Morgan Trinker

When I was younger, while other kids my age watched Nickelodeon and MTV, I spent Friday and Saturday nights watching HGTV and Trading Spaces with my mom (and professional wrestling with my dad and brother on Mondays… but that’s another blog post altogether!). My favorite shows were always those about decorating on a budget… wayyyy before I even had a budget of my own, or even a space of my own to decorate. Whenever my mom’s latest issue of Southern Living arrived, I flipped through the pages straight to the section where they featured the house plan of the month. I would always imagine which room would be mine, and how I would arrange the furniture. I especially loved the plans with lofted bedrooms accessible only by a ladder. It was always my dream to have one of those… maybe one day. :) Eventually, when I got into high school, my mom let me redo my bedroom. Up to that point, she had always made all the decisions for me (and after seeing some of the kids rooms out there, I can’t say I blame her), and they usually involved lots of antiques, lace, and frills. Not so much my style. First thing I did was pick out the brightest shade of aqua paint I could find, and I covered one of my walls in records (an idea I got from Hildy on Trading Spaces- did you see that one?). Of course, my midcentury rock-n-roll aesthetic didn’t really match the enormous antique bedroom set I inherited from my grandparents, but oh well. It at least felt more like me. Whenever I visited cousins’ and friends’ houses, I loved reorganizing their rooms for them. Aside from the one decorating disaster that my best friend Amy and I were involved in- appropriately dubbed the “rainbow throw-up room”- it was typically a lot of fun. For awhile I considered pursuing interior design or architecture as a major in college, but then I realized that I would only want to decorate everything my way, in my own style. Trying to meet the expectations of high society ladies with refined tastes or corporate clients with tight budgets and not-so-refined tastes would’ve been a bit much for me, I think.

So I’ve settled for indulging the wannabe decorator within by decorating my own apartment and continuing to watch design shows and read design blogs obsessively. (For a period of time, I watched so many episodes of Clean House on Style that Jamie and my brother swore the show aired 24/7. What can I say? I love seeing other people’s hot messes and watching Niecy Nash whip them into shape!). With this move to Birmingham, I decided to purge some of our falling-apart furniture and invest in some higher quality pieces, specifically a new couch and a dining room set. I guess I would describe my aesthetic as an eclectic mix of midcentury, modern, graphic, and colorful sensibilities, but I learned my lesson about buying authentic vintage upholstered furniture after our last couch fell apart. So I spent months scouring the internet for an affordable new sofa with Mad Men style, but couldn’t find anything I could afford. Then one day one of my former brides, Camille, posted a link on Facebook to a Macy’s sofa that she and Nathan had purchased for their new apartment. I knew I loved their style, so I clicked it and basically fell in love at first sight. It was perfect. What sealed the deal was the fact that it was on sale for $630 (normally $900)- by FAR the least expensive option I had found. So I got my behind in the car and drove straight over to Macy’s and placed my order. I couldn’t be more happy with it!

Before I continue with the photos, which our families have been begging us to post for awhile now, please note that our house looks like this about 5% of the time. I’m really good at cleaning and organizing and arranging, but I’m horrible at maintaining it. So in a perfect world (or if this were one of our mom’s houses), it would look like this all the time. But oh well. Also, there are still lots of projects I want to do, but I finally came to the decision that it will never really be “done,” so I felt like now was a good time to post this. And finally, there’s still one room that I’m leaving out, and that’s the office/studio. It’s still a work in progress and currently looks like a tornado blew through it because of all the bridal show stuff that’s everywhere. So when the shows are done and I can get it all in order again, I’ll share it too. :)

Without further ado….

Sofa: Macy’s. Coffee table and end tables: Living Vintage in Knoxville (sadly just went out of business). Pillows, rug, and floor lamp: Target. Aqua lamp: T.J. Maxx. Gretchen: The animal shelter (but she’s one of a kind!).

I started by painting all the walls downstairs a light, warm grey color to serve as a neutral backdrop for all my colorful accessories. I’m still not really sure if that’s allowed in our apartment complex, but I seriously couldn’t stand living in one more apartment with stark white walls. Some people can totally make that work, but I can’t handle it. I need a space to feel cozy and homey and stylish, and builder’s white has always felt cold and impersonal to me. So I guess we’ll just suck it up and repaint when we move again!

Yellow flower hooks: Pier One. German paint-by-numbers painting: Green Central Station here in Birmingham.

