Judges

Liz Stanley blogs daily at Say Yes to Hoboken, a style and crafts site, when she's not camping under the Golden Gate Bridge with her husband and son or digging for treasures at local thrift stores. She writes for Apartment Therapy, Babble's Family Style site, and Momtastic. Her work has also been featured by Real Simple, HGTV, Parents Magazine, and Elle Decor.

Stephanie Brubaker has been delighting readers of her acclaimed design and lifestyle blog, Stephmodo, for more than four years, with original recipes, valuable tips and a healthy dose of “pretty.” It's a happy coincidence that in 2009, Stephanie and her husband embarked on a life changing project, renovating a 400-year-old stone cottage in southern France that once served as the small village's bakery. She and her family now call Seattle their home and on any given afternoon you can find Steph in the kitchen attempting to create something interesting, delicious, and palatable to her 4 young children.

Alison Pincus is the Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of One Kings Lane. A digital media veteran, Alison was inspired to co-create One Kings Lane to converge her passion for e-shopping and design. Alison oversees business development and strategic partnerships. In this role, Alison and her team are driving alliances with web upstarts, media properties, ecommerce entities and talent to grow membership, increase brand awareness, and enhance the shopping experience at One Kings Lane. Alison serves as a spokesperson and evangelist for One Kings Lane. Previously, Alison held digital marketing and business development positions at The Walt Disney Company, NBC and Hachette Filipacchi. Alison received her MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management and her BS from UC Berkeley. As a food lover, Alison was ecstatic to be included in Food & Wine's “40 Under 40” in 2010. She loves the outdoors and wishes she had more time to tweet and FB about her favorite new discoveries.

Mary Jo Bowling works for McEvoy Media, where she covers the best of California design and architecture for California Home+Design and writes about the unique, stylish and sometimes quirky nuptials of the Golden State for 7x7 Weddings. She's also worked for Better Homes & Gardens and Sunset magazine.

Christina Vance Brian is the editor of the blog Full House which often highlights life at home as well as ramblings about design with an emphasis on home decor. Christina feels lucky to have rolled a full house in real life with her twin girls and her triplet boys. She loves trying to see life through the eyes of her children and can often be found taking the kids out to explore. Christina is known for making things look great on a budget and has been featured on numerous worldwide design sites, AZ Magazine, Arizona Foothills Magazine as well the Arizona Republic.

Jen Campbell, a formally trained graphic designer, started Green Wedding Shoes in October of 2008. GWS was born out of Jen’s desire to help brides dream up and enjoy weddings that reflect their personal interests and sense of style. GWS has since grown to become one of the most popular wedding blogs today. As the Editor and Creative Director of GWS, Jen works closely with top wedding industry talent and creative brides to showcase innovative and unique weddings, style photo shoots, and identify trends that give brides-to-be daily inspiration as they plan their big day. Green Wedding Shoes is currently one of the top wedding blogs and continues to inspire thousands of brides daily with their unique real weddings, creative-styled shoot features, DIY projects, inspiration boards, and curated vendor guide.

Shawna Gohel is the Founder and CEO of Maharaniweddings.com, a wedding blog focused on lavish Indian weddings. Founded in 2008, Maharaniweddings.com has grown to be the go-to place for chic, modern Indian brides and the largest Indian wedding blog globally. Maharani Weddings is a place where Bollywood style and Indian traditions exist in perfect harmony, giving Indian brides a wealth of resources and inspiration to plan their dream wedding.

Naoise McNally and Susan Gallagher are the creators of One Fab Day, Ireland's online wedding magazine. Naoise is a Digital Project Manager, with extensive experience in online marketing and development, and Susan a highly-respected independent web designer and developer.

One Fab Day originally started as a hobby in late 2009 when Sue was about to get married and Naoise had just gotten engaged, and the two friends seemed to be spending a lot of time online and flicking through magazines for stylish, contemporary, fashion-forward wedding inspiration. But accessible and affordable ideas for an Irish or UK-based bride seemed thin on the ground. So the pair decided to put their professional expertise and ongoing wedding research to good use and create a blog to help other Irish brides, grooms, and wedding guests navigate their way through the production of a wedding. One Fab Day could be summed up in two words: inspiration and information—helping Irish brides, and those planning to get married in Ireland, turn their dream day into a reality (without breaking the bank!).

