This has been such a long time coming - but it's finally time for me to blog the launch of #TheCityGirls! As I'm sure you'll remember me blogging about earlier in the month, myself and Holly-Lucy from Tea & Blush have been planning and organising our very first blog event. It got to the one week countdown stage and I started getting the most ridiculous jitters - it felt like waiting for Christmas. I was so excited, and so looking forward to the big day.
I actually couldn't get to sleep on Friday night in anticipation of the many, many things we both would need to do before we'd be ready to begin! I woke up ridiculously early (no pressing snooze on my alarm clock for once), showered, put on my make-up, packed up my things and drove to Sheffield to begin. Once I arrived at Holly's we did all the final little bits of prep; picked up the balloons, made sure the goodie bags were full to bursting, checked on our schedules and running times - then eventually got dressed and got over to the venue.
We chose Bloo88 on West Street in Sheffield - and if I do say so myself, we couldn't have chosen better! When we were choosing a place, the things we wanted were good lighting, a good open space and a little bit of character - Bloo88 offers all of that and more! Not only did it tick all the boxes visually and in terms of space, but Bloo88 also does the best cocktails and pizza!! Remember all that time ago when Holly and I went to try it out? Well obviously we had to give it a test right? Only the best for our bloggers!
When we arrived we set to organising the room and choosing the best layout for everything we had lined up for our bloggers! Our featured brands on the day included Benefit, Panache, Secondthread, Lush Sheffield and Cinnamon Buns Designs - alongside our brands of the day we also had City Hearts; our chosen charity to work with throughout our first event. More on all of these just a little bit later on though - this blog post is a hefty one. You have been warned.
Once everything was in position, our barman Joe was in place ready to mix up some delicious cocktails (on 2 for 1, yeah baby...) the brands were primed and ready for action - and the music was playing (thanks to Johno, Holly's boyfriend!) - oh and most importantly, we'd had our first nerve-calming Prosecco of the event - it was time for us to bring our bloggers upstairs to see what we had in store for them.
For some reason, I didn't feel nervous about this bit at all - I can only put that down to our amazing bloggers though. Before the event we'd emailed everybody countless times (I'm sure they all got a bit fed up of our updates actually...) and made everybody aware of #thecitygirls hashtag to watch on the run up to the event, it was so much fun watching our bloggers find each other, make their plans for getting across to Sheffield and making friends before the event - it meant that when everybody arrived it felt like a reunion of old friends rather than thirty people meeting for the first time!!
When everybody was in the room - myself and Holly gave a little opening speech. I gave a little bit of thought to what I wanted to say in this, but as soon as I opened my mouth I more or less forgot my plan, and just let my mouth run of it's own accord. I gave an introduction to me, the background of my blog - Holly did the same, and then we outlined our plan for the day, and ultimately our plans for #TheCityGirls. Once we'd finished welcoming our bloggers to the event, it was over to Amber from City Hearts to give some more information about one of the reasons we'd all come together on Saturday.
Photo courtesy of Holly-Lucy; Tea & Blush
If you've read my blog for a while, I'm sure you'll know that Amber is one of my best friends - we go waay back, we know way too much about each other, that's for sure. When Holly and I first decided to bring #TheCityGirls to Sheffield and opted to involve a charity - for me, there was only one charity that it could be. City Hearts is an anti-trafficking charity which was founded with the aim to help and support vulnerable women, and to give them motivation to reach a turning point in their lives.
I'll be the first to admit that I didn't know a lot about trafficking - in fact, I was almost completely blind to the fact that it happens in the UK. When Amber began working with City Hearts and explaining the benefits of such an organisation and what they can do for women who have been exploited - it made me realise how much more awareness there needs to be for organisations like City Hearts, and for trafficking itself.
Photo courtesy of Vikki; Lipstick & Lightplay
Amber gave an introduction to the charity ethos and backstory and quoted the Executive Director of City Hearts; Jenny Gilpin in her opening speech - reading Jenny's story really highlighted the reality of trafficking and I think it gave our bloggers a little something to think about to begin our day. When Holly and I found out about the vital work City Hearts do in "loving people back to life" as their slogan says - we decided that all the money raised in our raffle on the day would go straight to them.