Shelves: Target. “@” signs: Hobby Lobby (I painted them the yellow color). Globe: Goodwill. Aqua glass bowl: a gift from my grandmother.

And here’s the dining room:

I finally found the perfect dining room set on Craigslist after months of seeing nothing. It was built in 1954 out of Louisiana pecan wood and has only had one owner- the mother of the lady I bought it from. It literally did not have one single scratch on it. Mint condition. And I scored it for $350! I was so stoked. As always, it paid to be patient and hold out for what I really wanted. The original fabric on the seat cushions was pretty hideous, but it was easily fixed with a quick reupholstery in the green fabric I found on sale at Joann’s for $10 a yard. (It just so happened that it was the exact same fabric I had included in the inspiration board I posted several months ago, in an even more perfect color- what are the odds?!)

I made the set of four prints above by purchasing 12×12 frames from Hobby Lobby, painting them white, putting a solid color of scrapbook paper inside, and designing little white prints with some of my favorite Southern colloquialisms in them. I love the way they turned out.

The fabric-covered cornice boards on the windows are the brainchild of me and my mom. One weekend while I was in Knoxville, we decided to go fabric shopping to see if I could find something I liked in a store without having to special order it. Well, when we stumbled across this amazing Thomas Paul fabric at The Mill Agent, we both knew immediately that this was the one. But then we had to figure out a way to use it. I didn’t want full-length curtains because that would be a lot of work and would require a lot of yardage. So we thought of doing the cornices, but we didn’t want to build real wooden ones since this is just an apartment and that would be another big investment. So we had the crafty idea to buy large sheets of thick foam board at Lowes, cut it and shape it into a cornice, and cover it with batting and the fabric. Easiest project ever, and I don’t think you could ever tell at first glance that they’re not made of wood. And because they’re so light, I simply velcroed them to the wall, and they’ve stayed on ever since. I’m really proud of us for doing these! All those years of watching HGTV paid off. :)

Graphic prints of movies we love: Claudia Varosio’s Etsy shop. (I’m in love with them.) Frames: Hobby Lobby.

After watching so much Mad Men recently, Jamie decided that we needed a bar of our own. So I repurposed this dresser I bought at a thrift store awhile ago, and I bought a collection of decanters from Living Vintage in Knoxville. My mom bought the set of drinking glasses at an antique shop for me, and they go perfectly with the set. One of these days we’ll actually fill all those decanters… when we have an extra few hundred dollars lying around to spend on liquor… ha.

Our kitchen is not much to sneeze at. It’s tiny….. really tiny…. and there is almost no cabinet space, so we had to make do by bringing our old bookshelves in and storing all of our dishes and pots and pans and appliances out in the open. Good thing we registered for matching stuff. :)

Now this is one of my favorite projects, and also the one that took the longest and drove Jamie absolutely insane. I wanted to do a photo gallery in the hallway (because I thought it was about time I printed out and framed some pictures, seeing as how I’m a photographer and all), but with a twist. So I bought a ton of frames at thrift stores and The Dollar Tree and painted them all the same shade of green. (Spray paint didn’t work, so I had to hand paint every one of these with multiple coats. Yeah. It took forever.) I love the way it turned out though!

I also included other mementos that are special to us, including cross-stitches, tickets, notes, and yes, a signed picture of Dolly Parton from Seth and Joy. She belongs on the family wall. :)

Here’s our bathroom, which, like the kitchen, is tiny. But I do love the white and grey original tiles, so I guess it works!

Ball jar soap dispenser: a gift from one of my best friends, Megan (she knows my style well!). Shower curtain, rug, and mirror: Target.

And finally, the bedroom! I went all out with the avocado green color, and used some turquoise and gold as accents.

Velvet teal curtains and platform bed: IKEA. Dresser: an inheritance from Jamie’s family. Hanging lanterns, side table, and starburst clock: Living Vintage. Large turquoise vase: a wedding gift. Amber dish: an inheritance from my family.

Oh what the hey… you know you want another photo of Gretchen. :) (Here she’s being a very bad girl by sneaking onto the couch when I wasn’t looking. Apparently she forgot the rules when she was in the kennel over the holidays because she’s been acting like it’s her bed. Not gonna work, ma’am!)

