Chicago – a beautiful city blend of modernity and history. The neighborhood combines tranquil, tree-lined blocks with commercial streets, which are filled with lively dance clubs and world-renowned bars. These luxurious cultural attractions also make fantastic wedding venues to celebrate unity.

Chicago is paired with some of the world’s top wedding photographers! It is a blessing to have access to historians who will capture your wedding in the most artistic ways – providing black and white, contemporary, digital, informal and documentary style wedding photography.

John Hancock Signature Room / Lounge

Amongst the many locations, John Hancock Signature Room on the 95th floor offers a breathtaking view of Chicago. Imagine a romantic reception filled with music and dancing in the heavens.

Chicago Wedding Photographers

Otto Rascon Photography – part graphic designer / part photographer – it will be the perfect marriage of art and photography
Kenny Kim – life style wedding photographer
Bob and Dawn Davis – celebrity wedding photographer
Kara – Chi-town wedding and boudoir photographer
Ray Pryor – Emotia photography
Jules Wiegand – quirky Louisville photographer
Jay Crihfield – Chicago wedding photographer who rocks Navy Pier
Kenny Nakai – once a teacher, now a rockin’ historian
Eclipse Photography – Toronto awesomeness
Molly Michel – a girl who titles her blog posts, “Wow” because it is expressive of her fun personality
Dan Georgia – a photographer who captures the one’s uniqueness

Giant Chrome Bean!

I saw a similar picture in my suite at the Knickbocker Hotel, so I just had to duplicate it. I love this giant chrome bean in Millennium Park!

P.S. Good luck attendees! Rock the wedding scene!

Oh nelly! For those who do not know, (which is many of you) I have a condition I like to call “whimsical lactose intolerance.” I call it whimsical because my stomach will act up when it feels like it.

For those who are following me on twitter (@tofurious) or subscribed to my mailing list, you would know that I am doing a nationwide Coffee Tour where I buy local photographers coffee and answer questions about my SEO workshop.

SEO Workshops – Orange County DONE

First Stop – Chicago

Having drunk so much coffee in the past weeks, I decided to pull back for a while. I enjoy my deep sleeps and caffeine does not help. Rather than ordering decaffeinated coffee on my very first Coffee Tour stop in Chicago, I decided to drink hot chocolate. Boy, was it good! Boy, did I PAY FOR IT!

Dollop Coffee Co.

After my coffee meet with local phenomenal photographers, Bob Davis invited me to his house to chitchat. Dawn and Bob are such sweet people. Hearing that I had little to eat because of my hectic flight schedule, Dawn immediately warmed up some chicken noodle soup, which was delightfully seasoned – YUM!

Midway while talking with Bob and Dawn about blogging practices (2nd part of my SEO Workshop), my stomach started to growl. O-M-G. I was like nooo…please nooo…not now! First impressions are very important. And this was a terrible first impression. I was a time bomb on the brink of explosion. I tried to coax it with stomach pills and tiny prayers, but my stomach was in no mood. I’m just happy that Dawn and Bob were super understanding.

“We’re human, so it’s natural,” Dawn said soothingly. “Just in case, the restroom is around the corner.”

You can imagine my face lighting up red while beads of sweat forced themselves through my pores. I won’t continue on how the evening ended, but let’s just say that Dawn and Bob are the bestest…

New York

Ah the Big Apple! New York City is like no other, seriously. I have trekked through NYC many times and it is always an amazing experience. Once I landed to JFK, I hopped on the tube which took me right into Manhattan. Upon stepping out of the subway and onto the street, I had a flood of memories surface, especially that of NYU’s Fashion Show when I helped my brother photograph his infamous taxi girl in Soho (Furious Photographers’ blog header).

As Julie (@bullysaurus) and I ran to our next coffee meet location, I saw many fashion boutiques still open for business. What was really awesome was that there were loads of models inside the stores and photographers were everywhere snapping away. I was one minute away from whipping out my camera to start shooting too!

I later learned that Anna Wintour was hosting “Fashion Night” or something to that effect. Fun times!

Housing Works Bookstore Café

After the coffee meet, Jason Groupp, Rob Ninja Nicholson (coordinator of PhotogShootOut), Julie and I went out for dinner at a nearby burger bar. I never have to Yelp anything while in New York because every corner has a gazillion award winning restaurants.

Burger + fries + beer + friends = good times.

Houston

My first time in Texas was greeted with Texan hospitality! Christine Tremoulet picked Julie and me up from the airport and took us straight to our next coffee meet.

The Coffee Groundz

Coffee Groundz is a wicked location! They have free wireless, beer and sandwiches! What was most amazing was the fact that Coffee Groundz is on twitter! That’s so gnarly!

As much as I wanted to stay longer to explore Texas, another city was calling – Dallas!

Dallas

Before I even left for Dallas, Catie Ronquillo offered to pick us up from the airport! How sweet of you! When we landed, it was just beginning to rain. I later learned that there was a storm. Good thing I was gone by then lest delays in flight.