Following Amber's speech - we decided to let the bloggers run loose! We decided not to have too structured an approach to the day; there was so much for the bloggers to see and do that it wouldn't have made sense to give them an exact timetable, it was much more fun to see them milling around, nattering to each other, making friends and speaking with our brands!
Not forgetting of course - grabbing some of those wonderful cocktails that Bloo88 were kind enough to do 2for1 offers on for all of our lovely bloggers! I must confess I sampled a few of these throughout the day, and all of them were fantastic!
Photo courtesy of Becky; Just Becky
Photo courtesy of Becky; Just Becky
Anyway.. Moving on from alcohol... To run through what each of the brands were doing on the day...
We had the very lovely Mel from Benefit - she'd brought along some of the amazing products they have, including my ultimate favourite Porefessional! Mel was showing the bloggers on the day how to properly map their brows using the simplest of tools (a cotton bud) and how to fill them in using Brow Zings, we also had a fab demonstration of Porefessional on - believe it or not - a lemon! Using a primer on a lemon, which has quite a dimply surface, really shows off what Porefessional can do for your skin - and perfectly highlights what a little bit of product can do for your pores.
We also got to try out one of Benefit's newest products - the wonderful Roller Lash! I've tried this out only once before; when Holly and I spoke to Benefit to book them for the event - and it's one of the best mascaras I've ever used. In fact I'm almost certain it knocks my YSL Babydoll out of the water - so when this runs out I reckon I'll be making a visit back to Mel for a Roller Lash!
Mel had a little goodie bag for each of our bloggers, containing a teeny tiny Porefessional sample and also a sample of the They're Real Remover - something I'm gutted I didn't get a chance to pick up because They're Real is notoriously hard to get off, and I've not tried the remover yet!
Next up, we had Zehra from Panache. Now, if you know me at all then you'll know how much of an advocate I am for ladies wearing the correctly sized underwear! Remember this blog post? Well, one of the bras featured there is from Panache - and it is one of the best bras I have ever owned, so imagine my excitement when I heard Panache were on board with us?! Oh my God, there are no words.
Photo courtesy of Holly-Lucy; Tea & Blush
Zehra was fantastically helpful with our bloggers - taking some of them off for fittings and to ensure they were in the right sized underwear. It was so great to hear feedback from the bloggers who found out how wrong they'd been, some for years! It's amazing what the right fitting bra can do for your self esteem, for your posture and for your boobs!! Gone are the days of saggy tits when it comes to Panache, these ladies know how to make bras.
Our lucky bloggers who received fittings on the day could pick and choose a set from the Panache catalogue in their new found sizes and will be receiving these through the post over the next couple of weeks! Do we know how to treat our bloggers? Oh yes we do! Thank you so much Zehra and Panache for allowing us to do this - I cannot tell you how happy it made me seeing so many smiling faces when they knew their boobs were being looked after!!
We also had Cat from Secondthread come along - bringing with her the new range of clothing which had only been released the day before! It was safe to say our bloggers felt pretty privileged to be some of the first to see and try on some of the items in the range.
Photo courtesy of Holly-Lucy; Tea & Blush
It was lovely to see the bloggers reacting so positively to the clothing on the rails - and to see some of them trying bits and pieces on! We had a lovely clutch bag donated for our raffle from Secondthread as well - and even a cheeky 20% off available to bloggers on the day too! Faaaaantastic.
We even had the very lovely girls from Lush Sheffield come along for the day! You know that smell when you walk past the Lush store? And it smells like everything in this world that is wonderful - well, our entire event room smelled like that as soon as Lush stepped in the door, it was amazing!
Lush had brought a huge selection of goodies for our bloggers to take away with them on the day, including their infamous bath bombs, shampoo bars, a sunscreen, face masks and cleansers. Now, one of the most exciting things we could do with Lush? Urm.. Make our OWN products! This was pretty amazing - as it gave you a chance to see what ingredients actually go into the items you buy on a Lush spree. The beauty of Lush is that everything is 100% natural, and also not tested on animals. Speaking of which...
