Wedding Ideas - Blogcademy

I was first attracted to The Blogcademy for its branding. Not simply because it is witty and attractive with a clever nod to snooty English private schools that intices me so. Having long been a fan of Shauna Haider's blog, Nubby Twiglet, since my own beloved designer shared it with me, I was extra fascinated by the use of the branding across the entire event from start to finish.

When we launched our 2013 Blogcademy world tour last March, we were blown away by how quickly the tickets started to sell, but no city was as fast as Melbourne. Within only a few days the class had sold out and so we made the executive decision to extend our trip down under and add a second date to the mix - and I'm so glad we did, Melbourne was one of my favourite cities to teach in all year!

Ever since we launched The Blogcademy workshop, we've had people asking - no begging! - us to offer an online version. So many of you are unable to travel to attend an in-person event but that doesn't mean you didn't want in on the action.

The last twelve months have been HUGE for Rock n Roll Bride. We saw the magazine in physical stores, we worked with (and then ditched!) a external publishing company, and then we starting our own! It also saw the last in-person class of The Blogcademy, and signing up for massively exciting collaboration with the National Wedding Show!

The Roost is probably one of London's coolest event spaces... and I don't say that lightly! I was lucky enough to visit and experience it myself at The Blogcademy's recent party, and I figured it would be a crime against alternative weddings to keep it to myself!

In July, my fellow Blogcademy headmistresses and I embarked on one of our most ambitious trips to date: three weeks, three countries, four classes and about 18 hours spent in airports! From London to Berlin to Amsterdam and back again, we hardly had any time to catch our breath.

I was in New York with Gala during the summer of 2011 when we first started to talk about the possibility of doing some kind of blogging event together. I was already doing a workshop myself over here in the UK, but we started bashing about the idea of doing something much bigger.

I've been in love with The Roost for years. I've featured many super cool weddings that have been held there, but I was yet to have the pleasure to actually visit it myself.

In just one week's time, The Blogcademy Online launches and I am beyond thrilled about it! For those of you that don't know, The Blogcademy is the in-person blogging and business workshop that I've been hosting with my friends (and blogging superstars!) Gala Darling and Shauna Haider since 2012.

Goodness, I can't believe we have less than a month to go until the next Blogcademy workshop! This time we're hitting up London, which are always secretly my favourite classes.

The night before our first Blogcademy workshop of the year I turned to Gala and squealed "I AM SO EXCITED!" It had been nearly six months since our last class in Auckland and I was dying to get cracking again. ... And I wasn't disappointed.

With winter just beginning to rear its ugly head over the Northern Hemisphere I was pleased as punch to be heading to the other side of the planet to teach our final four Blogcademy classes of the year, our first of which took place in sunny Brisbane.

It's official, The Blogcademy is a whirlwind. A giant, turquoise, glitter infused whirlwind! I am so pumped today because I have some news that I've been struggling to keep in for weeks. I'm glad I finally get to let rip and share it with you today!

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.

Hello beautiful! This update comes to you from a very chilly Chicago, where I'm sat in my Air B&B digs with Gala and Shauna, hiding from the weather and planning our adventures in this brand new city. Last weekend we taught out first Blogcademy workshop of the year in San Francisco.

You might think that teaching three workshops in three weeks would be enough, but not for The Blogcademy! In between our two Melbourne classes, Gala, Shauna and I flew to New Zealand for our final location of the year. Our venue was Generator, a super rad event space in downtown Auckland.

When I suggested the idea of doing a Blogcademy in Austin in August Gala and Shauna looked at me like I'd gone totally mad. " You know it will be utterly boiling down there then? It's practically on the Equator!" they replied. "Ahh ya wimps, how hot can it really be?" I responded. Well more fool me because when we stepped off the plane last week and were greeted with 40°C+ temperatures, I'm finally understood what living the sun must feel like.

Those of you that followed my recent adventures while I was in Palm Springs might have had a sneaking suspicion that we weren't just there to soak up the sunshine. Oh no, Gala, Shauna and I were working on a brand new Blogcademy project!

Do you dream about being your own boss, calling the shots, and never being told what to do? Do you want to live and work wherever you please? Are you desperate to be creative, to speak your truth, to find your tribe, to create something meaningful...

Greetings and salutations from our AirB&B digs in North London. This week has been crazy... in the best possible way! Over the weekend Gala, Shauna and I taught our first London Blogcademy workshop, which was of course fabulous (the London babes always BRING IT!) followed by our second packed class on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Phew - what a week! In case you missed the memo, on Tuesday The Blogcademy launched Home School, online video tutorials covering lots of lovely blogging subjects. I spent most of the day glued to Twitter and my email, squealing with delight every time a new order came in.

While we were together in Europe last month, Gala, Shauna and I decided to film some brand new modules for The Blogcademy Home School. We now have four new modules available for your viewing pleasure; How to Build Your Audience, Setting Your Rates, Still Life 101 and Dealing with Negativity Online.

