I had been looking for part time work during the holidays. My mom had been going to classes, just for fun, at IDC Design and heard they were look for "Elves" to help decorate during the holidays. It sounded like something I would love and somehow it all worked out and I found myself decorating away throughout the holidays. It was a ton of fun, and absolutely exhausting. I knew I was signing up for six weeks of insane schedule and tons of work but thought the opportunity to work with such great vendors was worth it! I am so glad I did it and loved it! I was even offered a permanent position with the company. As much as I loved it, it wasn't worth the crazy schedule of never seeing my kids.
As always, I should have taken so many more pictures! Keep in mind the lighting is terrible in all of these photos and I don't think I ever got pictures of the finished project, which sounds CRAZY, but I promise the work itself was literally crazier, to the point where the last thing on my mind was taking pictures. Out of respect we don't take photos inside clients homes, which were some of my favorite finished results! We did all the trees at the Grand America Hotel. We helped with the Gingerbread house there and did all trees and garlands around it. We also did decorations for the Huntsman's Hope Party at the Grand America. We did the LDS Conference Center for the Tabernacle Choir's Christmas Concert with Sesame Street. We also did the decor for the First Presidency Devotional. To give you an idea of how crazy it was, as soon as the devotional was over, at 9:00 at night, we had to undecorated 50 Christmas trees and start redecorating them for the Concert. We spent lots of time inside the IDC shop building sets, painting, putting together wreaths, making giant ribbon, floral arrangements, you name it! We also did hotels, law firms, country clubs, etc. All of this was done in six weeks, a lot of nights I got home after midnight and was up at 5:30 heading out again. it was absolutely nuts but so much fun! Definitely an awesome opportunity! There were four of us that would decorate and a separate crew of about four that was over setup and more of the construction side of things.
Here is picture overload!
As always, I should have taken so many more pictures! Keep in mind the lighting is terrible in all of these photos and I don't think I ever got pictures of the finished project, which sounds CRAZY, but I promise the work itself was literally crazier, to the point where the last thing on my mind was taking pictures. Out of respect we don't take photos inside clients homes, which were some of my favorite finished results! We did all the trees at the Grand America Hotel. We helped with the Gingerbread house there and did all trees and garlands around it. We also did decorations for the Huntsman's Hope Party at the Grand America. We did the LDS Conference Center for the Tabernacle Choir's Christmas Concert with Sesame Street. We also did the decor for the First Presidency Devotional. To give you an idea of how crazy it was, as soon as the devotional was over, at 9:00 at night, we had to undecorated 50 Christmas trees and start redecorating them for the Concert. We spent lots of time inside the IDC shop building sets, painting, putting together wreaths, making giant ribbon, floral arrangements, you name it! We also did hotels, law firms, country clubs, etc. All of this was done in six weeks, a lot of nights I got home after midnight and was up at 5:30 heading out again. it was absolutely nuts but so much fun! Definitely an awesome opportunity! There were four of us that would decorate and a separate crew of about four that was over setup and more of the construction side of things.
Here is picture overload!
Getting the set ready at the conference center.
My car was always packed full of Christmas decor!
Working at the Gingerbread house was definitely one of my favorite projects!
Hope Christmas party.
Getting more trees ready at the Grand America
Outside decor at The Grand.
Loved the Jou Jou tree at the toyshop!
It was so fun seeing the sesame street puppets, and puppeteers.
First presidency devotional set.
Making giant ribbon from chicken wire for the conference center.
Boxes being painted, getting ready to be wrapped in ribbon, to make giant Christmas gifts for the stage.
Decorating on ridiculously high ladders. I would sometimes sing at the top of my lungs with the tabernacle choir! It was so fun working above them and listening to them practice.
Getting more and more done.
Watched so many dress rehearsals.
We built these giant wreaths. It was so so tedious but they looked good once they were finished!
I really loved working for IDC. It was an awesome experience, definitely one I will never forget!
And I never could have done it without my awesome family! My cute grandparents babysat my boys so I could work. My mom made sure my family was fed and happy and spent countless hours taking care of them. And Justin worked everyday and came home took care of the boys. We hardly saw each other but he was more than supportive knowing how much I was loving this break from my normal routine.
