Or at least that's what I always call it in my head.
It's something similar but not quite that.
Last week marked my second year attending and this year it was SO nice to attend now knowing an armful of fabulous friends.
I landed, headed straight to the hotel, and a party was waiting for me.
We headed to Hakkasan for the opening night party. This club was intense!
Drinks flowed freely, people were WASTEYFACE...
I bumped into random people who recognized me from the year before...
The lighting of this place was awesome.
We partied with superfamous photographer Jose and his husband Joel.
Crazy to think that one year ago I stood in a massive crowd, just one of Jose's hundreds of thousands of admirers, soaking in every word of wisdom he had to offer...
And now I can call him and Joel my friends...
WPPI is the best!!!
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The next morning we walked the trade show to check out what kinds of speakers and silly displays they had for us...
There were lots.
Oh girl...
Night descended and we got the hookup on an epic party being hosted in the MGM Penthouse, the most beautiful suite the casino has to offer with an EPIC terrace overlooking all of Las Vegas...
My friend Sarah Natasha introduced me to her bestie Christine, and we immediately became BFFs, telling everyone that we were siblings.
Loved rolling around with this fabulous crew all week!
Did I mention the views were STUNNING?
Yup the suite had two stories. It was amaze.
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On Day 3, I again was walking the tradeshow floor. When I noticed a hunk in a tight-fitting T-shirt demonstrating some cool camera accessories...
Turns out it was my buddy PeterLockett from college!
We swapped numbers and met up for drinks after the trade show...
THEN, as coincidence would have it, Rebecca (my BFF who I met at WPPI last year and who has introduced me to EVERYONE I know in the wedding industry over the past year) invited me to a fabulous party hosted by her friend Arlene, who I happened to have met several months ago at Abby's brother's INSANE rehearsal dinner at a Newport Mansion.
And, of course, Arlene's party (her company's party) happened to be in the exact same penthouse suite that we had partied in the night before because she was friends with the guy who had rented it out and he had loaned it to her company for the evening's party.
AMAZING!
LOVE being able to get my friends into the best party in all of Vegas.
And this was only the pre-party.
Because I'm now friends with people who are "in-the-know", we knew to head to a secret party called SilverRush, the UN-official party of WPPI, while the tens of thousands of other attendees went to some lame overpriced party at some other hotel.
Since this was our last night in Vegas...and this is VEGAS...we decided to treat yo self...
And hopped a limo over to the party...
Seriously. Only in Vegas.
We rolled up to the party just as Jose and Joel and their entourage were arriving as well.
I think we were just destined to be besties!
We walked the red carpet...
Some people got REALLY dressed up!
And the venue...the Artisan Hotel...was AMAZINGLY cool.
Late in the evening I befriended some fabulous obeses who had ordered PIZZAAAA.
WE LOVES A PIZZA!!!!
But not as much as we LOVES our CrumsCrumsCrums!
A serious thank you to Rebecca who has changed my life over this past year and introduced me to some of the most amazing people I have ever met in my life.
Before I knew Rebecca, I was alone in my own little world of wedding photography... now I truly feel I have met some soulmates, people who do exactly what I do at the same level or WAY WAY WAY BEYOND... people who don't think it's totally crazy to have trips lined up to 7 different countries and 23 states over the course of the year...people who work hard and play super hard and know exactly what you go through in your day-to-day life because they go through it too.
So much has happened over the past year. And this next year (between now and WPPI 2015) is going to have SO MUCH MORE in store!