After teaching The Blogcademy that weekend, Gala, Shauna and I had two free days to explore Berlin before heading to Amsterdam midweek. Although our time was limited, we didn't let that stop us, in fact we really packed a lot in.

Greetings from Heathrow airport! Terminal 3 does feel like it's become a home away from home for me recently. I actually quite like being here, especially as I have my airport routine down. I know which security line is likely to be the quickest (always wait with the single people with briefcases, even if the queue is slightly longer - never get stuck behind a family!)

I can hardly believe it, but in less than three short weeks I'll be hopping back on a plane and heading over to the US to kick off the next leg of The Blogcademy's 2014 world tour! I really can not wait to get back on the road and to be teaching again.

If you're a local Austin blogger, listen up! The amazingly-prodigious Blogcademy is coming to Austin to rock your freaking world! The whole thing is going down on August 17-18, 2013 at Vuka . If you're truly serious about taking your blog/business to it's fullest potential and beyond, this is a must-attend.

The Blogcademy, the blogging and business workshop I co-run, recently advertised for an events coordinator. I've never hired anyone before (I don't think my husband counts, he was a bit of a shoo-in!) or had to go through job applications, so this was actually a massive learning experience for me too.

I think I can safely speak for my fellow headmistresses when I say that this year has been a non-stop whirlwind of epic proportions! Since last October we've taught ten classes, with three still to come before the year is out. When we launched The Blogcademy in August last year we didn't know if anyone would actually want to come, so the fact that today we're announcing our SECOND world tour is pretty damn exciting indeed!

I've been out of the office ALL WEEK, which is pretty nuts considering I have approximately 30 blog posts and a whole damn magazine to write before I go to New York for the next round of Blogcademy workshops NEXT WEDNESDAY.

In September we're rolling up the turquoise carpet and calling time on the current format of the live Blogcademy workshop. Since we launched the class in 2012, we've taught over 1000 people, all over the world. From LA to London and New York to New Zealand, we've travelled more than ever and met so many inspiring blogcadettes.

Christmas is a time when most sane people power down, switch off, and eat their weight in delicious food. Well, The Blogcademy headmistresses are clearly not sane, because we took advance of the quieter festive period to create The Blogcademy Online which launches later this month!

Phew, what a whirlwind. I feel like I've been living life on an constantly speeding-up treadmill this past couple of weeks! I really haven't done a personal life update on the blog in forever, so I figured today I'd quickly fill you in on what's been going on.

This morning I hosted an hour long Q&A livestream with my Blogcademy babes from our Vancouver apartment. We recorded the whole thing, so if you want to re-watch it in your own time, or you weren't able to tune in live, you can right now!

If you've been wondering when The Blogcademy's 2015 dates were going to be announced, then wonder no longer because I'm pleased as punch to be able to spill the beans today!But that's not all! One of the things many of our 600-odd students have told us after attending the workshop is how they wish there was an advanced class that they could come back to.

On Thursday 24th July I'm hosting a networking party for those that hate networking parties. My fellow Blogcademy headmistresses and 75 eager blogger babes will be swapping business cards, making friends, sipping cocktails, nibbling on macaroons and dominating the photo booth all night long!

When my two best friends and I decided it might be fun to teach a blogging workshop back in 2012, we had no comprehension just how far that little idea would take us. We figured maybe we'd get to do one or two classes and it would be a fun new project for a few months...

The Blogcademy started as an in-person workshop. Bursting into the world in October 2012, we hosted our inaugural class in New York City. But when we flung open those metaphorical turquoise doors, we really had no idea if it would take off.

So many things have changed about The Blogcademy since our first class in October 2012. The in-person syllabus has been improved and refined, we've added our Home School offerings and we've launched a Level 2 workshop!

Today I'm off to Austin for the final US Blogcademy of 2013 - can you believe that? We've done a bunch of American dates this year which has been such an adventure, but I am really looking forward to hitting London after this - it'll be nice not to have to get on a plane for once!

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday dear Kathryn, happy birthday to me!I don't usually plan anything too extravagant to mark getting a year older any more. Although I love the idea of taking an exotic trip somewhere, or having a huge party, I always leave things until the last minute and end up doing something really low key - which actually suits me perfectly.

Valentine's Day is just around the corner so Gala, Shauna and I thought, what could be a better way to celebrate than to offer $100 off ALL of our 2015 in-person Blogcademy workshops !? This is the perfect opportunity to give your blog and business some much needed love!

One of my favourite treats in our San Francisco Blogcademy goodie bags was an adorable little perfume sample set from Olivine Atelier. With it's sublime packaging and branding (done by none other than Ms Shauna Haider!) I instantly gravitated towards it... but that was only the beginning!

This week I did my first solo livestream, was interviewed by BBC online for a feature on blogging and chatted to Anne Diamond on BBC Radio Berkshire! Phew!Other than that I've really just been gearing up to hit the road with The Blogcademy again this month. Our first stop off is London (yay!)

The time has finally come for me to pack my bags and hit the road for the first leg of our 2014 Blogcademy world tour! I AM SO EXCITED (can you tell?!)