Have you wondered what goes on before the Reunion starts? I love knowing what’s going on in the background so I’m going to pull back that Emerald curtain and give you a sneak peek at the magic of what goes on before the green flag is waved and the Race to Reunion starts!
Where Were We Going?
This is always such a hard part, figuring out where we will host our ScrapHappy Reunion!
ScrapHappy has hosted reunions in many locations!
- 2012: Orlando, Florida
- 2013: San Antonio, Texas
- 2014: Phoenix, Arizona
- 2015: Phoenix, Arizona
- 2016: Grapevine, Texas
- 2017: San Diego, California
- 2018: Denver, Colorado
- 2019: Calgary, Alberta, Canada
For 2024 there were many requests for a reunion on the eastern side of the United States.
Oh! The Options!
After narrowing down a couple of possibilities, yes, we did discuss going to Philadelphia so I could run the Rocky steps 😂, Karen Fitting helped us find a hotel in Charlotte, NC. Thanks Karen!
Why Charlotte?
One of the great things about Charlotte was that I’d have a helper like Amy Myers to be my on-location helper. Having someone I can ship things to and send on errands makes planning go much more smoothly. Thanks Amy!
The Hotel is Booked, Now What?
Once we have a hotel we usually open deposits so we can make sure we have enough attendees… but that didn’t happen this time due to our shortened schedule.
We opened registration with a lot of details left to be determined.
Did people really go to a reunion not knowing who will be teaching, and not knowing what kinds of fun activities we could get up to for our Monday Funday? YES!
It wasn’t all unknown.
We had our hotel and crop room booked, so we had a location with space for scrapbooking… isn’t that what this is all about?!!
Race to Reunion
Usually we release a theme at the time of registration, but there was a lot of paddling going on under the water with that calm and cool looking duck… AKA Alice McDuck.🦆
Upon discovering that Charlotte is home to the NASCAR Museum, as NASCAR, or the National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing, saw it’s humble beginnings in Wilkes County, NC, our Race to Reunion theme had arrived… just in time!
We needed an awesome design for our t-shirts, promotional images, and a few other goodies.
This was also an awesome theme for decorating our crop space at the hotel!
You might be wondering if we actually went to the NASCAR Museum… but that was never really in my plans. 😜
The Perfect Teacher Appears
In the search for an inspiring teacher for reunion a lot of names are tossed around and considered.
Suddenly I realized we had the perfect opportunity right in front of us!
Our monthly instructor, Sara Scraps, teaches our ScrapSchool classes online every month. How cool would it be to have her teach us IN-PERSON?!!!😎
Sara agreed that this was the kind of fun that she was up for… and she was willing and able, with some awesome support from her boys, to make the trip to Charlotte!
Oh! That Will Be FUN!
Part of our ScrapHappy Reunions includes an optional Monday Funday.
This started when I realized I’d traveled to events in Phoenix 4 times without ever seeing much of Phoenix.
When I looked into options a few exciting things came up… and no… not the NASCAR Museum.😁
I was able to get us a private booking at a Selfie Museum, Project Picture CLT. They set up all kinds of fun rooms and backdrops so you can go and take fun, glamorous, and playful photos of yourself and your friends. THIS WOULD BE PERFECT!!!
I saw another awesome place where we could take some fun photos, the Museum of Illusions, but decided that rather than another photo op, maybe we’d enjoy learning a bit about the Historic city of Charlotte.
We booked tickets for a golf cart tour, in the morning before it would be too hot.
Little did I know that when I left Canada it would be over 95°F/35°C at home… and in Charlotte. Ugh! Suddenly a golf cart tour didn’t sound so fun, but that decision would wait until the group could decide.
Arriving in Charlotte
When my plane was landing in Charlotte the day before reunion, I was shocked by how green it was. I felt as though we were landing in the middle of a forest. After visiting Charlotte, driving around the beautiful neighbourhoods and seeing how many trees are there I would describe the city as verdant. Not a word I’ve used often, but very suitable. (It means green.🤓)
I won the luggage lottery… all of my luggage arrived as it was supposed to. I was massively relieved as I had a ton of goodies and class supplies to give away to our reunion attendees!
Amy picked me up and we headed to Instant Impact in Charlotte to get our reunion t-shirts. I had found a really cool t-shirt. Instead of a v-neck or crew-neck it was called a notch-neck. These were black with red piping around the neckline and with red stripes on each sleeve. With our black and white reunion logo and the red car they looked so racy! (As in good for racing… get your mind out of the gutter!😇)
Shopping Awaits
Hearing that poor Canadians like me have to live without awesome places like Joann and Target, Amy took me shopping! We discovered that the Joann, while looking fairly picked over, still had a couple of great finds.
The Target nearby was like a playground for grownups! We skipped through the aisles wondering how they manage to be so much better than Walmart… while still selling so many of the same things. While there we found snacks, SODA, tested hula hoops, and acquired some big totes for using at the reunion. Amy reluctantly agreed that she could possibly, maybe, find a suitable home for the totes after the reunion. 😂 (Amy will be so impressed that I called it soda and not pop!)
We also made it a mission to only find food that is not available back in Canada. For lunch I had a Chick-fil-A chicken sandwich and waffle fries. Here’s my question for you… which Chick-fil-A sauce is the best? I tried a few of them, with the traditional sauce being my favourite, but I was told that I should have tried the Polynesian. Thoughts?
The Early Birds Have Arrived
At the hotel we were able to meet up with some of our ScrapHappy members that had also arrived early. We decided to have a simple supper out at a place that is only available in the south… so we went to Bojangles. I was told that this is the place for chicken and biscuits so that’s what I ordered. They definitely had good biscuits, but I’m going to let Chick-fil-A take the win on the chicken.
The next morning we headed off to The Original Pancake House for breakfast. I ordered their signature Apple Pancake. What arrived was not like an apple pancake I’d ever experience before. This thing was massive! It was a large pancake smothered in sautéed apples and cinnamon sugar, then baked to create a cinnamon sugar glaze. Oh my!
Here's Half a Table for You
Around noon I went to check on our meeting space so we could get the decorations set up as our scrappers would arrive at 1pm.
The room was set up with tiny, skinny convention tables, set up for two people to share each skinny, little table. YIKES!
They have OBVIOUSLY never met a scrapbooker. We need SPACE! Lots of space! Ideally we get a full-sized table for each person… and some people wish they had even more… (if you know, you know!😂)
Thankfully the staff at the hotel found a whole lot more tables and started setting them up for us. After the tables were ready some decorating quickly took place and goodies were set out to welcome our ScrapHappy family to the reunion!
The Race to Reunion
At 1pm the green flag waved and we officially opened the doors to let our scrappers into our space! The 2024 Race to Reunion ScrapHappy Reunion was underway!
There were so many hugs and selfies and people excited to meet our online friends. These are the people that really understand just how important scrapbooking can be. That’s why this is our ScrapHappy family.
You can read all about what we DID at reunion in Misty’s ScrapHappy Reunion Recap and what we when we are NOT scrapbooking in Alison’s post More to Reunion Than Just Scrapping Time.
Don’t miss out on our Footloose inspired mini LOAD challenge from August 12-18th!