#i did research into indian fashion and weddings and the traditions but if i said anything wrong or inaccurate that's on me

[james-sunshine-potter]

tw/ heavy talks of homophobia

"Hey, looking good, where are you heading?" Sirius commented as James walked into his living room. Sirius came round to help Regulus with something he needed to do for work. Sirius and Regulus are surrounded by books, contracts and general mess as James uses the mirror above the fireplace to take off his jellewery, leaving it on the mantlepiece in-front of him.

"Oh my cousins getting married, i'm leaving soon,"

"Soon, it's barely ten am!" Sirius exclaimed.

"Indian weddings are like all day events,"

So, James hadn't been looking forward for this wedding. It wasn't that he didn't like his extended family, he does. He gets on alright with them. His parents were going to be there, and he gets on well with his cousin, the one getting married. It's just... some of the older members of his family.

He's avoided telling Regulus about it for a particular reason

"A wedding? Why didn't you tell me, I haven't prepared anything, when do you leave?" Regulus asked, taking his nose out of a book.

"My parents are picking me up in roughly half an hour..." James was really trying to avoid this conversation.

"You haven't mentioned this to me, how long have you known about this?" Sirius asked. despite the length Regulus and Sirius has lived at the Potters, they never really met much of James' extended family. A lot of them don't live in England, and the ones who do, don't speak great English. James has always been able to communicate to them, as English wasn't his first language. It wasn't even his second. Barely his third... But his parents thought it might be for the best they don't meet. So they only ever met a handful of them, majority of being on his dad's side. Regulus nor Sirius ever asked about it.

The point was that, Regulus and Sirius didn't know his family very well. If they went to this wedding, they would be completely out of place, and James isn't sure how much they'd enjoy it. He isn't sure he's going to enjoy it.

"I want to say a month, I haven't really been thinking about it," James said loosely as he walked out the room briefly, coming back in with his sherwani, the jacket which went with his outfit.

"A month? Why haven't you told me... what can I do with twenty minutes?" James and Regulus had been to weddings together before, if they ever have a plus one on an invite, it's always them.

Which is what the issue lies in...

"Yeah, that's why I haven't told you... you're not exactly coming," James said, knowing that would be better than umming and erring.

"What? Why?" Regulus didn't sound hurt or offended, he sounded confused.

"Cause I didn't get a plus one on my invite," James started to button up his sherwani, as he leaned against the arm chair facing the couch which Sirius and Regulus were on. Work completely forgotten.

"Oh..." is all Regulus said.

"Why didn't you get a plus one? Has no one else got a plus one?" Sirius pushed.

"No, Indian weddings don't really work like that..." James didn't want to have this conversation, he just wanted today to be over with. "I called my cousin about it but they said it was final, I asked about that and they people did, but it didn't 'work out' for me... I don't plan on staying that long anyway, so I just left it at that,"

"Well, you should have pushed it, surely if you explained that you wanted your boyfriend there they would understand," Sirius pushed, sitting on the edge of the couch now.

"I... kind of don't" James said, immediately back tracking when regulus does pull an offended look, "It's not you, I would love you to be there it's just..."

"It's just what, James? Why don't you want me there?" Regulus spat, filling the air with tension.

"It's my extended family... they don't... love the fact I'm gay," James admitted and the air radiating of Regulus cooled, "It's just... my family is very religious, which you guys know from my parents but they also come from apart of the world which is still living with out of date ideologies... gay marriage isn't even legal there yet, and only in the past five years have being gay been decriminalized..."

Horror and shock paint Sirius and Regulus' face as James speaks.

"I've never intended for them to know, it was easier that way, especially as they didn't love my way of live before... not being a doctor or following down an academic job, so every time I saw them it was a lot 'why you not a doctor yet?' or being compared to my cousins, which is normal in Asian families, I mean my dad's parents are Vitaminise, along with all their family, so it's disappointment from both ends, you know,"

James took a deep breath, letting them catch up.

"If you never told them, how did they find out?" Sirius asked innocently.

"Because my mum told my aunt, and it spread like wildfire... she told her a couple of months after I came out to her, you remember how long it took for my parents to get comfortable with it... they're fine with it now... but I know my extended family, and now every event since has been filled with weird looks, side comments and my Nani asking me 'when will I meet a fine lady'... just worded differently in Urdu..."

"So they didn't give you a plus one because..." Regulus started, but James finished Regulus' sentence.

"Because they didn't want me bringing a man as a date to the wedding? Yeah... it's a sort of tell not show sort of thing in my family... I'm the only open gay person in my family, and I didn't even come out on my terms... the point is you wouldn't have a good time at this wedding, homophobic family members and large get togethers don't mix well, and you don't have to be subjected to that, as I said before I don't plan on staying long,"

As James finished speaking, there was a honk from a parked gold Honda from outside their house.

"If they're being horrible to you about this, you shouldn't go James... that's unfair on you," Sirius said, as James slid on his sandals.

"It's fine, my parents want me to go, plus being a first cousin makes me in the bridal party for the groom, I'm my cousins best man... the wedding doesn't even started till one pm, I have four hours of mehndi and meeting my cousins soon to be in laws ahead of before the ceremony even begins... it'll make it worse if I don't go,"

Regulus nods, Sirius has a look of defiance on his face but James ignores it.

"Well, come home as soon if they're making you uncomfortable,"

James plants a strong kiss on Regulus' lips and leaves for the longest wedding of his life.

[srbachchan]

DAY 4815

Jalsa, Mumbai                  May 4/5,  2021                  Tue/Wed  2:34 AM

... the lamentations for the loss of the text that was written and then disappeared last night , has been lost too .. they were in reference to years and thoughts of the years gone by .. of times and some remembrances in , as one of my readers of the Blog  put it, in kgb mode .. secretive , non understandable , like most secret services of all nations .. 🤣

If they come back to me in that refrain I shall reconsider .. else they go down with me .. some matters and minds should .. their relevance shall be naught .. for they hold hands with them that either have left , or were never interested in the first place .. they could have had value for the self .. but that would be a most selfish exercise .. un exercice égoïste .. eine egoistische Übung .. تمرين أناني  tamriyn 'anani .. эгоистичное упражнение .. 

