Happy first day of spring! Today was my last full day in the shop. In the morning, I redesigned our front window for springtime (yay!) and it brightened up the shop a little. I finished up my last blog post for "The White Idea", and started putting together marketing materials for exhibition tomorrow. We had one bridal appointment in the afternoon, and it was the first one that I was actually able to sit in on and participate in. Our bride arrived with a friend, a mother, and four kids in tow. It was such a pleasure to see her find her dress, and Jackie was right. These brides light up when it's "The One." Things were pretty slow today customer wise, so I spent my time in the late afternoon picking out which dresses I'm bringing to exhibition tomorrow (they're gorgeous!). I really appreciate everything that Jackie and Donna have done for me during my time at Occasions. I learned a lot, and I hope to continue working with them in the future.
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Today I finished my ad for the March Madness sale that's going on in the shop! The ad will run in an email blast that goes out to all our brides-to-be. We also got some gorgeous new dresses into the shop, so we're all pretty excited about that. Stop on by and have a look! Just like any other day, we had high schoolers coming into the shop all day for tuxes and dresses. I learned the proper way to take measurements for tuxedos (way more complex than I thought). I started my third and final blog post on unique wedding ideas for "The White Idea" and I expect to be finished with that tomorrow. I got my mentor interview done, and it was great to sit down with Jackie and talk about her career and how she came to be a wedding planner/marketing director/fashion stylist (whew! That's a lot!) After the interview, we talked about how Occasions markets as a local business, and I got a lot of information to put in to my presentation for my exhibition on Friday. Things in the shop got a little bit slow in the afternoon, so Jackie and I took the opportunity to do some spring cleaning, because the wedding expo season is over. All in all, not a lot of foot traffic in the shop, but I managed to keep pretty busy. Check back tomorrow to hear about my last full day in my internship!
Happy Saint Patrick's Day! Another networking day on the road for Jackie and I. We took promotional postcards to Piedra Vista, Navajo Prep, Aztec High, Bloomfield High, and Farmington High schools, as well as some other boutiques and salons in the region. We distributed hundreds of our postcards, so we're hoping that we get some new prom girls in the shop! Check back Wednesday for more.
Today was the Sky Ute expo! Jackie and I arrived at the event center at 9 to set up our booth before heading up to our models' hotel suite to say good morning and bring their dresses up to their room to make getting ready for the show easier. While all the girls were in hair and makeup, Jackie and I set up our wedding planning inspiration table and waited for the expo to start. At bridal expos, vendors will set up booths with samples for visitors to allow them to see what they have to offer. At this expo, there were party rental businesses, wedding planners, bakers, caterers, and boutiques that have accessories and clothing for the big day. For our shop, Jackie and I brought six wedding dresses for our live models in the fashion show, one wedding dress for a mannequin in our booth, four tuxedos for our guys in the fashion show, three tuxedos for mannequins, and two prom dresses for mannequins in the booth. We also brought our book of styles for bridesmaids dresses and fabric swatches for our two bridesmaids dress collections. Throughout the morning, Jackie and I talked to a few brides who hadn't found their dress and a couple non-brides who were in the market for a prom gown (good thing we brought ours!). At 11:45 Jackie went up to the hotel suite to help get our girls dressed and I headed to our green room to get our guys dress in the tuxes. Once our guys were taken care of, I headed up to the suite to get our models down to the runway. It was a long walk, and some of our girls had tons of dress to carry. A little before 12:30, we got everybody lined up, and then the show started. Jackie and I were backstage helping the girls on and off the runway, checking to make sure that our dresses were taken care of. The show went smoothly, and we headed back up to the suite to pack up the dresses and get back to our booth. The afternoon was a little slow at our booth, so Jackie and I indulged in some delicious samples of some catering options. The rest of the expo flew by, and before I knew it, we were back at the shop putting everything back. Even though the expo was only four hours long, it was an incredibly long day. Fashion shows are so tiring! But it was still super fun. Our new promo video is ready! Check it out here. Also, don't forget to check out the Occasions blog "The White Idea" to read my blog posts on prom trends! And keep up with our gorgeous dresses of the day on our Twitter page.
