As many of you know, I made plans to attend The Vampire Diaries Hot Topic event in Atlanta, GA this past weekend.  Well, I couldn’t very well, drive 6 hours from Mississippi to Georgia without visiting the town where The Vampire Diaries is filmed, so I found myself in Covington, GA Friday afternoon, and it just so happened they would be in town shooting all day and night.  There I met up with several TVD twitter friends.  Jessica (@jesstravisl), who lives in Covington, offered to meet up and show me around.  Deana and Jo (@TVDGaGirls) from Savannah, GA also joined us, as well as Ella (@groundedsouls) who lives about 2 hours north of Covington.  We were later joined by Ashley (@llAsHLeYll), who lives about an hour and a half south of Covington.

When we first arrive on set, it’s about 2PM and they are shooting a scene between Paul Wesley and Matt Davis in the square.  Here are a few pics taken by Deana, and I would like to take the time to thank her for allowing me to post these awesome pics.  You can view the rest on a page I’ve created here, Vampire Diaries Set Visit 1-22-10.

We really had a great time watching them shoot.  After taking a break, and going back to our hotel to check in, we headed back and they had moved the set to outside the Mystic Grill. While we were grabbing a coffee at this really cute gourmet coffees/ice cream/candy store called Scoops, we ran into Sara Canning.  I introduced myself to her, and she was extremely nice and so adorable, and later she agreed to take pics with us.

After getting our coffee, we enjoyed watching them shoot several scenes over and over.  I couldn’t get over how many times they would have to shoot the scene.  Just watching Paul and Nina, I developed this newfound respect for them and how hard they work.  And later, I would get to meet them and tell them my feelings personally. Read the rest of the story after the jump!

Later into the evening, they started shooting an action scene where a truck hits a dummy/manequin in the road. Not sure what that was about, and don’t really want to know, but figured I’d tell you guys about it, because it really doesn’t give anything away and we couldn’t figure out who was being hit.  I mean, how many times have we scene a vehicle hit someone in the middle of the road on the show, right?  We do have video of the shot, but I will not be posting it out of respect for production.  After the scene airs, we will definitely post it.

So during this time, I’m watching the director of The Vampire Diaries, Marcos Siega, walk around on set.  At one point, he isolates himself away from everyone else, and I thought about going over to introduce myself, but he was on the phone and I didn’t want to disturb him. I guess the reason I was so intent on meeting him, is he happened to be our very first follower from the production crew when we first started our Twitter for VDO, and I wanted to thank him for that. I have so much admiration for his work and all of the writers too. If it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t have this awesome show that we adore so much.

So then after I missed my opportunity to meet Marcos, one of the @TVDGaGirls, Jo was on Twitter and said that @Barbielk, who belongs to the amazing TVD writing team tweeted that she was on set.  We then tweeted her back, saying we were there and would love to meet her.  Later I notice Marcos and Barbie (at that point, didn’t know who she was) walking towards the street where we were standing. Marcos said, “Is there someone here named Ruthie?” I meekly raised my hand, “That’s me.” He then walked up and introduced himself and put out his hand. I told him I knew who he was, and I wanted a hug. LOL So I gave him a big hug, and we chatted for a bit.  I asked if he and Barbie would take pics with us, and they said they would be happy to, he then asked if I wanted to come over and meet Paul and Nina, that they were taking a break. Of course, my heart dropped, and I said “Sure!”

Marcos Siega and I

Barbie Kligman and I

I walked up and Marcos introduced me to them, they were extremely nice.  I was able to snap a pic with them, and then they hurried Nina away to take some pics with some other fans that were on set.  A little girl was doing a project for her school yearbook about The Vampire Diaries. And I thought it was so very nice of them to accommodate her.

Paul, myself and Nina

So, Paul and I are chatting, I ask him about Twitter and kicking myself for not having a video camera with me.  He confirms he does NOT have one, and doesn’t plan on getting one.  He says his life is too boring. I thought that was funny.

After that, the night just kept getting better, Paul Sommers, the director of photography, came over and said he had heard about me and wanted to meet me.  I’m kicking myself now, because I didn’t get a pic with him.  He was so funny and super nice, and allowed all of us to go watch a scene being filmed on screens they have set up in a tent. It was an amazing experience!  Finally the set wrapped, Paul and Nina started snapping pics with fans. Their handlers were trying to get them to leave, but they looked like they were having so much fun meeting everyone. I finally got to speak with Nina, and told her how much we appreciate their hard work, and that I was so glad that I got to experience being on set. We hugged about 3 times, and then they had to go and their rides picked them up. We were all heading back to our cars, when Paul’s van drove past us, he was waving out the window, saying “Bye you guys!!” It was great.  Later, got back to my hotel, and saw these tweets from Marcos and Nina, and it made my night.

Being there that night, on the set of The Vampire Diaries, was an amazing experience that I will cherish forever.  In the meantime, I made a bunch more friends, who are now following us on Twitter.  I’d like to give a shout out to Christi (@ceroberts76) and her daughter Ashley, and her friend Amy and her daughter Katie, I really enjoyed meeting you guys and hope I get to see you next time I am in Covington again!!  Also met a bunch more peeps, and hope to hang out with you guys again!

And of course, my fun wasn’t over, I got to experience the great cast tour event at Hot Topic, I posted video and pictures from the event earlier and you can view the HERE. But that night, after the event, the lovely Katerina Graham met up with a few of us fans for dinner and we had the best time.  She is one of the most gernerous and most amazing people I have ever met in my entire life. It was definitely the perfect way to top off my weekend, and I will never forget it.

Katerina Graham and I