The Hope Photography Gallery!

We've come a long way baby. :) Back when Danielle and I started doing weddings nine years ago there was no way we could have imagined where we would be today. What started out as a part-time venture to bring in a little extra cashflow to a struggling young married couple (Danielle was still in college and I was an underpaid newspaper photographer) has turned into a full fledged company. We've gone and grown!! Who would've thought it was possible? We may have gotten to this point sooner in our journey, but we've taken our time; making sure we've done things right all along the way.

Hope Photography now has a home away from home! No more meeting at coffee shops or scurrying to clean up Maddie's toys before clients come to our house. We have what we're calling "The Gallery", a meeting place and projection room where we'll show all of our awesome clients their awesome photos. That's right, I just used "awesome" twice in the same sentence. What? It's awesome! ;)

Our goal for 2009 was to have a meeting space of some sort. So when we were approached by our friend Lisa Foster about renting an office in her new floral design studio at the beginning of the year, we jumped at the opportunity. As luck would have it, Lisa found a retail space with the perfect location, right next to Wedding Wonderland on Kingston Pike. And to make matters even better, Lisa was also planning on renting another office space in her new shop to the premier planners Brenda and Lisa, with One Enchanted Evening. Yep, a florist, planners, wedding dresses, and wedding photographers all in the same shopping area on Bearden Hill (which will soon be called Wedding Hill). It's a win-win-win-win for brides. That's not to say that we're exclusively working together on every wedding, but we do end up with some of the same wonderful clients and we all work together great as a team. Why not, right?

Now that you know the back story, I know you want to see some photos. This was a retail area that had never been rented so we had new construction to play with. Starting from scratch is fun. Here's how things progressed...

First off, here's where we are, Lisa Foster Floral Design, 6622 Kingston Pike. One Enchanted Evening and our signs are on the window, but this is what you're looking for when you come visit us (before you even ask, this was taken with a tilt/shift lens, hence the funky look of it).


It's a cool and weird feeling seeing your name in big letters.


Danielle and I are stupid do-it-yourselfers when it comes to small projects (or what we think are small projects), so we tackled the paint, trim, and floor ourselves.


This is me after two straight days of hanging out with my pal Manual Labor. He drives a man insane.


The middle of day two; trim. Day one was paint and someone, ahem, forgot to bring the camera.


We decided on a chair rail to break the huge walls up. The place has ceilings over 10' tall. Danielle is a pro with the hammer.


Oh, the chaos.


Lisa (Foster) and Danielle. We were about to have a wet t-shirt contest.


Day three, the floors.


The floors which took longer than we thought.


So long that delirium starts to set in. Althought it is mandatory when "Walk Like an Egyptian" comes on the radio that you, well, walk like an Egyptian.


We were done. We were elated. We were high on paint fumes. And Lisa grabbed my camera and said "be sexy!" Sadly, this is my interpretation of that.


But it did feel good to be done.


And I was too tired to get up. Danielle left me here for a week.


A few days later we picked up our furniture. And were visited by the Ghost of Morons Past.


Finally the big day arrived when all of our canvases were delivered (and we had the joy of hanging them). Danielle's getting a little friendly with bride Jaclyn McKenry.


See, I'm not the only dork in this relationship.


Hanging the last canvas on the wedding wall. I'm so anal everything had to be lined up perfectly. It drives Danielle crazy. :)


The benefit of being in cahoots with a florist is the place stinks with good smells. There's flowers everywhere!


The finished product! Well, almost, we're still missing a few framed prints for the portrait wall, but other that that, we're good to go. And check out the cool lighting. We had to ditch the ugly fluorescents. Don't worry, electrical is not something we try ourselves.


Here's the in-progress portrait wall.


The back wall with as monster 60" canvas. And that couch is comfy. If I'm ever in the doghouse with Danielle, you'll find me there.


The view from the back of the room. Check out the huge 92" projection screen! Can you say "movie night" with the Hopes??

Now that you've seen the photos, you want to see it in real life, right? We'll you can! Tomorrow, Monday May 4, we're having an open house. Here's your official invitation:

What: Hope Photography, Lisa Foster Floral Design, and One Enchanted Evening's Grand Opening!

When: Monday, May 4, 2009

Time: 6pm to 8pm.

Where: 6622 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, Tn (click here for directions). We're next to Bonefish Grill, across the street from Soccer Taco and Calhouns, and in the same shopping center as the new Pimento's Cafe. Up the hill from Krispy Kreme and Rouxbarb coming from the Northshore/Kingston Pike intersection. And up the hill from PF Chang's, Wishbones, and Sawyers coming from the Papermill/Kingston Pike intersection. What? I'm typing this hungry.

And if you're a client of ours that stops by, we'll have a little treat for you! Hint: it rhymes with smalf hoff a smession smee. ;)

So please stop by and check us out. If you can't make it, we understand. But we'll expect you to hire us so you can hang out in our cool gallery. :)

Talk to you soon!

-Wes