Lush were promoting their Votes for Animals campaign - this is running alongside the run up to the general election. This is a fabulous cause, making you think about the rights of animals and those without a voice. Lush had brought sashes, badges and even some pretty cool animal masks along to help get their point across - it was fab to see our bloggers had taken this on board, and took their sashes and masks very seriously!
Photo courtesy of Claudia; Claudia Wright
And last but by absolutely no means least we also had the very lovely Sally from Cinnamon Buns Designs - Sally had brought along a selection of her prints which were for sale on the day, as well as donating a raffle prize. She had some really lovely fashion quotes which were all printed out and mounted - some were even framed for our bloggers to buy and take away on the day as well.
Photo courtesy of Holly-Lucy; Tea & Blush
You'll know how much I love a good print - and some of Sally's are so lovely that I'd quite like to get a few for around my apartment, just to dot around the place. She had some really fab Sheffield based ones too - which I think the Sheffield based bloggers appreciated a lot!
Photo courtesy of Claudia; Claudia Wright
Just in case any of our bloggers were getting a little bit peckish, Holly and I had organised pizzas to be served downstairs halfway through the event. Now, knowing just how good these pizzas are - this was something I was so excited for! We gathered the bloggers back downstairs, and had a little chance to check up on everybody and make sure everybody was enjoying the day! It also gave us a chance to check Twitter and have a look through #thecitygirls hashtag to see how everybody was getting along sharing the event online...
...only to find - WE WERE TRENDING!! It was so amazing to see our little hashtag up there with the likes of Bruce Jenner ha! But no seriously, our fab bloggers pulled their social media skills out of the bag and pushed us up there, and it was so good to see their comments and photos live from the event being shared too. We had a little prize running on the day for the best updates being shared - and we were keeping a close eye out for those bloggers who were sharing the best and most updates across Instagram and Twitter so we'd know who to choose as a winner!
Photo courtesy of Becky; Just Becky
After we'd all had our fair share of pizza - and as we all felt thoroughly stuffed our bloggers were led back into the event room upstairs where they continued to speak to our featured brands and also appreciate some of the other little things we'd dotted around the room.
As well as organising the goodie bags for our bloggers - we'd also managed to get some pretty cool brands on board for us to represent on the day. We'd packed the goodie bags completely full, and would have struggled to fit everything in there, so we dotted some things around the room so bloggers could pick them up throughout the day. These included...
Voss water bottles, placed on the table as bloggers were on their way in
Photo courtesy of Laura Cinnamon on Instagram
Photo courtesy of Pratt's Patch on Instagram
Also, Virtue Ice Tea drinks - two different flavours were available (along with Jelly Belly jelly beans!)
Photo courtesy of Vikki; Lipstick & Lightplay
Henderson's Relish - a typical Sheffield item, there's no way we could have hosted a Sheffield event without good ol' Hendo's! Yes, this does smell like pickled onion Monster Munch - a fact which kept our bloggers amused no end.
Photo courtesy of Holly-Lucy; Tea & Blush
The absolutely beautiful Penhaligon's perfume samples - one for each of our bloggers! How beautiful are these little bottles? Perfect for lining up on a dressing table, they also smell amazing.
Photo courtesy of Jo; Jo The Cat Lady
And of course not forgetting! Holly's wonderful chocolate cupcakes - the original plan was to buy in some cupcakes, but where's the fun in that? We had some lovely little cake toppers printed up with our logo and Holly and her friend went to town baking us all some cupcakes for the event! I didn't get to sample one until the morning after (when I had one two for breakfast - ha) but they were definitely worth waiting for. Nom.
Photo courtesy of Claudia; Claudia Wright
We even had a little "sprucing up" station complete with hair wand, hair grips, hairspray and a mirror - courtesy of Justmylook.co.uk - this was a popular little station for our bloggers, who kept saying that we'd "thought of everything!" ...well, we do try!
