Um, so now that I’m finally getting to this post like 10 years later (It’s actually been 5 weeks which is STILL frakkin ridiculous – I can never seem to catch up!!!!) I’ll finally fill you all in on the joys that were Blogger Prom.
So the story behind Blogger Prom is actually fairly entertaining. I didn’t even know about it, until my friend Nastassia of Let Me Eat Cake told me about it. She was super excited and since she had recently started a blog and is trying to build up her following, she really wanted to go. Nas asked me to send away for an invite and she would too, and that we could both go, bring our bfs and it would be so great! And then I got invited, and she didn’t. Oops.
I think what happened, is that the screening process for invites required that you had a blog that didn’t look like you started it just to get an invite, and I think Nas only had maybe 1 or 2 posts at the time, and probably didn’t look like a legitimate blog (It’s much nicer and more fleshed out now.) whereas I have been blogging at HPM for awhile now, and if that hadn’t been enough, it’s not that hard to find previous blogs I’ve had on LJ. (I think I’m friends with my old blogs…lame, I know.) Regardless, since I figured that I wouldn’t even be going if it hadn’t been for Nastassia, I asked her to be my plus 1 since I knew how excited she was.
The invite called for cheesy prom attire, I figured that meant most people were going 80′s throwback. I figured I had to be the one that was different, and if they had prom in the forties, I’d be the slut at the prom. 
I ended up ordering a great dress off of Pin Up Girl Clothing (by great I mean, it’s not too “period” and I could wear it to a contemporary event) and getting a couple of cheap accessories from Unique Vintage in Burbank. With some help from my friend Martha, I got my hair looking good.
Getting Ready For Prom!
Hamming it up!
My Outfit
I headed out to pick up Nastasia who works at Joan’s on Third, which is super close to where prom was being held at the Andaz WeHo. I pulled up in the alley behind Joan’s because Nastassia said, “My boss said I’m not allowed to walk through the restaurant looking like this.” As I got closer I saw a flash of bright blue which turned out to be Nas in an amazingly cheesy dress, which interestingly enough, was made out of acetate – the stuff the make tents out of for camping – and was quite flammable. And noisy.
We pulled up at the Andaz and valeted my car. We checked in and headed to the elevator where we met Abby (I think that was her name! I’m so sorry if I’m wrong, and welcome a correction!!) of Pleasure Palate and her +1. The button was pushed for us by one of the prom committee members so there was no confusion, and we excitedly chattered on the ride up. The bell dinged, the doors slowly opened, and we stepped expectantly out into…a hallway? Ummmm….yes, leave it to me and Nastassia to get lost. The four of us wandered around for awhile, wondering if there was some secret passage out to the roof/penthouse, and we just could NOT figure it out. Luckily we into a nice lady from housekeeping and another couple to whom the same thing had happened, and it turns out our hostess had been depositing people a floor early!
The event space was lovely. Really just lovely. It was a large, pristine, space with a fantastic view, and a rooftop pool deck. Of course Nastassia and I had to take pictures with the view and the pool and just overall be the cheeseballs we are.
The floral decor was done by Jonathan Fong
There was a limited open bar, mostly the free booze was limited to the booze that was “sponsored” or donated for the advertising/press advantages. A couple of signature cocktails made by Natalie of The Liquid Muse and one of the blogger prom committee members, featured two of these sponsor liquors Pinky Vodka and Gran Centenario Rosangel Tequila. Both, oddly enough, are pink due to flower infusions. The vodka I think has rose and violets, and the tequila, hibiscus. Both were quite tasty, although I’m not a huge vodka fan, and I’m a huge fan of the Gran Centenario line of tequilas, so I was bound to be a little biased. There were also a couple of sponsored wines and since New Castle has just started doing mini kegs the way that Heineken has been, they jumped on the promo bandwagon as well.
And of course…the food. Don’t worry, I haven’t let you down yet, have I? In addition to the wonderful foods provided by Andaz’s in house hotel RH which you can read about on theBlogger Prom page since I didn’t get any pics, there was also a cheese station that was provided by Barrie Lynn, the Cheese Impresario. And if I haven’t made it clear before, I kind of have a love affair with cheese. I kind of spent most of my food time at this table. She was even matching cheeses to beverages, so if you brought her your cocktail, there was a cheese to match!
(That’s Barrie Lynn in the gold apron!)
For dessert (to which, when it came out, Nastassia jumped up, squealed, and then literally dragged me by the hand) these adorable little cupcakes provided by PolkaTots
AND these delectable little cheesecake “pops” by Pure Cheesecakes which were perfect, since food on a stick has ZERO calories. I mean it can’t have calories…it’s on a stick! Right?….right??
And of course Nas filled up a plate with two of everything available:
Of course the whole point was to network and meet other bloggers, which we did, and had a great time doing it!
This is Nastassia and I with Will of Be The Boy and his wife Nina aka Slack Mistress of The Slack Daily. They actually have a super cute story. He basically found her online and liked her pictures and writing, and sort of fell for her over the Net and pursued her. And now they’re married!
Here we are with Sam Kim (find him on Twitter @SamKimSamKim) and “The Delicious” Sarah who is sort of a blog hero of mine. She was an editor for Slashfood.com and runs Tastespotting.com as well as running The Delicious Life and MAKES MONEY doing it. Someone is paying her for this. Why is no one paying me???
And of course my darling friends Carina and Josie of the Uncouth Gourmands
Note: None of us can figure out who the lovely lady in black is. If you can tell me, please do! I’d love to note her down!
Additionally, what kind of prom would it be without gratuitous pictures of me and my date having a good time:
And since no good party is complete without goody bags, here is the bag with the swag. I felt like a celebrity getting all this free stuff! Some of the cooler stuff in the bag included:
- Hungry Card Decks: $10 off select restaurants. 52 ways to try something new;
- 10 ½ oz. packages of Sun Chips where the bags are made with 33% renewable materials. Actually, some green news is that in 2010, Sun Chips plans to launch the first fully 100% compostable chip bag;
- A 120z glass bottle of the new Pepsi Natural which Pepsi is marketing as “An all-new premium cola, Pepsi Natural is made with all-natural ingredients, including lightly sparkling water, natural sugar, natural caramel and kola nut extract. The amber-hued cola gets its color from natural caramel and natural apple extract”;
- A four piece gift box from Charles Chocolates which included a “Special Jasmine Truffle, Lavender Honey Truffle, Peanut Butterfly, and Fresh Raspberry Heart”;
- A ‘Born To Blog’ t-shirts from The Gap
among numerous other coupons and goodies and awesomeness that could fit into the bag.
It was so much cooler than any prom I ever went to in high school! Haha.
Obviously, the BP committee deserves the most amazing-est of shout outs so here goes:
Caroline of Caroline on Crack
Esther of e*star LA
Marni of Happy Go Marni
H.C of LA and OC Foodventures
Lindsey who is an editor for LAist
Maya of Shop Eat Sleep (which I must note is an amazing blog name. Nastassia and I wish that I had come up with that for MY blog since it’s like the 3 things which consume most of my time…)
Natalie (who I already mentioned) of The Liquid Muse
and
Tara of When Tara Met Blog