... but the mind is a relentless tortoise winding its limitations of speed and destination in its sincerity .. unlike the hare .. determined to nose the tape .. and for some peculiar reason the refer to the previous strikes in the silence of the early morn now .. as the slightest of vibrations on the shutters behind , alert you to the cctv .. they be blank, but not the desire .. ehh hrhh .. not desire .. such a vacant word .. supposed to say it all but never does .. maybe it does for others , maybe not .. but there .. 

.. so in the last we were at -

“Leave it , leave it mrB .. you behave like those fact formative early years of self independence when the evening parties were spent in ‘bring your bottle, bring your girl’ and sit aside and debate .. the ‘adda’ of the times which exists in its maturity to date .. and those that resented the thought minds of mere talk for the sake of talk would sneer and snigger , as they danced to the …

GONE .. again .. an entire page of writing as I posted a picture ..

Shall  not remember to write again .. it is so damaging .. to destroy and steal my process and think  .. TUMBLr .. 😡”

yes .. those that resented the thought minds of mere talk for the sake of talk would sneer and snigger, as they danced to the .. 👆🏾 .. 👇🏿

strains of the popular at the time Pat the Boone, Cliffy baby , and often the holding the traditional waist and hands in ballroom fashion would be freed by the ‘rock of the jailhouse ‘ in the ‘lis Presl shakin all over his blue suede shoes .. Bobby the Darin the sweetheart of the school and the Humperdinck .. maturing on with great swoons and screams to the mop headed at HDN .. the ‘night so hard’ .. and the yaay ya of loves me yayaya .. till the sudden surprise of the wood in Norway .. the Norwegian .. the indian instrument , the haridwaar, the meditational spell of bearded gurus who swore to walk on water and sank at Juhu beaches .. to submarines painted ‘yellow’ .. and the livings of the evenings in the raj infested cultural left overs still predominant to make the burra sahib and the burra din existence in the prominence of the blue decorated  Park by the street of a million jams on one .. sundays at trincasjam, pam crain and the Louis Banks of the Fox that was Blue .. mocambo not the ‘gambo’, ??? moulin rouge ..  and the solo drum hours of the drummer  .. as you ended up in the high end hoteliere Grand and drove back intoxicated with the first era feel of INDEPENDent SELF .. drove walked taxied or trammed to the million residences changed due paucity and capacity of the earning - the clac of the tons with 8 the high gates of the friendly family at Tolly , the chowrings shared with the other in adjoining , and closer to the new rd the Pore of the A .. the NEW of the pore  ending up the pgied  highest towered , peering at the late night highlights of the neighbourhood .. in gasping views , through parted curtains .. 

Left .. left it ..

So .. thoughts and time devoted to the wants and needs for the others .. in distress and in saviour mode for help .. something collected , some on the way , some delivered , some in operation .. BUT ..

.. lots to be done .. 

.. this we give in the times of trouble .. the 3rd .. the 3rd wave be in preparedness already and there is the planning in the city at least of the eventuality in the coming few months ..

.. each nano second come the suggestions and research and opinions and statistics of the fraternity , and nothing remains authentic for more than a nano second for the reverse or the opposite come about immediately ridiculing the first .. belief and follow is shattered .. is the T and FB and insta follow the true follow , or manufactured .. every theory has a theory to a theory of another .. 

.. never has there been uninterested doubt of one from the other .. believe one and the disbelieve comes hammering through .. say one and unsay the other in immediacy .. 

SO .. hehe  .. (I use the SO with so much dignity and respect) .. ok away .. simplify the narration mrB .. 

RIGHT .. that sound alright ?

RIGHT .. in these conditions then I share thought with the Ef each day .. DAY .. speak to them as one .. as one that sits before me in isolation .. I see them before me .. at my writing location .. up late , up from days work , up after leaving household or office and read .. my rubbish that I pour out .. 

BUT .. if I were to ask of a job duty .. a service to be rendered .. naaah .. service and job are wrong .. if I shared and asked for it to be shared further .. would you .. ?

Haha .. I see many hands raised .. screaming all at once  “of course .. how can you ever think we would not .. I mean how can you even ask such a question ..” 

etc., etc., etc ... 

So I shall ask you .. to .. to .. 

 Forget it ..

Good  night .. 

surprisingly I felt sleepy by 8 pm and went to sleep in my tracks .. got up by 11 .. and now after the repeats of the postponed IPL , am just not wanting to get back to bed .. 

.. there shall be consternation and scoldings and high voices .. and expressed, exasperated dismay  .. which I shall of course bear with shielded smile .. but they be right as do you in the many here  .. 

.. you know the distraction is not the rarity of slumber .. its slumber itself .. it has different manifestations now .. a dimension that cannot be explained .. 

earlier it was hit the pillow and the dreams or the sleep went on the ON mode immediately .. 

NOW .. there is a process, which if not followed pesters the life out of you .. what to think of when the pillow be hit so as to induce the sleep .. that ladies and gentlemen of the jury takes about the time you normally need for the completion of the hours for rest .. so in the end you actually never sleep sleep as such .. you comprehend .. ?

no .. you did not .. OK .. 

Fine .. 

GN .. thats good night .. said in all sincerity .. but may it be known that for some its too late to express it and for some that wait it shall be a limited night .. and for me the goodness just leaped out of the window ..

O heavens the morning bird chirps now begin .. its 3:41 a of the M .. soon it shall be 4 .. then 5 .. thats like morning ..

so ..

Good Morning ALL ..

Amitabh Bachchan

[bts-is-my-life-as-always]

Bts gif reaction to you coming from a traditional Indian background.

Request:Hello! This request may be a bit sensitive or just different so I totally understand if you’d rather not write anything on this, but I was wondering if you could do something on BTS reacting to you coming from a very traditionally Indian background, and you still celebrating traditions and such? (celebrating holidays, cooking traditional food, etc) Again, I totally get it if you’d rather not write for this. Thank so much for keeping up with this blog, keep up the good work!💞

(Credits to gif owners)

Thank you for requesting, I’m really sorry I couldn’t get this reaction out by saturday, hope you don’t mind this coming out on Sunday, again blame drawing, I was way too into it, love you and thanks for supporting me.

