We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Destiney Benish a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Destiney, thanks for joining us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?
A tale as old as time; add your chapter to our storybook. There’s something magical about vintage decor. These pieces have witnessed generations of families grow, laugh, and cry together. You can’t help but wonder…
What were the names of the kids who grew up climbing all over this couch?
Did this jewelry box once hold something incredibly precious, like a great-grandmother’s engagement ring?
What sort of love letters have passed through this typewriter?
In a world consumed by social media and technology, we’ve lost so much of our human connection. We’re obsessed with followers and doom-scrolling, becoming disconnected from ourselves and one another. While these may be just pieces of furniture to some, to me, they represent the life we all yearn for—the simplicity of living over 50 years ago, spending time with one another, and being significant to the right people rather than to faceless followers. It’s perfectly okay to want followers; it’s hard not to. We would be lying if we said we didn’t. But it’s also okay to desire the simplicity and connections enjoyed by generations past.
Imagine this: you’re at your reception, and before you is a sea of your favorite people dancing and having the time of their lives. You look behind them, and rather than seeing empty tables where your grandparents sat at dinner hours ago, you see them laughing and enjoying themselves around a beautifully set lounge—just like a family did when they gathered in a parlor in the 1910s.
Our pieces pack a punch and provide the wow factor that sets your wedding or event apart from every other wedding they have attended. We can help curate our collection to showcase your personality and share a piece of who you are. Annata will give you unique, eye-catching photographs that will garner likes while allowing you to step back in time, reconnect with those you love on a real level, and be part of something larger.
It’s human nature to want to be part of something bigger. If our vintage rentals can serve as a bridge between the past and the present, consider your event a chapter among many beautiful stories, weaving together a fascinating and endless narrative of love, life, and humanity.
Destiney, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
About Me/Annata (In No Particular Order):
1.) My name is Destiney Benish and I am the owner and founder of Annata Vintage Rental Co.
2.) It’s pronounced ah-nah-tah and it is Italian for vintage.
3.) I collected over 8 years before taking the plunge to start Annata
4.) I fell in love with vintage and everything retro around the age of 6 when my sister got the 1995 remake of the 1959 Enchanted Evening Barbie. I LOVED her and stole her every single time
5.) Addicted to thrifting and if you have unique pieces you want to part with…I have no self control in this department.
6.) I’ve been with my wonderful husband Steve (without whom Annata wouldn’t be here. He does so much behind the scenes!) for nearly 16 years, married almost 7. He is absolutely the unpaid employee who puts way too much into it all because he loves me.
7.) We have twin four year old girls named Evie and Faye and they are our world. I love that they believe their Mama works with princesses and every time they see something pretty they always ask if it’s for “Mama’s work”
8.) I’m also a photographer! You’ve seen some of my work with Annata’s Tortured Poets and Debut eras. I got my BFA in photography from the U of Iowa and had many successful years before taking a break. I announced I was back to it full-time in 2019 only to have my dog attack a week later. I’ve always kept shooting though!
9.) A lot of thought went into naming every one of our ladies and gents. If you look closely at the names of Annata’s fam bam you’ll see little Easter eggs of all things Destiney. My emotional support tv shows are absolutely integrated.
10.) Other tidbits: Obsessed plant mama, Disney nut (seriously, I walked down the aisle to “Tale as Old as Time” on the violin and cello), avid reader, I listen to FAR too many true crime and ghosty podcasts, lover of 90s sitcoms, Taylor Swift and Ingrid Michaelson. All things pink, strawberry smoothies and cotton candy are my jam.
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How I got into Vintage Rentals and Started Annata:
I’ve been in love with antiques since I was a little girl and that love turned into quite the collection over time. As an ADHD gal, thrifting quickly became my outlet and a way to get out of my own head, and before I knew it, it was a tad out of control and without purpose. Eight years ago, I started collecting with the intention of starting my own vintage rental company and my plan was to launch a company with my small collection called Simply Lavish. However, in October 2019 I was attacked by our neighbor’s dog, resulting in multiple reconstructive surgeries to my face and lips. To say that these times were difficult is an understatement. The inability to eat, drink, talk or sleep wound up being nothing compared to the emotional and mental toll of having my face physically altered forever, and now having fear of something I’ve loved so dearly.