Fri Forjindam’s vision to create an online resource for intercultural brides and multi-ethnic weddings has expanded from a blog to global-infused magazine publication at Wedding Nouveau. Fri's creativity and vision have been the driving forces behind the ultimate style guide for modern fusion brides, willing to showcase style and heritage in a way that dares to dream in culture. Since its founding in 2009, Wedding Nouveau has distinguished itself by being the leading bridal resource for intercultural, interfaith and multi-ethnic weddings. By collaborating with photographers, designers and real couples around the world, Wedding Nouveau strives to inspire couples of different ethnic backgrounds with confidence as they plan their big day.

Born and raised in Cameroon, Fri moved to New Orleans as a teenager. So began her introduction to a series of travel experiences that would later inform her passion. After graduating from Columbia University's School of the Arts in New York, Fri Forjindam began her career as a theatre artist in the Big Apple, but always maintained her passion for creative writing, unique style, design, and learning about new cultures. In the last 15 years, through her tours to many countries around the world, she has come to appreciate and realize the beauty of mixing it up. Fri currently resides in Los Angeles with her husband Phillip Bailey, and their 2 year old daughter, Nahla Sophie.

Cathleya Schroeckenstein is the Editor-in-Chief of Weddingbee.com, a wedding blog site featuring real brides’ wedding planning journeys from engagement to “I Do” and beyond. Weddingbee is one of the most widely read wedding blogs, with over 14 million pageviews per month (July 2011) and growing. Cathleya blogged about her own wedding planning journey in 2008, turned her hobby into her career, and encourages well-written women from all around the world to join her at Weddingbee in documenting their engagements. She's passionate about sharing (sometimes oversharing), and enabling brides to discuss all things wedding planning. Her hobbies include paying full price for clothing and falsely claiming she purchased things on sale and eating raw fish from questionable sources—she is known to regularly ride a bicycle that gets her nowhere three days a week.

Cyd Converse is the Editor and Creative Director of The Sweetest Occasion, a lifestyle blog focused on design inspiration for weddings, celebrations, and parties. Founded in 2008, The Sweetest Occasion is a go-to destination for design-savvy brides, newlyweds, young moms and hostesses on the hunt for fashionable design ideas. A devoted readership comes for content covering a highly edited range of wedding ideas, party inspirations, paper and stationery, handmade goods, entertaining, décor, and featured events of all shapes and sizes. In addition to The Sweetest Occasion, Cyd can also be found offering creative design and styling services through her event design business, Sweet Occasions Studio, and working with creative professionals on perfecting their marketing and branding through her newest venture, Sweet Creative Co.

Heather Lee is Associate Editor at Brides.com, where she covers all things wedding stationery-related. She loves Gocco, letterpressed anything, and MUJI pens. Her favorite time of the year is May, when the National Stationery Show comes to New York City.

Nole Garey is the founder and editor of Oh So Beautiful Paper, a daily website dedicated to stationery and design. Launched in September of 2008, Oh So Beautiful Paper is among the Top 20 wedding blogs in the United States and a daily resource for brides, magazine editors, and design professionals around the world. In 2009, Oh So Beautiful Paper was named one of the Top 50 design blogs in the world by Times Online UK. Oh So Beautiful Paper features wedding invitations, social stationery, greeting and holiday cards, business collateral, artwork, and studio tours among other design-related content.

Summer Watkins is a stylist for commercial, editorial, and lifestyle photo shoots, preferring to spend her creative energies fashioning activities, ideas, projects, artists, and relationships into photo-worthy subjects. Under the guise of her nom de plume, GREY, stylist and curator, Summer also compiles and blogs stylishly handsome finds for voracious lovers of the good and pretty at Grey Likes Weddings, Grey Likes Nesting, and Grey Likes Baby. She’s an advocate for the proper treatment of details and is over the moon for fierce creativity, brave color palettes, and fashion inspired motifs. Most of all, Grey Likes LOVE. Well-Styled.

Nicole is the bestselling author of three books, the latest of which, Girl on Top: Your Guide to Turning Dating Rules into Career Success, has been optioned by Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen, the producers behind the Academy Award winning films American Beauty and Milk. Nicole was recently named LinkedIn's Connection Director. The company she founded, WORKS by Nicole Williams, is the go-to resource for career-minded young women and was named one of Forbes magazine's Top 10 Career Websites for Women. You’ve seen her on TV— as a regular guest on Today, Good Morning America, and CNN—and in print, where her advice has appeared on the pages of ELLE, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Marie Claire and the Wall Street Journal. She is also Shape magazine's career contributor, where she'll continue to spread her sexy mix of dating tips turned career strategies to young women everywhere.