^~^

Rapmon:

You were half Indian and half white, so you spoke both Hindi and english, when you were younger your parents moved to the US but then when you were 20 you moved to korea to pursue your dreams of becoming a teacher and letting your culture be known more, so when you started to date rapmon, he was very curious about India, and the traditions and Just your life in general, he’d always ask you to teach him Hindi and ask to visit India together so you could show him around and teach him things that he would’ve never known if you didn’t tell him,

“I’ll teach you more about korea and you can teach me more about India, I want to know all about your life”

Jin:

Jin loves to cook, he loves food and tradition, his favourite dish would be Papri chaat he’d love it served with potatoes, only because he could have a lot of it and never really feel full, and he’d love to read up on recipes that even you’d never heard of and make it for you, making you fall for this magnificent man all over again,

“So today I tried to make pataleo hope this is good enough, you said you missed India again, so I just wanted to relieve that, and then when I’m free we can visit India, and your family, I want to meet them already”

Suga:

Suga is always so fascinated by music, but he was yet to discover Indian music until you opened up a whole new world, he’d try to collaborate with Indian artists so more people could open up to their music and understand and love the culture and the traditions, he’d always want to visit India with you, so you could show him around and when you did he’d fall in love even more,

“I love India, the more I learn the more I get pulled in, I think indian is such a beautiful country with beautiful music, and an even more beautiful future”

Jhope:

You and Jhope clicked because of dancing, you’d first started dancing when you were just 11 years your mother was the one to persuade you to start dancing to classic Indian dance, you’d first hated it because you just didn’t like exercise, but soon you realised that this form of arts was the most beautiful, and so when you moved to Seoul, you started to teach people classic Indian dance, and that’s where you met jimin, he’d always get you to teach him, and he’d teach you some of the hardest bts dances,

“I love this, it’s so beautiful, your so beautiful, ughhhh what do I do, it’s all too beautiful for my heart to take it all in at once”

Jimin:

Jimin would always visit India atleast 2-3 times a year, he’d love to go to the Holi festival, he loved all the colour and how everyone got together for a festival, and how no one judged anyone, and how powerful the culture was, he’d hate it if the two of you even missed a single Holi festival, it might seem weird but he’d keep all the white shirts that were covered with colour and frame them up as like a trophy or something to express his love for the culture that he grew to love because of you,

“If it wasn’t for you, I’d still be blind to this beautiful culture, I love you no matter what anyone says”

V:

V is always genuinely really fascinated by fashion, so when he met you and you introduced to him indian fashion, he would listen with all ears, he loved the way saris draped around your body and took your shape perfectly as well as looking so free and flows and when the two of you attended a wedding together, you’d make sure to wear your sari and show off your tradition to everyone, V would love every part of it and make sure to show you off as well,

“Can you blame me? I can’t help showing off this beauty and the beautiful meaning and culture behind you”

Jungkook:

Jungkook would be fascinated by Indian jewellery, he’d love the simple but elegance of the jewellery’s and he’d try to buy you many so he could see you wearing them (that sounds creepy but not in a weird way) he’d love how you looked in all the bangles and rings and necklaces, and whenever you visited India, he’d try to indulge in all the food and just everything in general,

“I love everything about you, and I love everything about your culture and tradition, I would love to live here.”

(Don’t ask why I used this one for kookie)

Soo… I would like to say that I really tried hard to make this reaction as perfect as I could, India is a country that I did a lot of research for its a completely different culture and they have different traditions to korea so I was extra careful and did extra research but if I still got a few details wrong please just let me know so I can change it, hope no one takes offence to this reaction, love you all, and thanks for reading ^~^

[nhouvang-blog]

Our series ‘Young and Inspiring’ showcases fresh, exciting new talent powerhouses from the design, fashion and event domains who specialize in creating dream weddings for couples with stars in their eyes.

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The post Young and Inspiring: Wedding Invitation Designer Puneet Gupta of Puneet Gupta Invitations appeared first on WeddingSutra Blog.

[johnboothus]

What Happens to Social Media Contest Winners Who Travel for Booze? Here Are Their Stories

When Paul Corgan, a 26-year-old from Portsmouth, N.H., sent his online application to become White Claw’s “best life ambassador” in March 2018, he completed a short blurb and shared a photo and link to his Instagram account. After clicking submit, he forgot about the competition almost immediately.

The contest would grant two winners $60,000 each to travel America for six months. Their only requirement was to document themselves “living their best life” by posting one photo per week to Instagram featuring the up-and-coming hard seltzer brand.

Articles detailing the competition went viral across social media platforms. So by the time Corgan received an email in June 2018 informing him he was one of five finalists being considered for the role, he still assumed his chances of winning were slim. Then, just over a week later, after a Skype interview with the brand’s marketing department, he awoke to an email.

“It just said ‘Congratulations’ as the subject line,” Corgan says. “It was the most exciting thing that had happened to me in my life.”

Contest Marketing: Everyone’s a Winner

For active social media users, competitions like White Claw’s “Best Life Contest” will be a familiar concept. While their prizes often seem too good to be true, the bar for entry is remarkably low.

All that’s usually required is to follow the brand on a social media platform and share a post or photo tagging its account, often using a specific hashtag. In advertising lingo, the concept is known as contest marketing; it’s a savvy promotional strategy and one that an increasing number of alcohol brands are turning to.

Within the past year alone, Natural Light has run a range of social-media-driven competitions with prizes including free beer for a year, $10,000 for a Halloween costume contest, and $1 million to help 25 drinkers pay off their graduate school loans.

Guinness, meanwhile, offered drinkers the keys to their very own Irish pub for a weekend, while Keystone Light launched a “Free Rent” campaign that paid 13 lucky winners’ rents for a year. In May 2019, Busch Beer announced it would contribute $25,000 toward one couple’s wedding ceremony and would send its spokesman, Gerald Downy, better known as “Busch Guy,” as the officiant.

