secrets of the blog

dress | similar bag | belt | shoes

photos by Ban Avenue Photography


Those of you who have followed this blog for some time (the real OG's- I love y'all!) might be interested to know a little behind-the-scenes of what goes in to keeping this little corner of the internet running. Or maybe y'all don't care at all and my "secrets" are actually lame bits of information you already knew but either way, I want to share a few things with y'all that you might not know about Hello Honey! 


1. I shoot a ton of photos at one time, anywhere from 4-8 looks.
I meet with my photographer, Yash, every couple of weeks and we knock out as many looks as we can during that time. It's about a 45 minute trek for me down into Houston, depending on traffic, and I do this normally while Bear is at school. My car is my dressing room, so you can imagine how messy it is by the end of a shoot! Shoes, belts, jewelry, purses, and clothes thrown everywhere. We can usually get 4 looks done in an hour but if it's a busy collaboration time, we'll take up to 2 hours and shoot around 8 looks. I'm always starving & exhausted after a shoot- it sounds silly but it's a lot of work. We also almost always shoot in the same spot so while the photos you see on the blog may look like lots of different locations, 80% of them are shot in an area of Houston called River Oaks District. I'll just park my car and we walk around to different corners/storefronts for photos. Yash is a magician and always delivers all the edited photos the very next day, which is amazing when I'm working with brands that have deadlines. I think a lot of people realize that bloggers do this but some people will tell me, "You sure get dressed up all the time!" and the truth is, I do it for the photoshoot. On a daily basis, I'm in leggings and a sweatshirt with a top knot.

2. I had a blog manager that handled collaborations but now I do it on my own.
From October 2016-October 2017, I had a management company out of Arizona handling all of my contracts and overseeing my brand as a whole. This was really helpful in certain ways and I absolutely loved my main point of contact- she is one of the sweetest human beings on the planet. The company communicated with brands and oversaw contracts which was definitely a weight lifted for me, but they also took 20% commission off of all my collaborations. For many reasons that I won't get in to, I decided to try handling the business side of my brand on my own and so far it's working well. Hopefully I can still say that in a few months after the new baby comes!

3. Zach takes most of my Instagram photos on Sunday and I spread them out throughout the week.
Sunday is our "family day" when we have brunch, try to go to church ("try" because this doesn't happen every week but we are striving to be better about it), get groceries, take the puppy to the park, and clean the house. Zach's favorite part of the day? Snapping iPhone outfit photos for me. I'll take a couple of outifts, usually just 2, with us in the car and on our way home from getting groceries, we'll make a stop somewhere and he'll take some photos for me. I don't post these right away- we usually get 4-5 decent shots that I'll save and post throughout the week. This just helps me build up content and since it gets dark so early this time of year and Zach doesn't normally get home until 6-7pm after it's already dark, weekends are the main time we can take photos. I don't have him take any of my blog photos anymore- that's all done by Yash- so I think he's so happy to be rid of that job that he doesn't mind taking a few phone photos once or twice a week. I know this isn't technically blog-related and applies to Instagram but I see social media/the blog all under one big umbrella.

4. I use apps like Facetune, VSCO, and Snapseed to edit photos. 
Spoiler alert: I edit all of my iPhone photos. Laughing as I type that because y'all already knew that, I'm sure. My teeth need all the whitening they can get! My favorite apps for editing are the ones listed above and here's what I use each one for: Facetune to whiten teeth, brighten the photo, fix flaws in the photo (ie if there's trash on the ground, I can take it out of the photo), etc. VSCO feeds my filter addiction; I do simple edits in the app like contrast, sharpening, etc. and then always use either the A5, F2, or HB1 filter. Snapseed is my least-used of the 3 but I do use it occasionally for a filter (I like the "pop" filter) or to brighten one certain part of a photo. I will typically spend anywhere from 20-45 minutes editing a single photo that goes on Instagram, and that's not including actual posting/captioning time. It's a process and I'm a picky person!

5. All of my blog design was done by a friend.
When I launched Hello Honey back in May of 2015, I had my sweet friend Sarah create it all from scratch. She did an amazing job as I haven't felt the need to change anything to this day! The only thing I sometimes get asked about and Sarah and I both wish we knew how to create is an easy "search" bar for y'all to type and in and look up posts. I often have people wanting to find a specific recipe on the blog and they can't because there's no way for them to search for it. I will continue working on that and trying to find a solution because I know that can be frustrating. I mean it when I say Sarah did everything from designing the Hello Honey logo to sending out newsletters through MailChimp. All I had to do from day one was log in and type up a post. I'm very much technologically challenged- computers and I don't really get along- so I'm incredibly thankful Sarah did such a great, diligent job of setting up this blog. I get asked if I know HTML code since I'm a blogger and I have to laugh (at myself) because I'm so clueless when it comes to technology!


I'm sure there are a ton more "secrets" I could share with y'all but I'm running late for my registration at the hospital (kiiiiiiind of important) and then I have my 35 week check-up at the OBGYN. It's a baby-filled day and I'm praying for a good update and strong heartbeat. Next week will be our last ultrasound before baby comes and I can't wait to see how he's looking/measuring. I'll do a 36 week bumpdate and fill you all in next week!
xo, Britt