Tory Johnson’s career path can be traced to the pain of a pink slip. She dropped out of Emerson College for a chance to work at ABC News and then jumped to NBC News, only to be fired unexpectedly a couple years later. The permanent scar from that experience inspired her to shift from employee to entrepreneur and in 1999 she founded Women For Hire. Now in its 12th year, the company hosts high caliber diversity career expos across the country, attracting talented women and leading employers. Last year, she launched Spark & Hustle to serve current and aspiring small business owners through conferences and coaching programs. As the workplace contributor on ABC’s Good Morning America, Tory is a favorite among viewers who appreciate her no-nonsense career advice. She’s a New York Times bestselling author who lives with her family in New York City.

Founder and CEO of Giggle

Ali Wing is the founder and CEO of new parent store giggle.com and the author of giggle guide to baby gear. Alis is also an advocate for today's new parents. By offering smarter solutions, providing information and building a parenting community, Ali has made giggle a resource destination. In addition to smarter products, giggle offers customized services to help make it easier to become a new parent, such as giggle personal shoppers and giggle's ultimate baby registry, offering parents a robust set of tools such as gear guides, starter checklists and a baby gear dictionary. She serves as a parenting resource through both her published works and her speeches, helping new parents navigate the glut of choices out there and find only what they need, when they need it.

Because of her extensive product knowledge, Ali is a regular speaker on lifestyle topics for parents for outlets, including Real Simple and Bloomberg Link, has appeared on The Martha Stewart Show as their baby product expert and on Fox Business News as a small business expert. She has also written the what-to-get-when- you’re-expecting guidebook on baby products, giggle guide to baby gear (Chronicle Books, 2008). Ali is also a columnist for The Bump and Glam; has contributed to other media, including BabyTalk, Working Mother and eHow; was part of USA Today’s CEO Roundtable; and is co-author of the lilaguide baby gear buyer's guide, the Zagat's of baby gear.From general advice for each gear category to lifestyle tips about individual products, her expertise helps provide context for the peer reviews.

Ali was born in Northern California and raised in Montana, where she was one of nine children, five of whom were adopted from different cultures. With a lifelong focus on healthy living and community, she's been a champion of ecological issues and leader in seeking out organic products from the beginning.

President and Executive Creative Director, J.Crew Group,Inc.

Her vision expands beyond heading up Men’s, Women’s & Crewcuts Design, and now also oversees the catalog, store design as well as jcrew.com and Madewell. Jenna’s creativity and vision has been an integral part of the recent turnaround at J.Crew. She has been the driving force behind the organic launch and evolution of J.Crew Weddings and Parties, as well as J.Crew Collection, the newest capsule collection of limited-edition exceptional quality garments; and most recently has lead the design of J.Crew’s most recent family addition, crewcuts (for ages 2-14).

After graduating from Parsons School of Design, Jenna Lyons began her career with an internship at Donna Karan. She then joined J.Crew as one of the first members of the design team under founder Emily Woods, where she has grown up along with J.Crew over the past 20 years.

She currently resides in Brooklyn with her husband Vincent Mazeau, and her 4 year old, Beckett Lyons Mazeau.

CEO, Apartment Therapy Media

Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan is an interior designer, author and the founder of Apartment Therapy, originally an interior design service and now a network of blogs devoted to helping people make their homes beautiful, organized, and healthy.In April 2004, Maxwell, with his brother Oliver Ryan, launched apartmenttherapy.com, one of the most popular and influential design blogs in the country. Today, Apartment Therapy Media is a premier network of blogs dedicated to the home. The network consists of five blogs - apartmenttherapy, thekitchn, ohdeedoh, unplggd, re-nest - each covering a major area of the home.

The New York Times calls Maxwell "one part interior designer, one part life coach". He is the author of Apartment Therapy: The Eight Step Home Cure (Bantam, 2006), and Apartment Therapy Presents: Real Homes, Real People, Hundreds of Design Solutions (Chronicle, 2008), as well as Apartment Therapy’s Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces, a forthcoming book from Clarkson-Potter (May, 2010). Maxwell was a regular commentator on the House & Garden Television show, Small Space, Big Style. He also appeared on HGTV's Mission Organization and has been interviewed in various publications including The New York Times, The New York Post, The New York Observer, and The Wall Street Journal.

