the northern blog awards | it’s fun up north

Firstly, I have no idea why it’s taken me so long to write about the Northern Blog Awards.  Wins blogging award and doesn’t blog about it – good one, Lily!  Several weeks might have passed now but I still want to share this fabulous night here on the blog because it was… fabulous, basically.  A night with lots of blogging friends old and new, lots of fancy dresses, lots of photos and lots of wine (most importantly).  Holly did the most amazing job of organising the night and the awards in general – she honestly didn’t leave a stone unturned and the whole evening went so perfectly.

It made me so happy to finally have such a big and swanky blogging event in the North – these things are usually London only, so it made a lovely change to have a fancy ‘do closer to home.  There are sooo many talented bloggers in the North; it’s a shame that most events are so London centric because there’s some serious talent up here!  This definitely isn’t me bragging btw; some of my all time favourite bloggers are Northern and I can’t sing their praises enough.  Rhianna, Victoria, and others have already shared their thoughts on what it’s like to be a Northern blogger, and I feel exactly the same way – it’s great, but can occasionally be limiting.  I love the North… I’ll bang on about how much I love it forever and a day… I could never see myself living down South… but blog-wise, events are in London, brands are in London, meetings are in London, you get the idea.  You miss out on quite a lot of opportunities if you can’t get down to the capital very often, which let’s face it, costs an absolute bomb and just isn’t that doable.  However, blogging in the North certainly has its perks, and I’m certainly happy up here.  Might have missed a few opportunities but I’ve met some amazing people instead, and the Northern Blog Awards showed just how fab it is up here!

One aspect of the evening that I really enjoyed was the mix of people whose paths wouldn’t usually cross.  For example I don’t often read parenting or foodie blogs (as neither a parent nor a masterchef, obviously) so it was great to meet the gals and guys behind those blogs and broaden my blog-reading horizons, if you will.  I’m not going to rhyme off a list of names in case I forget anyone, but y’all were lovely.  I’ve never attended a blogging event with a seating plan either, but I think it was a great decision on Holly’s part to mix everyone up and ensure there were no awkward ‘who should I sit with’ moments for those of us attending alone.

Obviously I took the excuse to go all out and dress to the nines – red carpet events don’t come along very often so why the hell not!  I absolutely loved wearing my dress and received many compliments.  Oh how I do love a long swishy slinky skirt.  What I especially loved was how the lace panels in the skirt came all the way up to the waistband; I think it gave the dress a little bit of an edge and just felt so fabulous to wear.  Not gonna lie, the built-in leotard made going to the toilet a little bit faffy (try fastening bodysuit poppers with metres of fabric floating around you) but hey, you gotta do what you gotta do.  It’s now on sale for £38 at ASOS and honestly I’m not sure when I’ll stop gushing about it.  Black tie event around Christmas time so I can wear it again please!

As for the venue, I’m going to start gushing again now because the Principal Hotel was so bloody perfect for the occasion.  Beautiful hotel, lovely staff, cute room decor, stunning photo backdrop (obvs important for a blogger ‘do) – what more could you want.

Oh and finally, I won an award!  ‘Best Instagram’ alongside Sara from Me and Orla (with the most swoon-worthy Insta) and Hannah from Make Do and Push (cutest Insta ever).  I was surprised to even be shortlisted for best Instagram considering the number of talented ‘grammers around, so to say I was shocked to win is an understatement.   I have no idea what I said when I collected my award so hopefully I didn’t make too much of an idiot of myself.  Didn’t trip over my dress on the stairs so that’s an achievement.  Instagram can be hella disheartening at the minute with the stupid algorithm and whatnot, so it’s very uplifting to win an award and feel like I’m maybe, just maybe, doing something right.  Thank you x100 to everybody who voted for me, it honestly means so much!  Don’t want to sound like I’m accepting an Oscar, but THANK YOU.  YOU GUYS THE BEST.

Official photos by Carl Sukonik of The Vain Photography

Lily Kate x

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