In January 2023, I was given the incredible opportunity to acquire the inventory from a well known, absolutely amazing Tennessee based vintage rental company named Heirlooms. A tiny little start up turned into a massive and wonderful undertaking and Annata was born. With my new babies coming from Tennessee, and as my business took form, Simply Lavish evolved into Annata.
It’s taken two reconstructive surgeries and years of therapy to get to a point where I not only am able to love dogs again but also learn to find the beauty that comes from the horrible things that happen to us. My first baby will always be my dog Charlie, but from this came my greatest love, our twin daughters and then my newest love and baby-Annata. This horrible thing that happened to me enabled me to acquire Heirlooms and turn a little dream into a full blown company.
There’s so much more to me than what has happened to me, but it’s important to remember that when life serves you a bad hand, you can turn it into something amazing and make those dreams come true.
I have an instagram post that documents a bit of my journey for Annata here:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CtuNX2DOvaI/
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What Services Do You Provide?
Annata is an eastern Iowa-based wedding & event rental company. We specialize in curating life’s celebrations with a timeless, romantic, personality-filled vintage aesthetic that’s even dreamier than your Pinterest board.
If it’s vintage and can be used as decor or a prop, you can be sure we have it, and if we don’t we’ve been known to acquire it. We offer furniture, rugs, compotes, candlesticks, depression glass goblets, china, vintage ring boxes, and much more. The list goes on and on. I have an addiction and no shame about it.
We don’t limit ourselves to just weddings, we help client’s with all of life’s celebrations- birthday parties, baby showers, bachelorette parties, grad parties, real estate staging, theater productions, corporate functions, rent for photography sessions, branding shoots. and so much more.
Here are two of our favs, the 90s Coffee House themed holiday party we rented ten lounges out to, including our own Central Perk lounge and my twins 3rd birthday party to showcase how vintage can be used for everything!
We are also the only stockist in the USA for the absolutely stunning tapestries made by The Lovli Collection. They are hand dyed and unlike anything else out on the market. We rent these locally and ship them as well!
Go Daddy 90s Coffee House Themed Holiday Party:
https://www.instagram.com/p/C1NHqYuOXv3/
3rd Bluey Birthday Party:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CzrnXabvR4N/
Just for Fun/Birthday Idea “You Need to Calm Down”….But Toddlers
https://www.instagram.com/p/C__hNKxuWRX/
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What Problems Do You Solve?
Everyone wants their wedding to be one-of-a-kind. To have something show-stopping that will keep everyone talking about how amazing it was. Anyone can rent something new and modern, or even purchase it or something similar on Amazon. Finding a massive amount of vintage pieces for your table decor or locating one settee, let alone a curated lounge to match your theme and colors? The odds are not in your favor.
Luckily for our clients, we’ve taken out the pesky problem of hunting down the impossibly beautiful pieces. With us, you’ve saved yourself hours and hours of hunting online and in person for the right pieces. We spent the super high costs of purchasing them so you don’t have to. We store it (seriously, who has room for all of the wedding decor you’ve bought off of marketplace?) Gone are the days of couples having to go through their list of contacts to find friends and relatives to “volunteer” to move them to the venue, or bring things from the ceremony site to the reception. Uncle Ted and your cousin Bryan can just sit back and enjoy the day. We bring it to you in a true wedding ninja fashion. We have the details knocked out in advance so you wont even know that we’re there. We bring in your furniture and decor, set it up to your exact specifications (with your coordinators approval before we go, of course) and then at the end of the night, we sneak it away before you’ve even realized it.
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What Sets Us Apart?
Im stealing the verbiage from my site, because it embodies it so well.
Our approach is simple: make it pop, make it connect, make it worth talking about. And do it with integrity.
Make it pop-No matter the size of the event or budget — we can be creative with our selections & styling to bring the vibes. You don’t need to rent our entire inventory. Even just a few select pieces can leave a lasting impression.
Make it worth talking about-Creating an effortless ambiance actually requires a lot of effort! We search high & low for the best (most unique, jaw-droppingly beautiful) rentals that’ll leave your guests raving for weeks. Dime-a-dozen pieces simply don’t cut the mustard.
Make it connect-We feel the purpose of humanity is to connect. Surface level isn’t enough for us, we like to really get to know you so we can touch your life in a meaningful way. We live for the moment you walk in to see your setup.
Do it with integrity-We care about our clients, our friends in the industry, and Mother Nature herself. Whether it’s supporting local charity events or upcycling furniture that would have otherwise gone to waste, we make a conscious effort to do the right thing.