Photo courtesy of Farida; The Fad Journal on Twitter
Whilst all of this was going on, and the bloggers continued to get to know one another - Amber, Holly and I began preparing for the raffle. As we started to count up the money taken and the tickets bought, we realised we'd managed to raise a huge £175 for City Hearts - which is fantastic and we cannot thank our bloggers enough for partaking for such a fabulous cause. As if this wasn't enough though, Holly had managed to arrange for her work; Aviva to match any donations we took - meaning that our grand total to be donated to City Hearts was a lovely round figure of £350! Ahhh so good!!
Then it was time for the raffle prizes to be drawn - we had a huge selection of prizes including but not limited to a Thomas Sabo necklace, a Penhaligon's perfume worth £120, three sets of prints from Retropacks, a satchel, Odeon cinema tickets, the clutch bag from Secondthread, a personalised print from Cinnamon Buns Designs, a selection of coffees from Beanies, cocktail masterclasses, gin treats... Ohhhh all sorts of bits and pieces were up for grabs! And our bloggers were very lucky indeed and took away some amazing prizes - I cannot wait to see how they go down when we get some blog posts of them enjoying their prizes.
We also got to announce our social media sharing prize winner! Our prize for this went to the gorgeous Charlotte of TwentySomethingxo - she has been amazing sharing her updates, photos and going hashtag crazy on the run up to our event, and during she tagged some great photos as well - so of course, she had to win this one!
After the raffle there was only one thing that was left to do - I'm a big fan of a good group photo... So of course - I had to get everybody together and make people kneel on the floor and stand on bar stools etc etc - but it was worth it to get a shot like this!!
And then that was it - or so I thought, right as we were in the middle of wrapping everything up and thanking all of our amazing bloggers for showing up and being as brilliant as they were, Amber jumped up on a chair and had some flowers for me and Holly as a total surprise! I definitely had a tear in my eye - felt a bit emotional and totally overwhelmed at that point of the day.
As everybody was leaving we handed out all of the infamous goodie bags - Holly and I have worked so hard speaking with brands and getting companies involved to put forward some goodies for the bloggers to take home on the day that it felt like such a pleasure handing these over to our guests! We were so proud of managing to get such amazing (if we do say so ourselves) bags together, and I'm so looking forward to seeing what our bloggers made of them!!
It was totally overwhelming hearing the praise and positive comments we both received from our guests at the end of the event - seeing the messages come flooding in on Twitter and under #thecitygirls hashtag on Instagram as well was so addictive! I don't think my iPhone left my hand for the entire evening - I just sat there in awe and feeling so proud of myself and Holly!!
There are a million and one thank-yous to be said after the launch event and I'll try and remember to do them all here. First of all, thank you to our wonderful bloggers - who made everything we'd worked so hard for worthwhile! Thank you to our amazing brands - who came together to help us make our first event so special, and feel such a great thing to be a part of. Thank you to Amber and to City Hearts for letting us work with you and raise awareness for such a brilliant cause. Thank you to Bloo88 for being an incredible venue and the backdrop for the entire event. Thank you to our friends and families who have been so ridiculously understanding whilst we've been so focused on making this thing work! Thank you to every single company that donated things to us; raffle prizes, goodie bag treats (oh and our amazing business cards and flyers - thank you Moo!)
Oh, and last but certainly not least - one huge thank you to Holly-Lucy without whom this entire thing would have been nowhere near as good, and definitely not as fun to organise!! It's amazing working with someone who is so like minded and just as intent as me on creating something so special!
Some of the comments that came back from the bloggers who attended our first event included things like "the best blogging event I have ever been to" - this is truly insane?! REALLY?! I am so proud of what we managed to achieve with our crazy planning, late night emails, early morning thoughts and tiny little details we pushed to make the day a success - and I feel like it all truly pays off when you get such amazing feedback like that.
Holly and I are already making plans for our second event - and we cannot wait to start this whole process over again and bring #TheCityGirls to another location soon. We are even thinking of doing some mini "meet up" style events on the run up to the bigger ones - just to keep #TheCityGirls name rolling and to get to meet up with our lovely blogging network throughout the coming months too. So, keep watching for updates - I wonder which city we will be popping up in next?!