Terrifying Excitement

Those two words above pretty much sum up my emotions these days.  I never knew how terrifying starting a new business venture could be. Kudos to my friends out there that have done this on a much grander scale. You're the bomb.com and I have a new found respect for you that goes beyond what I can put into words.

This past Saturday my new business partner, TB we'll call her, and I had our first photo shoot to stage our inventory.  My amazingly generous and talented new sister in law drove in for the morning/afternoon from Milwaukee, Wisconsin with her 2 little boys, simply to shoot our items and then literally get in the car and drive home again. Can you say selfless and way sweet?  Uncle T got to spend quality time at the super cool Monkey Joe's where bouncy house powered air flows like the wine most parents wish they had as their kids play.

Thanks to my SIL and my amazing mom who rolled up her sleeves and has become my estate sale wing man, Asst. V.P. of Creativity, and chalkboard painter, Saturday turned out way better than I could've hoped for. As I lay in bed on Friday night (briefly I might add due to last minute details that needed to be done), self doubt took the main stage. I cannot tell you how many times these words danced through my exhausted yet there's no way I can sleep mind:
-What if my "treasures" are junk to everyone else?
-What if we get there and TB hates my stuff and wants to bail or go solo?
-What if I spend my savings on these items and no one even knows we exist?
-Will people laugh if this thing flops?

In 100% transparency here, I was so anxious and doubtful Saturday morning that I physically got sick. Like head in the toilet sick. Now that, my friends, is fear.

However, after running out to buy $50 worth of flowers and desserts for the shoot early that morning, chugging Pepto, loading 2 vehicles with my "treasures", and making the trek to TB's house, my fears slowly vanished and excitement took the floor. Thank the Lord! As we began to stage our items, I felt myself thinking multiple times "Ohh, I'd rent that", which was like the weight of the world being lifted from my heavy heart. Pssst, the picture above is a sneak peak from our shoot. Isn't she cute??

We still have no guarantee of business rolling in or of people loving us as much as we love all things vintage, but I now know that we've got a pretty good product and we're either brave enough or crazy enough to follow our dream. The rest is out of our control and that has to be okay for now.

And in closing, this blog excerpt below is something I stumbled across this morning and it really sums up what I'm feeling. Apparently I'm not that crazy or alone at all in my fears and dreams. I love when someone else can speak a word to your heart exactly when you need it.

Vintage Party Rentals around the Country


There are a lot of people daring to take a risk and be different; to offer people a place where they can go to find unique items to make their event stand out. I think the people who own these business’s themselves stand out. I think words such as crazy, brave, and courageous are good descriptive words used for people like us. It’s exciting and terrifying to start a business; to follow your vision and to be true to oneself is definitely a characteristic that makes you stand out. This isn’t easy and at times it’s not necessarily fun (because there is SOOO much work that goes into it along with emotions) but that didn’t stop us from diving in. I’ve been following a lot of vintage party rentals/vintage event rentals and below are some of them. I know there are more out there and others preparing to open. I would love to hear from you fearless people who took the path less traveled.