Wendi Riggens Photography Blog – Burlington Iowa

Last Thursday was our private open house and ribbon cutting with the Greater Burlington Partnership! After weeks of planning, days of stressing, and hours of cleaning, organizing, cooking, and setting up, the day turned out totally amazing! You would think that a professional photographer would have photographed the event, but I was so busy meeting people, giving them tours of the space, and running around that I only took a few, mainly of the food!

The day started out in the kitchen with help from my friends Kelly, Laura, and Perla, while my awesome team, Christie and Kamry, went to the studio to get everything ready.  We worked for 3 hours and pulled out the best open house food ever!

These bread bowls, from the website Picky-Palate.com, were a total hit! So many people have asked for the recipe, so here is a link! http://picky-palate.com/2011/01/31/baked-spinach-dip-mini-bread-bowls/

These BLT Bites were my favorite. SO incredibly easy and SO delicious!

From BeeInOurBonnet.com

Caprese is pretty easy – basil leaves, little tomatoes, fresh mozzarella – and we soaked them in a sun-dried tomato vinaigrette, which was fantastic!

We also made a strawberry bruschetta, carmelized onion dip, and had sweet potato and beet chips, but I didn’t have time to get a photo of them!

The ribbon cutting was fun, and everyone had a great laugh at a very minor wardrobe malfunction that could only happen to me!

It was so amazing see all of our clients, family, and friends that came, and meeting all of the new people that also came to see the space. It was such a whirlwind!

The total hit of the day was our amazing cake, created by Clarice and Anthony of Sweet Intentions by the Morgans. This cake was, simply put, amazing and delicious!

I am so grateful for my incredible staff, Christie & Kamry. They put up with my stress-ball of a self throughout the week, calming me down when needed, making me be realistic when I wanted to try making the sweet potato chips, and encouraging me when I didn’t think that the event was going to happen. Christie in particular has played a vital role in organizing the open house, and I couldn’t have done it without her!

The next day, we celebrated in the office with some leftover wine and cake. Yum!

I have so many people to thank for this, I don’t know where to start, but I will give it a try:

-My husband, for his never-failing support of my dream

-My landlord, Jim, and Joey for their hard work on the renovations

-Clarice and Anthony for making the trek over with the cake!

-Becca and Crane for the awesome Oreo balls, also not photographed!

-The Chamber/Greater Burlington Partnership for the ribbon cutting

-Annie, Melissa, and Tracy for bringing smiles and giggles with their little ones

-Laura, Kelly, and Perla, for HOURS of work and help!

-Mom and Dad, for the flowers and balloon, hours of furniture shopping, phone calls, and love and support!

Keep an eye out in the fall/winter for our official public Grand Opening after our renovations are complete!