Mrs. Kelley Lilien is a graphic designer, wife, stylist, mother of two, and the mastermind behind Mrs. Lilien, a multifaceted aspirational brand that extends across online and print media. The Mrs. Lilien Styling House blog is a destination for the indulgent lifestyle enthusiast that delivers a daily smattering of delicious brilliance. The blog boasts a vibrant milieu that is carefully curated with an advantageous “Mrs.” aesthetic in mind. Through fantastical imagery and punchy graphics, and poetic prose, the Mrs. Lilien styling house blog serves as an explosively optimistic lifestyle utopia.

Kristin van Ogtrop was named Managing Editor of Real Simple in March 2003. Under her leadership, the magazine has achieved popular and critical acclaim. In addition to leading the magazine, van Ogtrop oversees all brand extensions, which have grown to include a robust website with unique, daily content; popular special issues, including Real Simple Family and Real Simple Weddings; books; licensed products; and mobile apps.

Before joining Real Simple, van Ogtrop was Executive Editor of Glamour. Previously she held positions at Vogue, Travel & Leisure and Premiere. She has served as an instructor at Columbia University’s Publishing Course and New York University’s Summer Publishing Institute. Her essays and articles have appeared in a variety of publications, and in The New York Times bestseller, The Bitch in the House.

Kristin’s book Just Let Me Lie Down: Necessary Terms for the Half-Insane Working Mom was published in hardcover last April by Little, Brown and came out in paperback this spring.

Alan is the Chairman of the Hong Kong Ambassadors of Design, a non-profit dedicated to capturing the creative imagination of the publicFounded in 2006, the Ambassadors are a group of individuals that advocate for Hong Kong as a design hub. . The group believes that cultural and creative experiences enliven societies and foster growth. Working together with the Hong Kong Design Centre, they generate enthusiasm in creative ventures in Hong Kong, and promote design and culture with a dynamic and educational approach. Besides his role as Ambassador Chairman since 2008, Alan is active in promoting design, creativity and tourism in Hong Kong, serving ART HK (advisory group member since 2009), Tourism Strategy Group (non-official member since 2008), Business Facilitation Advisory Committee (non-official member since 2009), 2009 Hong Kong-Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture (curator for arts, city integration & events) and Hong Kong Arts Development Council (council member since 2011). Alan Lo is also the co-founder and director of Hong Kong-based Press Room Group, owner and operator of The Press Room, Classified, The Pawn, and SML. He holds an AB in architecture from Princeton University.

Guest Judges Kate Swan Malin and Levina Li-Cadman are co-founders of Yummy Mummy Asia, the insider’s guide to motherhood with style throughout the Far East. Updated daily, Kate and Levina help Hong Kong mothers navigate and keep pace with the modern, ever-changing world of parenting in one of the most dynamic cities in the world. Originally from the coast of Maine, Kate began her career in New York City at one of the city’s most prestigious law firms before joining American Express Publishing, where she spent several years in the company’s Public Relations office working on luxury magazine titles such as Travel + Leisure and Food & Wine. She later joined the Public Relations team at Christie’s auction house and handled media campaigns for some of the world’s most iconic works of art. When Kate and her husband moved to Hong Kong in 2008, she joined the Public Relations office at Christie’s Hong Kong. Born and raised in Hong Kong, Levina is Yummy Mummy Asia’s chief insider and the source for what’s happening in Hong Kong. With a Business Administration degree from Pepperdine University, she specializes in business development across Asia Pacific, working for blue-chip prestige brands such as Elite Model Management, Cartoon Network/Turner Entertainment, Lanvin, Financial Times, and Christie’s. Besides her work for Yummy Mummy, Levina also consults for clients in art, design, and luxury goods industries.

Kaamna Bhojwani-Dhawan is the founder and CEO of Momaboard.com, an online community for parents traveling with young children. She was born and brought up in Mumbai, India, has lived in Sydney, Australia, and currently resides in San Francisco. Kaamna is a mother, a dancer, and always an entrepreneur, looking for the next creative endeavor to partner with or support.

