What do you get if you add a vintage magazine, a stately home and some of the South West’s best vintage emporiums? That would be Saturday’s A Pretty Nostalgic Magazine Gathering at the beautiful Kingsweston House. Situated on the outskirts of Bristol, near Avonmouth, Kingsweston House was built in the 1700s and its grand ball rooms and lush green gardens were the perfect location for the event, which combined shopping, wedding planning and lots of vintage inspired activities and outfits.
Organised by Pretty Nostalgic magazine, the day included various talks, demonstrations – from the Lindy Hop to Jane Austen inspired dancing – and a bloggers networking hour, to which I was invited. There were also several stalls selling vintage inspired clothes, toys and homewares, my favourite being Teresa Dunne Willapark’s designs, above. The Cornwall-based artist uses vintage fabric and hand stitching to create her intricate wall hangings and greetings cards.
After a rocky start trying to find a place to park, I arrived in time for a little browsing (and mandatory photograph taking) before the networking hour began at midday. Eli, Emily, Lily, Angela, Louisa, Lucy, Helen, Jo, Catherine and I settled down into the yurt opposite Kingsweston House and, after a slightly awkward AA style introduction where we went around in a circle introducing ourselves and our blogs, we settled in for a natter.
I was initially skeptical of an organised networking hour but it was refreshing to be able to chat about the kinds of things that friends without blogs don’t always understand, such as the merits of blog networks, which hosting company to go with (yep, that was my question) and Pinterest photography tips.
I didn’t get any photos of us networking but that’s not a problem since there were so many beautiful vintage-inspired treats for the eyes that are far better looking than us bloggers! Here are some photos from the day – big thank you to Pretty Nostalgic for inviting me.
This sounds amazing, I love being able to chat to bloggers about little blog niggles, my friends really couldn’t care less!
Maria xxx
Author
Agreed! I don’t think my friends can handle another conversation on sidebars and colour schemes!
It was lovely to meet you, SJ! I loved the Gathering; the live music and dancers gave it a fantastic atmosphere and I spent far too much money on foodie treats :)
Author
Lovely to meet you too! It was such a pretty venue for a meet-up :)
Hi dear, I really like your blog and style. It’s so inspiring! I thought it would be awesome if we could follow each other. Just let me know! I’ll follow back :) X Anna
http://www.fashionanna.com
Awww, this looked like lots of fun! What a cute event. I went to a wedding here and it was just beautiful. <3
Author
It’s such a stunning venue – I can only imagine how gorgeous the wedding must have been! x
Lovely to meet you on Saturday! It was a great day, lots and lots of things to take photos of and far too many nice things to spend money on. Hopefully see you at another Bristol event sometime! :-) x
It was lovely to meet you last Saturday and thank you for mentioning me here!! x
I just had to say it’s Willapark Designs!! You just missed out the ‘a’!!
Author
Oops, my apologies! Have changed it now :)
Ooh… so much pretty!
It’s a brilliant magazine isn’t it, full of such deliciousness. Looks like this day was brim full of vintage loveliness too.
Wow looks very Jane Austin. Beautiful pics.
Author
Thank you!
ah what a lovely sounding day! I’ve taken a look at Pretty Nostalgic before – quite an amazing mag I must say!
xx
Author
It’s such a lovely magazine to dip in and out of and they day was just as stylish! :) x
I wish I could go to events like this! Everything looks great.
What an amazing day it sounds like! I love an opportunity to talk blogging in real life too, it’s always great to get to know other bloggers!
Those babes look awesome in white!