BlogHer 2012 Recap

Hello Hello! I am fresh off the heels of my first ever BlogHer Conference and wow was it amazing! My weekend was overwhelming, exhausting, inspiring, exhilarating, and just plain fun! I got a lot out of it, and know that there are things I will continue to reflect upon and discover about this weekend in the coming days, weeks, months and even years.

On Thursday night I attended the expo and got some amazing free swag!! I went to Astoria to drop all my stuff off at my friend's apartment, and was feeling tired and "meh" about going back out to the welcome party. It didn't take much for Anna to convince me to stay behind and share a bottle of sparkling wine with her! I ended up hanging out with Anna and Timmy on their roof until 12:30 that night. They were a fantastic host Mom and Dad to me this weekend! Being able to stay with them ended up being such a life-saver!

Friday morning I left bright and early for the newbie breakfast and the first session: The Personal | Blogging for the Love of It. Then it was time for lunch, where Martha Stewart was the keynote speaker!

After lunch I attended Beginnner | Ten Things You Can Do Now to Maximize Your Social Media Expertise but left early to get the end of Strategic Content Development Across Multiple Media: Onstage, Onscreen, and Online (which I liked much better). Then I attended The Voices of the Year Reception where we listened to 15 amazing bloggers share their selected pieces. These posts ranged from sad to the hilarious! 

After that I decided I HAD to check out the Hershey's Camp Bondfire Suite! I headed up with with my new friends Sara and Jackie, where we made our own smores!

 

 

Friday night was the annual Sparklecorn party. All I can say there was lots of sparkle and unicorns...certainly interesting. The showstopper of the party was this cake:

Here with my new friend, Sara, of Toddler Summer! We attended many of the weekend's sessions together and I am so happy to have met this wonderful and sweet woman!

I also loved meeting Jackie, who blogs from Paris at HJ Underway! Her and Sara were roommates for the weekend.

I finally got to meet the fabulous Victoria at Crowning Victoria! I've been following her for quite some time now, and I think this picture sums up her hilarious and vibrant personality!

That night I went back to Astoria and literally passed out- still in my clothes, contacts in, makeup on, teeth not brushed! Rare are the nights that happens to me!

Saturday I attended more sessions, and then our lunch kyenote speaker was Katie Couric. I always "liked" Katie Couric but now, I LOVE Katie Couric. I loved every single thing she said and she is truly inspirational. I'm very excited for her new talk show, Katie, to start up this September.

After that was another keynote discussion: Women Influencers as Change Agents Keynote, with Soledad O'Brien, Christy Turlington Burns, and Malaak Compton-Rock. I wish I could have enjoyed this more than I did. Malaak Compton-Rock was very distracted and not with it. It was uncomfortable to watch her struggle with talking about her charity work, or answering any questions that were directed at her. I just plain felt bad for her and hope that it was nothing more than that she was having an "off day".
 
Saturday Night I attended the Baby B(L)oomer's Party hosted by BOOMbox Network to take video of their party using the Storymix Media app. They had a beautiful party at the amazing OffSite event space in NYC. There, I met a really great woman, Barbara, who blogs at Friend for the Ride. She was amazingly sweet and interesting to talk to. Imagine my surprise when I found out she is the mother of one of my all-time favorite bloggers, Kath, at Kath Eats Real Food!!! I was very starstruck :)

Saturday late-night was the CheeseburgHer party, hosted by McDonalds. We decorated McDonald's bag "hats" when we arrived, it was quite silly. I looked ridiculous in mine, but here it is hanging out with Sara's hat:

There was even a photo booth which Sara, Jackie and I took full advantage of!!

After the party I said goodbye to my new blog friends and headed back to Astoria where I somehow managed to take my contacts out before crashing into bed again still completely in my clothes. I will remember this weekend for a long time and looking forward to Blogher13 next year in Chicago!! I have lots of blog reflection and revamping to do, and you will certainly start to see some changes around here in the coming months!

The lovely ladies of BlogHer12!

It's BlogHer'12 Week!

Only a few days away from the BlogHer '12 conference and I'm very excited! I've got a place to stay that's much closer to Manhattan than my house, thanks to @legallyAnna and @timmyepic! I'll be spending 3 nights in my old stomping ground of Astoria!

I got my iphone charger, wireless travel thingy, ipad, dslr camera...I've even got my party-finger ready to go ;)

Left Hand Party Finger!

I don't know what to expect or how it will go. I do love this video posted by All Things Fadra about the many faces of BlogHer...I can only imagine who I am going to encounter..after all, there are thousands of women attending!
 

Are you going to Blogher'12? What are you most excited about for the conference?

Friday Find: New York City Proposal

Don't forget to enter my giveaway this week. An amazing totebag, handmade by my mom! Be sure to enter by Wednesday, August 31!
 

Friday Wedding Find already?! I loooove proposal videos, (I cannot get enough of them), and I obviously love New York City...so when you put them together, you have one great, creative, artistic, and romantic New York City moment:

This girl is of to prepare for Hurricane IRENE! Stay safe and stay dry this weekend!