Starbucks

I try to support local coffee houses, but Yelp said that this Starbucks was huge. Sure enough, it was HUGE! While talking about blogging practices and marketing strategies, the local photographers suggested I host a workshop in Dallas. At first, I was hoping everyone would go to Houston, but that might change in the near near future.

Additionally, I might host the workshop at Hotel Zaza which is supposedly a super swanky place. Offer still stands for local Dallas photographers / attendees – If I book the place, you can use it to do a bridal / boudoir photo shoot!

Washington DC

Good ol’ Capital Hill. I have never been to DC before and I was like WOAH! I have only seen that spike in textbooks – Washington Monument. As much as I wanted to venture off and visit all of the tourist spots, people were waiting for me at my next coffee meet.

Ebeneezers Coffeehouse

Julie picked Ebeneezers Coffeehouse because it is a church owned facility that raises money for activities and charities. Overall it was a pretty neat place! The date for Washington DC is going to change, so those interested should hold off. Tentatively, it is going to be switched to October 16th.

After the coffee meet, Jan Michelle took Julie and me to her favorite Thai restaurant – simply divine! For starters, we had crunchy edamame and fried tofu (both served with a sweet and sour sauce). For dinner, I had Pad See Yew. Once I plowed through it, I started nibbling on Julie’s chicken curry. I normally don’t eat this much, but please understand that it’s so much better than airport food.

Next Locations

Tonight I am going to be visiting Seattle! Find me there!

SEATTLE
8:30PM – Monday, September 14, 2009

Espresso Vivace Roasteria
532 Broadway E
(between Mercer St & Republican St)
Seattle, WA 98102
(206) 860-2722
www.espressovivace.com/intro.html

FORT LAUDERDALE
9AM – Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Brew Urban Café
209 SW 2nd Ave
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33310
(954) 522-6156
www.brewurbancafe.com

DENVER
9AM – Thursday, September 17, 2009

Common Grounds
1550 Wazee St (on Wazee in between 16th and 17th in the Millennium Bldg.)
Denver, CO 80202
(303) 296-9248
Thanks Autumn Burke for the update!

BOSTON
8PM – Thursday, September 17, 2009 (Yes, that’s Denver & Boston in the same day!)

Boston Common Coffee Co.
97 Salem St
(between Bartlett Pl & Hull St)
Boston, MA 02113
(617) 725-0040
www.bostoncommoncoffee.com

SAN FRANCISCO
7PM – Friday, September 18, 2009

Starbucks Coffee
442 Geary St
(at Mason St)
San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 922-9086
www.starbucks.com

SALT LAKE CITY
12PM – Sunday, September 20, 2009

Salt Lake Roasting Company
320 E 400 S
Salt Lake City, UT 84111
(801) 363-7572
www.roasting.com

Hope to see you at a local coffee house,

Lawrence Chan

P.S. Milk is evil.

Okay, wait no longer. The curtains are about to open.

@tofurious | subscribe to mailing list

Intro

Details About Workshop

Like the video? Embed it to your own blog:
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More Kind Words

Like the video? Embed it to your own blog:
<object width="550" height="340" data="http://blip.tv/play/g54rgZzAZAA%2Em4v" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"><param name="src" value="http://blip.tv/play/g54rgZzAZAA%2Em4v" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /></object>

Want to watch older videos / testimonials?
http://www.tofurious.com/category/search-engine-optimization/

Intro
Jasmine Star
Mike Colon
Gene Higa – Keats Elliot – Catherine Hall
Dane Sanders – Sara France – Jose Villa
Robert Evans – Doug Boutwell – more from OC

SEO Workshop

What is traffic if you cannot convert inquiries to clients?

1. Part 1: SEO and all you need to know to drive traffic to your website
2. Part 2: Blogging Practices – learning how to convert inquiries into clients

I get an average of 2.4 bridal inquiries a day and have a traffic of 24,000 unique visitors a month (all achieved in a short amount of time)

Check Out My Daily Wedding Inquiries:

Check Out My Traffic Stats For My Blog

Official Workshop Dates And Locations

Got a studio you are willing to lend? Contact me!

SALE ENDED :: CONTACT FOR AVAILABILITY

DISCLAIMER:

• Purchases are not refundable (even if acts of God prevent you from being able to show up)
• Tofurious reserves the right to refuse service to anyone
• One purchase equates to one seat (not couples/companies/partners)
• Workshop only offers tools for SEO; bonus stuff like admission to Tofu House (SEO community) and link building is offered at the discretion of Tofurious to maintain a network of credible websites

ORANGE COUNTY – $2000
Monday, September 7, 2009
1pm-5pm – Location: Costa Mesa Hilton
Sale Ended

CHICAGO – $2000
Thursday, September 24, 2009
1pm-5pm – Location: TBA

SAN FRANCISCO – $2000
Monday, September 28, 2009
1pm-5pm – Location: TBA

SEATTLE – $2000
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
1pm-5pm – Location: TBA

