all day  just listening and after several hours, the topic I am being taught about just goes over my head because I am so drained. We had different objectives to complete during activities, and this got our brains out of classroom-mode and into field-mode. I loved the variation of lecture time to participatory time with delicious meals here and there.

The week was catered by Holly Tate Fine Catering. Each meal was different and so healthy! They also provided plenty of vegan options – which I was exceptionally happy about since I am lactose intolerant. My favorite food items they offered were black bean cakes and red pepper hummus in miniature cones! So Good! I would highly recommend them as a caterer for your next wedding or event!

The gorgeous photography was done by Ally & Bobby, who are local fine art wedding photographers. They do a mixture of digital and film photography. I am so excited to share their astounding work!

                                          Day One 

As we arrived to the McAlister Leftwich House, we were all given our calligraphic name tags made by Happy Tines and started mingling. After everyone got there, we sat down in our classroom. I loved the purple velvety table linens provided by Nuage Designs. At our place was a Welcome Box with an acrylic name tag. Inside was a notebook and pen to use during the course, facial steam, a trinket dish, and a candle! This was so thoughtful! I brought a notebook to jot things down in but it was nice to have something to devote just to TSOS! We were told to first write down anything that could distract us from the course this week and what is one thing we really want to focus on this week. The one thing I chose to focus on instead of my distractions was to LISTEN carefully to the instructors’ advice and learn what I can do to better my business. We all individually introduced ourselves to the rest of the class and come to find out most of the women there were moms who had to leave their babies at home too! This made me feel better that I was not the only one trying to run a business and be a mom as well, and I was not the only one missing someone at home. I was also surprised there were so many people from outside of NC!

The first speaker was Jeannie Sullivan. She is a business coach and talked about knowing your worth and later teaching your craft. I had never thought about being a teacher for event planning, other than to my staff, however this inspired me to consider teaching later down the road after I have more experience.

Next, Kaitlin Holland spoke about The Fundamentals of Design. She taught us how to pay attention to other people’s design work and why it flows well. We were then spread out throughout the house with some design elements to have a try at it ourselves. This task was a little hard since I had never done it myself. Usually, I leave this up to the photographer. And, with every student grabbing different pieces at the same time, it was difficult to find cohesive pieces. I ended up using an invitation suite with vintage stamps, and a wax seal. It was not my best, but at least I am thinking about the right components now and not just throwing stuff together.

We ended the night with a cocktail hour. We were offered wine from the cutest bar and had some yummy appetizers to go with it! After our snack, we had Speed Dating. We circled the two tables in the classroom and learned more about other students in the class.

The first day made me ambitious about the next two days! I was excited to see what else TSOS had to offer!

Photographer: @allyandbobby
Workshop: @theschoolofstyling
Venue: @mcalisterleftwich
VintageRentals/TabletopStyling China/Glassware/Flatware: @the_prettiest_pieces
Floral Design: @rroseevents
Signage/Calligraphy: @happytines
Linens: @nuagedesignsince
Chairs/Tabletop Styling Linens/Final Dinner China/Glassware/Flatware: @partymakerseventrental
Wine: @speakwines
Desserts: @sugareuphoria

Welcome Box:
Notebooks: @liv_raison
Facial Steam: @somecallmecrunchy
Trinket Dish: @marbelladish
Ribbon: @adorncompany
Candles: @southernfireflycandle

Styling Materials: 
Ribbon: @lapommeetlapipe
Styling-Boards&Blocks: @theromanticiststudios
Stamps: @verdestudio
Wax seals: @waxseals