Ponn Sabra is a highly-prolific public health official-turned-best-selling author, internet marketer, and columnist who has been featured in the Associated Press, Washington Post, Fox, ABC News and other major media outlets. Founder and Owner of American Muslim Mom, the #1 online community for American Muslim Moms, Sabra shares homeschooling, green, natural, high-tech, frugal, world-traveling, social media tips, tools, contests and much more. Sabra also offers numerous free products, such as her ebook "Balancing Life as a Muslim Mom", American Muslim Mom podcast, tutorials, and videos. The mission of American Muslim Mom is to enlighten, educate and empower American Muslim Moms to action.

A professional cook and freelance writer, Samin Nosrat looks to tradition, culture and history for inspiration. Trained in the Chez Panisse kitchen, she cooked there for several years before moving to Italy, where she worked closely with the Tuscan butcher Dario Cecchini and chef Benedetta Vitali for nearly two years. She spent five years as the sous chef and "farmwife" at Eccolo restaurant, butchering, brining, and preserving nearly everything in an effort to make the restaurant as self-sustaining as possible. In 2010, she co-founded Pop-Up General Store in Oakland. Samin is also teaching a class this spring on the traditions and symbolism behind the Persian New Year celebrations. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, Vogue, Wallpaper, NPR, and San Francisco Magazine, while her own writing has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, Meatpaper, and Edible San Francisco, as well as on her blog, Ciao Samin

Melissa Milrad Goldstein is the Beauty Director for Better Homes & Gardens. She joined Better Homes & Gardens in November 2005 to spearhead the creation and launch of the magazine’s beauty and fashion editorial coverage. As the Style department evolved, she chose to focus her attention solely on the magazine’s beauty coverage. Prior to that she had spent 8 years as the senior editor for beauty, health, and jewelry at Town & Country magazine. A self-professed chemistry and science nerd, Melissa is often taking industry scientists to task over their ingredients and formulation and professes that if she knew she’d be doing this for a living, she’d have paid much more attention in her chemistry and biology classes. When she’s not knee-deep in boxes, product mailings, or trying to dig her way out of the beauty closet, she can be found posting pictures of her three kids on Facebook.

Erin Loechner publishes Design for Mankind, which was honored as one of the London Times‘s top 50 design blogs in the world. Her work has been featured in Glamour, Lucky, Dwell, Readymade, Nylon, Print Magazine, Apartment Therapy, and The Huffington Post, among others. She currently hosts a renovation column on HGTV.com, where she catalogs her experiences as an impromptu interior designer.

Caitlin Flemming is the editor and founder behind the lifestyle blog Sacramento Street. On a day-to-day basis she shares what inspires her in interiors, fashion, travel, photography and anything that comes her way. Today, when she’s not writing her lifestyle blog, she’s traveling the world and streets of San Francisco for the latest design finds. Caitlin's work has been featured in the San Francisco Chronicle and 7x7 Magazine.

Meg Keene blogs at A Practical Wedding. Her First book, A Practical Wedding, a wedding planning handbook for normal people, will be released by Da Capo Press in December 2011. She has been quoted by CNN and Glamour Magazine, and her work has been cited by ReadyMade, NPR, and Feministing.com, among others. Recently, she contributed a sidebar to Offbeat Bride: Creative Alternatives for Independent Brides. Meg attended NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and previously worked in New York in Off-Broadway theater management.

Amanda Nistor is the founder and editor of Ruffled, a blog for the vintage-inspired, eco-friendly and all around creative brides. She started Ruffled in 2008 as a source of inspiration for vintage brides planning their weddings, and today she calls it her full time job. Prior to Ruffled, Nistor worked at the marketing department of a popular fashion magazine. In addition to spending her days blogging stylish weddings, she is working on new projects for Ruffled which includes an online bridal boutique, launching next year.

Amy Eisinger is the assistant editor at The Knot, TheKnot.com and WeddingChannel.com, the nation's leading network of wedding resources. As assistant editor, Amy is responsible for researching, writing and reporting on everything to do with Real Weddings, from local affairs to destination weddings around the globe. She works with the industry’s top event planners, florists and cake bakers to provide the latest up-to-date trends and ideas for future brides and grooms. Amy also writes and manages the MyDIYWeddingDay blog exclusively for WeddingChannel.com, which includes creative ideas about everything from invitation designs to centerpieces.

