Weddingbee Blog

Is up on Weddingbee PRO.  Go check it out!

Weddingbee Classifieds has been taking off lately. We were especially amazed to see the Weddingbee Classifieds featured this weekend in the New York Times!

So we thought we’d review all the feedback we’ve gotten so far, and make the changes you’ve been asking for.

ABILITY TO CLOSE LISTINGS

Gracers asked, “Mrs. Bee, How do I close a posting? I ended up just adding a comment to my post on the free engagement session but we’re still getting E-mails.”

Now you can close any listing by changing its Status to “Inactive Listing”. Well not just anyone can close a post; you have to be the person who added the listing in the first place.

Inactive listings have their status highlighted in red text when you view them. Hopefully that will cut down on emails after an item has sold!

BETTER CATEGORIES

Bride asked, “The classified ads are getting so packed that it is so hard to sift through. is there a way we can have categories for the items for sale? for example, “bridal attire” vs. “decor” vs. “jewelry” etc?”

Sure thing. We added new categories!

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I received the loveliest email today from Laura, who won a stunning Lukab & Motwani clutch in a giveaway we hosted last summer.  I love seeing how brides end up using the items they win in our giveaways on their wedding day!

Hi Mrs. Bee!

Just before my wedding last August I won a beautiful Lukab & Motwani clutch from Weddingbee, and I’m finally getting around to sorting through all my pictures and sending some to you.

I splurged on my wedding dress, so I planned very budget accessories–and definitely never thought that I would own and carry such a fabulous and luxurious purse. I knew the clutch would be beautiful from the pictures posted online, but when I opened the box–it took my breath away! The computer truly doesn’t capture the sparkle and the rich texture of the sequins and pearls. It was a perfect size for my wedding day necessities and so gorgeous that I loved having it sit next to me at the reception. I know this will be the something borrowed for many of my friends’ future weddings!
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Avatars have been one of our most popular features ever!  It’s only been four days since we launched the feature, and already hundreds of you have uploaded avatars. I love seeing what you guys look like (or at least, what your avatars look like).  It’s definitely been one of my favorite features ever.

One thing I’ve noticed is that some of the uploaded avatars look a lot like Bee icons!  That’s not a big deal or anything, but it reminded me why we launched Bee icons in the first place (back in December of ‘07):

We recently had our first Bee impersonation! Whether it was purposeful or not, a reader left a strongly worded comment using the name “Spider”. It’d be awful if someone thought that Mrs. Spider had left that comment! A number of our readers were fooled, even though the comment wasn’t left from a Weddingbee account.

So we realized we have to make it even more clear when a Bee is commenting. At first we were going to put some color trim around comments from the Bees, but then BilBee came up with the idea of using the Bee icons next to comments.

I almost forgot that we actually launched Bee icons to prevent Bee impersonations!  With avatars on the site, that protection is no longer in place… so just to be on the safe side, we added a discreet dotted green border around Bee icons.

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Update: I just found an invitation link on my account so I don’t have to send out individual emails.  Just go to http://www.gilt.com/invite/beekim and you can set up your account right now.

