Weddingbee Blog

This kind of makes me feel like I’m on that “Diary” show that was on MTV. Did anyone else watch that? C’mon, you can admit it. I’m not judging! Lindsay Lohan would be like, “You think you know…but you have no idea!” and I’d be awake at 2 AM screaming at the television, “Oh mah GAH! What do I have no idea about!? Tell me more, Lilo!!” (Although, I believe this was before she was actually referred to as “Lilo”, but oh well.) Anyway, I hope I can be at least half as entertaining as that fine television program!

Bee-coming a blogging fool (see what I did there?):

I’ve been blogging since 2002 on LiveJournal—in fact, that is where Mr. Candy Corn and I developed quite a bit of communication early on in our dating relationship and I think it really helped push us into coupledom, because lord knows we were too shy to flirt with each other in person… or at least I was!

Applying to Weddingbee

I stumbled upon Weddingbee while Googling for inspiration for our bird-themed wedding. I remember scrolling through pages of bees while on my lunch break and wondering if I could ever have a wedding that was even a teensy tiny bit as amazing as Mrs. Strawberry’s or Lovebug’s. I was obsessed with Indiebride and Offbeat Bride, but other than that I couldn’t find too many wedding resources that I could relate to—apart from Weddingbee.

I decided to start a LiveJournal specifically for wedding planning, since I was boring my online friends to tears with my ramblings about favors and place cards on my personal LiveJournal. I figured it wouldn’t hurt to apply to be a bee, so I did just that in December 2007. I was kindly told that they only had a few slots left, but that I could apply again in 4 weeks. So, I beefed up my blog and reapplied in early February 2008 in hopes that they would notice how much work I had put into it. I ended my entries with questions for the readers, even though I knew my mom and I were probably the only ones reading my entries since my blog didn’t have any followers that I knew of. I made it a point to take a ton of photos whenever we were doing anything wedding-related, so I wouldn’t bore potential readers with text-heavy posts.

In late March I was told that the hive had a large group of active bee bloggers and they were wondering if they could hold on to my application for a few months. I was thrilled that Weddingbee was even remotely considering me, but as a month passed I figured I didn’t have a shot, since my wedding was slowly creeping up.

The day my coworkers would officially deem me a major nutball (if they hadn’t already) had suddenly arrived in early May. You could’ve heard me giggling and shrieking from a mile away in when I received the email from Mrs. Penguin that the hive thought I would make a great addition to the Weddingbee team! The available characters were Carrot, Taffy, Candy Corn, Cookie, Snapdragon, and a slew of tropical fruits, so I went with Candy Corn since our wedding was in October—prime Halloween candy time! I couldn’t believe people actually thought my blog was worthy of Weddingbee attention and I double checked the calendar to make sure it wasn’t an April Fool’s Day prank. Mr. Candy Corn shared my excitement with me in the form of dancing in our living room, but I don’t think he truly realized how much it meant to me that I was accepted in to such a fabulous community of creative & compassionate bloggers.

Advice for bee-lovin’ applicants!

If I had to give hopeful bees one piece of advice it would be to remain determined, and at the end of the day, blog for your sanity. I can’t tell you how helpful it was to have a blog that I continuously referenced when speaking to our vendors about the mood we were going for, etc. The simple organization of having all of my inspiration and progress in one spot made it well worth the time it took to create a blog and fill out the initial Weddingbee application.

Why I heart Weddingbee for life

I’ve currently met 20 bees and a handful of awesome readers and I can’t even begin to express how wonderful it has been to develop such a strong relationship with so many of these folks. I have a gazillion bee crushes, but more importantly, I have a group of ladies (and men…*ahem* Mango!) who I know I can go to if I need someone to lend an ear, and vice versa. Most of the time we aren’t even chatting about weddings, but knowing that our weddings brought us together makes me do an internal grateful, happy dance. I’ve really grown to love this community and can’t tell the bees enough how much they rock. Mr. Candy Corn and I were lucky enough to attend Mrs. D’Orsay’s wedding with eight other charming bees this past weekend and I had more fun there than at most of the other weddings I’ve gone to (shhh), and it was my first time meeting most of the other bees, so that’s saying a lot about how much we all just instantaneously hit if off when we do get to meet.

Life after the lovefest

I still have about ten recaps left to go, but once I finish those and my wee bee stinger pulls out, I will still be around in the blogging world if you care to follow me! Currently, I ramble on a weekly basis at my illustration-obsessed personal blog, but who knows what the future holds! I have to admit, I still read Weddingbee every day and stay pretty darn active on the boards, despite being married for close to a year, and I don’t plan on removing Weddingbee from my Google Reader anytime soon!

On a semi-related note, I’d like to wish Mr. Candy Corn a happy 7 year anniversary! Can we still count those now that we are married or do we need to start with a clean slate now? Hmmm…