#TheCityGirls Launch event

#TheCityGirls Launch event

• Monday, 27 April 2015

Oh my goodness I am so happy to be able to share this post with you all!

On the 25th April myself and Lorna hosted our first  #TheCityGirls blogger event- as you know from previous posts we'd been planning this event for a good few months and OH it exceeded all of our expectations.. I can confidently say that I am so proud of myself and Lorna for every little detail we incorporated into the day.

We held our first event in Sheffield at Bloo88- we chose this venue as we loved the look of their private function room and it looks SO good in the photos!

We were joined by 30 beauty,fashion and lifestyle bloggers along with some really great brands.

As I type this up I'm uploading a video to Youtube but I wanted to share a few photos (taken by myself, Lorna and some of the bloggers) from the day too!

Me and Lorna had a rather hectic (but fun) morning as you can imagine- we had to collect a load of balloons, get all our goody bags into a car and then make our way to the venue to set up.

We had so many pretty looking items to give to the bloggers we didn't want to cram them all into goody bags so we had a few bits set up around the venue-

You can't have an event in Sheffield without having some Hendo's on hand!

We were sent some amazing samples of Penhaligons perfume and set these out on a cute vintage tray for bloggers to have a sniff and choose their favourite one to take home!

We set up a drinks table with some samples from VOSS and Virtue Ice tea too- we had so much support on twitter on the day from VOSS- we love the hashtag #vossisboss 

We had little signs all over the venue reminding people to use our hashtag when tweeting and adding pictures to Instagram!

We also had a pile of our goody bags in one corner of the room but in front of a huge window.. we quite liked it how when you walk up the stairs in the venue the first thing our bloggers saw was their goody bags! We didn't give these out until right at the end though as we had so many other little treats on offer around the venue. 

Dotted around the room, as well as the little treats for the bloggers, we had some amazing brands...

Benefit

Panache

Second Thread

Lush

Cinnamon Bun Designs

I was so excited to see #TheCityGirls on the Benefit screen!

Panache spent the day measuring all our ladies up for new bra's! I was totally wearing the wrong sized bra.. and have been for years! They then very kindly told us all that we could email them our choice of lingerie set and they'd pop it in the post for free! 

Second thread had all of their new range at the event- they only released it online the day before so we felt very privileged to see it all so soon!

Cat from Second Thread donated this cute clutch bag for our raffle.. and i hear that one of the bloggers who attended the event has now gone on their website to order a few treats.. YAY for blogger event sales!

The lovely ladies from Lush had this corner of the room but of course you could smell their deliciousness throughout the whole place!

The bought with them all the kit to make cleansers and also some goodies for each of us to take home and try.. more to come on this in a later post!

Cinnamon Bun designs bought loads of prints along to the event and I must say they went down very well! I think their best seller was the "More issues than Vogue" which is my personal fav too.. hint hint!

We decided from the get go of planning that we wanted a charity involved that both myself and Lorna really felt passionate about. Coincidently Lorna's friend Amber works for City Hearts-a charity that provides housing and support to vulnerable victims of human trafficking- so we decided that we'd hold a raffle on the day to raise some money and awareness. 

We had some amazing prizes for the raffle.. from coffee,gin, artwork, a satchel and perfume plus many more!

Once myself and Lorna had greeted everyone to the venue Amber then spoke to the whole group about City Hearts. She did an amazing job at explaining the support City Hearts provides along with some information on the types of cases they deal with on a day to day basis.  I'll admit it... I was pretty close to tears. What an amazing charity and we know that this isn't going to be the last time we support them through our events. 

Once Amber had explained about City Hearts and told people about the raffle we then invited the ladies to go and speak to all the brands. We loved seeing so many of them taking photos, chatting to each other and having a lovely time!

At about 2.30 we all had a pizza and cocktails break- Myself and Lorna preordered (and paid for!) 18 large Bloo88 pizza's and they seemed to go down VERY well. Bloo88's pizzas are the best in Sheffield!

Once the pizza had all been devoured we all then headed back upstairs to continue with the fun.. I kept having moments of looking round the room and thinking "WE CREATED THIS!".

It was really lovely to see the group being so welcoming to those bloggers who were attending a blogger event for the first time

Justmylook provided us with some goodies to create a little corner where you could spruce yourself up with a Tangle teaser, some Fudge coconut and apple hairspray, a Babyliss Conical wand and a HUGE box of grips! Pebble Grey also provided us with a cute little vanity mirror (previously blogged about this in February!)

I love the signs me and Lorna put together for around the venue.. 

Mel from Benefit was kept busy all day, mapping out peoples eyebrows and showing them the crazy capabilities of Porefessional on a lemon..!

 How lovely is this photo?! This is my mum and cousin Amelie- both bloggers of course!

 Before the event I decided to bake 52 cupcakes.. I'm in NO way a baker and this for me was a huge mission but I called in help from my lovely friend Fern and I think they turned out pretty good!

Amelie from Smudgedface blog modelling her Kimono she purchased from Second Thread on the day!

All our lovely #TheCitygirls bloggers at the end of the day!

If you'd like to see what they thought of the event head over to our twitter page and check out the list we have put together of all the bloggers who attended.. we love that we've helped bloggers meet other bloggers and can't wait to see more of them all!

Also a special shout out to Charlotte from twentysomethingxo blog- she won a prize for being the most active on social media in the run up and during the event!

Last but by very means least I wanted to share this photo of me and Lorna... I couldn't have done this without her.. we are so on the same page with ideas and how we want things to work out for future events its so exciting! We really do work VERY well as a team! Much love to her!

So much happened on the day I could go on about it forever but as I mentioned earlier we have put together a Youtube video of the day, some clips were recorded on a Go-Pro and we've also used some of the photos taken by our bloggers (with permission of course!) so make sure you check it out over on our #TheCityGirls youtube channel in the next day or so! *Why does Youtube take SO long to upload.. !* 

We've already got plans in place for our next event and even mini meet ups between the larger events so I foresee a busy summer ahead- how exciting!

Coming up later this week are 2 posts on all the items we provided in the goody bags and a run down of all the amazing prizes we gave away in the raffle!

Wow.. I've just text Lorna saying it feels like we haven't stopped to reflect on the event as we've been super busy in the run up and after the event so thats my plan this evening!

If you didn't come to our event this time, would you like us to host one in your town/city?

Are there any brands you'd like to see at our future events?

XOXOX