Event sponsor: Seaport Flowers

I'm never disappointed when I ask Amy at Seaport Flowers to put something together for me...she always comes up with the freshest things! The little succulents and green flora were perfect for the little cocktail tables, and the larger blooms were fabulous accents to larger tables.

[photos by Jenny Ebert Photography]

Beautiful branding from Thoughtful Day

Our fellow blogger, Erica of Thoughtful Day, did an amazing job designing the graphics for the B List meetup. She managed to work in every aspect of bridal blogging, all in a stylish way! Having the logo incorporated into cookies by Gumdrop Cookie Co. and Jones Soda is a great example of how you can brand your own event, and will make everything look cohesive. Erica also just launched her new site, Thoughtful Day, filled with invitation suites, custom totes, and much more!

And a special thank you to Jenna of love*jenna for doing the calligraphy for our bloggers nametags...she's currently in the throes of planning her own wedding so it was nice of her to take a little time out to share her talents with us!

[photos by Jenny Ebert Photography]

A Catered Affair by Sterling Affair

Just like any wedding reception you need to feed your guests, right? Whether you are having a brunch, luncheon or dinner reception, or cocktails and cake you will need to hire a caterer to provide the food and wait staff for your event.

For the B-List event this past weekend Sterling Affair provided a delicious luncheon for the bloggers and vendors. In addition to wraps, salads and sandwiches we also enjoyed some delicious fruit and chocolate tarts for dessert.

If you are getting married in the tri-state area, or looking for a caterer for a private or corporate event, visit sterlingaffair.com to learn more about their services and menu options.


[photos by Jenny Ebert Photography]

Wine Tasting with Swirl Events

One of the events the B-List bloggers attended was a wine tasting sponsored by Brides.com and produced by Swirl Events.

After enjoying a glass of Prosecco and a chocolate truffle from Roni-Sue's Chocolates, Swirl Events owner Anu Karwa walked us through the five steps of wine tasting. We enjoyed several different types of wine along with a delicious cheese and chocolate pairing.

As you can see from the photos below we all enjoyed the cocktail party atmosphere which allowed us to mix and mingle and learn about wine.

Swirl Events is available for both corporate and private events, including showers and bachelorette parties. To learn more about hosting a wine tasting, visit swirlevents.com. Or visit Anu's blog, Swirl Savvy, for wine tips and advice.






*Photos taken by Vane Broussard of Brooklyn Bride and Christy Weber of Junebug Weddings

Welcome to the B-List

This past weekend, Anne of From I Will to I Do and I (Vané from Brooklyn Bride) co-hosted a bridal blogger event here in Brooklyn...to explain a little bit, it was a small get together meant to introduce ourselves in person to our favorite bloggers, talk about blogging and weddings, share tips and ideas that have helped our blogs, and provide overall support. Afterwards, we held a vendor meet and greet, since many of us had written about these fabulously talented people but had never met them in person. The event was a smashing success, and its our hope that the B-List can grow into something we host all over the US, and maybe spark some offshoot events in cities so we can get to know more people in the industry. We're so incredibly grateful for all the bloggers who traveled as far out as the west coast to attend, and of course, to our sponsors who made this all possible.

We'll be posting some photos as soon as they come in, and will be posting about our event sponsors, synopses from our speakers, and once we figure it out, more info on future events, so stay tuned! We're excited for whats to come, and hope you are too!

[group photo done by the incomparable Jenny Ebert, who shot all the photos from the event]

Destination: Ritz-Carlton Caribbean & Mexico Resorts

Brides planning a destination wedding or their honeymoon in the Caribbean or Mexico are sure to check out the Ritz-Carlton properties in the region. And why wouldn't they? The excellent level of service and amenities available are truly unforgettable.

Brides and grooms planning a destination wedding should know about the current promotion being offered to couples who book their wedding at one of the Ritz-Carlton Hotels & Resorts in the Caribbean or Mexico (Jamaica, Grand Cayman, St. Thomas, Cancun and Puerto Rico) Couples who book their wedding through the region's value package get a free wedding ceremony as well as a three-night first anniversary (complimentary) stay. Weddings booked at these resorts must book a minimum three-night stay and reserve 25 rooms or more. The free ceremony includes: location decor, officiant and wedding concierge. The wedding must be booked by December 20, 2009 and held between May 1 and December 20, 2009. For more information visit ritzcarlton.com.