Anne Sage is San Francisco-based stylist, blogger and editor. In 2008, she founded The City Sage, a blog that features daily inspiration for fashion and interior design. The City Sage was named in the September 2010 issue of Martha Stewart Living as a Site to Bookmark, and it has been identified as one of the Top 15 Design Blogs in the World by Cote Maison France. Anne is also the co-founder and executive editor of Rue Magazine, an online interiors and entertaining publication with a fashion and lifestyle sensibility. When she’s not hopping a plane to produce photo shoots for Rue, she’s taking road trips with her husband, snuggling her two mischievous cats, and torturing herself with Jillian Michaels’ workout DVD’s.

Marcy Blum is a conceptualist, event planner, entertaining expert and author. Marcy crafts every event with her own distinctive brand of unpretentious elegance, and an almost-preternatural ability to visualize space. And she has planned many young adult parties in her long career. Marcy’s impressive portfolio includes the weddings of Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick, Salman Rushdie and Padma Lakshmi, Billy Joel and Katie Lee, and Samantha Bryant and Colin Hanks. Other clients include the Rockefeller, Icahn and Philbin families, as well as many of the country’s most prestigious companies. See more at www.marcyblum.com.

Mary Kate Steinmiller is the Fashion Market Editor for Teen Vogue Magazine. A graduate of Parsons School of Design, she has contributed to Teen Vogue for 6 years. She has her own jewelry line that has been featured in many editorials and retails at Fred Segal, LA and Charlotte Ronson, NYC. See more at www.teenvogue.com.

Lisa Gaché is the foremost etiquette, manners and life skills expert for children from a parenting perspective. The Los Angeles Times named her company, Beverly Hills Manners, the etiquette school to “teach kids to be polite.” This educational and entertainment company, founded in 2006, is recognized for its new school approach to etiquette and manners. Gaché’s relatable persona and style makes learning manners relevant, entertaining, fun, interactive and informative.

Her straightforward and doable advice has been featured on CNN, NPR and “The Today Show” and in popular blogs and websites such as AOL, The Huffington Post, SheKnows.com and MomLogic.com, as well as numerous parenting websites from ParentsAsk to LAMomMagazine. Gaché is also known for addressing themes regarding why manners, self-awareness and responsibility for one’s actions are so important in a media-driven age that glamorizes undesirable young high profile role models. See more at www.beverlyhillsmanners.com.

Lilliana Vazquez is the founder of The CheapChica’s Guide to Style (http://cheapchicas.com), an online fashion resource that is the go-to destination for fashionistas on a budget. Known for her ability to provide informative and relatable fashion commentary, Lilliana is also recognized as an established style expert and host by top national media outlets including ABC, FOX, the Style Network and Univision. Currently Lilliana is a fashion and style correspondent for NBC 4 in New York and NBC 10 in Philadelphia. She also hosts the popular morning show, “Better Philly" and frequently covers red carpet events, movie premieres, fashion shows, and interviews today's leading actors, musicians, designers and directors.

Kelly’s loved art and design for as long as she can remember. (Seriously.) Since making the move from the world of advertising to design (and the 6 states in between), her day-to-day life plays out as a graphic designer at Hester Designers (http://www.hesterdesigns.com), and author of Design Crush (http://www.designcrushblog.com).

When undistracted by obscure and clever design finds, she can be found making a mess in the kitchen, hanging out in dive bars and stalking professional mascots. She shares her Oklahoma home with two laid-back cats (one a hypochondriac, the other a pillow) and one high-energy pup.

Grace Bonney is the founder of Design*Sponge, a daily website dedicated to home and product design read by over 63,000 people a day. Launched in August of 2004, Design*Sponge was declared a "Martha Stewart Living for the Millennials" and features store and product reviews, city, product, and gift guides, diy projects, before & after, furniture and home makeovers, home tours, videos, podcasts, and trend forecasting. Grace has a unique angle on the industry, having worked as a contributing editor at Domino, House and Garden and CRAFT magazine, and as freelancing for top publications like New York Home, Food and Wine, In Style, Better Homes and Gardens, New York Magazine, and The New York Post.

Courtney Dolloff is one half of the design duo behind Seamless Creative and the newly-launched Seamless Paperie.

In 2008 she launched design work life, a blog where she shares her obsessions with typography, art and design through bits of daily visual inspiration. Since that time, dwl has continues to amass a large following of fellow design enthusiasts.