Today was spent prepping like crazy for tomorrow's wedding expo in Ignacio. Jackie and I packed up dresses and supplies for staging a wedding planning table, as well as six mannequins that will be on display tomorrow at our booth. I also started working on a promo that will be going out as a part of an email blast for a sale in the shop. It's so cool that I get to work on my own ad. I'll post the finished ad sometime in the next few days. Tomorrow is gonna be a long day, so check back to hear how the expo went. Today was the day of the fashion show at Durango High School. Jackie, Marisa, and I packed up the cars and headed over to the school at 8:45 with the dresses. When we arrived, the girls were just getting out of hair and makeup, so we started to get them in their prom dresses. While I laced up corsets and zipped up zippers, Jackie and Marisa were getting the boys into their tuxes and setting up our mannequins next to the runway. We finally got everybody dressed and backstage and the show started. Jackie and I had written a script the day before with information about the dresses and our shop, and Jenny did a great job as the MC. It was pretty hectic, and I had to be backstage for part of the show helping a couple boys change their tuxedos (each boy walked with two girls) before they had to be back on the runway. Ultimately, everyone did a fantastic job, and the show was a success. You can read more about the show here. The rest of the day was pretty normal. We all went back to the shop and put the dresses back on the racks and cleaned up a little. We had a couple of bridal appointments that I sat in on, and Jackie and I started to think about what to bring to the expo on Saturday. Check back tomorrow for more! Because Durango is such a small town, it's important that we also take advantage of the proximity of other cities in the region, and network outside of our own city limits. Jackie and I headed down to Mancos High School with some promotional postcards with information about the shop. We also stopped by Dolores High School to do the same thing. It's important that we get our name out as much as possible. Online shopping is hard on local businesses, and prom girls are often scammed out of hundreds of dollars when they buy knockoff dresses by mistake. By networking with postcards, we make sure that the teenagers know that they have a local option for shopping, and we can hopefully save some girls from the stress of a last minute scramble for a dress.
On Tuesday, March 25th, Occasions is partnering with a boutique in Cortez called Love on a Hanger for an event called Get Your Prom On! We will be bringing down several dresses to their shop for girls to try on, and we will have some live models there as well. There will also be hair and makeup artists there to offer their expertise, and there are going to be prizes and giveaways! This event will serve to bring us closer to the surrounding communities and hopefully make it easier for girls to find their dress without having to come all the way to Durango. In order to prep for the event, Jackie and I took postcards to Cortez High School, and we stopped by Love on a Hanger with one of our dresses to leave in the window for a couple weeks. We're hoping that our gorgeous purple gown will be an eye-catcher and will promote the event for us. To get info about the event, click here. When we got back to the shop, Jackie and I packed up the eleven dresses and five tuxedos that we will be taking to DHS tomorrow for their fashion show, as well as four of our mannequins which will sit next to their runway, just to give a couple more examples of the dresses that we carry. Tomorrow will be an early day! Today was a networking day for Jackie and I. We spent the morning in the shop, cleaning up and getting my dress of the day post done, and then we hit the streets of Durango! In order to drum up some business for the shop, we took our prom promotional postcards around town and spoke to the owners of various salons and boutiques. In our shop, we help girls find their perfect dresses, but then we don't know where to send them for hair, makeup, jewelry, corsages, shoes and those sorts of things. Now we know exactly where to send girls, and we know that we got our postcards out and around town for a lot of people to see. Jackie taught me a lot about how to approach other business owners, and how to introduce yourself and become more outgoing.
When we got back to the shop, we had some prom girls in to get their dresses, and some boys in to get measured for their tuxes. Things are starting to get crazy after school lets out! Check back on Wednesday for another post. Super exciting day in the Occasions world! Another dress of the day done, another one coming up on Monday. Check out the O by Occasions Facebook page to keep up. I also completed another blog post, this time on trends for prom tuxedos! We're just waiting for all the boys to start flooding the shop to get their tuxes for prom. We had two bridal appointments today, and it was the first time I was actually involved in the appointment process. It was so much fun to talk to the bride and then find a dress to fit her vision. Unfortunately, neither of our brides bought a dress today, but that's alright! On the bright side, we had a rush of girls into the shop in the afternoon looking for prom dresses, and we were able to find a few girls their perfect dresses. It was an interesting experience to pick out gowns for girls my own age, but I'm so happy they ended up happy! Plus, Occasions registered their dresses, so it's guaranteed that they'll be the only girls rocking their dress on prom night. On a super exciting note, I found MY prom dress! All in all, it was an amazing day. Next week will be totally busy and insane. I can't wait!
CRAZY day today! The morning started off a frazzled because our Internet was out, but by noon. everything was up and running. After I did the post for dress of the day, my day was spent prepping the shop for the filming of a new promo video by Michael and Michelle Turolla! We re-dressed mannequins and staged the shop so it would look amazing on camera. We also hosted a couple of models who looked AMAZING in their gowns. Not a great day to wear heels, but an exciting one nonetheless.
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rachel gonzalesIntern at Occasions Durango, March 2014 |