Weddingbee Blog

I’ve been thinking about writing one of these for a while, and then, oddly enough, Miss Fox posted hers the other day! I figured it would be a good time to post mine too. I found these Bee’s Life posts extremely helpful when I was applying to become a bee.

How I Found Weddingbee

To be honest…I don’t even remember. It was about a year before we got engaged, and I was heavily into secret-wedding-daydreaming-planning mode and reading a lot of wedding blogs. I don’t remember how I found it, or what I thought of it, or how I figured out what all the monikers meant and how it all worked, but I know that after a while, it was the only wedding blog I stayed subscribed to. I remember vividly when the Safari generation was introduced, and I think the first bloggers I followed closely were Mrs. Elephant and Mrs. Jaguar.

I stayed off the boards for a long time, until one night Mrs. Penguin posted an announcement about a post-a-thon on the boards. I decided to go check it out, and spent most of the night clicking around getting to know the place. I signed up for a throwaway username, thinking I’d only be around for a few posts. But I found myself coming back again and again, and posting more and more, so I switched usernames to something less goofy, and the rest is history. I was active on the boards for a long time, then we got engaged and I started to think “hmm…what if I applied to be a blogger bee…”?

My Application Story

I’ve had a blog in some form or another since I was about 13-14 years old—so almost a decade now. Of course, back then it was mostly whiny teenager posts on Xanga and Livejournal, but still, I have always enjoyed writing publicly and connecting with people through that. When we got engaged, I had a blog under my own domain that I updated regularly, and I waffled back and forth for a while about whether or not I really wanted to apply to be a bee. One day I decided “eff it, I’ll be so disappointed in myself if I don’t at least try.” So, I started writing wedding posts on my blog, and at the magical 8-month mark, I applied.

I waited. And waited. And waited—for over 5 weeks. I think I emailed Mrs. Penguin a few times during that time to check on the status (and I was probably so annoying!), and then finally, the week before Christmas…I got rejected.

Ouch. I was bummed. I didn’t know if I wanted to reapply, so I took the holiday off from blogging to think about it. By the time the new year rolled around, I was sure I wanted to go for it again—I knew I wanted to be a bee. I asked a few blogger bees for feedback on my writing, and then spent the next week going back and re-writing nearly every.single.post on my blog, as well as continuing to post new content 3-4 times per week. Was I a little crazy? Probably. But I knew by that point that I loved this site, and I wanted to be a member of it in a “bigger” way. I wanted to share my wedding planning journey with everyone, and connect with readers and fellow bloggers.

After four weeks, I reapplied. And I waited some more (and emailed Pengy some more). And then, one very early morning, I got my acceptance letter. I was a bee!

On Being A Bee

Being a bee is different than I thought it would be, somehow, but it is so much fun. I really love connecting with all the lovely hive members through my posts, and I get so excited every single time I see a comment notification in my email. I spent most of the last decade blogging to what felt like a brick wall—I would have maybe 3-4 readers at any given time, and get two comments in a month if I was lucky. I always wanted a bigger blog community to be a part of and to connect with, but never knew how to get it. But now, to know that there are people out there who actually enjoy my writing and care enough about my story to follow, it is so exciting!

I also love the opportunities I’ve had to meet new people, both online and real life. Just last weekend Mrs. Deviled Egg, Mrs. Snow Cone, Mrs. Biscuit and I met up for pottery painting and frozen yogurt, and it was lots of fun! I never would have had that opportunity if it weren’t for Weddingbee. This community is such an amazing place, and I’m so thankful to be a part of it.

Advice for Applicants

Beyond the typical “blog for yourself, stay true to yourself, don’t try to change your writing” advice that everyone gives (which is so, completely, 100% true!), I want to address another point.

I’ve heard time and again that new applicants are worried about having a similar wedding, or the same venue, or living in the same place, or getting married at the same time, as a current blogger bee, and thus not being chosen because they’re “too similar”. Listen to me when I say that doesn’t have to be a concern. There are a million May and June bride bees right now, Miss Doe and I have almost the same wedding colors, Miss Coyote and I are getting married on the same day and Miss Turkey and I are from the same state. They were all blogging long before me, and I still got accepted. What matters isn’t the details at face value, it’s the story behind them. Tell us your thought processes behind the things you picked, funny back stories/inside jokes behind your wedding elements, tell us about your family traditions, how you felt when you picked your dress/cake/invitations/whatever. Be open. Be real. Tell us about you. Two bees could have the exact same wedding dress, venue, colors, flowers, cake, photographer, you name it and yet their weddings would be completely different because their personal stories wouldn’t be the same. The personal stories are what make Weddingbee different from other wedding blogs, and they’re what we all love to hear the most. So don’t just tell us about your wedding – tell us your story.