A Night to Bloom

This last Wednesday, Alex, (my main girl over at Bluebonnet Lane), and I went to "A Night to Bloom." This was a little "Girls' Night Out" event hosted by Willow Grace Beauty and BTB Jewelry to benefit Genesis.

Genesis is a woman's shelter for women suffering from domestic violence. Please check them out. This is a great cause and they raise all their own funds. Every year they support close to 1,600 woman and children with shelter and counseling. Annually, they need to raise approximately $6 million a to continue their efforts for supporting other women in need.

This is the main girl for Genesis. Such an amazing and inspiring lady.

Charity part aside, back to the event. I will admit, although everyone was donating their time and efforts a little more organization would have done wonders. When we pulled up to Dallas Palms we knew we were early knew we were in the right place, but it looked like people were still setting up and we weren't sure what events were taking place in which of the three buildings. We had donations for the shelter and carried them from building to building trying to figure out where they went. So by organization, I really mean a sign or two would have been helpful, maybe some clearly defined staff. Out of the three buildings this took place in we obviously saved the donation building for last. But we found it and that's all that matters.

One of the reasons we were there so early was the first 50 people got a little swag bag full of goodies, and naturally that swag bag had to be mine. In it there were little Aveda samples, a BTB bracelet, makeup from Willow Grace, cookies from both Christine Boudreau, a Life Coach (that we missed seeing), and the caterer (which we didn't realize was a thing and didn't eat either), a little Starbucks espresso cup and then some discount cards to some of the vendors.

#swagbag

There were a variety of vendors at the event too. Ranging from party catering, to wedding set ups, to flower headbands, to clothing items, to hair extensions. Really girly event. Here were just a handful of the vendors we stopped to shop at:

MCC: I love that coffee mug, and if coffee really were bae for me I'd be all over it. I especially love their prints and the cards they made. They look elegant and girly with just the right amount of sass.

RiffRaff: BTW, I follow these girls on Instagram and I love them so much. It was such a pleasure to finally meet them in person. Their water bottles and their coffee  mugs are my fav.

BTB Jewelry: They have an amazing collection of statement pieces. And girl do I love a statement piece.

Dowtown Aly: She makes custom jewelry holders for your home. Super cute stuff. If I wanted to be more organized with my jewelry, and also if I had wall space, (I like to hang things on my walls way too much) I'd be all over these things. Maybe in the dream home where I have a designated dressing room.

Alli K Designs: I <3 GLOBES! Seriously, I love globes. Again, in the dream house, I would have a bookshelf with various globes. Globes are awesome. When I saw that Alli K was going to be at Bloom I was positive I was gonna blow the bank on some globes. Thankfully self control kicked in, because currently I have no space for them. But I will... oh yes I will...purchase one when my living situation is a little different.

Madi's Sweet Shop: She is a Frisco-based cookie designer. One of the designs she had, in a book, was champagne shaped cookies. They were the most adorable thing I've ever seen. She also had samples. I tried the vanilla almond cookie. It was just slightly sweet. The almond added just a hint of flavor. I wanted to also try the chocolate but I didn't want to be a fatty and steal all her samples.

I honestly thought I was going to go to town on my bank account, but I was able to keep some sense about me and I only bought this druzy ring from BTB because I've been dying for one for a while. I also want a necklace. Someone find me a druzy necklace please and send it to me.

Seriously, druzy necklace. It doesn't have to match the ring.

Aside from the vendors they also had a photo booth for some photo booth realness.

All over that photo booth.

The big event was a fashion show hosted by Lucy Dang . She has some beautiful dresses.

Not my photo. This was an event photographer.

The coolest thing ever, on a personal level, is if you RSVPed as a blogger (which I am), you got front row seats to the fashion show.

Bloggers gonna blog.

 

Here are some of Lucy Dang's designs.

 Lighten up it's just fashion.

I wanted to have more photos of the collection, and I tried, but the models weren't fans of pausing, so most of mine came out blurry. But that blue finale dress was my favorite and I'm ecstatic I was able to get more than one shot of it.

But, one of the best, hidden gems of the fashion show was the gentleman helping the women come off stage. Why is a random behind the scenes guy one of the best things? He was lip-syncing to all the songs, like Katy Perry's "Firework". Uh, loved it. Loved him.

At the end of the day it was a fun event supporting a great cause. We had a blast and I would go again. The only thing I would suggest for future events would be better organization, more vendors (for a three hour event there weren't enough vendors to keep you occupied) and clearer direction for the guest. What really matters though is that so many people donated their time for such a great cause and it was an honor to witness that firsthand.