Credit: Megan O’Leary Photography

These contests present a win-win scenario: Contestants commit to a small social media interaction, and brands generate buzz at a fraction of the cost of traditional advertising. Plus, the headline-grabbing nature of the campaigns all but guarantees nationwide coverage from numerous media outlets. (VinePair was one of several drinks publications that picked up the White Claw campaign, and even national news outlets like CNBC covered the contest.)

But while the contests themselves gain widespread coverage, the actual winners often go almost unreported.

When Fox 32 Chicago covered the Busch wedding contest in May 2019, the story received close to 40,000 likes, over 11,000 shares, and upwards of 20,000 comments on Facebook, according to data from content marketing research platform BuzzSumo. Despite such a positive reaction, Fox didn’t bother announcing the winners — the now-wed Abbi and Andrew Roth of Janesville, Wis. — nor did it follow up on the contestants to find out how the big day went.

The only coverage of the Roths’ wedding day appears to be a July 2019 article in Janesville’s Gazette Xtra. “We’re just a couple of regular Joes,” Abbi Roth told the publication. “We never thought this would happen.”

The “Lucky” Winners

While the Roths may be a pair of Busch-Light-loving “regular Joes,” success in other competitions — those that call upon the winner to fulfill a specific role — rely on more than brand alignment or fandom.

Prior to working as a White Claw ambassador, Corgan ran his own company that handled the social media accounts for small restaurants and businesses. He points to luck as a huge factor in winning the Best Life Contest; but he also says his love of travel, which he emphasized in his online application and interview, as well as his photography skills and knowledge of social media, helped him stand out and eventually win the contest.

In August 2018, Mr Fogg’s, a London mini-chain of bars inspired by the novel “Around the World in Eighty Days,” announced it was looking for an adventurous individual to travel the world, drink gin, and collect botanicals to inspire a cocktail for the bar upon their return. The winner would also get to choose a travel companion to join them on their escapade.

Numerous publications (including, again, VinePair) covered the competition, which gained even more online traction after actor and Aviation gin owner Ryan Reynolds tweeted about it.

I’ll do it.

— Ryan Reynolds (@VancityReynolds) August 16, 2018

To enter the competition, candidates applied on Mr. Fogg’s website and had to prove they were social media savvy, over 21 years of age, and skilled at writing and photography. Previous travel experience was also imperative.

“We didn’t think there was any chance we were going to get it because you never do with these things,” Jessica Last, the winning contestant, says. “But at the same time, we did feel all the questions that they asked were really relevant to what we were already doing: We were adventure/travel photographers and bloggers on a very small scale.”

When Last, a 30-something London resident, won the competition, she selected her longtime travel companion Charlie Wild to join her on the trip. The pair had recently returned from an eight-month, around-the-world adventure that they documented together on their blog, The Travel Project, after previously quitting their jobs in advertising.

Mr. Fogg’s enlisted the help of British explorer, writer, and photographer Levison Wood to pick the winners from more than 10,000 applicants. Resumes arrived from across the globe, including New Zealand, the U.S., Argentina, and Bermuda. According to a 2018 interview in trade publication Hospitality & Catering News, Woods picked Last because of her “genuine” passion for travel, and her “beautifully shot” Instagram photos.

Winning the Contest: What Happens Next?

Within two months of finding out he’d won the White Claw contest, Corgan was in the brand’s Chicago headquarters learning about the company values, discussing travel plans, and tasting the difference between White Claw and rival hard seltzer brands.

The aim of the immersion course was to prepare him and the other contest winner for their new, temporary ambassadorial roles. The position, he soon learned, would be remarkably self-driven. “The team over at White Claw was amazing,” he says. “They were really open to our ideas of what we wanted to do and where I wanted to travel.” (Corgan and the other winner traveled independently, but they did cross paths briefly in Denver during the six-month excursion.)

 View this post on Instagram

 A post shared by Paul Corgan | Adventure Travel (@paulcorgan) on Aug 14, 2018 at 2:52pm PDT

As advertised, the winners were given the freedom to travel as they pleased, he says. “We just had to share one [Instagram] feed post a week about what we were doing, where we were going, and how we were living our best life with White Claw,” Corgan says.

Last and Wild, meanwhile, were whisked off on the worldwide gin trip in even quicker fashion. Though she doesn’t recall the exact time frame, Last estimates they set off within a few weeks of finding out she’d won in August 2018. The fact they were both working in freelance roles allowed them to drop everything and jet off at a moment’s notice. “It was all a bit of a whirlwind and continued that way till we got back,” she says.

Life on the Road

While Last and Wild’s journey was slightly more prescriptive than Corgan’s adventure (the pair followed in the footsteps of Phileas Fogg, the protagonist in “Around the World in Eighty Days” and the namesake of Mr. Fogg), Last says they were given free rein on what they did in each country they visited (seven in total over a 72-day period).

The highlights of their trip included a visit to an Indian tea plantation in Darjeeling, cycling across eight islands in Japan, learning about micro herbs in Singapore, and discovering the incredible cocktail scene in Mumbai. Perhaps the biggest “high” was taking to the skies in a hot air balloon in the U.S., Last says, adding, “I’ve always wanted to do that.”

Corgan set off from New Hampshire at the end of August 2018 and embarked on a 12,000 mile, three-month road trip across America to the Pacific Northwest, and then south to California. He toured various national parks and also ticked off a major bucket list item along the way.

“My grandfather was a senator in North Dakota back in the ‘30s and he helped establish Grand Teton National Park,” Corgan says.

After the road trip finished, Corgan planned his remaining experiences around the things in life he’s passionate about. He visited New Orleans because of his love of music (Corgan shares piano tutorials on YouTube), went camping in Hawaii, and piloted a plane in Miami. The latter forced him to get creative when it came to sharing the experience on Instagram — “you can’t fly a plane while drinking hard seltzer,” he says — while other unexpected obstacles presented their own challenges.

“There was a time driving through Wyoming where I couldn’t find a single can of White Claw because there was a national shortage,” he says. “A lot of my friends thought I was going around with a truck of White Claw and promoting it at fairs and stuff.”

