Today we’d like to introduce you to Emily Forsythe and Jared Shrode.
Emily and Jared, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
My husband, Jared and I are the proud owners and Chief Smile Makers of Vannagram & Co., a mobile photo booth that is uniquely housed inside of a 1979 Volkswagen bus. Our photo bus is always the life of the party bringing the fun to corporate events, weddings, festivals and private parties. Our path to being business owners is an unusual but organic one. Our love of travel, adventure and the willingness to take risks inspired this one-of-a-kind business.
It all started with a road trip. Jared and I were newlyweds when we decided to throw caution to the wind and quit our corporate jobs to pursue what some would consider risky. We took off on the trip of a lifetime, purchasing an old VW bus and headed out on the wide, open road. Jared has always been an adventurer, and his adventurous persona has a way of tapping into the free spirit in me. He had always been nudging me to go on an extended trip. At first, it seemed impossible but the more we talked about it, the more real it became!
We decided to take a 5-month trip and break it up into two destinations: South America and the Western coast of the U.S. We rented a camper van in South America starting in the southern Patagonian tundra and drove to the northern Atacama desert in Chile, venturing in and out of Argentina along the way and finishing up in Buenos Aires. After our South American adventure, we came back stateside and hopped in our newly purchased VW bus and took off to the West Coast and Pacific Northwest where we tried to visit as many National Parks as possible.
Being on the road with our van, we immediately saw the attraction the VW bus could bring. Countless times we were stopped so that someone could chat endlessly about their VW story they experienced growing up. There is just a natural draw to these vans! While on the road, we would talk about what the ‘afterlife’ of the van would be. Would we sell it? Keep it? Turn it into a mobile business? As an Austin-based event planner, I could never find the exact unique photo booth I wanted to hire – something with loads of personality and all of the modern technology that was important for marketing purposes.
Jared and I saw an opportunity to capitalize on that and knew Austin and Texas, in general, would be a great market for the Vannagram to thrive because there are always loads of events going on and it’s a quirky city where unique is not weird, it is appreciated and applauded! So we opened up shop at the beginning of 2016 and never looked back. Our concept was immediately embraced and we soon were looking at a full schedule of events for our little business!
Jared’s old employer graciously took him back at his old tech sales job when we returned from our trip and I, with the encouragement and support from Jared, pursued the Vannagram as a full-time gig! This company has given me the opportunity to be a part of the events industry in a different way and I have been able to meet so many cool people, vendors and clients alike.
We get the best of both worlds with this business because we still get to take road trips, albeit they may be a little closer to home than where we previously ventured, but our photo booth books events and weddings all throughout Texas and beyond. We will travel by any chance we get because we love any excuse that gets us back on the open road with the wind in our hair!
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I would have to say most of the struggles were in the very beginning when we were trying to figure out all of the mechanics and software we were planning to use for the photo booth. There were a few obstacles because everything that housed our equipment had to be custom designed to fit in a certain size space (i.e. the bus). I remember measuring countless times for the custom wooden boxes we had made.
I recently came across the sketches that I had drawn of all of the enclosures and it was cool to reflect on how far we have come. There was a lot of trial and error in getting everything just right before we opened up for business, but it was so refreshing to see the reward at the end, knowing that we had conceptualized the booth and built it from the ground up. I am a firm believer that without the struggle you cannot truly appreciate the reward.
We are also lucky because we have been well received here with open arms. But honestly, I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t immediately smile if they saw a VW bus coming down the road and then layer on a photo booth and you’ve got yourself a winning combination!
Please tell us about Vannagram & Co. || mobile photo booth.
Vannagram & Co. is a mobile photo booth that is uniquely housed inside of a 1979 Volkswagen bus. Our photo bus is always the life of the party bringing the fun to corporate events, weddings, festivals and private parties. Our business is pretty much split between corporate clients and weddings because people really enjoy being able to customize and brand the experience for their guests. Since I have a background in event design, I enjoy tapping into the experiential part of an event and love when clients have big ideas about how to incorporate the bus into their event.
I like to brainstorm with them on how our photo booth will be the hit of the party and a unique experience for their guests. People love our booth because it is not your average, run-of-the-mill photo booth. We try hard to bring the most fun (and funny!) props to make the experience light-hearted and fun for our clients. People like photos of themselves but the key is to capture good photos of your clients and their guests. This means state-of-the-art equipment, DSLR cameras and our beauty lighting to make you and your friends look your best!
Lastly, folks dig our photo booth because we give them the best of both worlds (i.e. digital and analog). Not only do their guests receive a high-quality (and fast!) print out, but they can also text, email or socially share their digital photos and GIFs using our kiosk outside of the bus. The thing about the business that we are most proud of is that this is a business that we literally built around a trip we took. We weren’t searching for a new career path when we left on our trip, but this opportunity presented itself while on our trip so we had to pursue it.
We have had celebrities in our bus, had to sign NDA’s for events and our little bus has even made it to the big screen in the movie ‘Amanda and Jack Go Glamping’, BUT if we had to be really honest, the greatest reward for us as small business owners is to hear laughter spill out of the VW bus while people are having a great time posing, being silly and making memories with their friends. We are incredibly grateful that we have the opportunity to create fun and make people laugh for a living!
We are also thankful to live in a city where small businesses are so well received and welcomed. In just a few months of being open, we were booked up for SXSW, securing large-scale events like the Paramount Pictures After Party for Richard Linklater’s premiere of ‘Everybody Wants Some’ and even GSD&M’s killer party they throw annually for their clients. We have been pretty much been nonstop since we opened, so no complaints here!
One thing that sets us apart from other companies is that we work with each client directly from start to finish. We enjoy taking the time and care with each client to make sure their experience is exactly what they had envisioned. We fully customize everything for our events, from the printouts to the digital images and animated GIFs, to the backdrops and props. Even the outside of the bus itself is customizable!
This last SXSW, we helped one of our corporate clients completely brand our bus with a full wrap of a desert scene to create an experiential lounge for festival goers. Another feature that our corporate clients really enjoy is that you can post pictures from our van’s iPad kiosk directly to your Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts. The features are endless!
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Honestly, and I’m not sure if this is just the frame of mind I am in right now, but my favorite memories are taking road trips from Dallas with my family up to a camp that we would go to every summer in a little tiny town called Westcliffe, Colorado as a family.
The Dairy Queen Blizzard stops every so many miles, the games my brother and I made up in the back seat to pass the time and the classic rock songs that my dad would play on repeat so that we would have a good music base are memories that will be forever etched in my mind.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.vannagramatx.com/
- Phone: 214.354.9754
- Email: hello@vannagramatx.com
- Instagram: @vannagramATX
- Facebook: @vannagramATX
- Twitter: @vannagramATX
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/vannagram-and-co-mobile-photo-booth-austin
Image Credit:
Vannagram & Co., Sophie Epton Photography, Ross Phillips of Look No Further Entertainment, Eric Kidwell Photography, Glass Jar Photography, Lauren Reynolds Photography
Getting in touch: VoyageHouston is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
