Weddingbee Blog

Finding the Blogosphere…

I’d been hearing about blogs for a few years and had read a few, but I definitely wasn’t a real member of the community. I then started a small blog to keep in touch with my family after I moved away to Seattle. I didn’t update it regularly or do much with it other than use it as a Christmas letter. Instead of sending out a letter, I sent out Christmas cards with a web address on them and then filled a blog with the year’s big events and lots of pictures (gotta keep their interest). Most of the people in the family liked that, but Mr. Moonbeam’s parents insisted we still send out letters for those that are less web savvy. Most of the people in my family live close enough to someone that can show them the website, so I didn’t have to worry. After that, I started a blog about some of the things I made here and there, but with no large project looming; it just sort of languished. Then we decided to get married and I got sucked in. There are so many great blogs out there and Weddingbee had so much content. New ideas every day, of things I just had to do that would get weird looks from people I was talking to about them. “What, you didn’t know that all brides these days wear crazy candy colored shoes?”

Weddingbee, specifically has meant so much to me. Since leaving my friends, great apartment, beautiful neighborhood and fantastic job in Seattle, LA has hit me kind of hard.

We made all of these plans for me to move down the April before the recession hit. I’d already told everyone my plans and my boss had already hired my replacement so that I could acquaint her with my projects before everything came tumbling down in the fall. I was staying until mid-December to see through substantial completion of the first building I’d ever seen go all the way from sketches to real life. It was invaluable experience and I’m glad I stayed for it, but the timing for my big move couldn’t have been worse. After hanging out in Texas for the holidays, I moseyed on over to LA at the end of January. Since then, I have had a horrible job as a graphic designer and an even more horrible unpaid internship. I am now on unemployment and trying every day to get someone to recognize my awesomeness.

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I’m trying to settle in and get used to this as the unemployment rate for architects in LA is rumored to be hovering around 50%. I’m trying to do volunteer work and take random classes to meet people, but most of this wedding planning excitement has taken place on the internet and over the phone. So, Weddingbee has been an awesome place for me to feel like I’m connected to a fun, happy world that my real life is sometimes not quite living up to. Luckily, Mr. MB has been promoted a couple of times since we’ve moved here and they love him at his (thankfully stable) job. He’s also been my emotional rock through all of this. I know the market will turn around some day and I’ve just got to keep my head up (and add things to my resume) and this will eventually be a distant memory, but I’m glad for Weddingbee and the brightness y’all bring to my day.

Deciding to Apply…

Once I started reading, all I could think was, ’I can do a lot of that. This will be my unemployment project.’ I started writing some things down and told my bridesmaid’s about it, so that they could ’be there’ for my planning. And all through this, Mr. MB would look at me at my computer, get a little smile on his face, and tell me in a baby voice how ’cute’ it was that I was blogging about our wedding.

I prematurely applied before I had enough content (or even the required number of entries) and was disappointed (though not really surprised) when I was rejected. So, I gathered myself and set out to post regularly and try to write like people can’t read my mind, and fill in the gaps (still working on that, BTW). I was literally jumping up and down when I opened my acceptance email. I called Momma MB and Mr. MB and explained to them what had happened, and then they feigned excitement for my benefit. (Why is it so hard for us bees to fathom that other people don’t know about Weddingbee?) Anyway, I couldn’t be more pleased that I applied again. If you’re out there trying, just try again, really.

Choosing Moonbeam…

There were some junk food icons and a few animals and weather items left when I was chosen, and though I love junk food, breakfast tacos and sweets weren’t an option, and I’m not the biggest animal fan (you know they poop, right?) so I had to go with Moonbeam, because I can stay up ’til 4 AM with the best of them. It’s amazing how these random icons so perfectly fit the bees, IMO.

Blogging Tips…

Post regularly. If anyone likes your blog, they’ll be bored at work often enough to check it regularly, so write as often as you can (which I haven’t been too awesome at lately). Write about what interests you and reread your entries. There are so many times when I see a post and smack my forehead. I usually forget numerous things. Like for my recent shower #1 post, I made the invites using another July wedding picture from Leasa, those great doilies, the papyrus font, and this texture. (MIL MB liked my beach invites so much that she asked me to make the shower invites. Luckily she did all the addressing.) All of the information was on the back of the flat card using just the doilies, border and text. They were printed on cream paper and in blue envelopes from PaperSource.