Disaster avoided!

Christine and I have been hard at work getting ready for the debut of our photography business, Fresh Photography!! Our first art fair is this Saturday, December 2nd (info above in sticky post)!! There’s been lots of activity to get ready of course…

A major disaster was averted this morning though!! We were late ordering matting supplies (precut mats and the backing) but this vendor shipped very quickly last time so we did not expect a problem. We were getting anxious though so I called this morning to get a tracking number only to find out they order had not even shipped yet!! The vendor had moved locations and there was an unexpected delay in the processing of the order. They didn’t even have enough supplies in stock so there was no way to fulfill our order today and overnight it.

Imagine my panic and horror! These matting supplies were absolutely necessary. Without them we would just be selling un-matted prints in baggies and it would be a disaster. Fortunately, a local art supply store has a wonderful website and to my surprise, they had the volume of supplies we needed (we are matting over 150 prints) and they had them on sale right now. We will be picking the items up this afternoon and will actually save a significant amount of money (about 25%)! The only setback? The backing is not pre-cut so we will need to spend our evening measuring and cutting the large foam board sheets (they are 32″ x 40″). Woo-hoo.

So, I am still nervous and I won’t be settled down until the foam board and mats are sitting in my living room but I am breathing much easier now. And I was able to avoid breaking into tears which is always good. The rest of our to-do list is dwindling so this is good. Yes, all of the manual labor is left (matting all those prints) but the ideas and research and brainstorming and organizing and designing are essentially done. Yay!

I took Friday off from work so Christine and can work on the final preparations, finish assembling prints and buy any last minute supplies, etc. The extended entry section gives further details on where we are at on our to-do list…

What’s been done:
> Flyers were mailed to friends & family.
> Prints ordered & received.
> Presentation bags ordered & received.
> Business cards – ordered and should arrive today!
> Image labels are done & printed.
> My bio cards are also printed but I may need to make some more.
> The wicker bins we will use in the booth are in! Just need to label them.
> Our website is up in a very rudimentary stage but it’s up.
> The spreadsheets are up-to-date and pricing has been decided upon.
> The slide show has been figured out (will run on my laptop).
> Booth signage has been created – just need to print a final copy.

What is left to do:
> Put together the portfolio album.
> Finish assembling my handmade cards.
> Gather the various booth supplies including holiday decorations.
> Finish framing a handful of images and figure out their pricing.
> And of course… assemble all the prints!! That includes matting them, placing them in presentation bags and labeling them… I foresee an assembly line at the kitchen table with Kenny involved.