Weddingbee PRO

I’d always been enamored with the Daily Candy illustrations because they were so iconic — as soon as you saw them, you instantly thought Daily Candy.  I wanted similarly iconic graphics for Weddingbee, so I scoured the net for a graphic designer until I came across the work of Paige Pooler, whose cheery, girly work instantly resonated with me.  We worked together on the bride illustration until it had that perfect fun, friendly vibe that I envisioned for Weddingbee.

With the bride ready to go, I came up with an idea that I think has largely shaped Weddingbee’s brand to date.  Instead of using our bloggers’ actual names, I decided that each author would blog under a character handle.  Since my name is Bee, I would be Mrs. Bee, and our initial authors would select another character within the bug generation.

Working with a very limited budget at the time, I purchased the following illustrations off istockphoto for about $2 each.

Using characters like Miss Ladybug and Miss Caterpillar has served many purposes: 1) it allows bloggers to maintain some anonymity because they don’t use their real names, 2) it’s much easier for our readers to remember Miss Ant rather than Jane, especially when you have 25+ bloggers at any given time, 3) our bloggers really identify with the character they select, and 4) it adds to the fun Weddingbee brand.

Since that initial generation of bugs 3 1/2 years ago, we’ve had 16 generations of characters!
     

The characters are something that our community collectively gets really excited about.  They help us select future generations, and we receive applications to blog titled, “the next Miss Dew Drop!”  Over time, our community has come to be called “the hive”, members call themselves “Bees”, and there are an endless amount of bee/hive/honey puns.

When I first decided to turn my personal wedding blog into a stand alone site, I honestly didn’t think that I’d build an entire brand around my first name.  I guess I should thank my dad because my first name came to him in a dream. My name is actually Korean, and my dad wasn’t thinking about a buzzing honey-producing insect when he named me.  The Chinese characters of my name do mean “benign queen” though — yet another accidental bee reference!

From the tone of our posts to the vibe of the design and everything in between, I hope the vision of our brand as a fun, friendly, accessible wedding planning community… er hive… really comes across.

What message are you trying to convey with your brand?