Blonder Life Birthday Brunch + A Year of Blogging

Last Sunday I celebrated my one-year blogiversary aka I’ve been blogging for a WHOLE YEAR! I hosted a brunch at Sonoma Wine Bar with a few of my friends! I knew I wanted to celebrate somehow, and eventually decided brunch would be the best fit!

Britt’s Instagram – She’s about to launch her blog!

My dream closet would include only Urban Outfitters and Free People, but due to my post-grad budget, I have to shop other places. So, since my closet can’t consist of my dream look I wanted this brunch to have lots of boho and earthy vibes. Hence, the cacti and ivory ruffle runners. I will tell you that I grew up wanting to be an event planner, and this brunch really made it clear that planning is not my forte. I am so indecisive, and I put so much pressure on silly little details. Basically, in the end, I had my coworker doubling as my event planner (s/o to you Britt) so everything you see is really her efforts.

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 It’s crazy that a year has already gone by since I published my first post. I really had no idea what The Blonder Life was going to turn into back in May when I hit publish on that first post.

I actually started The Blonder Life as a class project, funny enough. I was enrolled in a web design class where we were required to purchase a domain and had to code everything ourselves. I am so thankful I took that class not just because I created the blog, but because now I am really familiar with HTML and other skills that help me with the blog! After our final, my professor showed us how to host our website on WordPress so we didn’t have to hand code anymore. Thank the lord, because it was not the simple and clean look you see today.

After much debate, and lots of “just do it!” texts from my best friends I hit publish on my first ever blog post which you can read here. Still, to this day, it’s one of my favorite posts I’ve written and has a bit of an emotional memory to it. I was so nervous to share a part of my life online with strangers but was super excited all at the same time. I really had no idea what it would turn into, and love that my class project has turned into a full-blown part time job.

I have learned so so much from blogging. Both about blogging and about myself. But really, more about myself than I would have ever expected. If you knew me in high school, or even college you knew I was always the shy girl.
Never in a million years would I have believed that I would be where I am now, which is sharing all aspects of my life online. Especially when it comes to style… In high school, I would have never dreamed of wearing anything that was above average. I stuck to clothes that everyone else wore so that I wouldn’t draw any attention to myself.

So funny to think of now. As I’m literally doing everything there is to share outfits that aren’t typically seen everywhere!

Nicole’s blog / Jenna’s blog 

On a daily basis, I have to push myself out of my comfort zone for The Blonder Life.

Sometimes I catch myself pitching my brand and think wow, high school Jamie would be so proud of you!
Blogging is basically like being in sales. You’re trying to sell your brand in a way that markets it differently than every other blog out there, which can be really tough at times. Basically, you have to be gushing confidence.
You have to be 100% confident in your own brand because no one else will be. You want the brands you’re working with, and your readers to know how much you believe in your brand, so they will too!

What I wish I would have done when launching the blog

• Go full force into it. It took me too long to start posting consistently, and it took me even longer to promote it. I was wasting so much time being embarrassed by it, and should have been telling the world! At first, your biggest supporters are going to be your friends and family so you should be sharing every post with them, and encouraging them to share with their friends. I think I would have grown a lot quicker if I didn’t doddle around for so long.
• Reach out to other bloggers in the area. In the beginning, I had no idea what I was doing, and it would have been so nice to meet up with another blogger and pick her brain
• What you put in is what you get out. I wish I had invested more time and money to my little corner of the internet. It took me about 3 months to start blogging every week, and then another 3 months to start reaching out to brands. Seriously… so much wasted time.

Whether you’ve liked a photo on Instagram, messaged me about loving a certain look or commented on a blog post it means the world! Thank you for all of your support, and for supporting me and The Blonder Life! Blogging has given me so many great opportunities, and I have made so many amazing friends because of it! I am so incredibly excited to see where The Blonder Life goes this next year!

Photography by Gizeh Romero