Happy Shopping — You’ll see me on the site at noon checking Vera and Botkier!

~~~

Many-a-bee has blogged about Gilt Group before me.  I’m sure you’ve already heard of it, but in case you haven’t, it’s an online sample sale site that sells top designer brands like Marc Jacobs, Zac Posen, Vera Wang, J Brand, Seven, Marchesa… at up to 70% off (and even more during their final sales)!  I’ve seen things I’ve purchased off Gilt Group sell for much more on sites like Bluefly and in stand alone boutiques, and that makes me happy.

Yesterday a friend of mine was trying to purchase something off Gilt, but her size sold out by the time she’d made a decision on what she wanted.  Because it’s such an awesome place to buy heavily discounted designer clothing, shoes, handbags, and jewelry for bridal showers, bachelorette parties, rehearsal dinners… I thought I’d share my Gilt Group strategy.
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We’ve been working hard to push out avatars tonight, and they’re finally live on both the blog and the boards!

To upload your avatar:

1. Log in at the top of the page if you aren’t already
2. Click “view your profile”
3. Click “upload an avatar”
4. Upload an image that’s ideally 50px in width and less than 150px high

Voila!  Your avatar should appear!  Please comment below or on this board thread to make sure your avatar is working!

We’re super excited to announce our first batch of Hive Hostesses!

Hive Hostesses comment on board threads, give advice, and welcome new and existing members.  We hope this will make the Weddingbee community an even friendlier place to hang out!

MrsLeopard is our new Community Coordinator, and she’s going to be helping our hostesses with anything they need.  Be sure to check out her stunning wedding which was recently featured on Weddingbee PRO!

Our fabulous reader hostesses and the boards they’re hosting are:

• Lillindy - Bridesmaids and San Jose
• caliocteach - Emotional and OC
• Humarockbride - Ceremony and Boston
• doctorgirl - Fitness and Tahoe
• maureen9004 - DIY and Detroit
• chelseamorning - general advice

Hostesses can easily be recognized by the beehive icon, and their “Hostess” title under it.  The little question mark sends you to this page where you can apply to be a Hive Hostess!

Please help me in welcoming this fabulous group of ladies who have already given so much to the Weddingbee community!  We’ll also be adding more hostesses in the coming weeks, and we’re still accepting applications if you’re interested in applying!

PS - We’re working hard to get avatars out asap!

You may have noticed that we have an Announcements Board.  This is a board just for anyone who wants to post their engagement or wedding announcement.  We’re going to turn it into a regular feature, so we had our lovely artist Irene come up with an icon!

These two are very cute and very similar, but do you have a preference?

PS - If you want us to feature your engagement or wedding announcement, please go here for more details!

Weddingbee reader nyckim won 125 letterpress invitations from Plum Blossom Press in a contest we hosted last year, and she just picked up her invitations last week!  We always love to hear from our past contest winners, so we can share the final product with you!  They turned out gorgeous!

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I love Fred Flare’s fun kitschy products, and this You Warm My Heart Cocoa Mix is no exception.  It’s a heart-themed day today!

Martha Stewart Livings featured something similar in an old issue (diy of course), but the way this is packaged immediately made me think that it’d make an easy, inexpensive, diy favor.

Are you giving edible favors?

(via outblush)

We’ve got three new features to announce… well, two new ones and one upcoming feature!

1. Bee Levels on the blog

We have a bit more room with the wider design…  so now we’re showing Post Counts and Bee Levels on the blog!  You can see it here, to the right of each username:

Bee Levels have been really popular on the boards (plus we promised we’d add them to the blog).  The levels count up all the comments from both the boards and the blog…

Our software doesn’t let us count up comments by Anonymous commenters… so please register here!

2. Comment highlights for Busy Bees and beyond

We were amazed to discover that 44 Weddingbee readers have commented over 500 times!

• We have 34 Busy bees (with 500+ posts)
• And 10 Bumble bees (with 1000+ posts)

And within the next week, we should see our first Honey Bee with over 2500 posts!
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Laura Hooper’s gorgeous calligraphy has been featured several times here on Weddingbee, so we’re super excited to announce that she’s the latest PRO to join the hive!  Please click on over and help me extend a super warm bee welcome to her!

I know you’re probably sick of me talking about myself by now, but since some of you asked how Joyce curled my hair for the Bee Meetup, here are the details she provided! 

Products/Tools:

• Hair dryer
• Volumizing mousse
• 1 1/4″ barrel titanium curling iron by Hot Tools
• TIGI Bedhead Masterpiece Shine spray
• Beyond the Zone Deranged molding wax
• TIGI Bedhead Hard Head

1. Start off with damp clean hair.  Blow dry on a medium setting (not hot) with volumizing mousse (a dollop) from root to ends. Scrunch hair near the roots with fingers as hair is starting to dry to give it lift.

2. Sectioning is the key. Separate your hair in 3 sections (the 2 sides and the back leaving the front to do last) with strong hair clips.  Start from the back of the head and move to the front, curling about 2″ sections of hair at a diagonal, first spraying each section with hairspray (Joyce used TIGI Bedhead Masterpiece Shine spray). She mixed it up a little with the direction of the curling so the curls didn’t all go one way.
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I gained a lot of weight over the past month with all the holiday festivities and my trip to New Orleans (the food there is just too delicious!).  I only took one pair of jeans to New Orleans (I’m a light packer), and I quickly realized that they didn’t fit after my first big meal.  I had to use a trick that Mrs. Butterfly taught me when she was pregnant – you loop a hair elastic through the buttonhole and wrap it around the button.  That gives you at least an extra inch of breathing room!

With the new year and new resolutions, I’ve drastically changed my diet and am trying to lose weight the healthy way.  I’m eating lots of chicken, fish, and veggies, drinking obscene amounts of room temperature lemon water (I’ve heard that room temperature water is somehow better for you), and I’ve completely cut out alcohol (my biggest vice).  I’ve already lost 4 pounds!  I’ve been exercising 3-4 times a week for the past 7 months, but I didn’t drop a single pound until I finally changed my diet.

There has been one positive benefit from gaining weight however — my boobs got bigger!  But now that I’m on this healthy path to losing weight, is there any way to lose the weight but keep the boobs?!  Is it truly the first place to go, and is there anything I can do to prevent it?!

I never noticed that my teeth were so crooked until I had a million pictures taken of me from all different angles on my wedding day, because they look pretty straight when you look directly at me.

Exhibits A & B

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