Hope you enjoyed the peek into our home! Now that it’s all decorated and looks nice, feel free to visit us any ole time. :)

For some reason, I can remember it so distinctly. It was January 3rd of this year. I was on my break at Starbucks and I was sitting at the little bar by the window, watching the snow fall and browsing through other photographers’ New Year’s resolution blog posts. Personally, I’ve never made a resolution I actually followed through with the entire year, so I saw no reason to make a list of my own. But I just remember thinking, over and over again, that 2010 would be a big year for me. I could just feel it in my bones. At this point, I only had one wedding on the books. I had no major plans, no opportunities on the horizon. But deep inside me, I felt a stirring. A growing excitement. A glimmer of hope. It sounds cheesy, I know, and I suppose you think it’s easy for me to say all these things in hindsight. Maybe that’s true. But there have been few moments in my life where I have so distinctly felt full of promise.

Well, 2010 definitely ended up being one of the most memorable years of my life, and a majorly defining year for my business. As far as photography goes, this was a year of many, many firsts. I shot my first Jewish wedding, my first Catholic wedding, my first (semi) Buddhist wedding, my first LDS wedding, my first non-religious wedding. I had the opportunity to travel to Connecticut, New Jersey, Vermont, and Oregon… all to shoot weddings. I shot weddings in churches, a synagogue, a natural history museum, a golf club, a picnic pavilion, a barn, a backyard, and a hotel. My brides and grooms have ranged in age from 20 to 60-something. Many of my clients have become good friends, and though they’re all over the country, we still to this day keep in touch. They’re the best!

I also photographed my first celebrities. I went to WPPI in Las Vegas for the first time (where I met some incredibly awesome photographers). I did my first workshop with the amazing Tara Kneiser of Dixie Pixel. I was published for the first time (and then a number of times after that). I redid all of my branding and marketing materials (again!). I finally quit Starbucks and made the decision to jump into photography as a full-time career.

Granted, there have also been many stresses and disappointments along the way. But despite, and sometimes because of, those, I learned and grew so much. As a reminder of all the fantastic sessions and weddings I’ve been blessed to shoot, I’ve gathered a collection of favorite shots from each of them. It’s so crazy to see them all together… my business in photographs!

As far as my personal life goes, there have also been a lot of big changes. We endured the first major tragedy in my family- my dad’s stroke this summer. It’s been a long road of recovery, but we’re so thankful to still have him here with us. Because of this, we also made (yet another!) cross-country move from Salt Lake City back down South to Birmingham. Jamie started a new job, and we traded gorgeous snow for unbearable humidity (oh well!). We made and then had to say goodbye to some pretty amazing friends in Salt Lake. But we’ve already been making new ones here (one is silver and the other gold!). I got to do my prom over, this time with a MUCH cuter boy. :) We got to vacation in San Francisco with my parents… what an incredible city!

Speaking of, I can’t believe how many great places I’ve gotten to visit this year. Here’s a map of ’em:

And here are a few personal photos from this year (I’m ashamed I haven’t taken more!):

As I’ve been sitting here reading through my blog entries from the past year, I’m just overwhelmed with gratitude and joy. It hasn’t been an easy road, but it’s definitely been the most rewarding one I’ve ever been on. It’s so hard to believe that so many wonderful things happened this year, and that another year is almost over. What’s so interesting to me is that I never sat down and wrote out a list of resolutions, but as I look back in reflection, I’m amazed at how many opportunities were opened up to me. It’s as if I’m writing out a reverse list of resolutions. I mean, there’s no way I could’ve known that ANY of this would happen, but it did. So maybe the moral of the story is to live your life with eyes and heart open to every possibility that comes your way. It’s great to have goals and dreams, but sometimes I think it’s even better to be flexible when plans that you never made for yourself are presented to you.

That said, I still have dreams for 2011. I’d love for the bridal shows I’m doing next month to be successful. I’d love to book LOTS of weddings here in Birmingham. I want to get published on a major big time bridal blog like Style Me Pretty or Snippet and Ink. I would absolutely LOVE to shoot a wedding in Charleston or Savannah in summer. And Chicago and/or New York… at Christmastime. (So if you’re planning one, let me know and I’ll work out a sweet deal for you. :) ) I want to work on being a more patient person. I want to send more thoughtful cards and surprises. I want my 25th year of life to not end in a quarter-life crisis. I want to be a better daughter, a better wife, a better friend. But most of all, I don’t want to limit myself to January syndrome. I want to pursue my passions and better myself year round.

So here’s to 2011. Let’s do this.