the ins and outs of the 2019 blog societies conference
two weekends ago, elle and i headed down to georgia and made our way to the barnsley resort for the annual blog societies conference, adorably known as tbscon. while i attended this conference back in 2016 with dana, this year’s conference was extra special because instead of being an attendee i was asked to be a speaker for one of the workshops. if you’re not familiar with the blog societies, it is a community for influencers that allows us to share resources, connections, and tools necessary to grow our blogs. it was founded by cathy of poor little it girl and jessica of my style vita and they host a conference every year that brings together girls (and guys!) and discuss all things blogging.
our journey began at the crack of dawn on friday and elle and i made our way down to atlanta. this year’s conference was located at the barnsley resort, which is a little over an hour outside of downtown atlanta. we got our bags and requested our uber and we were on our way. obviously no road trip is ever complete without a greasy fast food stop so naturally elle and i casually made our uber driver (his name was saw) drive us to the closest chick fil a and we got the fried chicken goodness. #blessed for saw. we ate our nuggets, fries, and milkshakes and continued on our way to the resort. once we arrived, we checked in, unpacked, and began exploring the massive property before we had to get ready for the welcome reception. we explored the beautiful grounds of barnsley for maybe less than an hour before the heat got to us and decided we wanted to go back to the room to take a nap (typical us). soon after, we had to get ready and we made our way to tbscon’s first event of the weekend, the welcome reception.
at the welcome reception we were able to mingle with other bloggers and meet some new faces! it was great to catch-up with cathy, jessica, alicia, hillary, ashlee, shelby, and kristin. all of the sponsors were present at the reception and we were able to speak with their reps. some of our favorite brands we saw were marc fisher, grayson, lisi lerch, kendra scott, and yankee candle. it was such a fun evening but elle and i called it an early night and made our way back to the room and watched some tv before going to sleep.
on saturday, the morning started early with a delicious breakfast hosted by la croix in the manor house ruins which is this beautiful space and was a perfect spot for breakfast. after breakfast we made our way to the conference room where i was hosting my class: instagram + blog photography tips and techniques. i taught 2 sessions with about 15 people in each and i have to say it went really well. we discussed anything from how to make the perfect instagram story (naturally teaching everyone rainbow text was a crowd favorite!) to determining what lenses to use when taking pictures. it was so much fun sharing my experience and passions with people.
after my classes we went with the rest of the group and attended the lunch hosted by marc fisher and then elle and i decided to spend the rest of the afternoon on the property of the resort. we took some pictures on the lake, met some adorable horses, and had ourselves a day! we got back to the room and had time to relax before we had to get ready for the dinner hosted by yankee candle. the dinner and reception were so much fun as we were able to see our friends and chat with the new ones we made during the day. the evening ended with ‘smores and we walked back to the room with a full belly and heart.
on sunday, we once again started our morning early with breakfast and then we decided to hit the road because i got a notification that our 5:30 flight was going to be delayed so we wanted to try to get on an earlier flight. the problem with the resort being so far away from everything is that we had to rely on uber to get us to and from the airport. coming from the airport it was easy as there are ubers everywhere buuut in the middle of nowhere georgia…not so much. we were luckily able to secure an uber at 11am (it had the nastiest air freshener and there was some random person in the passenger seat but whatever haha) and headed to the airport. i was able to work some magic and allow the delta lady to change our tickets and allow us to get on the earlier flight. this gave elle and i enough time to get some lunch, check out the delta lounge (in every terminal because elle needed to see them all haha), and make our way to the gate with some time to spare. this is when our luck turned south and to spare you the details but if you saw my instastory, you know what a nightmare it was. so then 12 hours later we finally made it back to nyc. it was a series of unfortunate events but i’m happy to report it we finally made it home…i know you were all concerned.
the tbscon was a great weekend where i was able to spend some time in a new place with not only elle but with friends (old and new)! it was an honor speaking at tbscon and i cannot thank cathy and jessica enough for inviting me!!
top: j.crew
skirt: brock collection (old, last seen here)
shoes: tory burch (old, similar here)
belt: frame
hat: etsy (last worn here)
bag: loeffler randall
sunglasses: gucci
and let’s all give elle a big round of applause for helping with these photos!