On Sept 18th, at 4 p.m. I locked the front door to pepperberry's as I knew it. My quaint little 20 x 20 (400 sq ft) downstairs showroom would never look the same! The Vera Bradley line was 5 days away from calling that room home while the merchandise in that room was moving into the rest of the building and I was looking forward to putting it all together in not a lot of time! There was so much to do! I had to order a couple more fixtures from Vera Bradley to fill the space and the lead time was barely enough time. No one from VB was willing to promise that they'd be delivered in time for our grand re-opening, hence my shock when the island that floats in the center of the room came in super fast! It came in a few days before I actually took possession of the new place, which was Sept. 1st! Luckily I have a great landlord and she let me store it on the new side. The other piece, the new bookcase, came in 6 days before the move! WHEW! It was white glove delivery, so I all I had to do was clear a space and make a path for it, not that that was easy! It was time to allow for a little disarray!
As far as getting the new space ready, my landlord took out the partitions lickety split, did some finishing work and cleared out the remnants of the former tenants. All I needed to do was lighting, window treatments and of course, add more product and display fixtures....well, you know, not really "fixtures", alternative fixtures! This was the fun part for me! I started placing orders IMMEDIATELY. It was Aug. 10th when I made the decision to expand after having a very busy Saturday {Aug 7th} and I realized that I was truly dreading going through another busy holiday season in my small, confining, existing space. I called my landlord that night to see if the space attached to me was still available, and made the final decision 3 days later. No looking back...there was no time. I had decided to hold our grand re-opening event in conjunction with the Vera Bradley winter debut Sept. 23rd. That was just over 5 weeks away! Oh, and did I mention that my hubby and I had a vacation planned right in the middle of that time period! I had to work hard and fast! I came up with the name of the event{Shopping, Sugar & Champagne} pretty quickly, I just needed to get the info to my graphics girl and have her breath life into it. I had pegged the feeling of the new space to be earthy european with underlying industrial / scrapyard tones. My biggest fear was that some of my choices could come off as "country" and that was totally unacceptable. I started with the window treatments. I had already decided on awnings again, but I wanted a different version of the ones in my original showroom. I always liked the outdoor grocery market type of awning so that was the obvious choice. I found french grain sacks that had french logos in red that would be perfect and a quick scavenging trip to my favorite secret "found objects" resource resulted in finding the perfect rods. They are old wooden fabric bolts! The tie to the fabric / design industry was meaningful for me being that's where I started! It was a no brainer. I just needed to figure out how we were going to hang them. I didn't want brackets, too traditional. I came up with suspending them from the ceiling with chains! Of course we trimmed them out with a fringe of faucet knobs, hand sewn by my sister and mother! Oh yeah, I was a happy girl! You know how much I love my faucet knobs!
Lighting was next. There was track lighting in place already, but I wanted hanging pendants above the cash wrap and needed chandeliers in the big room. I choose linen french script drum shade chandeliers with wire surrounds from one of my vendors. So simple in style yet packed with character. This was somewhat of a risk, because I couldn't return them if I didn't like them. They were mine! I followed my gut and as it turns out, I love them! The pendants above the cash wrap weren't as risky. They came from Pottery Barn and are getting lots of attention! They are canning jars grouped together at varying lengths and they are really cool! I thank all of you who thought I was the clever one that came up with that idea! I can take no credit!
Merchandise was coming in left and right, and it wasn't just new product. All my holiday merchandise was also arriving which is typical for this time of year. We could barely keep up with the unpacking. Even though the holiday merchandise won't hit the showroom floor til Nov 4th, it all needed checked, priced, repacked, and stored! UPS and FEDEX were both coming every day! The only merchandise not arriving was THE VERA BRADLEY! But, fear not, on Monday, Sept 20th the movers pulled in to pepperberry's with a truckload from my house and right behind them was FEDEX with 14 boxes of Vera which equaled just under 400 pieces to check in, stuff, and put on the new shelves in their new showroom! Our work was just beginning. Time was of the essence! We had a deadline and it was crunch time! Let me just take a second here for a shout out to Apollo Moving and Storage! Oh, how these guys move! They moved stuff from my house to my shop, from the upstairs to the downstairs, and the downstairs to the new side! And here's one to my shopgirls who really came through for me. Once again, I thank Betsy, Diane, Janet, Coleen, my mother, my sisters, and my husband. My goodness, they were so wonderful when I would say "I'm not happy. We need to pick up the pace"! That statement was made at least three times a day!
Lighting was next. There was track lighting in place already, but I wanted hanging pendants above the cash wrap and needed chandeliers in the big room. I choose linen french script drum shade chandeliers with wire surrounds from one of my vendors. So simple in style yet packed with character. This was somewhat of a risk, because I couldn't return them if I didn't like them. They were mine! I followed my gut and as it turns out, I love them! The pendants above the cash wrap weren't as risky. They came from Pottery Barn and are getting lots of attention! They are canning jars grouped together at varying lengths and they are really cool! I thank all of you who thought I was the clever one that came up with that idea! I can take no credit!
Merchandise was coming in left and right, and it wasn't just new product. All my holiday merchandise was also arriving which is typical for this time of year. We could barely keep up with the unpacking. Even though the holiday merchandise won't hit the showroom floor til Nov 4th, it all needed checked, priced, repacked, and stored! UPS and FEDEX were both coming every day! The only merchandise not arriving was THE VERA BRADLEY! But, fear not, on Monday, Sept 20th the movers pulled in to pepperberry's with a truckload from my house and right behind them was FEDEX with 14 boxes of Vera which equaled just under 400 pieces to check in, stuff, and put on the new shelves in their new showroom! Our work was just beginning. Time was of the essence! We had a deadline and it was crunch time! Let me just take a second here for a shout out to Apollo Moving and Storage! Oh, how these guys move! They moved stuff from my house to my shop, from the upstairs to the downstairs, and the downstairs to the new side! And here's one to my shopgirls who really came through for me. Once again, I thank Betsy, Diane, Janet, Coleen, my mother, my sisters, and my husband. My goodness, they were so wonderful when I would say "I'm not happy. We need to pick up the pace"! That statement was made at least three times a day! We were still getting non vera new product in while we were setting up too! Again, some of it was holiday {that we just set aside at that point}, some of it was for the new space, AND some of it was for the grand re-opening event! The little french cake rounds and the caramel arrived and needed unpacked immediately and stored properly. The champagne was in and needed picked up at the state store, and we needed to make a trip to the grocery store for the ice & napkins, as well as gathering tablecloths, serving pieces etc. from home! We weren't just moving; we were moving, debuting a new Vera collection, AND hosting a 3 day event! I was in my element! The more of a challenge it is, the happier I am! I was driven to pull this off. Talk about "go big or go home"! 
When the doors opened on Sept 23rd, we were ready! The champagne was on ice in my grandmother's rusty wash tubs and I loved the contrast! The mood was so festive and we squealed like girls every time we popped the cork on a new bottle of bubbly! It's all behind us now and the memories will live in my heart forever! I was truly honored that so many of you came out to celebrate with us! The next event is just weeks away and I can't wait! {Did I mention that I was tweaking and approving final design proofs for our holiday open house during our grand re-opening?!} Mark your calendars for Nov. 4, 5 & 6 and keep an eye on your inbox mid oct. for details!
