Where do we even begin? Last week we were in Vegas for WPPI’s annual photography conference. Our time was spent connecting with other photographers from all over the world and learning from leaders in the wedding photography industry! We also made time for some sight seeing and trying some of their famous buffets and restaurants! To make it easier, we’re going to talk about our week via the pictures below!

For the duration of our trip, we stayed at the Monte Carlo (right across the Strip from the MGM – where the conference was held). Being the newbies that we were, we decided to save a couple bucks and stay here instead of the hotel attached to the conference center. Little did we know, the MGM entrance that was “just across the Strip” was on the complete other side of the casino than the conference center. For those of you that have been to Vegas, you know that the casinos are incredibly large and can take about 20 minutes to get from one end to the other. After the first day of walking all the way through the casino, smoke and people, we found our own quicker route using side streets outside to get to the conference center. But after Google Mapping all of our walking from our hotel to the conference center and back (multiple times a day), we averaged 6 miles of walking each day…6 MILES…just traveling to and from our classes and trade shows! Everyone told us to pack comfortable shoes, so we did! But no one could’ve prepared us for all the walking we ended up doing!

Our first full day in Vegas, before the conference actually started, was the day we did most of our sightseeing. We walked around the Strip going in and out of several of the hotels and casinos just fascinated with the decor, theme and vibe from each one!

As I mentioned above, we did our fair share of eating last week (it’s a good thing we were walking those 6+ miles each day)! Just about every hotel and casino in Vegas have buffets. These weren’t just any buffets; we are talking crab legs, steak, pasta bars, Chinese and Mexican stations and a large array of desserts!

We also tried a restaurant called Rao’s in Caesar’s Palace – a recommendation from my parents. It was absolutely delicious…everything from the bread to pasta, shrimp and dessert coffee. We definitely recommend this place to any future Vegas-goers!

Also, on our first night in Vegas, we saw The Beatles LOVE Cirque du Soleil show at the Mirage. While it was more street and dance moves than acrobatics, it was indeed a fabulous show (especially if you love The Beatles – a lot of the songs were performed in a way that allowed you to understand the meaning behind the songs).

On Sunday night, we met up with other Showiteers that were attending WPPI (Showiteers are a community of individuals who host their website through Showit). It was so great putting faces to all the names I’ve seen on our Facebook group, and we were super excited to meet and connect with so many other amazing photographers! We met a lot of new friends from New York, New Jersey, California, Washington (the state), Oregon, Tennessee, Canada and all over! We can’t wait to stay in touch with them all and continue to encourage them from here in Pittsburgh!

And of course…the Fountains of the Bellagio were a must-see. You could just sit there and watch the dancing waters for hours. It was incredible!

And we haven’t even mentioned the conference yet! Between the two of us, we attended 12 classes spanning over four days! Each one provided different content…some were motivational, some about lighting and others about posing and portraits on the wedding day! On the first day, I met Jody Gray, an amazing woman who’s one half of a husband and wife photography team based in Nashville. She is one of the speakers at the Pursuit 31 conference that I am going to this October (and super excited about)! Yay! To make this story even cooler, a couple nights into the conference, a fellow Pittsburgh photographer, Leeann Marie, asked if we would like to join her for a private KISS album party (the company who makes our mini parent albums). We were so excited and honored that she thought of us (especially because at this point we were still kinda laying low, not really knowing too many people). Not only was I able to spend most of the night talking with Leeann about our business and next steps and what we’ve been learning so far in the week, but we got to meet and talk with (and stand there in disbelief that we were in the same room with) other amazing photographers at this party like Zach and Jody Gray, Katelyn and Michael Alsop, Jill and Buddy Powers, Mike Larson, the Youngrens, the Grovers and several others! We are so thankful for Leeann for taking us under her wing, encouraging us in our business, and introducing us to some of these other great photographers!

On top of all that, over the course of the week, we got the chance to meet and talk with some of our other favorite photography couples like Justin and Mary, who hosted a Newbie Soiree party for WPPI first-timers, and Liz and Ryan, who we stopped in the hall to introduce ourselves and say hi!

And then, of course, we hit up the trade show. Want to talk about overwhelming? There are over 350 vendors showing off their new products, albums, equipment, business software, camera bags…you name it, it’s there! While it was amazing to see all kinds of new ideas and products, it was overwhelming trying to sort through what (if any) we were interested in adding to our business. With all that said, we do have a couple new products we are excited to start offering soon!

And then, probably one part of our WPPI schedule that we were most excited for…the Katelyn James workshop! On Tuesday, we woke up around 5:00 AM to head out to her workshop and couldn’t have been more excited to learn from her and her husband, Michael. On top of that, we got to stick around and chat it up with her, Michael, their friends/models Jill and Buddy Powers, and our new friend Carrie about life and photography. (More on Carrie and her husband below…)

Katelyn and Michael are such an incredible and talented couple! We had a blast getting to know them throughout the week (since we literally bumped into them everywhere we went!) and are so thankful for individuals like them who are honest and willing to talk openly about their business, how they run it and what they have done to be so successful. There is nothing more encouraging than seeing a husband and wife team living their life and running their business to glorify God. Thank you guys for your encouragement and leadership in the industry!

On our second to last full day in Vegas, we got some new head shots taken by Michelle Lange, a fabulous photographer from New York! She was amazing and offered free head shots to those who were interested, so Mike and I jumped at the opportunity to get some more photos taken of us together! A huge thanks goes out to her for my new Facebook profile pictures!

As our time in Vegas was coming to an end, we decided to mess around with the lighting in our hotel room using some of the techniques and ideas we learned about during the classes we attended! Check out my hubby’s GQ status! Holla!

And finally, on our last night there, we went to dinner with Carrie (who also attended Katelyn’s workshop) and her husband, Jeremy. We got to talking a little bit at the workshop, and we followed that up with dinner at the Mirage the next night! We spent 3 hours talking about everything from God and marriage to photography and how we’re all learning to run a business. What started out as a dinner with new friends turned into us sharing our testimonies and how we want our businesses to be a bright light shining for Christ! It continues to amaze us how God puts such wonderful friends and people in our lives for us to be an encouragement to one another!