Would You Like a Little Con with Your Photo Ops? [Salt Lake Comic Con 2015]

Last week I talked about how excited I was to go to Salt Lake Comic Con this year. I had an ABSOLUTE blast. This year they seemed to be a bit more organized that I had heard about in the past, and I was actually really glad that the volunteers seemed to be able to answer questions more thoroughly than they had in the past. I didn’t get to nearly as many panels as I wanted to. I was standing in lines (for photo ops, autographs and the occasional panel) for about 70% of the time I was there.

I really should have written about this each day, but I was so tired by the end of each day I didn’t think I could get my fingers to move like that. I apologize for the lengthy-ness of this post.

The first day was a blur of trying to see everything while simultaneously not seeing anything. Thursday’s are usually the day I take to survey everything and kind of get my bearings where to find people if I lose them. I only went to two panels on the first day, one was about Voice Acting with a panel consisting of Tress MacNeille, Jess Harnell, Rob Paulsen, and Dee Bradley Baker. This panel was fantastic and filled with laughs. I’ve always loved listening to voice actors and hearing their advice for other voice actors was fun.

The second panel I went to was for the Phelps Twins. I barely slipped into this panel but was so happy I did. James and Oliver Phelps (The Weasley Twins from Harry Potter) were so much fun. It was fun to see them feed off one another the way that only brothers do.

The first day ended in calm way, a selfie with Christopher Gorham. It was absolutely the calm before the storm.
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Friday things picked up quick. I stood in line for a couple of hours just to get into the con when it opened. One of the best decisions that SLCC made was managing entrance by issuing RFID wristbands. SOOOOO much easier and faster. Unfortunately I didn’t get a lot of time to look around due to the first photo op of the day being with Sebastian Stan!
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I was hoping to attend the Hillywood Show panel, but the panel was scheduled for the same time as my Felicia Day photo op and my geek queen reigned supreme in that decision. I was very nervous to get my picture with her. I had decided to bring my homemade Dr. Horrible plush with me to the con for this picture specifically. I asked her to do a tug-o-war over him with me and she greatly obliged and then complimented me on the plush.
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I had to miss her panel to participate in my third photo op of the day with Robbie Amell. Isn’t he just adorable!?!? We walked up to him and he laughed about forgetting how to smile. Which was fine, because I forgot how to form words a few hours later when I almost ran into him LITERALLY.
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After that I decided I was going to go for some autographs. Starting with Dean O’Gorman, I opted for a selfie instead of an autograph. He’s was so sweet and his accent was to DIE for.

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Afterward, I skipped right on over to Felicia’s line. I grabbed a physical copy of her book to sign and she preceded to talk to me about my sewing skills for a couple minutes. I love that she takes time to have full conversations with her fans. She was so nice and amazing.

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Felicia and I are like besties now. <3

I had made the decision that I was going to use Friday as my day for getting autographs. As much as I wanted the Saturday’s guest autographs, it was going to be next to impossible. With that in mind, I moved over to John Barrowman. Just before going to get his autograph, my friend had decided she wanted a photo op with him later that day, which she wanted me to join. This man is awesome not only for autographs but for his photo ops. Seriously, if you have a chance to get a photo op with John Barrowman… DO IT!
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We ended the day with a hug from John Barrowman and a pretty sunset.


The final day of the con was INSANE. First, Chris Evans & Anthony Mackie had a panel first thing in the morning. But the only way to get in, was to enter a lottery to win tickets. There was a catch though, those that won tickets… only won ONE ticket. So if they had kids or other friends that wanted to go they had to hope for strangers to be nice. My friend (who has been in all the pictures with me) happened to win a ticket. She then proceeded to find others that were giving away tickets and managed to get me one too.

Have I mentioned how AMAZING my friends are?

Second, the night before I think I had eaten something weird because I was not feeling well. I’m not sure if it was that I wasn’t eating enough (Con food is expensive yo) or maybe I was so nervous about the upcoming photo ops that I was making myself sick. Either way, I didn’t fall asleep until almost 3am and had an alarm set for 5:45am… which I slept through. After waking up at 7 (and needing to be downtown by 8) I jumped out of bed, thanked the lord that my hair stayed curly and looked good enough for pictures, threw on some clothes I had set aside the night before and ran out the door. I made it downtown with enough time to put my makeup on while standing in line and inhale some Belvita Bites.

After the panel started (quite late) Chris came out and completely adorabled the place. He spoke about living with anxiety and how he quiets his brain noise. Halfway through his panel a guest appeared, the wonderful Anthony Mackie showed up and just increased the awesomeness on stage. Finally, the last guest showed up, when Hayley Atwell ran on stage and hug tackled both Chris and Anthony. The three of them on one stage was fantastic. Shortly after Hayley’s arrival, she and Chris had to excuse themselves to do the duo photo ops (along with a handful of the audience). The panel continued with Anthony charming everyone and then challenging the moderator to a push up contest.

After filing out of the hall from that panel I made a straight shot to the photo op line to get in line for my Hayley Atwell photo at 1:30, all the while thinking “Please don’t throw up on Chris Evans. Please don’t throw up on Chris Evans.” Hayley was an absolute gem. It’s hard to really get to talk to any of them during the photo ops, but even with the brief moment I took this picture she was fantastic.
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I didn’t finish my photo op with Hayley until almost 3 (I don’t think that they were prepared for the amount of people who would want these photo ops). This was the time in the day where I felt that things were going to get crazy. I had two photo ops fifteen minutes from each other. The first, with John Barrowman… again! My friend from work joined me this time. She and I had been thinking about how we were going to pose for this picture for WEEKS! And this is what we came up with.

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Aren’t we adorable?

The second was a combo op with my friends again and Chris Evans and Anthony Mackie. I can’t begin to tell you how excited was for this. I had to run from my awesome picture with John to get an awesome picture with Cap. Seriously, it was the most stressful and exciting hours of my con!
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I was a little upset throughout the con that I couldn’t go to as many panels as I wanted. But, that is not the con’s fault that was on me for buying so many photo ops. Fortunately, I ended the con with going to John Barrowman’s panel. He is such an amazing entertainer. He flirted with anyone who asked a question, spoke about him and his husband, and sang for us… TWICE!

This one is him singing “One Step Closer” which is one of my favorite songs!

He closed out his panel with this song. <3<3

Overall, this Con was exhausting and exciting and amazing. I didn’t get to do a lot of things I really wanted to try to do, but in the end I have no regrets!

The only things I bought from vendors were these adorable works of art from SuperEmoFriends

and a Captain America Shield necklace and Rebel necklace from Adventure Darling Shop

Check out the gallery below for more pictures.

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What have been some of your favorite con moments? Do you have any fun stories?

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