Phew! You guys, it’s been a CRAZY few weeks! To recap, two weeks ago, we started our final preparations for the first ever AJ Workshop here in our hometown of Scottsdale, Arizona, and for the few days leading up to one of the biggest, most anticipated events of our career thus far, our house was like a military bunker. Our cats (Mr. Carson and William Wallace) were scared we’d all never get out. It was a don’t-shower-because-no-one’s-going-to-see-us 48 hours. Except for the folks at Chipotle. But, then again, they’re used to seeing us in all of our midday glory! So, we hunkered down and got everything completed on time, and it was better than we could’ve ever dreamed or imagined. Fast forward a few days later to a wedding we shot that was sandwiched in between workshop one and workshop two (a theoretical #DemosSandwich, if you will).

Then, the next day, THIS happened! Our second ever AJ Workshop! We joked that our first workshop felt like we were giving birth to a project we’d labored over for a long time. Therefore, continuing with this tasteful analogy, our first workshop attendees contested that they’d always be our favorite, because they were first. Now, we’re not parents (unless you count two cats who potty-trained themselves), and we certainly don’t know what actual labor feels like (not good, we assume), but we can tell you that, to a certain extent, we understand why parents say that they love all their children equally, just for different reasons, because this second class of AJ Workshop attendees from California, Illinois, Arkansas, Virginia, and Arizona stole our hearts, too!

From left to right: Patricia, Ryan, Karlee, Drew, Kristin, Reid, Brittany, Sarah, Terri, Maria, Jasmyn, Alexandra, Ivonne, Ailyn, Veronica. 

We opened up our workshop (again and always) with an ice cream social welcome event. We’re pretty exclusive with cookies ‘n’ cream most of the time, but Amy got a little wild and ran off with a biker named mint ‘n’ chip just for the night. It shocked us all.

The Sugar Bowl is the cutest 1950’s inspired ice cream parlor. It’s a special place for Jordan because it’s where his parents would sometimes take him to celebrate after band concerts and big games. Not because he could play instruments very well. He couldn’t. In fact, he just learned to dance on beat THIS year. Amy thought she was doing herself a favor, and now he thinks he’s the GREATEST dancer in the world. All. The. Time.

We love the welcome event because it gives us all a chance to break the ice and shake-shake-shake off the nerves and anxious feelings that sometimes accompany us all into new social settings.

We laughed… a lot!

And took a group photo to remember the night!

We started bright and early the next morning for Day 1, which is all about photography! And, by the look on Terri’s face (front row in the boots), Jordan probably said something ridiculous or outrageous or borderline inappropriate right off the bat. Poor Jordan, he lives on that line!

In this photo, Jordan’s either showing everyone his pinchers (the crab looked at me like this!) OR he’s reenacting the dinner table scene from Meet the Parents (click the link, it’s worth the watch).

Amy with all her might — which isn’t much — trying to stop Jordan from saying another outrageous something.

Left

* For context, read the first workshop post here. It’ll be worth it.

Amy: You guys, the Subway sandwich was actually this big.
Jordan: Only I get to talk about Subway sandwiches.

Right

Jordan: Now, let ME tell you about that sandwich. This is serious stuff.

Before long, it was time for the modern classic geometric-inspired styled shoot by the crazy-talented and oh-so sweet ladies at Outstanding Occasions and the fabulous Tamara at Petal Pusher. The images are under lock and key until they’re published, but we’re so excited to share more!

Amy demonstrating how to style paper products!

We broke this styled shoot into teaching time and shooting time, so the attendees would get to watch Amy in action and hear her thought process while she’s shooting before breaking into small groups and tackling it themselves. Jordan, Chatty Kathy as always, is talking to the groom instead of working.

Our group photo from Day 1 with the planners who made the styled shoot happen and the models who allowed us to paparazzi them for a few hours without a break! If you’re not following Brittany yet, by the way, you should be! She’s an awesome fashion blogger with a HUGE heart!

Jordan: Since Amy stole my Subway sandwich move, I’m taking hers! Stop! In the name of light! 

We tried to be more serious on Day 2, but couldn’t help it. Learning should be FUN, right?!

Jordan: You guys, what IF Subway had a sandwich that was only this big, like the crab’s pinchers.
Amy: What is that?! A sandwich for ants?!

Amy: See, she agrees with me about the sandwich!
Jordan (disgusted): Can you believe her! This is the SAME woman who ran off with the biker last night, mint ‘n’ chip!

Jordan: THANK YOU! Finally! SOMEONE agrees with me!

Time for some updated head shots!

FACT: The natural light in the room was NASTY because the blinds were broken and wouldn’t open. BUT… we just did head shots in this EXACT spot last week and wanted them to be consistent! So, what did we do? We used flash to mimic natural window light as best we could. Would you have known if we didn’t tell you?! A future blog post on this is coming soon!

No one leaves the AJ Workshop without a #DemosSandwich! It’s one of our favorite parts!

How AWESOME is this group?! We just love them.

To get more information about our next workshop and be added to the priority access pre-sale list, click here!

A special thank you to The Clayton on the Park for hosting us and our awesome workshop sponsors who provided fun giveaways to our attendees: Showit, PASS, ExpoDisc, KISS Books, Two Bright Lights, and Black Rapid! Also, a huge thank you to our rockin’ assistants Alisa and Brie for making sure we’re all fed and that there’s photo evidence that this happened! We couldn’t do it without you!