Courtney is also currently in the process of planning and designing her own wedding, which she documents on a second blog, head vs. heart.

Elizabeth Mayhew is VP, Editor in Chief, Brand Content, for the Woman¹s Day Group since January 2010. Mayhew has been an influential lifestyle editor for more than a decade, contributing to brands like House Beautiful and Real Simple, where she led the magazine as editorial development editor and style director. Mayhew has been spotlighted by the Washington Post, which praised her for developing Real Simple's distinctive visual style, as well as by The New York Times. Mayhew is also the noted author of the decorating book Flip! For Decorating, which earned praise from Katie Couric and Miles Redd, interior designer and creative director for Oscar de la Renta.

Gabrielle Blair is a graphic designer and mother of five – Ralph, Maude, Olive, Oscar and Betty. Her blog, Design Mom, which covers the intersection of motherhood and design, is regularly recognized as a top parenting blog by the media, most recently by Parents Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Martha Stewart Living and Real Simple Magazine. Gabrielle is also a co-founder of Kirtsy, a popular social media community, and was named one of the top 20 most influential women in social media.

Vané Broussard is the author and founder of Brooklyn Bride (http://bklynbrideonline.com/), a daily blog that features all that is modern in the world of weddings. The site features up and coming vendors in all fields such as photography, calligraphy, invitations, fashion, and gifts, along with coverage of bridal shows, shop reviews, and everything in between. The site is updated daily, and attracts a core readership of brides, industry professionals, and magazine editors. For the past year, Vané was also a contributor on WEtv.com’s Bridal Buzz blog.

100 Layer Cake is a creative collaboration between friends and fellow designers Jillian, Amanda, and Kristina. 3 women, 2 weddings, years working as designers (not to mention thousands of combined hours poring over wedding and wedding-related blogs), and many extremely excited conversations later, 100 Layer Cake came to be. They now provide a unique wedding planning resource for and by thoughtful, crafty, modern women. See more at www.100layercake.com/blog/

Courtney Murphy is Design Director of Good Housekeeping, a magazine with a rich 125-year-old commitment to the modern home and to a woman's quality of life. Previously she was Design Director of AARP The Magazine, Art Director of the Sunday Review in London, England; Spectrum Magazine in Edinburgh Scotland; and Budapest Week in Budapest, Hungary. Her work has won numerous awards from the Society of Publication Designers and the Society of News Designers, including the prestigious “World’s Best Newspaper”, twice.

Murphy began creating her first publication at the age of 7 for a family friend who was sick in the hospital. She wrote the articles, took the pictures and used paper and scissors and glue to pull it all together. Still working with her hands, but no longer drawing the type by hand, Murphy worked on a letterpress as an undergraduate and still can’t get enough of pretty papers and printing. When she is not working on the magazine, Murphy is doodling invitation ideas for her upcoming wedding.

Michele Bell is the Associate Editor for LilSugar — the hip, fun and informative parenting blog for witty and modern mamas. Before covering the motherhood beat, Michele taught elementary school, worked in advertising and attended Parsons School of Design in New York City. As a mother of two youngsters herself, Michele loves to take her real life experiences and share them with the readers she has come to know so well. A native Texan and ex-New Yorker, the current San Francisco dweller has taken her colorful background and brought it to the Sugar network where the she treats LilSugar like her third child. Her passion for cooking inspires her "Mural Meals" while her ability to pinpoint celebrity tots' outfits has made her Celebaby Style feature a hit. Her parenting mantra is this: Don't assume anything, never say "never", be patient and always keep an open mind.

Kathryn Storke started Snippet & Ink, a widely-read blog of daily wedding inspiration in the form of inspiration boards and real wedding features, as a hobby in 2007. It's now her full-time job. Snippet & Ink is a place where people can see how many different ways there are to have a wedding, that there's no one right way to do it, that simple can be beautiful, and that inspiration can be found anywhere. Storke says her sense of color and design comes from her mother, an artist and interior designer, and her various creative friends. “I grew up surrounded by women who taught me an appreciation for beauty and thoughtful details,” she says.

Janet Froelich is Creative Director of Real Simple. Previously she was Creative Director at The New York Times Magazine and of T: The New York Times Style Magazine. Under her direction, The New York Times Magazines have won more than 60 gold and silver awards from The Art Directors Club, The Society of Publication Designers, and the Society of Newspaper Designers and have been finalists for SPD’s Magazine of the Year Award every year since the award’s inception, winning the award in 1999 and 2007.

