Name: Courtney DeLaura & Lisa Huber
Location: 5204 Kingston Pike suite 29/30 Knoxville, Tennessee 37919
Company: Second Story Media LLC & Wedding Daily Times
What do you do? It’s funny because when we are asked ‘what do you do’ we kind of instantly have a dear in the headlights look because it really is very hard to define. Second Story is a co-op of small business owners/artists all of which needed a beautiful space to meet with clients, a group of people who wanted a little something more then fighting for space in the local/loud coffee shop. Second Story Media LLC was founded to give the small business owners of East Tennessee an option. An option in advertising, an option for meeting with clients as well as unique interaction with the community. A place for the women of our community to celebrate the Stor
ies of there lives. Weddings, birth, graduations, those milestones that warrant a celebration. We host inspirational/educational wedding/event workshops, business building classes for our vendors, we help our vendors through lots of cross promotional events, we also run a blog for our vendors and the brides of east tennessee called Wedding Daily Times of East Tennessee!
What is your aesthetic? Clean, soft and inspiring. When designing the studio we wanted lots of whites to really highlight the inspirational pieces as well as the beautiful work of our vendors! Our goal was to create an environment that was very calm and really made the area bride feel excited about her upcoming wedding. We have a few photographers, including myself and I wanted a clean palette for sessions, a home like feel for our clients!
How does your studio style convey your professional aesthetic? We are all about inspiration and connecting the community to amazing vendors, as well as growing the industry in our area. Our studio style is a blank slate with pops of inspiration, ideas and color. Very clean and homey feeling, sitting on a couch and chatting with clients is so comfortable and intimate. Recently a photojournalist visited us to do a shoot for the local newspaper and was loving the space, he came into our back office and said “You know, this is like the ultimate girls clubhouse!” We loved that. Because that is exactly how we want women of our community to feel, like they are in a super creative, happy club that supports them through the process of planning these huge moment in their lives.
Favorite part of your studio? It is very hard to choose, however we truly love our ‘cozy’ little office. Lisa and I [Courtney DeLaura] share our tiny little office with Erin Haines of Be True
Designs and Shanna Jestice of Ruffles & Rouge. It is in that small space we come up with our big dreams, ideas, we blog and design. It is non stop laughter, brainstorming and clicking of the Apple keyboards! I feel so truly blessed to be able to work with these ladies every single day.
Where do you go for inspiration? We all pull inspiration from different places and I think having four creative people sitting in the same little office lends to inspiration on it’s own, we absolutely feed off of each other. Most of my personal inspiration comes when I am listening to amazing music on my i phone driving to work, thank goodness for the voice recording option on that phone, I talk to myself a lot on the way to work. I am able to really clear my head and just let the ideas run wild. When that well runs dry we just grab a cupcake, go out into the front room, sit on the couch and browse through our HUGE collection of magazines. I think we have every single issue of Domino, Blueprint, Martha Stewart Wedding, The Nest, Nylon, Cookie and so many other magazines! Again the Girls Clubhouse is in full effect those days. Cupcakes, coffee, magazines, notebooks and lots of laughing.
What tool do you use in your business that you can’t live without? I think in a word – computers. I am a photographer by trade, Erin a graphic designer, Lisa a photographer and blogger! So needless to say we wouldn’t have a business if it wasn’t for our computers.
Is there anything you’d upgrade to? As much as we ADORE our location, we have big dreams for expansion. We wouldn’t move from the complex we are in we simply would upgrade to a huge space. However this space is very near and dear to our hearts, we really tore it all down and started from scratch. We didn’t want to bite off more then we could chew, but we foresee in our very near future a much larger space!
Anything else we should know? I think the only other thing I would really want to convey is that in this new economic climate, we all need to think outside the box. We need to really join forces as small business owners, support and nurture those relationships with each other an
d that is Second Story Media’s goal in our local community to foster a place of support for the local artist and small business owner.
[images from Your Second Story]