This trip already happened about a month ago, but I wanted to share a recap on the blog before it gets too much further out. I had a wonderful and much needed quick trip to the Sunshine State in late February! My good friend Gentry from Girl Meets Bow had an exciting last-minute opportunity to attend an event for influencers in Miami with LTK, which is the main affiliate link platform that most bloggers use. She was able to bring a plus-one, and kindly invited me! The stars aligned perfectly for me to get off work, and use flight credits that I already had for a free flight! I also extended my trip on the front end a bit, and all-in-all it was a great time.
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Gentry had invited me to join her for a whirlwind one-night midweek trip to Miami. I have a number of family members on my dad's side who live in the Boca Raton / Delray Beach area of Florida, which I had never been to before! I knew that was only an hour or so from Miami, and wanted to try to see family for a couple of days before meeting Gentry, so I could really justify this big of a last minute trip. Fortunately, it worked out great to visit with family!
My aunt and uncle (one of my dad's older brothers, his other older brother lives in Edenton, NC), moved to this part of South Florida a couple of years ago, and I had yet to visit them down there. They generously hosted me for a couple nights in their new house. Their house is brand-new construction and it's beautiful. It's in an amazing 55+ community, that has all you could ever want and need for amenities and entertainment. Truly quite a place!
I enjoyed a very low-key couple days visiting my aunt and uncle to start my Florida trip. I really enjoyed the beautiful resort-style pool in their community. (I enjoyed it even more since Virginia Beach had a foot of snow the week before my Florida trip!) I also loved getting to see a lot of my distant extended family on my dad's side, most of whom I hadn't seen in 10-15 years! My aunt and uncle hosted several extended family members for dinner and drinks on my second night there, and they even surprised me with a Publix cake as a belated wedding celebration for Ryan and I. 😊
One specific recommendation that I need to give: if you're ever in Delray Beach, FL, eating a meal at Batch New Southern Kitchen is a must!! This is probably one of the best Modern-Southern style restaurants I've ever been to. I'm not exaggerating when I tell you what's pictured below were the best chicken & waffles I've ever eaten! This will be a return visit for sure on future trips to visit family in this area.
On Tuesday morning, my aunt and uncle kindly drove me a full hour south to the Miami airport so that I could meet up with Gentry from her flight, and then we could Uber together to Miami Beach! (Funny enough, this same exact thing happened in 2019 when I met Gentry in NYC for Fashion Week! 😊 This same aunt and uncle were living in Long Istland then, and I also went to NY early on that trip to stay with them. They then brought me back to LaGuardia Airport and I met Gentry for that trip. Ha!)
We stayed at The Abbey Hotel in Miami Beach, which is a Sonder Hotels property. I wasn't previously familiar with Sonder, but this hotel was an incredible value compared to other nearby properties in Miami Beach, and it was perfect for our quick trip. This hotel is short on amenities that come standard at other area hotels (such as no cable TV, no outdoor pool, etc), but I'd definitely recommend it if you're traveling to Miami Beach on a budget, and just need a clean, comfortable and conveniently located place to sleep.
Gentry and I grabbed a quick lunch at a cafe right by our hotel, and then we got to exploring Miami Beach and shooting some content for our Instagram pages. I have been to the Miami airport a couple of times for layovers, and my family took a cruise that left from Miami back in 2002 (So long ago! 😅), but aside from that I had never been to Miami before. I really liked the area from the little bit of exploring that we did that afternoon! I would love to come back again someday for more time.
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| Our matching skirts are sadly sold out now, but were from Avara! |
We then headed back to our hotel to get ready for the main event: the LTK Creators Happy Hour Event! Gentry has worked really hard on maximizing her LTK profits over the past year, which qualified her for an invite to this exciting event. I'm still so honored she invited me to go with her! 😊
The event was held at The Miami Beach EDITION, a very high-end hotel. What a perfect setting though! They held the Happy Hour out on the private terrace behind the hotel.
For my first-ever LTK event, I wanted to wear an outfit that I thought really represented my personal style, and also fit Miami's bright and trendy vibe. I ended up wearing a white floral lace blouse and light pink blazer, both rented from Armoire (clothing rental company I've been testing out the past couple months- review on the blog to come soon). My hot pink shorts are a couple of years old from Target, and I finished the look with my wedding heels, which were from Ann Taylor last year! I felt very confident and very "me!" I also loved Gentry's sparkly silver tweed dress, and I thought we coordinated so well together.
Here are a few pictures of the event set-up before everyone arrived, taken by the professional photographers that LTK hired for the event. (They sent all of these images to attendees to us to use for our content, which I so appreciated!) LTK partnered with Maybelline for this event to showcase a few of their new makeup product launches for spring. All in all it was such a beautiful event, with all of the little decor details being thought of.
This was one of the best nights that I have had in such a long time! Not only did I have a great time with Gentry, but we got to meet so many other wonderful bloggers and content creators, and I also loved networking with some LTK staff members. We also had the chance to see the founder of LTK, Amber Venz Box, get to speak at the event! We even got to meet her very briefly. I loved getting to tell her how much LTK has helped so many bloggers and content creators succeed in pursuing their dreams, and to thank her for all she's done for this industry.
More importantly than any of that, I feel like attending this event was a self-confidence boost that I so desperately needed. It has been a really tough few months for me mentally amidst a frustrating job search process, that is hoenstly taking way longer than I expected. It was great to have a night to celebrate all things related to blogging (my side hustle), and get to remember that both myself and a really great friend of mine have built incredible online platforms, and we should be proud of that!
We ended our day in Miami with a very late dinner at Bar Luca, an Italian restaurant in walking distance of The EDITION. It was delicious! I'd definitely eat here again in Miami. A perfect way to end a memorable day.
I was up bright and early the next morning to start my travels back to Virginia. Such a quick first trip to Miami, but so wonderful and needed in the middle of a long winter! I'm also so glad that I got to have some quality time with extended family, too.
Some of my past Florida travels blog posts you might like:
xoxo Annaliese
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