Wedding Blog

Learning to love the ’bee

I found Weddingbee sometime during the summer of 2008. A friend of mine was planning her wedding and had started her own wedding blog, linking several popular wedding blogs — including Weddingbee — in her side bar. I read posts here and there for months.

I have to be honest, after clicking over a couple of times, I was kind of scared. Everyone seemed so CHEERFUL and FRIENDLY. And at the time, I was struggling pretty deeply with anxiety and depression following the death of my grandfather and my sister’s move to California. Cheerful and friendly was a total turn off.

But then something funny happened … I started taking meds, and I started liking Weddingbee! I was astonished by Mrs. Avocado’s DIY chandelier. I was inspired by Mrs. Cherry Pie’s rustic nuptials and impressed with Mrs. Cookie’s gorgeous gown.

Soon enough, I didn’t remember what it was like before I loved every single bee!

Why blog?

I started my wedding blog at the beginning of October as a way to keep in touch with my bridesmaids, who were mostly out of town, with the idea in my head that I might apply to Weddingbee at some point. I logged my inspiration and planning as it progressed, very slowly, until I got my ring in December.

I’d been writing on a personal blog for awhile, and in fact, just a year before I had managed to keep it up for 30 days straight for NaBloPoMo, so I knew I had the discipline to blog frequently as Weddingbee requires.

I’m a reporter, so I write for a living. I thought that writing for Weddingbee would be good experience and would allow me to give back to the community that had already inspired so much of my planning.

Application anticipation

You may have picked up on this from comments I’ve left here and there, but I was rejected twice before being accepted as a Weddingbee! Penguin and Mrs. Bee aren’t just blowing smoke when they encourage wannabees who aren’t accepted the first go-round to try again!

Here’s what I did that I think helped me gain eventual acceptance into the hive:

1. I didn’t give up. The first time I applied, I was so scared of being rejected that I stopped blogging after I e-mailed in my application — and thus sealed my own fate. Don’t be afraid of writing because you know bees are reading your blog. You can bet I didn’t make that mistake the second time around.

2. I did my research. I focused my efforts on recently-accepted bees, and I also looked for the blogs that had been rejected by Weddingbee and tried instead to model mine after the girls who eventually became bees.

3. I joined the conversation. Becoming active on the boards helped me get to know the bloggers who also frequented the boards and allowed me to meet some girls who eventually became bees, including Miss Mary Jane and Mrs. Yorkie (I was actually the one who encouraged Yorkie to apply!). I didn’t make friends with the intention of gaining votes from the committee, but I firmly believe that I wouldn’t be a bee today if I hadn’t “met” them!

4. I decided it didn’t matter. This was one of the hardest things. I wanted to be a bee so badly that I had dreams about meeting Mrs. Bee and Mrs. Penguin in person and asking them questions! (Yes, I know, I’m a little bit nutso.) Eventually, though, I decided that even if I was rejected a third time, I wasn’t going to give up on blogging. I’d already gained so much! I’d made lots of online friends and my out-of-town family loved reading about our wedding plans on my blog. I determined that I would keep blogging through my wedding and even do recaps even if I never became a bee.

I sent my first application into Weddingbee in January and I applied for the third time in May. Mrs. Yorkie kept me updated and let me know when my blog came up before the committee a week or two later… and then, finally, FINALLY, I got my acceptance email. I totally cried at my desk at work when I got it. Yep … pathetic.

*whew!* If you made it this far, I’m really impressed!

Becoming Bunny

You already know the reason why I picked my bee moniker, so I won’t go over that again. But maybe you’re curious about how the whole system works once you get accepted as a bee? I know I was.

First, Mrs. Penguin asked me to choose my name. Once I picked, I got some basic blogging guidelines and a new login name. Your old post counts and threads are merged into the new account.

Then comes the hard part. Penguin sent me a loooong list of the archived posts that WB wanted to publish. My task was to go back and edit them, replacing references to myself and my family with our new, Bunny-fied names. Since I’d been blogging for so long, my list of posts to edit seemed never-ending!

Fortunately, that meant that I didn’t have to blog 3-4 times per week at first because all my old posts were still running. I don’t know if I could have finished up my wedding planning during those last 6 weeks until my wedding if I’d been trying to blog, too!

I agree with Powder Puff — I’ve never been in a sorority, but I imagine that being a bee blogger is a lot like being in one. We try to always have each other’s backs and be an encouragement and support to one another, and those of us who are active on the boards try to do the same for the rest of the hive!

It took me a long time to get here, and I haven’t been blogging on Weddingbee for long, but I’m so, so thankful for every second I’ve spent on this site … from the day I first started reading (and being bitter about how happy everyone was), until now. I will never ever be the same. I just hope that my posts are a part of the same awesome experience I’ve had here!