In reality, Corgan purchased the cans for his photos on the road, so when the shortage hit, “I had to just travel until I found a liquor store that had some,” he says. “They were sold out for miles and miles, so I just postponed shooting that week.”

 View this post on Instagram

 A post shared by Paul Corgan | Adventure Travel (@paulcorgan) on Jan 24, 2019 at 6:04pm PST

Luck Favors the Experienced

When the first deposit for his White Claw adventure landed in his bank account, Corgan was on the shop floor of a men’s clothing store where he supplemented the income from his social media business as a part-time sales associate. “It was the craziest moment ‘cause I was there selling stuff, but I was smiling so much,” he recalls. “I was like, ‘O.K., I don’t have to be here at all.’”

After his six-month gig, Corgan started a new content creation company, Content Club Co., providing curated photos and videos for brands he feels strongly about, like Timberland, La Colombe, and Underwood.

“My life is completely different now than it would have been had I not won,” Corgan says.

So was it luck or skill? Probably a combination of the two. But if you find yourself procrastinating on social media and stumble across an alcohol-fueled opportunity of a lifetime, just remember: It could be you.

The article What Happens to Social Media Contest Winners Who Travel for Booze? Here Are Their Stories appeared first on VinePair.

Via https://vinepair.com/articles/viral-alcohol-travel-contest-winners/

source https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/what-happens-to-social-media-contest-winners-who-travel-for-booze-here-are-their-stories

[isaiahrippinus]

What Happens to Social Media Contest Winners Who Travel for Booze? Here Are Their Stories

When Paul Corgan, a 26-year-old from Portsmouth, N.H., sent his online application to become White Claw’s “best life ambassador” in March 2018, he completed a short blurb and shared a photo and link to his Instagram account. After clicking submit, he forgot about the competition almost immediately.

The contest would grant two winners $60,000 each to travel America for six months. Their only requirement was to document themselves “living their best life” by posting one photo per week to Instagram featuring the up-and-coming hard seltzer brand.

Articles detailing the competition went viral across social media platforms. So by the time Corgan received an email in June 2018 informing him he was one of five finalists being considered for the role, he still assumed his chances of winning were slim. Then, just over a week later, after a Skype interview with the brand’s marketing department, he awoke to an email.

“It just said ‘Congratulations’ as the subject line,” Corgan says. “It was the most exciting thing that had happened to me in my life.”

Contest Marketing: Everyone’s a Winner

For active social media users, competitions like White Claw’s “Best Life Contest” will be a familiar concept. While their prizes often seem too good to be true, the bar for entry is remarkably low.

All that’s usually required is to follow the brand on a social media platform and share a post or photo tagging its account, often using a specific hashtag. In advertising lingo, the concept is known as contest marketing; it’s a savvy promotional strategy and one that an increasing number of alcohol brands are turning to.

Within the past year alone, Natural Light has run a range of social-media-driven competitions with prizes including free beer for a year, $10,000 for a Halloween costume contest, and $1 million to help 25 drinkers pay off their graduate school loans.

Guinness, meanwhile, offered drinkers the keys to their very own Irish pub for a weekend, while Keystone Light launched a “Free Rent” campaign that paid 13 lucky winners’ rents for a year. In May 2019, Busch Beer announced it would contribute $25,000 toward one couple’s wedding ceremony and would send its spokesman, Gerald Downy, better known as “Busch Guy,” as the officiant.

Credit: Megan O’Leary Photography

These contests present a win-win scenario: Contestants commit to a small social media interaction, and brands generate buzz at a fraction of the cost of traditional advertising. Plus, the headline-grabbing nature of the campaigns all but guarantees nationwide coverage from numerous media outlets. (VinePair was one of several drinks publications that picked up the White Claw campaign, and even national news outlets like CNBC covered the contest.)

But while the contests themselves gain widespread coverage, the actual winners often go almost unreported.

When Fox 32 Chicago covered the Busch wedding contest in May 2019, the story received close to 40,000 likes, over 11,000 shares, and upwards of 20,000 comments on Facebook, according to data from content marketing research platform BuzzSumo. Despite such a positive reaction, Fox didn’t bother announcing the winners — the now-wed Abbi and Andrew Roth of Janesville, Wis. — nor did it follow up on the contestants to find out how the big day went.

The only coverage of the Roths’ wedding day appears to be a July 2019 article in Janesville’s Gazette Xtra. “We’re just a couple of regular Joes,” Abbi Roth told the publication. “We never thought this would happen.”

The “Lucky” Winners

While the Roths may be a pair of Busch-Light-loving “regular Joes,” success in other competitions — those that call upon the winner to fulfill a specific role — rely on more than brand alignment or fandom.

Prior to working as a White Claw ambassador, Corgan ran his own company that handled the social media accounts for small restaurants and businesses. He points to luck as a huge factor in winning the Best Life Contest; but he also says his love of travel, which he emphasized in his online application and interview, as well as his photography skills and knowledge of social media, helped him stand out and eventually win the contest.

In August 2018, Mr Fogg’s, a London mini-chain of bars inspired by the novel “Around the World in Eighty Days,” announced it was looking for an adventurous individual to travel the world, drink gin, and collect botanicals to inspire a cocktail for the bar upon their return. The winner would also get to choose a travel companion to join them on their escapade.

Numerous publications (including, again, VinePair) covered the competition, which gained even more online traction after actor and Aviation gin owner Ryan Reynolds tweeted about it.

I’ll do it.

— Ryan Reynolds (@VancityReynolds) August 16, 2018

To enter the competition, candidates applied on Mr. Fogg’s website and had to prove they were social media savvy, over 21 years of age, and skilled at writing and photography. Previous travel experience was also imperative.

“We didn’t think there was any chance we were going to get it because you never do with these things,” Jessica Last, the winning contestant, says. “But at the same time, we did feel all the questions that they asked were really relevant to what we were already doing: We were adventure/travel photographers and bloggers on a very small scale.”

When Last, a 30-something London resident, won the competition, she selected her longtime travel companion Charlie Wild to join her on the trip. The pair had recently returned from an eight-month, around-the-world adventure that they documented together on their blog, The Travel Project, after previously quitting their jobs in advertising.