My New York Mini-Shower

I had such a fantastic time at my "New York Mini-Bridal Shower" last Thursday with friends Kate, Kristen and Christina. You may remember this post, where the girls planned an awesome dinner out at Robert in New York City's Columbus Circle because they couldn't make it to my Bridal Shower in Pennsylvania. I arrived a bit early with Kate and we were promptly seated at our table that had this view:

Pretty awesome, huh? Kate ordered a Green Apple Martini and I ordered "The Isabell" which was Prosecco and elderflower liqueur. It was ah-mazing.

Each of us were suffering some sort of ailment or another, Christina even had to leave a little early to go pick up a prescription at the pharmacy that her doctor phoned in for her! But we were troopers for the sake of good food, drink and company:

We caught up over drinks and an appetizer of Grilled Flatbread with Cannellini Beans, portobello mushroom and Ricottta Salata. For dinner, I had the Blue Crab Risotto: Blue Crab, Avocado and Red Pepper Coulis:

Kate and Kristin has the Spring Pea Ravioli - Mint and Lemon:

and Christina had the Ricotta Gnocchi: Asparagus and Prosciutto de Parma:

All were fantastic! After dinner the girls showered me with gifts, (which I can't even believe because they were already treating me to such a nice and fancy dinner!) I got two sets of these awesome riedel wine tumblers:

A Vintage Chianti from Italy that I can't WAIT to try, a little undergarment set that shall remain off the blog for obvious reasons ;) and an adorable "d" initial necklace that I can't wait to wear once I'm officially a "D"

So cute!!

I'm so mad that I didn't get a picture of our donut dessert...(I definitely was too concerned with eating it to realize). For dessert we split the Bomboloni: Cinnamon Dusted Ricotta Fritters, with a Trio of Dipping Sauces. It was incredible! Here's a google image search of what it looked like:

www.foodista.com

I can't thank these three enough for such an awesome night out. It was a classy, fun, exciting way to officially kick off all the wedding madness! Thank you and much love to Christina, Kristin and Kate!

I'm a Lucky Girl

 Two weeks ago, I received this email from 3 dear friends of mine from my former job.

Dearest Little Bride-to-Be,

As your wedding approaches and the festivities start,
The three of us would love to be there, but are so many miles apart.

Instead of a road trip to Pennsylvania for the shower that is planned,
We’d like to treat you to a New York shower which is closer at hand.

We are sorry to miss what is sure to be a perfect day,
But are certain that you will enjoy what we’ve planned in our own way.

Please say that the date of March 31st is free,
And stay tuned for the wonderful treat that will be.

Love,

Kate, Kristin, and Christina

How lucky am I? This seriously made me smile all day long. A week later, this little gem arrived in my inbox:

Dearest Little Bride-to-Be,

As the date approaches, we thought you should know,

We’d like to take you to place with shine and glow.

To drink, and dine in the utmost class,

And surround yourself with lovely ladies of fun and sass.

On March 31^st, please join us at Robert at the 

Museum of Arts and Design,

For drinks and treats and especially, for a fabulous time.

Love,

Kate, Kristin, and Christina

Ahh!! This restaurant looks amaazing!! I'm sad that they can't make it to Pennsylvania for my shower, but I understand it's not the easiest of places to get to. Plus, I can't wait to spend time with them tonight! It's amazing how much these three ladies have come to mean to me in the short time that I've known them. They are incredibly loyal, thoughtful, classy, sweet friends and I am truly blessed to have them in my life. We don't get a chance to get together too often anymore, but when we do, it is always a fabulous time! Needless to say, I can't wait to tell you all about our night!

This is us at Christina's wedding last October!

Sans the bride...

Please don't forget to vote in my Wednesday Wedding Poll "Are/Did you having/have a videographer?"

Paper Presentation

Yesterday on my lunch break I went to this amazing store near Union Square called Paper Presentation.

http://www.paperpresentation.com

They had everything you could possibly imagine when it came to paper, invitations, programs, guest books, ribbons, boxes, gifts, scrapbooking, I could go on but you get the point. I wasn't able to get nearly as many photos as I wanted, as my time was limited and I found my eyes glazing over every two seconds from visual overload.

Great Gift boxes

Look at all the different ribbons!

This is literally an entire shelf of just envelope liners:

Teeny tiny envelopes, so cute!

Decorative paper for invitations - There were probably 12 different shelves with different paper like this:

My time there was limited, and I only bought one thing. But, you can bet the wheels are turning for what I want to purchase for my next visit. I will say this store was a bit pricey. Most of the paper supplies are sold in packs of 25, so making things in bulk could add up. But, I'm actually very curious to do the math on how much my invitations would have cost if I did them myself buying each piece through this store versus going with the lady who did them for us. That will be a little price comparison lesson for another day when I have time, but curiosity definitely has gotten the better of me on that one. One thing is for sure, despite the price you most certainly couldn't beat the selection or the quality of their supplies. This store was a great little find!

Check out Paper Presentation's Website here! Did you find any fantastic specialty stores like this as you were planning your wedding?