Weddingbee Blog

Before I start back in on my wedding recaps, I thought it might be fun to join in on this bee series…

How did I find Weddingbee?

Like many other brides before me (or like many of you ladies in the waiting boards), I found the ‘Bee pre-proposal. No, I wasn’t already planning my future wedding, or looking for ideas and inspiration, I was looking for answers. Answers to why my then boyfriend, Mr. Locket, had openly purchased an engagement ring for me, but was taking forever to pop the question. It was quite the frustrating time in my life because I couldn’t share my frustrations with anyone. Mr. L made a point to tell everyone and their mother that he had bought the ring and that a proposal was in the works. The downside to him telling everyone was that I had to keep mum. I couldn’t inform my sister, my mom, or even my best friend about what he had done (even though they already knew) because he wanted everyone to believe I would be surprised when it happened. Well, to make a long story short he found a way to propose on his own time with a completely different ring. From that point on I couldn’t get enough of the ‘Bee. I began searching all the lovely DIY projects and became inspired by the bees that shared their planning process and their weddings.

My Application Story:

Once my engagement was official and wedding planning commenced I decided that it was both in my and my groom’s best interest to blog my wedding thoughts. If you’re a bride into wedding planning, then you know what I am talking about. Your thoughts (well, at least mine) were consumed with WEDDING! And, though I was over the top excited to have every conversation revolve around the wedding, I can’t say the same for Mr. Locket or my family and friends. So, I found my outlet in blogging and soon learned that I really enjoyed writing for an audience. I’ve always had the mindset that I couldn’t write coherently and that my grammar was far from acceptable (which admittedly is still not far from the truth).

As my blog writing progressed, I discovered that my writing began to take on a fluidity of its own and that I had gathered a small following. For those of you that blog, you know that it feels pretty darn amazing to get your first comment and to learn that real live people are actually reading what you have to say. I began to want more and had a great desire to share my plans and projects with other brides-to-be. As soon as I hit the 8 month minimum requirement I quickly sent out my application and eagerly waited a response.

Nearly four weeks passed and I was beginning to feel that this could be a good thing. They couldn’t possibly take four weeks to reject me, could they? Yes, they could. I joined the masses of many bees and faced my first rejection. Of course, I was bummed, but never became bitter. I figured that I hadn’t written enough about my wedding yet to share so I continued on and forged ahead. I kept writing and did my best to check and double check my grammatical errors. I began to focus on gathering more of a readership and wrote both for them and myself. Soon enough, I gathered the courage to apply again, and again, I was rejected a few weeks later.

At that point I admittedly began to feel rather dejected, but I’m not easily deterred so I continued on writing my blog and slowly drifted away from the ‘Bee. I began to put the majority of my focus into my own blog and even Mr. L began to notice that his notoriously known comma-splicer-fiance was slowly becoming a better writer. Granted, I was (and still am, for that matter) far from perfect and envied the writing abilities of many of the bees. How could I really compare? We weren’t throwing a huge fancy wedding, I didn’t necessarily have an extremely unique voice or wedding vision, and I was born without an eye for proper grammar. But, I still couldn’t fight the desire to become a bee and I knew that I shared one very important characteristic with many fellow bees: perseverance. With only a few months to go before my big day I sent out my final application, and you can probably guess that this third time was a charm.

On being a Weddingbee blogger:

I love it! It’s so great to share my ideas and inspire other brides. It is a true honor to be part of such a great community and words can’t explain how much I’ve gained from blogging for the ‘Bee. I’ve learned a lot about myself and of the compassion of others. As many other bees have said, it’s like gaining a whole new group of friends/family who are always there offering their advice and support. And, though there are no monetary or physical perks, it’s definitely reward enough knowing that my posts may inspire a bride in her wedding planning journey.

Advice for applicants:

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

I know that many bees have offered the same wise words and I would be a liar if I didn’t agree. I am glad that I listened and reworked my blog and continued to develop my voice because I learned a lot about myself in the process and the end result was my acceptance to become a bee. I found that once I focused on writing for myself and my small audience everything became more natural and I was finally able to find my own voice. In the beginning I think I tried too hard to write how I thought Weddingbee wanted me to write and it ended up sounding forced and fake. It was not pretty. My best advice for those of you who would like to blog for Weddingbee is to really develop your own voice. I also suggest that you put time and attention into each post you write. I find that quality over quantity of posts is much more important and that the little bit of extra time and attention will really pay off. I also think it’s important to blog because you enjoy it, not necessarily because you want to become a bee. I am always bummed to find brides abandoning their blogs because they felt discouraged after becoming rejected. If you truly love to blog keep at it, and I am sure your readers will appreciate that you did.