#lincsblogmeet 21st June 2014 – The Day

As you might have seen on twitter, and from this post here, myself and Bee, my best friend and the blogger behind Journeys are my Diary hosted a blog meet on Saturday 21st June in Lincoln. We first approached the idea when I was down for my birthday in March and this idea came into action by the end of March. We already had a few definites in the form of friends, but I don’t think either of us realised that we would end up with over twenty attendees, not including ourselves!

I won’t sugarcoat it by saying organising your own blog meet is as easy as pie, it’s not and it definitely gave us both headaches as well as a few lost hours sleep! All I can say is i’m so glad I was hosting it with the queen of organising, Bee! She took the reigns on most of the project including being the vocal host on the day, I took the role of photograph and between us I think we pulled it off quite well! I could never have done this without her, she is a complete star!

I arrived on the Friday night and we must have started getting ourselves organised after 9 perhaps (at the latest anyway!) and I ended up going to bed at 2:30 and Bee followed at 3am. Which I guess is a time a lot of people go to bed on a Friday night, however we were to be up at 7am! We had a lot of goodie bags to pack, a press release to compile as well as a general idea of what we wanted to achieve the following day. I definitely think we went a little loopy but aside from being stressful, it was fun and it definitely had me excited (and nervous, of course!)

We managed to be up and out of the house by about 20 past 8 the following morning and into Lincoln shortly before 9. We were spending much of the day at Ask Italian and they kindly allowed us in early to set up. We were greeted by who we assume to be the deputy manager, who happened to be incredibly kind, donating not only Ask cookbooks to each of our bloggers but also a bottle of Prosecco to our giveaway! The room we were given was fantastic, perfect for a blogger event! It was upstairs away from the main restaurant and thankfully incredibly cook as it was such a warm day! Then it was off into town to meet everyone at the train station, stopping via Starbucks for a caffeine fix.

 

 

Our first arrivals joined us slightly before the designated meet up time of 10am, and we waited, until just before half past. It was lovely having that time to get to know people and everyone seemed really excited and friendly. Due to some late comers we rearranged the group and sent them on their Photo Trail tour of Lincoln that we had put together. Most blog meets are all about the shopping but we decided we wanted to do something that would hopefully be fun! From the photos on Instagram and Twitter (as that was the point of it being a photo trail!) it looks like everyone enjoyed it, despite the hike up Steep Hill to the Cathedral! The Blue team were the winners and first to join us at Ask.

Once all our teams had arrived everyone was seated. We were of course cruel, and made sure everyone was mixed up, because aside from having fun, our other main aim was to meet new people and make new friends. Everyone had the chance to look through the menu and pre-order their food while we finished setting up!

Soon the truly lovely Una from Weleda was ready to give us a talk about the brand. I have to put my hands up and say that before Bee had arranged this talk, I had no idea who Weleda were, despite being a brand that have been around for years! Although I was well into my photography duties I really enjoyed Una’s talk and introduction to Weleda as well as the chance to smell some of the products available. I was then lucky enough to win the surprise giveaway! It was the only giveaway that my name was in as I thought I was just filling in an inquiry form but I was incredibly grateful and can’t wait to give the products a try!

 

 

 

 

Then lunch was served. Both Bee and I had agreed at the beginning we would have starters as mains due to our #WLW, but in the end it was a good idea due to how little time we had to eat! I went for the Butterfly King Prawns and a diet coke. Which I would wholeheartedly recommend! I even managed to get photographs or my dish as well as Bee’s but you will have to check out her post to see that!

After lunch Bee had arranged (last minute might I add) a talk from the skincare consultant at Lincoln Boots. Julie arrived loaded with goodie bags for each of out bloggers, which was incredibly nice and filled with wonderful things to try. As she had been so last minute she gave us a short talk telling us what she was all about and a little introduction to looking after our skin. I was amazed at how much I learned in such a short space of time! We were so thankful for her visit, it was definitely interesting.

 

 

Finally, as a last part to our day, we had organised a beauty product swap. Again, we wanted to do something different so we asked our bloggers to bring in unwanted beauty samples or full sized products, trade them in for tokens and then select new products to take home and try. It turned out to be a complete success and so popular, I’d be more than happy to host another one again as everyone seemed to like our system and feel excited by what they picked to take home with them. I really look forward to seeing what everyone picked up!

 

 

Aside from the goodie bags we put together from donations from some amazing companies, which I will tell you all about in my post solely dedicated to our goodie bags, we were gifted some fantastic prizes to give away! Again, I will feature these in my next post, but throughout the day we drew names and made some of our bloggers incredibly happy! We ended our day by having some group photos and handing out the goodie bags. We were thanked so many times and it really felt like such an achievement for organising such a good day! I really hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did and thank you all for coming!

Team Blue John of Mr Wharff, Sally of Sally Bee Makes, Rhiannon of The Sparkly Panda & Eleanor of Creative Countryside

Team Green Kate – Pieces of Kate, Megan of Student Style, Lucy of Lucy Jane, Alex of Champagne & Lemonade & Jemma of Bamboozle Beauty

Team Orange Naomi of Think Fashion, Chloe of Alicia Deyes Writes, Charley of Ramblings of a Beauty Blogger, Courtney of Courtney Farrow, & Jemma of Dreams of New York

Team Red Ann, Emma of Made in Hunters, Phil, Siobhan  The Beauty Baker, Natalie of Twice the Mum & Kariss of Shy, Strange and a little bit Manic

Team Us Bel of Journeys are my Diary & Myself

 

Thank you all to your wonderful ladies & gents who attended #lincsblogmeet June 2014!