Mr. Fogg’s enlisted the help of British explorer, writer, and photographer Levison Wood to pick the winners from more than 10,000 applicants. Resumes arrived from across the globe, including New Zealand, the U.S., Argentina, and Bermuda. According to a 2018 interview in trade publication Hospitality & Catering News, Woods picked Last because of her “genuine” passion for travel, and her “beautifully shot” Instagram photos.

Winning the Contest: What Happens Next?

Within two months of finding out he’d won the White Claw contest, Corgan was in the brand’s Chicago headquarters learning about the company values, discussing travel plans, and tasting the difference between White Claw and rival hard seltzer brands.

The aim of the immersion course was to prepare him and the other contest winner for their new, temporary ambassadorial roles. The position, he soon learned, would be remarkably self-driven. “The team over at White Claw was amazing,” he says. “They were really open to our ideas of what we wanted to do and where I wanted to travel.” (Corgan and the other winner traveled independently, but they did cross paths briefly in Denver during the six-month excursion.)

View this post on Instagram

  A post shared by Paul Corgan | Adventure Travel (@paulcorgan) on Aug 14, 2018 at 2:52pm PDT

As advertised, the winners were given the freedom to travel as they pleased, he says. “We just had to share one [Instagram] feed post a week about what we were doing, where we were going, and how we were living our best life with White Claw,” Corgan says.

Last and Wild, meanwhile, were whisked off on the worldwide gin trip in even quicker fashion. Though she doesn’t recall the exact time frame, Last estimates they set off within a few weeks of finding out she’d won in August 2018. The fact they were both working in freelance roles allowed them to drop everything and jet off at a moment’s notice. “It was all a bit of a whirlwind and continued that way till we got back,” she says.

Life on the Road

While Last and Wild’s journey was slightly more prescriptive than Corgan’s adventure (the pair followed in the footsteps of Phileas Fogg, the protagonist in “Around the World in Eighty Days” and the namesake of Mr. Fogg), Last says they were given free rein on what they did in each country they visited (seven in total over a 72-day period).

The highlights of their trip included a visit to an Indian tea plantation in Darjeeling, cycling across eight islands in Japan, learning about micro herbs in Singapore, and discovering the incredible cocktail scene in Mumbai. Perhaps the biggest “high” was taking to the skies in a hot air balloon in the U.S., Last says, adding, “I’ve always wanted to do that.”

Corgan set off from New Hampshire at the end of August 2018 and embarked on a 12,000 mile, three-month road trip across America to the Pacific Northwest, and then south to California. He toured various national parks and also ticked off a major bucket list item along the way.

“My grandfather was a senator in North Dakota back in the ‘30s and he helped establish Grand Teton National Park,” Corgan says.

After the road trip finished, Corgan planned his remaining experiences around the things in life he’s passionate about. He visited New Orleans because of his love of music (Corgan shares piano tutorials on YouTube), went camping in Hawaii, and piloted a plane in Miami. The latter forced him to get creative when it came to sharing the experience on Instagram — “you can’t fly a plane while drinking hard seltzer,” he says — while other unexpected obstacles presented their own challenges.

“There was a time driving through Wyoming where I couldn’t find a single can of White Claw because there was a national shortage,” he says. “A lot of my friends thought I was going around with a truck of White Claw and promoting it at fairs and stuff.”

In reality, Corgan purchased the cans for his photos on the road, so when the shortage hit, “I had to just travel until I found a liquor store that had some,” he says. “They were sold out for miles and miles, so I just postponed shooting that week.”

View this post on Instagram

  A post shared by Paul Corgan | Adventure Travel (@paulcorgan) on Jan 24, 2019 at 6:04pm PST

Luck Favors the Experienced

When the first deposit for his White Claw adventure landed in his bank account, Corgan was on the shop floor of a men’s clothing store where he supplemented the income from his social media business as a part-time sales associate. “It was the craziest moment ‘cause I was there selling stuff, but I was smiling so much,” he recalls. “I was like, ‘O.K., I don’t have to be here at all.’”

After his six-month gig, Corgan started a new content creation company, Content Club Co., providing curated photos and videos for brands he feels strongly about, like Timberland, La Colombe, and Underwood.

“My life is completely different now than it would have been had I not won,” Corgan says.

So was it luck or skill? Probably a combination of the two. But if you find yourself procrastinating on social media and stumble across an alcohol-fueled opportunity of a lifetime, just remember: It could be you.

The article What Happens to Social Media Contest Winners Who Travel for Booze? Here Are Their Stories appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/viral-alcohol-travel-contest-winners/ source https://vinology1.tumblr.com/post/190645703179

[wineanddinosaur]

What Happens to Social Media Contest Winners Who Travel for Booze? Here Are Their Stories

When Paul Corgan, a 26-year-old from Portsmouth, N.H., sent his online application to become White Claw’s “best life ambassador” in March 2018, he completed a short blurb and shared a photo and link to his Instagram account. After clicking submit, he forgot about the competition almost immediately.

The contest would grant two winners $60,000 each to travel America for six months. Their only requirement was to document themselves “living their best life” by posting one photo per week to Instagram featuring the up-and-coming hard seltzer brand.

Articles detailing the competition went viral across social media platforms. So by the time Corgan received an email in June 2018 informing him he was one of five finalists being considered for the role, he still assumed his chances of winning were slim. Then, just over a week later, after a Skype interview with the brand’s marketing department, he awoke to an email.

“It just said ‘Congratulations’ as the subject line,” Corgan says. “It was the most exciting thing that had happened to me in my life.”

Contest Marketing: Everyone’s a Winner

For active social media users, competitions like White Claw’s “Best Life Contest” will be a familiar concept. While their prizes often seem too good to be true, the bar for entry is remarkably low.

All that’s usually required is to follow the brand on a social media platform and share a post or photo tagging its account, often using a specific hashtag. In advertising lingo, the concept is known as contest marketing; it’s a savvy promotional strategy and one that an increasing number of alcohol brands are turning to.

Within the past year alone, Natural Light has run a range of social-media-driven competitions with prizes including free beer for a year, $10,000 for a Halloween costume contest, and $1 million to help 25 drinkers pay off their graduate school loans.

