Today I went to the Vampire Diaries convention in Washington DC with my cousins. I have been a fan of the show since my surgery when I binged most of it.So we decided to give this fan convention a shot. I have to say that I’m not disappointed.

Let’s start with pictures- For several pretty pennies, a liver, and your second born child (they were considerate enough not to ask for your first), you could take pictures with several members of the cast. Since the series finale is coming, and Ian and Paul are gorgeous, I decided to suck it up and pay for what they call the “Salvatore Sandwich.” This is a picture with both guys and not nearly as delicious or dirty as we’d like it to be. The boys were in front of a blue background and the rock music was blaring. You walked up to them, they spoke to you for a few seconds and then hugged you goodbye. I got very starstruck and learned that I can’t control my face when I get very excited.

However, while I was waiting for my turn, a couple people retook their shots. The photographer actually checked to make sure everyone was looking and their eyes were sort of open. I appreciated that they tried to give everyone a good shot.

Q and A- Different actors spoke on different days as this was a three day long conference. Today, David Alpay started the show. In case you were wondering, he plays Shane, the occult studies professor. He did a fun Madlib game where he took a piece of fan fiction involving him and Bonnie doing the dirty. Alpay had the fans give him verbs, nouns, and adjectives. He then put them into the fan fiction randomly. It was hysterical and a great way to break the ice. Fun fact about him if you don’t know him, he plays violin and actually played a couple pieces for us that he learned for his stint in Tudors. When asked what else he would be doing, Alpay said that he had a movie called Prodigals with Sara Canning (Aunt Jenna). That will be out soon. He also talked about how it was difficult to shoot Quanico because the actors were often kept in the dark about their parts because the director wanted them to be clueless about the plot twists. He was great to watch and really seemed to connect and care about what the audience members asked. However, he really doesn’t know how to use Instagram. He tried but it ended with him falling face first into the stage.



Michael Malarkey was up next. He plays Enzo and let me tell you…he is even better looking in person. The accent however isn’t natural. He actually had a hard time speaking in it when a fan asked him to say something in his Enzo accent. That was a little disappointing at first. At least it was until he continued to try and find the accent which meant I got to listen to him mess around with his British accent. I know, the struggle is real! Malarkey was hysterical and a lot of fun. He told us that making music in a studio is his favorite thing to do and he will be having a new album coming out soon. One of the interesting things he revealed was how he gets into character for his romantic scenes. SPOILER FOR SEASON 7————————–

Bonnie and Enzo begin a relationship and people were curious how he and Kat Graham connect. Malarkey said that he doesn’t picture his wife (yes ladies, he is married) or anyone that he is attracted to. He actually tries to find something about the woman he is in a scene with that he can connect to and focuses on that. This helps him but he refused to tell us what he connects with in Graham. He did say that she was his favorite female to film with though. He did say his favorite episode to film was Season 8 Episode 5. Malarkey wouldn’t say what happened but did say it was a “smokey” scene. No idea what that means. In short, he was fantastic.



Ian and Paul finished the day and answered questions for a little over two hours. I give them a lot of credit, that was definitely not easy. The two played off of each other well and made a lot of jokes about their “bromance” to keep things light.



They both spoke about their charity foundations and Ian’s ISF charity actually sold memorabilia at the convention. So, I spent all last night thinking about the show and something that I felt was left out. I came up with Stefan and Caroline. SPOILER FOR SEASON 6 AND ON——————-

I wanted to know when Paul thinks that his character, Stefan, actually fell in love with Caroline. I felt we watched Caroline’s feelings grow but Stefan’s kind of surprised me. Paul said that he thinks it was when Caroline was initially turned into a vampire and he was in the bathroom trying to help her deal with it. Even though Stefan and Elena were a couple, he believes that Stefan started looking at Caroline differently in that moment. So, Ian decided to share a little story about the two actors. Paul and Candice look at each other like brother and sister. When they get romantic, it’s usually really awkward for them. However, Paul likes to make it worse. He is constantly telling Candice how he likes to be held and where he likes her to out her hands. Sometimes, he’ll hold onto her a little too long after the scene is done just to irritate her. All of this clusters Candice and drives her crazy!

One of my favorite filming stories was when Ian was driving his camero and he picked Stefan up. It was early in the morning and Paul had to catch s flight later that day so he was in a hurry. In that hurry, when Paul opened the door and climbed into the car, he sat onto the walkie talkie Ian accidentally left on the passenger seat. The wire was going up his butt and it kept vibrating as it was trying to give the boys instructions. The glove box wouldn’t close so Paul’s knees were almost at his stomach. Ian said that Paul just looked furious for that entire take but it worked. This is a scene from season 8 and we’re hoping they use that particular scene.



Their favorite brother moment will be in Season 8 and they refused to divulge any details.

The boys answered every question that was thrown at them and kept the entire room entertained.

Overall the convention was well organized and a lot of fun. I’d definitely recommend going to a fan convention of you truly like a show. They do cost money but I personally thought it was worth it. Plus I got some great swag to include a Mystic Grill shirt.

The company who threw this convention is called Creation Entertainment and they run lots of other conventions. It was well organized and all the volunteers seemed to be on the same page with the schedule and rules. I’d definitely go to another convention that they run.