An Advent Sanctuary Design

The purpose behind sanctuary stage design is so much more than merely to have something on stage.  Here at Irving Bible Church we see it as a way to visually connect our story, the season, church calendar, and the message we are living in.  The season of Advent is one of my absolute favorites.  Often the waiting and preparation that takes place in the season of Advent is skipped over and the American church becomes just as guilty of getting 'Christmasy' as shopping malls.  

We wanted to create an environment that wasn't just 'Christmas', we wanted to create one that prepared our hearts for the Waiting that takes place in the weeks preparing for the coming of Christ.  The barron trees we chose for the stage visually tell that story.  The 'wandering through the desert', the waiting amidst the cold, a season to wait.  An extra design bonus was that these trees also represented the cold of winter and add a touch of natural elements which is a sweet look these days.   

Having an abandoned house next door to where you live means you score some pretty sweet dead tree limbs!  Chase and I spent an afternoon digging through the overgrown weeds and pricking our fingers with thorns to pull these for the stage.  I believe they are mesquite trees, the proof was in the thorns. To stand them up I purchased 5 gallon buckets from Home Depot and 6 bags of sand.  The buckets were filled with sand, and then a small hole was strategically cut in the top lid so that the tree would stand upright.  This project was super cost effective!

Lighting for the stage was KEY to creating the impact that this season deserves.  We chose the color of purple, which is the color of the season of Advent.  Our Tech team did an amazing job choosing ways to set the lights on and above stage to help capture this look!

The Sign of Christmas, styling a whimsical video shoot

Sitting on my office couch a little over a month ago, I was racking my brain to come up with a cool element for our Christmas Eve services at Irving Bible Church.  Christmas is such a magical time of year with one of the most beautiful stories ever told, so let's just say theres some pressure when trying to create an art element that captures it perfectly!  I began thinking through potentially having the children reinact the Natvity Story live in service, but in a 'hipster-ish' and unique way.  This small idea gave birth to some fantastic collaboration sessions with a quite talented cast of artist and morphed into a powerful video idea.  Gathering around my kitchen table, eating pita & hummus, and storyboarding our ideas, this whimsical tale began to take life.

Style was a HUGE element to this shoot, and I knew going into it the need for executing it perfectly was high! The budget for this project was small, which called for a ton of innovation. All of the Children's outfits were made out of Thrift store finds, vintage bedsheets, and a hodgepodge collection of fabrics.  The style of the childrens clothing, mixed with the impeccable style of photography and videography blended perfectly to create a mystical world in which we created in.  I couldn't be happier with the beautiful tale that we captured on film, the styling and look of each shot, as well as the beautiful music that sets the entire tone!

Our Adorable Cast of Characters:

Joseph and Mary:

Our handsome Joseph was styled completely in thrift store finds.  His look contained  a ladies blouse that we convinced him was a ''renaissance man's shirt", the blue $4 vest, boys baseball pants, and my sisters fedora hat!  Our sweet Mary was styled in blankets, several layers of white nightgowns, and my own personal fur vest.  We wrapped her hair in an extra white clothe.  I couldn't have been more pleased with this couple!

The Shepards:

Our Shepards were styled with several layers of Thrift store clothes, basically anything fun I could find.  The fun clothing kept the kids in high spirits as they felt they were living in dress up world all day.  Little Ensely's yellow bird cage was a $0.99 find!  The cage is actually two wire baskets strung together to create a cage.  

That was a perfect find!

The Wisemen:

My favorite look of them all!  Our courageous 3 wisemen!  All styled in boys baseball pants of different colors, vintage blazers that I luckily already had in my collection, and plaid button ups from the thrift store.  Their sweet little bow ties were made with a simple safety pin and fabric.

The Angel of The Lord:

Sweet little Bonke was the perfect angel of the Lord.  I styled her in a cut up vintage wedding dress, homemade wings made of coat hangers and stripped fabric, and a sparkly belt strap made into a headband!

A few more pics of the day:

Check out the end result; a whimsical video that still takes my breath away!

Find it here on Youtube: 

The Sign of Christmas

Credits include:

Direction, motion photography and editing by Rob Morris. vimeo.com/robertmorris7
Direction and motion photography by Joshua Read www.YouTube.com/JoshReadVideo  

Producer, Production design and creative direction by Rachael Currie www.rachaelcurrie.com
Music by Jeff Taylor, Doug Hale, Jason Elwell, and The IBC Band
Still Photography by Amanda Guevara www.amandakatephotography.com
Additional Styling by Richard Muske
Concept and writing by Rob Morris, Joshua Read, Rachael Currie, Amanda Guevara, David Farris & Michael Witt

My favorite things I've been staring at during the holidays

Lately I've found myself collecting unique pieces of glass, and obviously these vases need something equally as special inside of them.  The wire flowers are created by a local Dallas artist, George Fowler.  Usually at his art shows he makes several wire flowers to pass out to the ladies, or as fun gifts to those who bid on his pieces!  

I'm lucky enough to have 3 of these little treasures!  

The Lockers were a junkyard find @ $10 each!  The original idea was to make a bed frame out of them however when they were unloaded from the car and propped up against the wall I couldn't help but fall in love with the clean look of the 3 standing next to each other.   And YES, the "Davy Jones" writing was on them when I got them, I know you wanted to know.

These bookends were a sweet little gift from my momma, she scored them at a garage sale.  Originally the color wasn't the most pleasing, so a little beige spray paint and voila! 

I like Vintage books.  

You can score your own for usually around $0.99 at a local thrift store.  

Aunt Corinne's Chair!  These chairs have been the base for many conversations! Growing up they adorned my favorite Great Aunt's living room.  Once she passed away my grandmother inherited Corinne's furniture and set up a "Corinne's Corner" in her home.  We would sit for hours talking and laughing in these chairs.  Recently my mom had them refurbished.  We chose the fabric and paint colors together and I plan on keeping these in the family for a long time! 

"House", not much to say about this other than that this shadow box was a $1 thrift store find and I love it. 

I'm in a mirror phase, I find they open up the home and help create cool angles.  

Ikea makes some pretty great ones, which is where I scored this one fo $20! 

A cute way to store an ottoman.  This green table I got at an estate sale for $10, and the ottoman seems to fit perfectly underneath.  Both are stored together in the little cove under the stairs.