A little known fact about me is that I was a huge nerd at school. I think people assume that I must have been one of the rebellious ones, hanging out behind bike sheds and bunking off classes, but actually, I was super well behaved. It wasn’t until I hit 15, discovered rock music and boys that didn’t resemble pre-pubescent gremlins, that I became a bit more of a wild child!

Since then, I’ve pretty much exclusively attracted a more rebellious crowd, and that isn’t just limited to brides that read my wedding content. At The Blogcademy workshops, seemingly wherever we were in the world, the girls in attendance definitely err on the alternative and quirky side.

So you can imagine my surprise when, in Chicago, we were met with the most well behaved class we’ve ever experienced! They actually threw us off a bit at first. They were so quiet and polite I started to worry that they weren’t having a good time. But, after getting to know them all on a one-to-one basis throughout the weekend, I soon came to realise that they weren’t that different to our usual crowd. They were one of the sweetest, kindest bunch of babes we’ve ever had. In actual fact they were a lot more like me than I first realised: eager to learn and just wanting to soak up everything and anything that they could during our time together.

Many, many, many notes were taken (SO STUDIOUS!)

Our attendees are always such a stylish bunch!

Mysi of Soda Fountain Photography, our photographer for the weekend, really got into the spirit too!

Healthy snacks were consumed…

… And not so healthy ones!

I loved Clayton so much. We don’t get a lot of boys at The Blogcademy, but when we do they’re always so much fun. He not only graduated high school the day before class, but on the Saturday it was his 18th birthday! I promised to buy him a (legal) beer when he comes to London over the Summer (he better take me up on it, I’m looking forward to teaching him a bit of rebellion – oops!)

On the lunch break I asked Mysi if she could take a few snaps of us. The light in Enerspace was so beautiful. And yes – shock horror – that is me in a cropped top!

However I couldn’t do any the jumping shots because of said cropped top – #potentialboobflash. Instead I thought it would be funny to just stand next to Shauna while she really went for it. The resulting photo might be one of my favourites of the two of us ever!

No one is better than Shauna at jumping photos. I LOVE this one of her so much, it actually looks like she’s flying!

Goodie Bag Goodies

Yet again, our awesome sponsors helped us look damn good with their generous gifts.

Art School Dropout hooked us up with awesome arrow hair pins.

… although they work just as well as trainer adornments!

Reeta Krishna’s WordPress for Beginners book really is so amazing. It’s packed full of invaluable info. I’m so psyched that we’re giving one to every single student who comes to class this year!

I know I shouldn’t have favourites but I really, really, really loved the custom key chains and Blogcadette badges that Ladybird Likes made us. SO CUTE!

Love Ideas Ink made everyone pretty greetings cards.

The Marilyn Monroe printed scarves from Life On Mars Vintage were a HUGE hit!

Mad Bijou not only hand crafted these gorgeous gitter-covered (!!) bullet necklaces, but she was also in class! She was such a gorgeous creature as well.

Pretty notebooks are my crack and these ones by Ribbon Squirrel were super awesome!

We also slipped a little pouch of confetti from B-Triz Collections in every bag… much to everyone’s delight!

Of course there were ears by Crown and Glory (who else?!)

As usual, everything came presented in a custom city tote alongside a workbook packed full of bonus blogging articles, fun exercises and inspiring quotes and resources. I think the Chicago design might be one of my favourites so far actually.

Yay (more) Chicago confetti madness!

Thank you Chicago Blogcadettes for making our time in your city so fun. You were such a well behaved bunch… well, except when the confetti came out!

If you’d like to come along to a future event, we’re hitting the following locations with our in-person workshops this year:

VANCOUVER June 7-8 / CALGARY June 14-15 / LONDON July 19-20 / BERLIN July 26-27 / AMSTERDAM August 2-3 / NEW YORK CITY September 27-28 / WASHINGTON DC October 4-5 / SYDNEY November 29-30 / MELBOURNE December 3-4 / AUCKLAND December 6-7

And if an in-person workshop isn’t your bag, we now have The Blogcademy Home School too!