What Does a Triangle Blogger Meet-up Look Like?

I was pretty unsure about attending my first TriFABB meet-up. My blog was relatively new. I didn’t have a ton of posts. These girls were gonna be way more savvy than me. The whole idea sounded a little… lame? Cheesy? Totally out of my league?

TriFABB is a blogger group based in the Triangle that includes not only fashion, beauty, food, and lifestyle bloggers, but ALL bloggers. (And for those of you not reading from North Carolina, the “Triangle” is the Research Triangle Park area of the state, including Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill.) After stalking a few of TriFABB’s members, it really seemed to me that they were were mostly of the fashion genre… and pretty good at that.

Ehhh, I was gonna be awkward.

But thank goodness I was wrong. The first Triangle blogger meet-up I attended was at the newly opened Flywheel in Raleigh, and it was great. As expected, I didn’t know anybody there, but you don’t exactly need to chat during an intense (free!) spin class. And the open bar and buffet afterwards obviously helped to lubricate the conversation. Everyone was totally friendly and there were even business cards exchanged.

I met some people with blogs younger than mine and others who had only toyed with the idea of starting a blog. The Flywheel meet-up even served as my (delicious) dinner and pre-gaming activity for the night. Win-win, right? (And last but not least, I met a girl whose fashion blog led me to the purchase of some great, cheap mirrored sunglasses in multiple colors. Thanks Nikki!)

And there were sliders…

We also came home from our Flywheel meet-up with gift bags full of great stuff – a Flywheel tank top, metal water bottle, hair ties, and a couple of mini-bottles of rum from the bartending company that catered.

So when I saw that TriFabb was having its April meet-up the night before the Southern Women’s Show at the Raleigh fairgrounds, I figured why not?! We were invited to bring a friend, so I brought Christina to check it out. (You know, and to make sure I’d have somebody to chat with this time.) I also brought my camera along as we were told there were opportunities for some great shots.

Dinner was provided in the form of tenders and salad from PDQ and hummus and pita bread from Zoe’s Kitchen while we watched a run-through the TriFabb fashion show, led by the brilliant organizer Molly. There was also a little wine tasting, a tour of the facilities, and more free stuff! And bloggers to chat with, of course. My friend from home, Hannah, was there, and I was so jealous to find out that she posts almost every weekday. That shit is tough to do!

Bolt PR put together an awesome show and lots of gift bags for all of us, and my friend Liza showed everyone around the booths being set up for the Southern Women’s Show the next day. This tour unsurprisingly ended with me straggling in the rear, taking pictures of some guy’s cute dog, and buying an $8 Nicole Miller dress… because, um, I had to.

This dress

I found it at Pass It On, an upscale thrift store that gives 90 cents of each dollar to domestic violence survivors, so that’s pretty awesome. It caught my attention because it was on the mannequin right up front… and it had a great cut-out. And because the lady at the shop said I had to buy it. Because it was eight. damn. dollars.

But before getting so distracted, I learned that the weekend’s attendees could get their make-up done, hair blown out, and then shopped til their heart’s content at the Southern Women’s Show. Belk had a ton of make-up chairs and merchandise set up, and there were boutiques from across the state.

Alas, we were given the behind-the-scenes-not-open-for-business-yet-tour. There were also vendors selling glamorous-looking pepper spray, yoga gear, cat lady things, and (duh) monogrammed stuff.

About those swag bags that we all left with… I sometimes can’t believe that people give this much stuff away, but I am NOT complaining.

We each got a bottle of wine from Little Black Dress Wines, which made the whole bag worth it in itself. There were also tons of skincare, perfume, and make-up samples from Belk, including two mascaras (Bobbi Brown and Benefit, one of which will become my travel mascara). There were also hair product samples from a local blow dry bar and 20% off an item at Peachy Keen boutique.

We were given some wet and dry measuring cups from Food Lion, which I’ve already put to use. There was a voucher for a free PDQ combo (which I will be using for lunch soon), a flash drive (a given in any blogger bag), and a credit card/ID holder to stick onto the back of your phone. There was also the strangely small Chevrolet tote, but hey, I’ll take it. Free!

Obviously, though, my favorite item in the bag was food. Three Nothing Bundt Cakes – chocolate, lemon, and red velvet. These tiny little cakes were SO moist and topped with plenty of icing. I ate the chocolate cake right after the meet-up, shared the lemon cake with my mom, and then slowly downed the red velvet cake on a hungover Sunday.

We also got a coupon for a free bundt cake when they open their new location in Morrisville! These cakes would make great gifts… everybody likes edible gifts right?

So despite the fact that I thought these meet-ups might be a litttttle awkward, they’re well worth it for the supportive blogging conversation, interesting people, and the chance to try out something new – whether that be a spin class, fashion show, or all the little treats and samples you get in your swag bag. A big thanks to TriFABB for getting me out of my comfort zone!

Thanks to Bolt PR for the tour of the Southern Women’s Show and the great gift bags. This is not a sponsored post, I just thought it’d be fun to show what a blogger meet-up in the Triangle is like. And in case there are any of you out there debating whether you should come out for a meet-up, do it! You’ve got nothing to lose, and lots of cool people to meet! Thanks, as always, to Molly for arranging these meet-ups!