HOUSTON – $2000
Monday, October 05, 2009
1pm-5pm – Location: TBA

DENVER – $2000
Thursday, October 08, 2009
1pm-5pm – Location: TBA

MIAMI – $2000
Monday, October 12, 2009
1pm-5pm – Location: TBA

WASHINGTON DC – $2000
October 16, 2009
Friday, 1pm-5pm – Location: TBA
EMAIL ME – tofulawrence@gmail.com

NEW YORK – $2000
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
10am-3pm – Location: Jason Groupp’s Studio (lunch provided)

DALLAS – $2000
Monday, October 26, 2009
1pm-5pm – Location: Hotel Zaza!!! Concept Room – Far East
Potential model shoot afterwards

City Not Listed

Email me for details about getting your city listed. If you can get 5 people, I can host a semi-private workshop. You can be the Satellite Tofurious Director! Rad title, eh?

I am willing to do 4 more cities before I take a long vacation in Orlando, FL at Disney World (childhood dream)! My availability is:

• November 09, 2009
• November 12, 2009
• November 16, 2009
• November 19, 2009

Hope to see you at the Coffee Tour and SEO Workshop!

Best wishes,

Lawrence Chan

P.S. Today I was Dane Sander’s interviewee. That guy ROCKS! And it’s not because he drives a Vespa, which does give him extra brownie points. He is overall a pretty cool guy.

What SEO can do (in a nut shell)
What the SEO tour is about

Coffee Tour IS NOT The Workshop

It is a chance for me to answer all questions and to meet everyone in person. I will buy the first 20-30 people coffee and share some powerful blogging tips

My assistant (@bullysaurus) just made some crazy plans for the Coffee Tour based on the survey results, and now it’s ready!

TOFURIOUS – Coffee Tour Route

CHICAGO
7PM – Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Dollop Coffee Co.
4181 N Clarendon Ave
(between Buena Ave & Gordon Ter)
Chicago, IL 60613
(708) 655-6753
www.dollopcoffee.com

NEW YORK
7PM – Thursday, September 10, 2009

Housing Works Bookstore Café
126 Crosby St
(between Jersey St & Prince St)
New York, NY 10012
(212) 334-3324
www.housingworks.org/bookstore

HOUSTON
4PM – Friday, September 11, 2009

The Coffee Groundz
2503 Bagby
Houston, TX 77006
(713) 874-0082
www.thecoffeegroundz.com

DALLAS
12PM – Saturday, September 12, 2009

Starbucks Coffee
3699 McKinney Ave
Dallas, TX 75204
(214) 219-1735
Map of Starbucks at 3699 McKinney Ave

WASHINGTON DC
7PM – Sunday, September 13, 2009

Ebeneezers Coffeehouse
201 F Street NE
(between N 2nd St & N 3rd St)
Washington, DC 20002
(202) 558-6900
www.ebenezerscoffeehouse.com

SEATTLE
8:30PM – Monday, September 14, 2009

Espresso Vivace Roasteria
532 Broadway E
(between Mercer St & Republican St)
Seattle, WA 98102
(206) 860-2722
www.espressovivace.com/intro.html

FORT LAUDERDALE
9AM – Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Brew Urban Café
209 SW 2nd Ave
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33310
(954) 522-6156
www.brewurbancafe.com

DENVER
9AM – Thursday, September 17, 2009

Common Grounds
1550 Wazee St (on Wazee in between 16th and 17th in the Millennium Bldg.)
Denver, CO 80202
(303) 296-9248
Thanks Autumn Burke for the update!

BOSTON
8PM – Thursday, September 17, 2009 (Yes, that’s Denver & Boston in the same day!)

Boston Common Coffee Co.
97 Salem St
(between Bartlett Pl & Hull St)
Boston, MA 02113
(617) 725-0040
www.bostoncommoncoffee.com

SAN FRANCISCO
7PM – Friday, September 18, 2009

Starbucks Coffee
442 Geary St
(at Mason St)
San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 922-9086
www.starbucks.com

SALT LAKE CITY
12PM – Sunday, September 20, 2009

Salt Lake Coffee Break **changed**
433 E. 400 South
Salt Lake City, UT 84111

City Not Listed?

Again, all of this was based on the top survey results. These are also most likely the cities that I will go to for the SEO workshop. If you do not see your city on here, gather up 10 people or so and I’ll make a trip out there! Thanks for taking the time everyone to answer the survey.

Cheers,

Lawrence

P.S. I love coffee very much (since a tot). I won’t be drinking coffee during the tour though. I learned my lesson in OC when I drank three cups and was parched. Coffee makes one more thirsty? Interesting. Plus I couldn’t sleep that well that night – that was no good.

P.P.S. Don’t know what SEO can do? http://www.tofurious.com/2009/04/seo-for-wedding-photographers/
Don’t know what the SEO Tour is? http://www.tofurious.com/2009/07/seo-for-photographers/