Happy belated Galentine’s and Valentine’s Day! If you celebrated this commercial holiday I hope that you enjoyed yourself and loved on yourself a bit too! I just love love AND I love Loft. So when I had the opportunity to host a party with Loft to celebrate and love on you guys I jumped on it.
~*Long Post Alert*~
I’m talking about it all. From the planning to the actual event. So grab a glass of something and buckle up sis!
This was my first experience ever hosting an in-person event. And man oh man let me tell you that it is different. In all the best ways but it is different. It’s so weird the thoughts of if I was going to be different than what people expected. If people weren’t going to have fun. Really the list goes on forever. This was an event that I knew I wanted to do. I’m really taking this blogger thing seriously now. And having such an awesome opportunity with a brand that I love meant I had to put my anxieties to the side.
I’ve been planning this party for a couple of months with the store manager of Loft. I picked Loft Times Square because the location is amazing, the store features plus and petite, AND they have the best and most attentive store staff that I’ve ever encountered. Seriously I always leave on cloud 9 with the best items and I knew that was an experience worth sharing.
I chose Galentine’s Day because it’s the day reserved for celebrating the ladies in your life – single or not! Perfect for a shopping party if you ask me.
I knew I wanted to do some sort of giveaways and I landed on the makeup bags and keychains fairly quickly. It took me a long time to figure out the method to get the makeup bags looking like I wanted. I tried fabric markers, acrylic paint, stencils, and puffy paint. The perfectionist in me wanted them to look like I had bought them from a boutique and it was honestly driving Aaron crazy. There were art supplies all over our house. Still are! haha. He had to keep reminding me that they were free gifts and that people would like them because I took the time to make them. 😅💖 I made 40 bags in total, in each one, I put a pair of heart sunglasses, some candies, a hair clip, and a handwritten thank you note from me.
I also made these hand painted keychains. Which were so beautiful to me. I found the keychain frames off of amazon and painted these uplifting affirmations on each one with some watercolor designs. They turned out so nice that I was thinking about making more to sell. They were such a hit! Should I sell some? Let me know what you think.
The last thing I knew the party needed was an attraction. I mean I’m cool and all but a fashion illustrator is wayyyy cooler. So I set out to hire an NYC Fashion Illustrator for my Galentine’s Day party with Loft. It was important to me to find someone who drew body-positive figures. So much of fashion illustration is exaggerated thin proportions and that doesn’t sit right with me and what my blog stands for. I lucky found Ayna. I asked her for some samples and fell in love with her illustration. It was perfect for the event.
How cool is this illustration that she drew of me from the outfit on the right?!
Galentine’s Day
The day of I was SO nervous if people would actually show up. I mean we all know life happens. I got a few messages from people I thought were coming that they wouldn’t be able to make it for various reasons which added to the nerves for sure. Prepping everything and getting ready took my entire morning. I did a pretty decent job of storying the beginning of the day (Saved in my highlights on instagram!) I went to the venue around 3pm which was perfect. The Loft team ordered my favorite lunch (Oxido!) which I could barely eat I was so nervous. It was five 5:30 before I knew it! Everything turned out so cute. Loft got the cutest heart balloons and treats. And I drew on the fitting room mirrors with the signature Stylish Sista handwriting for the final touch.
OH! We did raffle drawings every 30 minutes! I pulled together raffle baskets that were self-care themed. They were filled with all kinds of goodies. The largest one had a $50 Loft gift card, Shop Bando travel set, and other small little goodies.
It was all a blur. I honestly don’t remember exactly what I did or said. BUT I do remember feeling so great, smiling from ear to ear, and feeling so proud of what I created. There was a feeling that this is what I was meant to be doing. I felt awesome. I think about 20-30 people came through. I was nervous about what metrics the Loft team would consider “successful” but after they reassured me that it was about community, not sales or attendance numbers, which helped me put the anxious side of my brain to rest. IT WAS A PERFECT NIGHT. My new New York family came through and I got to meet some new friends and supporters of my blog. I’m so so thankful. Like 21-year-old Taelor would be so proud. I never expected this would actually be my life. INSANE.
Here are some pictures from the party!
I’m tearing up a bit doing this post because I really am so proud and thankful for all of you. Never have I ever felt like “the cool girl” and I often find myself feeling like an imposter when it comes to this “influencer” thing. Hosting this event with Loft was such a milestone. I’m so ready to take on this goal of taking my blog to the next level. Sharing my experiences and uplifting other women along the journey. I can’t wait to host another and make this a thing!
Thank you to all of you who messaged your good wishes, emojis, DMS, reposts. Thank you to those of you who came to the event! I was so excited to see and shop with all of you and it wouldn’t have been such a successful event without you all. Thank you to the Loft team who made the night so fun and took care of and checked on me throughout the whole event. Thank you to Ayna for illustrating our guests and making them feel so special. And finally thanks to my loveager (HAHA! I tried to merge lover and manager together! Probably won’t do that again 😂) Aaron, for taking photos and helping me create and stuff makeup bags getting ready for this event.
I love you all. Thank you for making this Galentine’s Day one to remember.
Forever Galentine’s
♥️ ♥️ ♥️