Sponsored post: One Love Photo

My name is Heather Gilson and I am photographer who loves manual focus, shallow depth of field and composing in a square. I live for beautiful mistakes, frozen fractions of seconds, and a subject who stares me down. My husband Jon Almeda is an amazing artist and photographer and we make a wonderful team shooting weddings together. This is what we LOVE to do! We live in the Seattle area but enjoy capturing sweet love birds all over the map! With over 12 years of experience we have refined an unobtrusive, creative style of shooting. Staying true to our artistic spirits, we capture weddings using a combination of cameras and techniques (digital, medium format film, through the viewfinder, homemade lenses and even a couple toy plastic cameras). Our images are unique because they combine the style and sensibility of today's generation with yesterday's vintage look and feel.

We have an uncompromising artistic style and move in the opposite direction of cliché wedding photography. Which means we won't make the groom dip the bride, or put you through a mock fashion shoot. We won't put the bride's veil over the grooms head and we definitely won't make the wedding party all jump at the same time. Our main goal is to create untraditional photographs of your family and friends being their fabulous selves. To capture your natural true love on your wedding day with a funky artistic twist. If this sounds like the kind of photography you have been searching for, please contact us.

We love to travel and offer an inclusive travel package for weddings outside of the Seattle area. Find out more about our packages on our website. Feel free to email me for more detailed information.

[images by the talented One Love Photo]

Guest post from Emily @ OnceWed

I am so excited about finally meeting everyone in person at the end of the month and learning more about blogging in general. Vane has been kind enough to let me talk a little about online advertising and monetizing your blog. I am by no means an expert, but my husband has worked in the online advertising world for close to a decade and I've been fortunate enough to learn a lot about the industry through him. I was planning on covering just the basics and send everyone home with a little guide. Below are some of the topics I was planning to cover and discuss. I would love input or suggestions on the items below and if I missed out on any topics you might be interested in learning more about. Thanks, ladies!

-Intro(CPM vs. CPC vs. CPA)
- Monetizing Your Blog
-direct sales/independent ads
-google ad sense
-ad networks - requirements, recommendations,etc
-paids posts, text links,etc
-pros/cons of all of the above
-Building a media kit
-Future and current climate of online advertising

Bakery tips for submitting to blogs

I thought these tips from Bakery would come in handy...and are good for a little chuckle. I'm sure we've all received these kinds of emails in one way or another.

DO:

• Send me a link to some sort of website, whether it be your portfolio site, etsy shop, or a site that sells your items. If you don’t have a website, send me an email address through which interested readers can contact you. Blogs are online media, so you should include some sort of related contact information for my readers.
• Send me 1-5 low resolution images for use on my site.
• Address the email to ME, and maybe even show me you read/like my site by telling me about a recent post you enjoyed or that I’m on your feed reader.
• Introduce yourself, tell me a little about you and your stuff, and what it is you’re showing me.
• If you’re a PR professional, make me like you, and not just the product/artist/site you’re pushing. Relationships are key in this business.
• Flattery will get you everywhere [well, almost].

DON’T:

• Attach a Word document press release. I won’t read it.
• Attach a Word document press release and also copy and paste the same information from the Word document into the body of the email. This is dumb [sorry, it really is].
• Send me an email with a subject line in ALL CAPS; it has the opposite effect.
• Attach a zip file of images expecting me to download and extract them. Unless I ask for lots of high-res images, this is highly unnecessary. These are typically large files which clog my memory, too, so probably not the best way to my heart.
• Send me an email in a language that I don’t post in on my blog. I speak and read English, so please don’t expect me to understand your Turkish press release. This instantly makes me think you’ve stuck me on a massive mailing list. At least send a translation or a link to your site so I can see more.
• Address the email Dear Blogger, or Dear Jane [my name is Jaime].
• Send the email to 20 different blogs in the TO email field. We can see it and if you BCC us, we know that you did -
• Send me the same email 2 times in a week or 4 times a month. I got your email. If you want to follow up, please do so but do not spam.