Guinness, meanwhile, offered drinkers the keys to their very own Irish pub for a weekend, while Keystone Light launched a “Free Rent” campaign that paid 13 lucky winners’ rents for a year. In May 2019, Busch Beer announced it would contribute $25,000 toward one couple’s wedding ceremony and would send its spokesman, Gerald Downy, better known as “Busch Guy,” as the officiant.

Credit: Megan O’Leary Photography

These contests present a win-win scenario: Contestants commit to a small social media interaction, and brands generate buzz at a fraction of the cost of traditional advertising. Plus, the headline-grabbing nature of the campaigns all but guarantees nationwide coverage from numerous media outlets. (VinePair was one of several drinks publications that picked up the White Claw campaign, and even national news outlets like CNBC covered the contest.)

But while the contests themselves gain widespread coverage, the actual winners often go almost unreported.

When Fox 32 Chicago covered the Busch wedding contest in May 2019, the story received close to 40,000 likes, over 11,000 shares, and upwards of 20,000 comments on Facebook, according to data from content marketing research platform BuzzSumo. Despite such a positive reaction, Fox didn’t bother announcing the winners — the now-wed Abbi and Andrew Roth of Janesville, Wis. — nor did it follow up on the contestants to find out how the big day went.

The only coverage of the Roths’ wedding day appears to be a July 2019 article in Janesville’s Gazette Xtra. “We’re just a couple of regular Joes,” Abbi Roth told the publication. “We never thought this would happen.”

The “Lucky” Winners

While the Roths may be a pair of Busch-Light-loving “regular Joes,” success in other competitions — those that call upon the winner to fulfill a specific role — rely on more than brand alignment or fandom.

Prior to working as a White Claw ambassador, Corgan ran his own company that handled the social media accounts for small restaurants and businesses. He points to luck as a huge factor in winning the Best Life Contest; but he also says his love of travel, which he emphasized in his online application and interview, as well as his photography skills and knowledge of social media, helped him stand out and eventually win the contest.

In August 2018, Mr Fogg’s, a London mini-chain of bars inspired by the novel “Around the World in Eighty Days,” announced it was looking for an adventurous individual to travel the world, drink gin, and collect botanicals to inspire a cocktail for the bar upon their return. The winner would also get to choose a travel companion to join them on their escapade.

Numerous publications (including, again, VinePair) covered the competition, which gained even more online traction after actor and Aviation gin owner Ryan Reynolds tweeted about it.

I’ll do it.

— Ryan Reynolds (@VancityReynolds) August 16, 2018

To enter the competition, candidates applied on Mr. Fogg’s website and had to prove they were social media savvy, over 21 years of age, and skilled at writing and photography. Previous travel experience was also imperative.

“We didn’t think there was any chance we were going to get it because you never do with these things,” Jessica Last, the winning contestant, says. “But at the same time, we did feel all the questions that they asked were really relevant to what we were already doing: We were adventure/travel photographers and bloggers on a very small scale.”

When Last, a 30-something London resident, won the competition, she selected her longtime travel companion Charlie Wild to join her on the trip. The pair had recently returned from an eight-month, around-the-world adventure that they documented together on their blog, The Travel Project, after previously quitting their jobs in advertising.

Mr. Fogg’s enlisted the help of British explorer, writer, and photographer Levison Wood to pick the winners from more than 10,000 applicants. Resumes arrived from across the globe, including New Zealand, the U.S., Argentina, and Bermuda. According to a 2018 interview in trade publication Hospitality & Catering News, Woods picked Last because of her “genuine” passion for travel, and her “beautifully shot” Instagram photos.

Winning the Contest: What Happens Next?

Within two months of finding out he’d won the White Claw contest, Corgan was in the brand’s Chicago headquarters learning about the company values, discussing travel plans, and tasting the difference between White Claw and rival hard seltzer brands.

The aim of the immersion course was to prepare him and the other contest winner for their new, temporary ambassadorial roles. The position, he soon learned, would be remarkably self-driven. “The team over at White Claw was amazing,” he says. “They were really open to our ideas of what we wanted to do and where I wanted to travel.” (Corgan and the other winner traveled independently, but they did cross paths briefly in Denver during the six-month excursion.)

  View this post on Instagram

  A post shared by Paul Corgan | Adventure Travel (@paulcorgan) on Aug 14, 2018 at 2:52pm PDT

As advertised, the winners were given the freedom to travel as they pleased, he says. “We just had to share one [Instagram] feed post a week about what we were doing, where we were going, and how we were living our best life with White Claw,” Corgan says.

Last and Wild, meanwhile, were whisked off on the worldwide gin trip in even quicker fashion. Though she doesn’t recall the exact time frame, Last estimates they set off within a few weeks of finding out she’d won in August 2018. The fact they were both working in freelance roles allowed them to drop everything and jet off at a moment’s notice. “It was all a bit of a whirlwind and continued that way till we got back,” she says.

Life on the Road

While Last and Wild’s journey was slightly more prescriptive than Corgan’s adventure (the pair followed in the footsteps of Phileas Fogg, the protagonist in “Around the World in Eighty Days” and the namesake of Mr. Fogg), Last says they were given free rein on what they did in each country they visited (seven in total over a 72-day period).

The highlights of their trip included a visit to an Indian tea plantation in Darjeeling, cycling across eight islands in Japan, learning about micro herbs in Singapore, and discovering the incredible cocktail scene in Mumbai. Perhaps the biggest “high” was taking to the skies in a hot air balloon in the U.S., Last says, adding, “I’ve always wanted to do that.”

Corgan set off from New Hampshire at the end of August 2018 and embarked on a 12,000 mile, three-month road trip across America to the Pacific Northwest, and then south to California. He toured various national parks and also ticked off a major bucket list item along the way.

“My grandfather was a senator in North Dakota back in the ‘30s and he helped establish Grand Teton National Park,” Corgan says.

After the road trip finished, Corgan planned his remaining experiences around the things in life he’s passionate about. He visited New Orleans because of his love of music (Corgan shares piano tutorials on YouTube), went camping in Hawaii, and piloted a plane in Miami. The latter forced him to get creative when it came to sharing the experience on Instagram — “you can’t fly a plane while drinking hard seltzer,” he says — while other unexpected obstacles presented their own challenges.

