It has been such an incredible year full of so many highlights that haven’t even made it to this blog! I plan to blog all of those special moments at some point, just for proof that it happened, but of all of the amazing things that took place this last year, one that we are particularly proud of is our senior model program, affectionately referred to as the “Street Team.” We started our street team program, as a new and fresh approach to the senior model. It was 2011 and we were new to the senior photography world, and in many ways, it feels we still are. We decided to create a NEW way, a team approach to marketing our brand to seniors – and chose our first street team, fast forward a few years, a lot of mistakes, and a lot of revisions and you get the INT Nine: Breauna, Ha-Vy, Linda, Tara, Tawny, Aleenah, Daniella, Micayla and Daija. These girls have been the girls that have brought the street team vision to reality. They have worked hard and represented the brand both in the street & in their hearts and they helped bring all of my hopes for the concept to life. A sisterhood, a community, a safe place to land, a group of girls who come together on behalf of the brand who work to push pictures, but push the Ike & Tash experience. These girls have traveled across the country with Ike and I, both literally and figuratively. They have represented us in the cyber world, on CreativeLIVE, at our own national conference, BLINK, and every small workshop and platform across the way. Naturally, its heart breaking to face that they WILL and have to move on – and there is always fear that you won’t be able to create something so sweet again…. at least I thought.
One of my street team members, texted me shortly after the New Years Eve stylized shoot and thanked me for an amazing year and said how sad she was that it was over. OVER??!! Who said that??! I knew immeditately I needed to spring into action so that my current girls didn’t feel displaced as we searched for a new street team – and I did – I will talk more about that next month in the forum, how to keep your models engaged, excited and to transition them positively out of the role, you can sign up and learn and recieve by visiting Senior Style Guidgoogle. and watching for the announcement, coming very soon, – all of that brainstorming landed us to Sunday, a gorgeous room, full of treats and desserts as the Class of 2014 welcomed the Class of 2015 into the family!
Below are pictures of that beautiful and amazing day! We are so excited to celebrate our 14 girls and get to know our 15 girls. F i f t e e n girls to represent the Class of 2015, our biggest street team, a new number (I will also be going over picking your members and how many is too many and how to determine that): Savanna, Maddison, Mckinsey, Andrea, Daisja, Kymberlee, Jocelynn, Kenzie, Madison, Addison, Nicky, Cammy, Emily, Elisa, and Naomi. After our meet & greet, we created an activity, a photo shoot insipred by a wonderful experience I had last year participating in the “Color In Motion” race – stay tuned for that blog and enjoy these pictures in the meantime.
Shout out to my dear friend Taressa Neal for all of the beautiful desserts! We loved them so much and we are so thankful and THANK YOU SO MUCH to my sister Melinda, for always being a wealth of ideas and support!! I appreciate you! Couldn’t do much without you!
Cupcakes: Hello Cupcake
Assorted Desserts: Taressa Neal
Event Planning & Design: Shower Me Chic