The thing that really sets Annata apart though are honestly, my love and passion for what I do. I LIVE and LOVE to create. I offer styling services and it really brings me back to my days of emulating and creating for photography projects. Taking couples themes, colors and vibes and turning them into a masterpiece they will love forever is one of the greatest contributions I’ll ever make.
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What are You Most Proud Of?
The thing that we’re most proud of is our ability to connect and our passion that surrounds what we do. I love love love what I do and as my wonderful friend Lauren Gardner once told me, “Des, I love you to death but you could talk to a f****** tree.” She’s not wrong. I could talk to the death about what I love and what I am passionate about. I take pride that I get as much excitement in helping every single client that comes to our door as I did for my own wedding. Our website says it best:
Picture this: You’re hanging out with your bestie over a couple of mimosas. The ideas are flowing. You’re making grand plans. The excitement is palpable. You’re so in sync, you’re basically finishing each other’s sentences.
This is kinda what it’s like to work with Annata…or so we’ve been told.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
Much of the answer to this question was already written in the previous section. I feel that this question is the best and most true to Annata. Although I already spoke about it because it is a huge part in our start-up story, its also important in illustrating my resilience.
A few months before our wedding in 2019, I quit my job with the goal of rebuilding my photography clientele and portfolio. I had started as a full time photographer in 2013 while pursuing my BFA in Photography from the University of Iowa but after years of burnout, I stepped back. I was eager to return to what I loved, and once I got that established, I planned to focus on building my vintage rental company. I spent much of the following year doing just that—building my website, taking on clients, and getting back into photography.
As life often does, things didn’t go exactly as planned. Just before our flight to Disney World, I announced on social media that I was going back to photography full-time. We returned from our trip the day before our one-year wedding anniversary. After being away for a week, we decided to stay home and cook a meal together to celebrate. Before we settled in, I had decided to hand out the Scentsy products that had arrived from a party I had hosted prior to leaving. Since some of our neighbors had ordered, I decided to take our little four-pound teacup Yorkie for a walk and deliver the orders before we enjoyed our celebration together.
One of our neighbors owns a black retriever mix that we occasionally saw chained to their front steps. However, we had never actually met the dog during our visits, as it was known to be aggressive and had to be kept in a kennel; six months prior, it had attacked a man and bit him in the leg. When I knocked on their door, within seconds the dog leapt up and attacked me. It bit out a full inch out of my bottom lip and nearly took off my top lip as well. Due to the severity, they were unable to clean the wound while they waited for a surgeon who specialized in my type of injury. I sat in a hospital bed, with my lips hanging from my face, uncleaned, for nearly 14 hours before I had my first reconstructive surgery.
I tell this part of my story because it is the reason that I have Annata today. I had so much taken from me after the attack-it took me 2 months to brush my teeth normally, 4 months to talk and move my lips, 8 months to eat normally, 14 months to kiss my husband-and so much more. I felt that everything had been taken from me and our lives were put on pause as we waited the year long recovery period between each surgery.
So much of my life had been put on hold after the dog attack and I was ready to start living again. After experiencing the horrible events that my family and I endured following the attack, we were eventually able to find beauty in our hardships. Feeling like I had lost so much control of my life, and I realized that if I underwent all the surgeries I needed, it could delay my chances of becoming a mother for several years due to the anticipated wait times for the four surgeries. We decided to give it one month, if we didn’t get pregnant we would wait until after my surgeries were completed. By some miracle, we conceived our twins. I had my second surgery when they were only five months old and decided at that point to not proceed with the final two surgeries.
At that point, I could have remained a SAHM. I loved it and it was something we were fortunate enough to be able to afford for me to do. I had more surgeries had I chosen to proceed, my dream of getting back to photography again, and more so, turning that extremely large collection of vintage furniture in my basement could have happened eventually. I was overwhelmed and had no idea what my future was going to look like. I was (and will forever be) in pain, due to extreme nerve damage, and had to relearn how to navigate much of my life. Recovering from multiple reconstructive surgeries, getting pregant to preemie twins in the beginning of the pandemic, dealing with a lawsuit and all of the trauma I needed to work through was not the ideal time to launch your dream business. Despite it all, I decided to dive in head first. Start small in my basement and just go for it, no matter how long it was going to take. I started searching for vintage rental websites to get inspiration for my web designer and came across an established company in Monteagle, TN selling all of their inventory.
