I want to become a society lady Rockin' a new rock?!

Because I spend much of my time outside of the office as a stylist, I’m asked quite frequently to style shoots for photographers who love the idea of expanding their portfolio and shooting really gorgeous images. We get asked often enough that I thought we’d put together a new type of styled workshop that focuses mostly on shooting. We’ll be doing a blogging primer, styling tips, editor’s notes, branding 101, and then shooting. A TON.

But you haven’t heard the best part. We’re only charging $395. Yeah. Most affordable and best value out there. We’re stripping away all the frills and focusing on what you really want–beautiful stuff to shoot and great stuff to learn.

We’ve got three dates lined up for the spring and we know they’ll go quick! To find out more about the workshop, head to Secrets of a Stylist. You can also email style@summerwatkins.com to inquire about availability!

Very special thanks to Ryan Ray for shooting the image below of a shoot I styled last spring.

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We’re so excited about the new Lady Grey, we can’t even stand it! We’ve worked so hard with our designer–and let’s face it my BFF–Megan from MaeMae Paperie and our jedi web ninja development team at Binary M to make this happen! There are all kinds of new and exciting things to check out on our site (and even more surprises headed your way this spring!). We decided we’d take a moment to get you acquainted with all of our new elements and search features. Our goal was to make the process of digging through our archives as easy and as enjoyable as possible! So let’s get started!

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First up, one of our favorite new features is our sliders. If you click on the image or title, it will take you to a post from our archives. Every page your on while exploring the blog has a new set of sliders associated with that category. So if you are exploring our blue real weddings, that slider will feature some of our favorite blue weddings. The goal is to help you find our best content from our archives! Make sure you scroll through all of the five sliders to help you discover new posts you might not have known about!

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To find more posts on a topical basis, check out THE ARCHIVE button in our navigation. This will help you explore our site by categories! There are lots of fun categories in there, so be sure to check them all out.

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We know that one of your favorite topics is real weddings! You can access our weddings and inspiration section through the archive, or you can explore by season or color, by clicking this button in our sidebar:

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Once you land in this section, you can explore by your wedding season or color. Once you narrow down your search to say, spring weddings, guess what? Our slider will show you our favorite spring weddings. Great right?

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Another great feature we’ve added is our CLICK TO EXPAND FOR MORE. All of our posts are pre-loaded, so this button immediately pops up the rest of the post without any loading time. We love that you can now navigate our site a little more quickly when you’re on the hunt for something specific! The goal was to save you time and clicks (because we hate those pesky extra clicks!).

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We looooove comments! And tweets. And Pins. And Likes. So we put the option to share with your friends at the intro to our posts (near the title) and below!

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One of our goals with Grey Likes Weddings is to help make the wedding planning process seamless! We hope to bring you excellent, high quality resources to make the research that much easier. For that reason, we’ve hand selected a crazy incredible group of wedding professionals (and SHOPS!) that will help make your wedding as fabulous as possible. Our Collective members are a crazy talented group and we work tirelessly on recruiting the best of the best, so be sure to check out The Grey Collective and The Shop.

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We also tried to make it REALLY fun to leave a comment. I mean, you get to pick the rock you’re rockin’! We hope you’ll stop by and chime in with us!

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Of course, we couldn’t live without Pinterest! You can always view Lady Grey’s latest pins in our sidebar and easily click to follow us! You can also pin any image on our blog if you just hover over it and click the pin it crest.

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Speaking of following, if you want to keep up with us on your favorite social media platform, look no further than our sidebar! Be absolutely sure that you sign up for our Society Newsletter. Not only do we send out fun inspiration, but we also offer exclusive deals and offerings from our Collective members. It’s kind of like groupon for weddings. Only prettier. And better. And less annoying. We promise!

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Also, all three images in our header are clickable. Our wreath will always bring you back to the home page. Rockin’ a New Rock will take you to a collection of some fun desktop downloads to celebrate your engagement. I mean, we’re freaking excited you’re planning a wedding.

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Last and certainly not least is our Ladies’ Society. We’re keeping that surprise under wraps until this spring, but if you decide to request an invitation, you’ll get in on the secret early!

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So tell us what you think of the new digs! We think Lady Grey is looking pretty dang fabulous and there’s even more in the works! Are you ready for it?

A few weeks ago, I had the incredible opportunity of attending an “Edible Auditing”, hosted by the most chic caterer, Room Forty. Alexa of Sterling Engagements designed the entire event, and I was absolutely bowled over! I sat with some of the industry’s best wedding planners and ogled over all the genius and inspiration ideas! Are you ready for some spectacular pretties and ideas (all shot by the absolutely wonderful Ryan Garvin Photography)?

First up, check out the beautiful invites design by Prim and Prixie:

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Vibiana is the most stunning possible venue in existence!

All the florals by Shawna Yamamoto Event Design were jaw dropping. I loved that the decor was very inspired by the food! You can see a Kale arrangement, and an artichoke below. There were also bunches of rosemary and mint scattered along the table. We even received herbs to plan as part of our favor.

Room Forty also has a mixologist on staff who creates custom drinks for pairings! This “Orangerie Punch Bowl” cocktail featured hibiscus, jasmine and even included an edible flower as a garnish!

I love how Room Forty serves their food! And it’s hilarious on the right–do you see all of us shooting the food with our phones??? It was just so beautiful!

Below are my two favorite elements of our TEN course meal! On the left is just the garnish for a delicious soup. The actual soup part was poured at the table out of a beautiful pitcher! What fun! On the right is a whiskey cocktail that had real smoke wafting out of the glass. What an amazing experience to really grasp the smokiness in the whiskey. I’m not much of a whiskey lover, but it was an amazing cocktail!

All the napkins embroidered with lace and place mats were created just for the event by Dahlia of Designer Specialty Linens.

We enjoyed live classical guitar from ESPIMUSIC Entertainment. It was amazing!

A little gift box to take home, which was delicious salad elements, home made vinaigrette and a recipe!

Below left is a shot of Steve, the force behind Room Forty, and me after our meal. I was so full, I barely made it home!

It’s always amazing to share with you the best of the best in the industry, and give you a chance to see what vendors can dream up if you give them room to dream with you! These are also amazing vendors to contact if you are in the industry, or a bride planning a wedding!

I’m super excited to announce that I’ll be making a guest appearance on Creative Live tomorrow with Jasmine Star! I’ll have the chance to discuss what editors are looking for when it comes to getting your weddings published. We’re going to get into the nitty gritty, have a great time, and even give away something super amazing! Be sure to join us starting tomorrow! Check out the course outline here and head here to tune in LIVE for free!

That’s right, my wonderful photographer friends! We’re teaming up with our rad friends over at Miller’s Lab for another giveaway! You can win a spot to our next Shoot This Not That Workshop on November 2nd in Orange County, California. All you need to do is tweet! Send a shout out to @MillersLab, @GreyLikes, and @STNTWorkshop. You can copy and paste the tweet here:

”  Hey @MillersLab, send me to @STNTworkshop with @GreyLikes. Just RT to enter!  “

If you’ve already signed up, not to worry! You can still enter and win back your tuition. To find out more about the workshop, check out the site here. Can’t wait to see you in November!

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To enter the giveaway, all you need to do is tweet once a day! We’ll announce our winner next week! Good luck!