“There was a time driving through Wyoming where I couldn’t find a single can of White Claw because there was a national shortage,” he says. “A lot of my friends thought I was going around with a truck of White Claw and promoting it at fairs and stuff.”

In reality, Corgan purchased the cans for his photos on the road, so when the shortage hit, “I had to just travel until I found a liquor store that had some,” he says. “They were sold out for miles and miles, so I just postponed shooting that week.”

  View this post on Instagram

  A post shared by Paul Corgan | Adventure Travel (@paulcorgan) on Jan 24, 2019 at 6:04pm PST

Luck Favors the Experienced

When the first deposit for his White Claw adventure landed in his bank account, Corgan was on the shop floor of a men’s clothing store where he supplemented the income from his social media business as a part-time sales associate. “It was the craziest moment ‘cause I was there selling stuff, but I was smiling so much,” he recalls. “I was like, ‘O.K., I don’t have to be here at all.’”

After his six-month gig, Corgan started a new content creation company, Content Club Co., providing curated photos and videos for brands he feels strongly about, like Timberland, La Colombe, and Underwood.

“My life is completely different now than it would have been had I not won,” Corgan says.

So was it luck or skill? Probably a combination of the two. But if you find yourself procrastinating on social media and stumble across an alcohol-fueled opportunity of a lifetime, just remember: It could be you.

The article What Happens to Social Media Contest Winners Who Travel for Booze? Here Are Their Stories appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/viral-alcohol-travel-contest-winners/

[gethealthy18-blog]

How To Dress Like A Bollywood Bride On Your Wedding

New Post has been published on http://healingawerness.com/getting-healthy/getting-healthy-women/how-to-dress-like-a-bollywood-bride-on-your-wedding/

How To Dress Like A Bollywood Bride On Your Wedding

Shivani K January 8, 2019

2018 has been the year of Bollywood weddings. Be it Deepika Padukone, Priyanka Chopra, Neha Dhupia, or Sonam Kapoor — all these Bollywood divas reigned the Internet with their amazing wedding pictures. Their bridal looks not only became the talk of the tinsel town, but they also became an inspiration for all the eager brides-to-be across the country. Each of these Bollywood divas looked like a dream on the day of their weddings.

In India, where weddings are nothing short of a festival for the families, the brides themselves have to achieve unachievable limits of perfection. And they often seek to achieve this by trying to incorporate the elements from their Bollywood counterparts’ weddings as those have set the highest standard for weddings across the country. And of late, the trend of styling bridal outfits by taking inspiration from the B-town celebrities has

picked up steam. Right from designers to the local tailors, all the sartorial creators have given their creations Bollywood names like the Padmavati lehenga or the Nawabi suits, etc. If you’re looking to dress up like a Bollywood bride for your wedding, then here’s the way you could do it. We’ve put together a quick guide for you to help you with your wedding dress woes and plan your wedding in a much calmer manner. Read this to find your way to the bridal-fashion heaven.

1. Pick Your Favorite Bollywood Bride

Almost every year, we come across Bollywood actresses getting married. And thanks to the hard work of the paparazzi, we are able to see their wedding outfits in great detail. So, do your research on the net. Dig out images of your favorite Bollywood divas in their wedding attire and get those pictures printed. Lay them out in front of you. You can even opt from Bollywood reel weddings too. From real to reel life bridal looks, Bollywood definitely has a wide array of options to offer. So, pick whatever you love. Pick whatever makes your heart skip a beat and say, “This is how I want to look on my wedding day.”

2. Pick A Bollywood Theme For Your Wedding Dress

If the first option did not work for you, then we would advise you to consider a theme. Pick a wedding theme for yourself — retro, traditional, royal, contemporary, indo-western, etc. Once you’ve figured out the theme, you’re likely to have a better idea about the kind of style you’d want for your wedding dress. Pick your favorite Bollywood celeb’s look according to the theme, and then finalize. If you’re looking for something royal, then check out Aishwarya’s look in Jodha Akbar or Deepika’s in Padmavat movie. If you need a contemporary look then check Kareena’s look in Veere Di Wedding movie.

For a south Indian wedding look, you can take inspiration from Shilpa Shetty Kundra, Isha Deol, and many such Bollywood celebs who have their origins from South India.

3. Next Comes The Hairstyle Game

You cannot replicate the exact look of your favorite Bollywood diva, especially when it comes to your hairstyle. This is because your hair length might differ, or you might not be able to afford the same hairstylist and other such issues. That said, a way out of this would be if you pick an element from the hairstyle of your Bollywood diva, and incorporate it in your hairstyle. It could be as simple as using fresh flowers in your hairdo. If you think you can’t plait your hair and add fresh flowers to it, you can tie your hair up in a bun, and cover it with fresh flowers instead. So, first pick the hairstyle — it could be a plait, free-flowing hair, bun, etc. and then decide if you want to accessorise it with flowers or jewelry.

4. The Fun Part — The Jewelry

The jewelry is an important element of the bridal outfit, in fact, it’s the jewelry that pulls the look together. So, keep in mind your Bollywood theme, and your hairstyle while choosing the jewelry. Whether you are opting for layered jewelery or a simple choker, make sure you are comfortable wearing it. You don’t want to go through the agony of pain to look like a dream. Accessorize your dress smartly. Even when it comes to mang tika or the nath, pick one which not only makes you look beautiful but is comfortable for you as well. You definitely need your stylist’s or even better, your best friend’s opinions here.

5. The Dress

Now that you’ve put together a vision of your perfect wedding ensemble all that remains is to convert it into reality, in keeping with your budget. For this, you will have to note the color, the material, the pattern, the embroidery, and the design of the dress and try to replicate it. Sit with your designer and figure out how you can make your wedding dress a reality.

When you know what you want, half the work is already done. It’s your wedding look. Chalk out the steps and get on with it. Happy shopping!

Which Bollywood celeb do you want to look like on your wedding? Let us know in the comments below.

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