The Art and Execution of Styled Shoots at Vantage Venues

By: Tracey Manailescu, Co-founder of WPIC

We had the most incredible weekend at our very first, “The Art and Execution of Styled Shoots”.

A HUGE and heartfelt thank you goes out to Michelle and Andrew Hodd of Vantage Venues. Thank you for your kindness, patience and trust. It was the perfect venue with its modern and spacious meeting rooms on the 16th floor, and floor to ceiling windows with the most gorgeous downtown city views made for weddings on the 27th floor. Pauline Ozga, Sales Manager was a dream to work with, as was Gerrard, and the rest of the Vantage Venues team.

We must put a special mention here to Kevin Yam of 135 mm Photography, as he worked tirelessly from morning until night to capture the speakers and all of the wonderful behind the scenes photos of both days, along with all of the images for our incredible styled shoots! Thank you!

We are beyond grateful for all of our wonderful speakers and wonderful partners who made this past weekend so amazing!

(Of course, COVID-19 interrupted our plans again and we had to revamp and adjust our class size and criteria to accommodate the new rules which included a maximum of 10 attendees, plus staff.)

A small but mighty group of amazing women and photos with masks will now take over the article.

“I’m blessed to have had the opportunity to attend the 1st WPIC Styled Shoot Course over the weekend at Vantage Venues. It was packed with industry professionals such as a wedding stationer, a florist and a styled shoot industry expert. We participated in hands-on workshops making our own floral arrangements as well as styling flat lays – which I learned very quickly is not my greatest strength! Lol,😁 I would highly recommend this course to anyone who is looking to network with other vendors, fine-tune their brand and learn how to build great content for publication. Thank you WPIC for putting together a phenomenal course!” ~Cheryl Munro of Wedding and Events by Cheryl Munro

Our first guest speaker was Nicole Natassha Goulding of Chic By Nicole. Nicole spoke to the group about mistakes to avoid, lessons learned and the importance of sticking to your brand when producing a styled shoot.

Our next guest speaker was Jenna Martin of The Polka Dot Paper Shop. Jenna reiterated that paper goods for weddings and styled shoots are spelled with an “E”. Jenna led the attendees through steps and tips to make better flat lays. Thanks for the great hand-outs!

Our last guest speaker was Kimberly Fu Skubic of Envision Floral Studio. Kimberly walked us through the hands-on portion of creating centerpieces for both styled shoots as well as the dynamics and mechanics that go into creating a floral arch.

“If you are looking for a course on how to create a professional, magazine-worthy styled shoot to boost your wedding business, look no further. The savvy ladies at the WPIC have nailed it. Tracey and Danielle have created a course that generously shares their years of extensive wedding industry knowledge on how to create the perfect styled shoot over two fun filled days. The course is so exciting because it combines a series of lectures by different speakers, videos and hands-on work that never feels dull or long. It is also a wonderful opportunity to network with other wedding professionals regardless of what stage of their career they are in. One leaves the course with the confidence to create a beautiful project like this on one’s own. It is very generous and kind of Danielle and Tracey to share all their years of experience with attendees! Highly recommend. ~Nifette Khaled of Best Life Events

“The Execution of a Styled shoot” could not have come at a better time! I have been pondering and scrambling for ideas of my first styled shoot. However, seeing it was my first, I wasn’t 100% sure what I was getting myself into, so it was a miracle that @Wpicinc had posted this course at the time of my struggle. I’m so happy I participated in this course! It was exactly how I envisioned it in my head and more. Very insightful! Thank you again for sharing your knowledge and I hope to work with you all in the future!

In-class theory lectures included vision boards, putting a team together, agreements and contracts, investments, responsibilities of the planner, creating timelines, case studies, ROI assessment, publication goals, pitching to the media, etc.)

Day Two was all about the Styled Shoots.

The attendees chose which styled shoot they wanted to participate in. The choices were: “Whimsical and Iridescent” or, “Classic and Modern City Chic”.

Wedding Styled Shoots are not only a way for Wedding Professionals to exercise and showcase their creative juices, but they also provide a wonderful opportunity to market and optimize their style, ideas, and expertise to a larger platform. Styled Shoots add value to wedding businesses by portfolio building, content for social media which leads to increasing social media followers, brand-recognition, vendor networking, and designing concepts to target future ideal clients.

We can’t wait to share these with you in a couple of weeks! Attendees worked with us on every single aspect of styling, design and execution. Every decision was made by the group for the betterment of the overall look and feel of the shoot.