With the money from the lawsuit, we were able to grow Annata far larger and quicker than we ever dreamed by using the money to purchase the Tennessee inventory. We brought it back to Iowa in April and officially launched at the end of 2023 and the rest is, well, history! We’re thriving and in love with what we do and cannot wait to see where Annata takes us!
Can you share one of your favorite marketing or sales stories?
Navigating marketing and social media can be challenging for any new business, especially in the wedding industry. To showcase our work and create engaging content, we often contribute our inventory, skills, and talents to vendors planning styled shoots. These shoots typically feature popular colors of the year or are curated around specific trends. As a new vendor looking to generate content, I participated in a few styled shoots here and there, and I started collecting photography from clients’ weddings and events. However, I realized I needed much more content, and I needed it quickly.
As a photography major, I missed the days of coming up with projects that told a story, or worked to emulate a person or thing in an artistic and creative new way. What could I do that would give me multiple styles of content, involve a lot of my inventory and do it in a relatively short period of time? My ADHD brain started spinning and I had it! Who or what is something I am extremely passionate about? Who runs the world of pop culture, has a major following that could garner the attention of my exact audience and allow for me to check off all of the marks on my list? One name came to mind and her incredibly unique approach to her artistry.
Taylor Swift.
I had a plan to shoot all eleven (at the time, ten) eras as styled shoots. It would allow me to showcase a large quantity of my vintage inventory, my planning and designing abilities, and get the wide range of content that I needed. Most importantly though, it would allow me to get to know a large number of the amazing talented people that make up the wedding industry in Eastern Iowa. I’m a huge Swiftie and I was devastated that I couldn’t go to the Eras Tour (launching a business and an expensive world tour doesn’t exactly make for a Swifties dream come true) so instead, I created styled shoots with local vendors.
I wanted to create wedding styled shoots, but I didn’t want to stop there. I fully believe in if you’re going to do something, you go big, or go home. We’re in the age of themed weddings and parties and being the eccentric extra selves we are and Annata is here for it. If there is any demographic of fan to have a wedding, bachelorette party, bridal shower or birthday party based on their idol- it’s the Swifties. I was utterly shocked when I began this journey to find that there was essentially no inspiration for Taylor Swift themed celebrations, let alone weddings. So I decided to bridge that gap. I carefully planned and designed each era not only as a wedding, but also pulled in an era-inspired element to the shoots that could be used for inspo for birthdays and other celebrations. I had a tough job ahead of me. I needed to design these shoots in a way that the non-Swifties could view them and love what they saw outside of its association to Taylor while also showing the Swifties what it took to stay true to the Queen herself through Easter eggs and symbolism in true Taylor fashion.
I didn’t want to stop there though. If I was going to do this, it had to be done right and needed to honor Taylor and her values that made us all fall in love with her in the first place. She is well known for supporting women in all that she does, so I had local boss babes in the industry not only contribute to the shoots but also model as well.
Implementing my Taylor Swift-themed shoots was a risk, they weren’t like the styled shoots we were used to seeing in all their beautifully perfect glory. They were emulating the biggest star of our generation and showing our potential clients that their passions, their idols, the things they loved most could be done in a stunning, sophisticated way. Especially since I was a brand-new vendor with little credibility, it was a risk for the established vendors to take a chance on a girl with a dream and pretty furniture. Miraculously, I managed to get a significant number of established and talented vendors to donate their services and talents to participate. As a new business, it was not only a financial undertaking but a risk in the amount of time and effort that it was going to take. That time wouldn’t bring clients in the door immediately, but the long term pay off was the goal. Now that my business, Annata, is becoming more established, I hope to have the time to share these projects with the world as they truly deserve. Looking back, it was the perfect risk for Annata and we’re so incredibly proud of the work that came from these series, the relationships and friendships we developed throughout and are astounded by the response of our community and clients.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.annatavintagerentalco.com
- Instagram: @annatavintageco
- Facebook: @annatavintageco
- Other: TikTok: @annata.vintage.re
Image Credits
My portrait: AP Photo + Film
Tortured Poets: Ollie + Ivy Lifestyle Photography
Speak Now: The Bella Jean Photo and Film
1989: AP Photo + Film
Lover: Nicole Laing Photography
Midnights: AP Photo + Film
Debut: Ollie + Ivy Lifestyle Photography
Red: Monroe + Co