Froelich, a recipient of The Art Directors Club Hall of Fame award, is a past member of the board of directors of the Society of Publication Designers, a past president of The New York Chapter of the AIGA and currently serves on the board of The Art Directors Club. She has served on the faculty of The School of Visual Arts graduate and undergraduate design programs.

Kristen Chase and Liz Gumbinner are the publishers of the influential shopping and design blog Cool Mom Picks, which was called "the online arbiters of cool for the swingset crowd" by Parents Magazine, and named one of Real Simple's favorite three blogs for parents. They have appeared on shows including The Early Show on CBS and ABC's A View From the Bay, doling out shopping wisdom and pointing parents towards cool alternatives you just can't find in your local mall.

Abby Larson is the editor and founder of Style Me Pretty, a style savvy wedding blog for the style obsessed, modern bride. She covers everything from gorgeous real weddings to up and comers in the invitation, floral, fashion and photography industries. Larson spends her days scouring the internet for beautiful things, walking the streets of Boston waiting to be inspired, roaming the aisles of her favorite little bookshop.all day, dreaming about weddings. On any given Tuesday, you might find her on her sofa, hovering over her laptop creating inspiration boards and color palettes, constantly getting sidetracked by all of the beautiful sites she has found along the way. Larson features only the most chic and style centric wedding related content, continually discovering new and brilliantly talented vendors, brides with an eye for all things chic.

Before starting Style Me Pretty, Larson worked at a public relations firm and then at a hedge fund. She launched a line of wedding invitations called Abby Jean in 2004. Three years later, she sold her line and started Style Me Pretty in 2007. With 2.8 Million Monthly Page View and 900,000 RSS Monthly View, Style Me Pretty has amassed an incredibly large audience.

Over the last twenty years, Angus’s fresh yet classic, comfortable but still refined, approach to interior design has built her an extremely loyal following. A painter at heart, her work combines contemporary art with a diverse mix of modern and timeless furniture. She began designing in New York City where she worked on projects for a number of well-known clients including Ralph Lauren, Giorgio Armani, and the Lauder family. Since starting San Francisco and New York based, Martha Angus Inc., her work has been featured in California Home + Design, Western Interiors and Design, and Elle Décor.

Widely regarded as a “dean of interior design,” Diaz-Azcuy has had a far-ranging influence on the contemporary practice of interior design. His elegantly composed rooms speak volumes for his spare, intelligent, and disciplined touch. He has designed everything from private residences to the Spa and Pool of Hong Kong's celebrated Peninsula Hotel. A critically acclaimed book about his design, published by Rizzoli and written by Diane Dorrans Saeks, came out earlier this year.

The head of the San Francisco and Los Angeles-based Jeffers Design Group, Jeffers is known for his extensive use of patterns and for his unexpected and whimsical additions to a room. He often infuses period antiques with modern pieces. His work is at once elegant and sophisticated, but always still approachable. House Beautiful has twice named Jay Jeffers one of its Top 100 Interior Designers, and he and JDG’s projects have appeared in Metropolitan Home, Elle Décor, and The New York Times.

As Editor of TheKnot.com, Anja Winikka combines her writing and editing skills with her weddings expertise to bring the most of-the-moment wedding trends to millions of engaged couples across the country. Anja immersed herself in the weddings industry at a young age in college, when she took a job as a weddings coordinator at a local reception space, helping to make hundreds of couples’ wedding days perfect. Now, in addition to writing and editing wedding articles for the website and magazine, ranging in subject from destination wedding planning tips to stationery trends and must-know wedding cake tips, Anja can also be found pouring over thousands of pictures from real wedding submissions across the country. She loves the challenge of trying to find a variety of the most stunning weddings from every corner of the U.S. to feature in the magazines. In addition, Anja is the editor of a number of niche websites, including ChineseWeddingsbyTheKnot.com, GayWeddingsbyTheKnot.com, the soon-to-be IndianWeddingsbyTheKnot.com, and BridesDecide.com, a political election website for brides and newlyweds. Anja has been a popular source for destination bachelor and bachelorette parties, honeymoons, and bridesmaid etiquette in national and local newspapers and has also appeared on NBC, CBS, and FOX local news segments across the country.