Random Acts of Kindness Day in Honor of the 25th Anniversary of ESD!
When I was a little girl, my dad came to me with an idea called Erin’s Special Day, where one day each year, we’d devote the entire day to hanging out with each other, doing fun things & he would always say that I would get to do whatever I wanted us to do together on that special day. I LOVED the idea of course and would dream up cool things to do with dad for that day each year. I remember one year he took me down to Union Station (back when it was an amusement/shopping area) and we played games, had lunch, shopped and he bought me this beautiful crystal rose in a vase from a glass maker that we met that day, it was a fun memory for sure. Over the years, we’ve done a lot of fun things together, including a trip to Vegas during WPPI one year (that trip literally changed my entire career), and it’s a day that he and I always look forward to every year. I asked him how he got the original idea for ESD and he said, “ESD was an idea I had to offer you a special day for us to be together, break up the routine and give you the opportunity to go wherever you’d like, do whatever you’d enjoy doing and sharing the fun, love and smiles together! Certainly one of the best ideas I’ve ever had.” You got that right!! 🙂
The other night I started thinking about when we started ESD and he & I both think that we started this back in 1985, but apparently we didn’t do it for the first two years after John & I were married (what was I thinking?? lol) so this year will be the 25th anniversary of our annual ESD. Over the last few years we’ve done ESD around the holidays so a lot of our time together would entail Christmas shopping, movies, etc. but I really wanted to do something different and special for our 25th year. As most of you know, I spent my 30th birthday doing 30 Random Acts of Kindness for others and it was truly one of the best days of my life. (The lady who inspired me to do that has created a website devoted just to that idea, due to the overwhelming response that she got when she did it for her birthday. If you’d like to learn about The Birthday Project, click HERE!) Anyway, I decided that for this year’s ESD, I wanted to do 25 Random Acts of Kindness in honor of the 25 years of awesome ESDs that dad has given me and I want him to experience what I experienced on my 30th birthday! 🙂
We’ve put together a list (I know, not so random, but 25 is a lot for one day) and we’ve put together a fun plan & route for tomorrow, 12/5/12. I will be taking photos and posting updates throughout the day on Facebook as we complete all 25 items on the list. A lot of RAOK are for friends, family & people who we work with a lot throughout the year, as a way of saying thanks for all that they’ve done for us. I can’t wait!! Follow me on Facebook by clicking HERE and help make this year’s ESD extra memorable by joining in and doing a Random Act of Kindness too!! The more interactive, the better!! Post a comment and share your RAOK with us either on this blog post or on Facebook & share this story with others. I hope that all of you who are moms and dads out there will also consider doing a Special Day for your kids as well, trust me, they’ll love it! 😉
(Here’s a fun photo of me with my dad back in 1985) 🙂
Update…..ESD #25 was AMAZING!! LOTS of people posted on my wall, messaged me on facebook, sent me emails & texts, etc. It was a great day! 🙂 I wanted to update this post with some photos from the day…don’t judge, they’re all iPhone pics! 😉
exZUBERant Celebration of LIFE!
On 8/25 we photographed Jeff Zuber’s exZUBERant Celebration of Life party in Noblesville. My husband John is friends with Jeff (and a lot of his close friends) and he mentioned to me that Jeff has been suffering from colon cancer. 🙁 One of our awesome mutual friends, Chris Reed, decided to put together a celebration of life party for Jeff and his closest friends and family. I offered to photograph the event, I knew it would be important for everyone in attendance to have great memories of an amazing night, a night which Jeff now refers to as the “best night of his life.” 🙂 Guests decorated Jeff’s backyard to give it a party atmosphere, everyone pitched in and brought food & drinks, they made a tribute video to Jeff, people signed notes and cards for him to read after the event & there were many hugs and tears shed that evening as Jeff’s friends said their good byes. I would love it if my blog followers would consider donating to Jeff’s family. He will soon be leaving behind five children. 🙁 You can donate to his family online at: http://exzuberant.eventbrite.com/ To view all of the photos from the event, go to: https://erinhession.com/exzuberant-celebration/
Art of the Table 2012
On 3/4, we photographed Art of the Table at the Columbia Club. It’s an amazing design showcase of wedding & special event tablescapes to benefit the Betty Jackson Memorial Education Fund and American Cancer Society. Betty was an event planner who I had the pleasure of meeting right before she passed away several years ago. The AOTT committee designed a special table in her honor, using Connie Duglin Specialty Linens, cake by Cake Zen & Jim Holland did an amazing job on the floral design!
The next table is the “Wish Upon a Wedding” table which replicated the design of a recent Wish Upon a Wedding recipient’s reception tablescape! Gorgeous!! Classic Cakes did a fantastic job on that cake & Chair Covers & Linens provided gorgeous linens for 25 of the 29 tables this year!
