Weddingbee Blog

So, you want to know how it all started with Mrs. Deviled Egg, huh? Well, here goes:

How I found Weddingbee:

I discovered Weddingbee almost a year before Mr. DE and I were engaged. However, weddings weren’t even on my radar at that point. I was searching the ‘net for cute gift wrap for Christmas presents and stumbled upon PaperSource. Being a scrapbooker and general fan of all things crafty, I explored their entire site and found the paper flower kits. They were too cute, and I convinced myself that I needed them. Usually when I shop online, I’m hesitant to buy without seeing the product in person. With no PaperSource store close, I did some Google Image searches to get an idea of how big they were and to see how people used them. Of course, Weddingbee showed up in my search, because a few of the bees had used them in their weddings.

So, what was this Weddingbee site? It looked like lots of crafty girls and lots of crafty ideas! Even though it was wedding related, I stuck around for a few minutes to skim through some of the archives and liked what I saw. I really liked how real people were sharing their real ideas and inspiration. I bookmarked some posts and, well, forgot about the ‘bee.

Fast forward 10 months to September of 2007. Mr. DE and I just returned from our first weekend getaway trip in Chicago. We may have went to do some sightseeing and watched the Pirates take on the Cubs, but I found an opportunity to finally visit a PaperSource and (you guessed it) buy those paper flowers.

Mr. DE and I were engaged on Christmas Eve, 2007, and as the planning began, I had a fleeting moment of insanity where I thought I would make paper flowers for every place setting. I remembered the paper flower posts on Weddingbee and found it in my bookmarks. And that was that. I gave birth to a my Weddingbee addiction on January 15, 2008, and it has been growing ever since.

I slowly started to stalk follow my favorite bees, who at that time were the likes of Magnolia, Bubblegum and Hydrangea, because I found something to relate to with each of them. I quickly grew to love all of the bee bloggers, for either their writing style, creativity, or wedding plans. Reading about the different types of weddings was really interesting to me, so I had to read them all, and also dived into the archives to read about past bees.

Other bees have shared how they rapidly refreshed their internet browsers during the “I think I have a Weddingbee problem” stage of the addiction, but I’m guessing my lightning-fast refreshing skills could rival them all.

How I became a Weddingbee blogger:

Blogging wasn’t something new to me. Being in the public relations field, I have worked on a few blogs or scoped out blogs for clients. Writing wasn’t anything new, either. I write for different audiences just about every day at work. Most of the writing I do for work is not what most would consider “fun PR”. We don’t launch cool restaurants or new products. Most of the clients I work for require technical writing, so their isn’t much room for creativity.

At one point in my life (maybe 2004?) I started my own personal blog, but it was short lived. I don’t know why I started it, but soon after I did, I felt like I had nothing interesting to write about. I was single, living at home, working, driving to and from work and watching a lot of television. Boring! My blog lasted maybe two months, and then I forgot about it (along with the user name and password).

When we got engaged and I continued to work on wedding plans and projects, I thought it would be fun to write a blog to document my journey. I guess I thought this was finally something someone might find interesting. My blog was pretty basic and I’m pretty sure know one really knew about it (especially people I know in real life).

I kicked around the idea of applying for Weddingbee, but wasn’t sold on it. I didn’t want people in my real life to judge me or (gasp!) make fun of me for it. Let’s face it, blogging under an alias can be cool (think “Pitt Girl” for some of you ‘Burghers out there), but blogging under the alias of a insect, flower or food group can be viewed as a little strange. What would my friends think, or worse, how would my in-laws react?

I decided that the it might be tough, but it also might be fun to share some of my crafty ideas, so I talked to Mr. DE about it and told him I was thinking of applying. Of course, he was (and remains) super supportive of me and encouraged me to go for it.

I sent my application in and waited. The next month was filled with waiting, followed by more waiting. I was just about ready to give up on the Weddingbee idea when I got an acceptance email from Pengy! Woo hoo!

I picked Deviled Egg as my name because, of the available icons, I didn’t think I was girly enough to try out one of the makeup icons and I don’t have the closet or fashion sense to back up picking a shoe icon. I do, however, like to eat deviled eggs. Need proof?

On being a Weddingbee Blogger:

I’ll admit that it is a lot more demanding than I ever expected, although it is a lot more rewarding than I anticipated, too! Being a part of this community has been amazing. As someone who does a lot of writing for a living, sharing your words with an audience who really seems to care and actually reads what you have to say is extremely uplifting. And, I can’t tell you enough how encouraging I find every comment I receive.

There are many times when I feel like I don’t live up to some of the more active bloggers. And all of it is my fault—I chose not to share posts on my dress prior to the wedding. I forgot to take pictures while working on some of my DIY projects. (Bad blogger, I know!) I had the absentmindedness to misplace the CD of photos from my snorkeling excursion we took on our honeymoon, resulting in the current standstill in my “Honeymoon at Sea” recaps. And I have yet to meet with our wedding photographer to get the disc of all of our images. Let me tell you that it is frustrating as all heck to see other bees who were married we were start and finish their wedding recaps before me. (Yes, Powder Puff, I’m talking about you!!!) But, I promise, the Deviled Egg recaps will happen! Maybe it will be my Christmas present to the hive?!?

Advice for others:

Maybe I’m not the best for offering advice, but there was one thing I did with my blog that I think may have helped my chances of being picked: I made sure I was writing for an audience. This seems to be the common denominator of all the Weddingbee bloggers, so it’s definitely important!

All in all, blogging for Weddingbee has been a great opportunity and I’m so glad I mustered up the courage to apply. I’m looking forward to (someday!) sharing posts on our wedding day so you can see how everything went down. I feel like I completely owe it to all of you, since you’ve been with me throughout my wedding-planning journey. I hope I don’t disappoint!