The Time I ALMOST Met Trisha Yearwood
I wish I had a really awesome story for the time I met Trisha Yearwood… but I don’t. However, what I do have is a mediocre story of the time I ALMOST met Trisha Yearwood, and how I was able to be a part in helping stage a commercial in her home. When I worked for Klaussner in North Carolina in 2015, I had an exciting opportunity to go to Trisha’s Nashville home to help set up for a series of commercials promoting her new Trisha Yearwood Home Collection for our various retailers. It was originally scheduled as a three day trip. We had a day for set up, a day for filming, and then a day to wrap it all up and head back home. As a Carolina girl that grew up on authentic country music, this was incredibly exciting for me! As soon as a group of us from Klaussner arrived in Nashville, we promptly went to Trisha’s house from the airport. All of the accessories and décor that our designer picked out ahead of time had already arrived on the truck from our High Point showroom. He worked hand in hand with her from the beginning. We began unpacking and setting up the kitchen, as well as the back sitting area that you catch a glimpse of in the background of the camera shot. It was breathtaking to walk through her home, use her personal home decor, and place them in the shots. Let me tell you, her home was beautiful! Such a southern elegance filled the home, without being cluttered. Trisha uses this home mostly for her cooking show on Food Network, so the home had its décor, but it was elegantly simplistic. As the camera crew was getting their shots set up, I learned quickly that staging for a one angle commercial shot was entirely different than creating an actual living space. The accessories may look amazing in one angle, but take a walk around the space, and items seem incredibly out of place! At some point during the first day, the team decided we wouldn’t need to stay for the third day. My job, and the other designer's job, was essentially done. Set up had run smoothly, and any adjustments could be made last minute. I agreed that I could head back to the office and get a jump start on my other projects.
The second day was filming day, and I was pumped to meet Trisha! We arrived super early to her home and waited for her arrival. I wasn’t able to say anything to her as she was rushed to her bedroom for hair and makeup, and about an hour later, she was ready to go. We were a bit behind schedule, but no one seemed to mind. Trisha was kind and humble, incredibly grateful to see everyone, and got to work right away reading what seemed to be about a zillion retailer names. The Trisha Yearwood Home Collection was such a hit among the Klaussner retailers, she had quite the list to go through. As Trisha read off the names, I waited in the sun room next to the kitchen with our team who was on set that day. Unfortunately, before Trisha broke for lunch, it was time to head to the airport.
So, I never got to meet Trisha Yearwood. But, I did help set up for her commercial shoot that is shown across America, take a tour of her home, and eat lunch in her dining room. So that kind of counts as meeting her, right? All joking aside, to spend about five years studying and working in the design world at that time, I thought a commercial shoot would be fairly similar to that of setting up a true, “lived-in” room. But I was wrong. What I came to learn is that design varies from project to project, and that your learning and experiences continue to grow after you graduate, and even after you have real world work experience. Although I never learned how to stage a commercial shoot during my four years of college, I was thankful and willing to learn from those with more years of experience than I had to learn even more about the world of design, and the many forms that it can take. So although I never actually had the opportunity Trisha, this is still one experience I am extremely grateful for
#commercial #design #countrymusic #furniture #TrishaYearwood #travel