southern blog society's 3rd annual conference [part 1]

finally, i'm sharing my wonderful experience at the southern blog society's 3rd annual #SBScon in charleston, south carolina. the conference, which took place june 26-28, was my second SBS Con, and i am so, so happy i returned this year. where do i even begin?!

thursday night, beth, rachel and i drove to athens, georgia to meet molly. on friday morning, we started off to charleston super early, and arrived just in time for lunch at sean brock's mexican eatery, minero. i basically died and went to heaven. it. was. amazing. after we loaded up on tacos, magaritas and queso fundido, we were ready to take on the day.

next, we met up with my dear friend whitney and got to exploring charleston. but first, it was time for blowouts at tease blow dry bar! despite the crazy charleston heat, we were determined to get our hair done for the party that night, and we crossed our fingers it would last the humidity. a relaxing afternoon at tease was very much needed after trekking around.

then, we finally checked in to our wonderful hotel, the belmond, and began getting ready for the friday night cocktail party on the terrace. we brought a little champagne along with us and had a little pre-party in our room, too!

then, we made our way to the terrace for a night of drinks, snacks and networking. we were greeted with a gorgeous peronalized notepad from swoozie's (which now serves as my 'to do' notepad on my desk!) and ushered to the terrace. it was such a beautiful setup! i loved seeing whitney's graphic design expertise come to life. the logo was even on the cups! isn't it adorable?!

man y'all, it was hot. we were dying. my wonderful blowout from tease had fallen by the time the party came around, and my makeup was sweating off my face... but we powered through. i pretty much had to accept that i was going to be a sweaty mess the entire weekend - whoops, my bad, a glistening mess. we are southern women, after all, and glistening is an acquired skill. if i bump up the exposure on photos just enough, i look like i'm not fresh out of the bath tub. ;)

the next morning, it was conference time after breakfast at the charleston grill. we trekked over to the riviera theater from the belmond - and it was right across the street with our own personalized marquee! i was excited for all the speakers, but especially to hear my friends beth and rachel chat about photography and taking your best photos.

first, we were greeted with some (HAND SEWN) bags with blog planner notebooks from whitney's heart & arrow. next, jessica & cathy gave us the scoop on the state of SBS - and we learned we're going national, ah! soon, the blogging societies will be available for bloggers all over the usa. i'm so excited to watch sbs continue to grow.

the sessions this year were amazing! i really enjoyed hearing from amy northard, cpa about taxes, money and all that pesky stuff bloggers often don't think about it. so, so informative. the brand panel at the end with lilly pulitzer, the real real and kendra scott was also great.

i was so happy to see beth and rachel kill it talking about photography! way to represent alabama! beth wrote a great post on some of the tips she shared about shooting in manual, and you can check that out here.

stay tuned next week for part 2, featuring the brand networking session, our saturday night adventures and the hallmark farewell breakfast!

some photos by kim graham photography :)