The next table was the “Courtly Garden Wedding” designed by Gloria Boyden and florals by Gene Fulmer. Of course, I loved the pink & green! 🙂
The next table was the “Romantic Wedding” table designed by Traci Mosby & Chuck Eaglin of Bella’s Blooms! I loved the gorgeous reds and the amazing centerpieces. This would be fabulous for an Indian wedding, don’t you think? 🙂
The next table was called “Creating Couture” which was designed by Lori Solomon of Boldly Chic Events and Stacy Payne-Molander of the Design Group. The paperie for the table was provided by Cari Bowersock at Interprintations. I LOVED the color variation of the flowers and the use of silver & acrylic, it was gorgeous!
The next table was called “Love is in the Air” designed by Melissa Feathers of Well Organized Weddings and Tiffany Wesseler of Eagledale Florist. Of course, I was loving the use of pink & green again! 🙂
The next table was called “Champagne & Roses Wedding” designed by Jennifer Tornatta of Ruffles & Roses Weddings and Events and floral design by Becky Ruby of Lilly Lane. This table was so romantic!
The next table was called “City Sophisticated Wedding Table” designed by Laura Lim of Eventfull Planning and Kaeley Ritterskamp of Sweet Pea Floral. Danielle Klotz from Pink Poppy Ink provided the gorgeous menus and stationery. I loved how contemporary this table was!
The next table was called “The Roaring ’20s: a Vintage Wedding in East Egg” designed by Kate Edwards & Meaghan Shanahan from the Omni Severin Hotel and Julie Acheson of Royal Creations. I loved all of the soft pink and the awesome centerpiece! 🙂
The next table was called “White Wedding” designed by Katasha Butler & Amber Clarke of K Sherrie+Company Planning Atelier and florals provided by Deborah Summers of A Bride’s Choice Florist. I loved how elegant this table display was!
The next table was called “Violet Vintage” and was designed by Amanda Wood of Amanda Wood Event Design and Vanessa Grider of Violet Vintage Rentals. I loved the details of this tablescape, especially the vintage camera! 😉
The next table was called “Romance” by Monica Richard & Gene Huddleson of Detail + Design. I loved how colorful their table was!
The next table was called “Breakfast with Santa” designed by AJ Ploughe of the Columbia Club & Jim Holland provided the florals. This table was full of fun whimsical details that I adored!
The next table was called “Chinese New Year” and it was designed by Heather Lapham Kuhm of L’Evento Event Resource Boutique. I loved the rich red tones against the black linens, it really made it pop in photos!
The next table was called “Let the Good Times Roll” and was designed by Stephen Craig & Heidi Pryor of Adrienes Flowers & Gifts! I loved the festive Mardi Gras theme! 🙂
The next table was called “Sixteen Candles” and was designed by Rachel Dillow of Dillow Weddings & Events. I loved the fun theme & details on her table!
The final table that we photographed was the “Carmel High School Graduation” table designed by Heather Lapham Kuhn & Erika Kuhn of Sweetest Candy Buffets! My favorite candy was the graduation hats, they were adorable!!
Vendors, please let me know if I’ve missed crediting someone, I like to give credit where credit is due and would be happy to add additional credits and website links to this post if needed. 😉
Gary Brackett’s IMPACT Foundation Event!
On 12/9 we had the honor of photographing an awesome event for Gary Brackett’s IMPACT Foundation at the Colts complex! 🙂 Local area hospitals nominated deserving sick children and their families to be part of the event. When I walked in, there were hundreds of wrapped presents, a cute craft area for the kids, lots of footballs to be signed by Gary, and they had a pizza dinner set up for the kids and their families. It was quite an awesome night! (Click HERE for the news article and video or click here to watch the TV segment that I video taped on my iPhone!) 🙂
Gary had lots of footballs to sign that night! The kids LOVED it! 🙂
Santa even stopped by to see the children! 🙂
The kids were so excited to open their presents! 🙂
This little girl was SO cute & full of personality! 🙂
Thanks for a great time everyone! More pics coming soon! 🙂
Kelly’s 5K Walk!
On 4/2, we went up to Valparaiso for our friend Kelly’s 5K walk for cystic fibrosis. Kelly is an AMAZING woman and she has defied so many odds in her life. To read more about her, click HERE! 🙂 She is truly the most determined person I know…she decided that she wanted to create a charitable organization called Care CF (website coming soon) where she could assist other CF patients by providing care packages to them during their extended hospital stays. She raised pledges for each mile that she walked and I know for a fact that she raised hundreds of dollars and received LOTS of care package donations! My blog readers alone donated $250 and 3-4 huge boxes FULL of stuff for her care packages!! (THANK YOU ALL!!) 🙂
Kelly made this poster with photos of other friends of hers with CF. She wanted to put a face to the disease and she also wanted her friends to “cross the finish line” with her. She’s so awesome!
Excited for the race to begin!!
And she’s off!!
Heading toward the finish line…determined as ever!!
Such a happy, emotional moment for everyone! 🙂
Hugging another friend of hers who is battling CF….
Kelly had her own cheering section, it was AWESOME! Definitely one of the most memorable shoots of my life!
Her husband Scott is her rock. You can tell how much they truly adore one another. I’m so glad I had the opportunity to photograph their wedding almost 5 years ago! 🙂
Love you guys!!!
