Introducing The Retropolitan Craft Fair

Hello Lovely,

I realize I missed the entire month of October on the blog. Whoops. Sorry about that. October was a very busy and very exciting month for us. The weeks were filled with long hard days at work and there was something to do every weekend. Through this chaos, I was able to concentrate some of my attention on realizing one of my goals. That my friends, is the subject of today's blog post. 

A few years ago I attended my first indie craft show in Nashville, and fell in love. The room was filled with quality, unique, handmade goods - all in my style. I immediately had to set a budget for myself. That first experience left me wishing there was a fair like this in Knoxville. It took a few years to decide if this was something I was really ready to take on myself. The first step, was establishing a team to help me. 

As a television producer I'm great at bringing people together, organizing large projects, and multitasking. I knew nothing about starting a business, creating a website, marketing to potential vendors, or setting running a craft fair. So, my first stop was my college roommate and dear friend, Taylor. Taylor and I had lunch one day and were talking about living our dreams. In that lunch I brought up starting a craft fair. Taylor is a crafty person and a former business major. It was a match made in heaven. Once Taylor was on board, my next step was reaching out to my coworker, Lacey. Lacey is a producer and a lover of design. She helped me nail down the overall theme and feel for the fair. Finally, I held my breath and reached out to the final crucial piece of the puzzle, Joanna. Joanna is the owner of Ivey Expressions and was one of the photographers at our wedding.  As a mother of two, a wife, and a small business owner, I was worried Joanna wouldn't have time to help, but knew we needed her expertise. Thankfully, she agreed to join the team and help us with vendor relations among many, many other things. Luckily, her husband Tim agreed to help us with our website and design. Thus, our team was born. 

We decided our fair will be juried, meaning we will hand select our vendors based on creativity, quality, and retropolitan flair. Applications open November 15th and that fair itself will be held March 29th. To learn more about the fair, apply to be a vendor, and see our definition of "retropolitan" checkout our website. And don't forget to "like" us on facebook.

I'm anxious, I'm excited, and I'm happy. I know our fair is going to be a great success. I hope to see you there.

xoxo,

alyssa renee