Weddingbee PRO
I’ve been meaning to update our press page, so I thought I’d share the highlights of Weddingbee press to date!
In our first year, I thought about working with a pr agency, but I never really pursued it. It wasn’t in our nonexistent budget anyway. We’ve been lucky that we’ve never done any advertising, and Weddingbee has continued to grow by word of mouth.
It’s difficult to determine how much press actually affects a business both directly and indirectly. I can’t say that any of these mentions has had a significant impact traffic-wise, but press begets press. As you can see most of our press mentions have been in 2009, so hopefully there are many more exciting things in store for Weddingbee this year. 
Has a pr agency or a particular piece of press changed your business?
Soon after Weddingbee launched, I joined Ladies Who Launch – a nationwide networking organization for female entrepreneurs with a local chapter here in Manhattan. As an introvert who never goes up to anyone I don’t know, it’s safe to say that I detest, abhor, abominate networking. Did I mention that I hate networking? 
But being part of Ladies Who Launch would force me talk about Weddingbee, get used to it, and get good at it, so it was something that I knew I had to do.
At the time Ladies Who Launch was very new, and a much smaller organization than the juggernaut it’s become. I wasn’t really looking to meet people who might help my business, but rather to hone my networking skills. Their intimate monthly gatherings were a great fit for my homebody self. Overall it was a wonderful experience being surrounded by so many like-minded female entrepreneurs. I’ve remained friends with a number of the fabulous women I met through the organization, including my stylist Amy Salinger, invitation designer KenzieKate, bridesmaid designer Kathlin Argiro, video invitation designer Judith of Reel Invitations, and Antonia of Wine Side Out (who recently hosted a wine tasting party for Miss Martini’s bachelorette party).
I’ve mentioned previously that the initial Weddingbee concept was to pair bloggers with wedding planners. So before launching the site, I met with many of Manhattan’s best planners, and sold my little heart out on the Weddingbee concept. I was always so nervous going into a meeting, and I’d be completely drained after each and every one. But I forced myself to do it, and with lots of practice I got a little bit better each time.
I’ve since worked on cultivating a smaller group of personal relationships with people who are amazing networkers, rather than build tons of relationships. I don’t know if networking will ever come naturally for me, but I’ve put myself out there and I think I’ve found a style that works for me. The most important thing about networking is to never give up, go to every event even if you don’t want to, introduce yourself to people or have other people introduce you, and just keep at it.
How do you network? Does it come naturally to you or do you struggle with it?
When I first started Weddingbee, I didn’t have much experience with negative comments since I’d only blogged on my personal blog. You can get away with a lot more on a personal blog than you can on a community site like Weddingbee, which people consider to be a public platform that should be open to any critique. During our first year, whenever I’d read something negative about Weddingbee, I’d get really upset and sometimes my entire day would be ruined. I’m a pretty sensitive person.
But when you manage a community of any kind, you have to develop thick skin. You get tons of angry emails from users, law suit threats from vendors, and blog posts that slam you and your site. Since our launch, I’ve received regular emails from readers telling me how much Weddingbee sucks, and how much better it used to be. They’re definitely entitled to their opinion, but I think sometimes people forget that there’s an actual person (me!) behind the site. And it’s easier to criticize someone online because people will say things to you that they would never say to you in person.
Three years later, pretty much everything rolls off my back. My skin is officially thick.
Then there are trolls who only come to your site to provoke you. It’s natural for a person to react emotionally and rashly as soon as they get a negative comment. But when you engage someone who’s attacking you just for the sake of attacking you, you’re giving them exactly what they want. I completely understand the desire to respond — those comments used to hurt me too! But whenever anyone asks me for advice on how to deal with trolls, I usually advise them to ignore the commenter, and they’ll just go away.
No matter what you do, you will never be able to please all of the people all of the time. But you always learn more from your critics than from those who agree with you, so I try to see the positive in any criticisms of me or Weddingbee. Some of our harshest critics probably inspired some of our best improvements to the site.
How do you deal with trolls and negative comments?
Remember when I mentioned that I was working with a stylist to add some work appropriate clothes to my super casual wardrobe? I’m working on a post about the entire experience, coming soon! In the meantime, so many of you kindly commented on the outfit that I wore to the Modern Bride Project Bridesmaid event, that I thought I’d give you guys the details and tell you a bit more about the fabulous Amy who pulled it all together!
I’m pictured here with Randy Fenoli, fashion director of Kleinfeld. We shared a car to the airport after Engage 08, and he was dressed impeccably at 7 o clock in the morning while I was dressed like my usual bummy self. That’s something I’m trying to change of course!
Read more…
We’re excited to welcome the latest PROS to join the hive, Bella Figura! Bella Figura is known not only for their beautiful letterpress stationery, but also for their big commitment to being green. You’ll hear more about their story when they introduce themselves later today. Stay tuned!
One of the best parts of my job is that I’ve had the opportunity to meet some of the most talented and successful people in the wedding industry. I absolutely love hearing how vendors got started, how they grew their business, and where they plan to take their business next. It’s often inspiring, and it really gets your creative juices flowing!
I recently had a 3 1/2 hour coffee with Weddingbee PRO Sabrina of Hello! Lucky — the time just flies by when you’re talking wedding business! Sabrina took her business background and her sister Eunice took her design background, and together they started their now super successful letterpress invitation company. Sabrina is so sweet and savvy — when you know the people and the story behind the products, it makes you love the company even more.
Last week I also had lunch with Sean Low, President of Preston Bailey Designs. I first met Sean at a Preston Bailey book release party 2 years ago, which I attended with Rebecca of Engaging Concepts (she’s really introduced me to everyone in the wedding industry). I remember Sean asking me if he was one of the few male readers that read Weddingbee daily.
We’re going to change the way Weddingbee PRO works a little bit. While we’ll continue to feature some of our favorite up and comers in the industry as regular bloggers, we’re also going to feature a lot more guest posts!
If you want to submit a single-serving guest post, please go here! If there’s a vendor you’d love for us to feature, please feel free to let us know in the comments section!
We look forward to bringing you more of the best the wedding industry has to offer!
A couple months after we first launched Weddingbee, I attended The Wedding Salon’s bridal show here in New York and met Rebecca Grinnals of Engaging Concepts. Rebecca was the biggest Weddingbee fan, and just “got” the concept of the site — I loved her right away.
Since then, Rebecca has been one of Weddingbee’s biggest cheerleaders and supporters, and I feel so lucky to have someone as warm, genuine and brilliant as a friend. As a consultant to the wedding industry, her grasp of the trends and nuances of the wedding market is unparalleled. She knows everyone in the wedding industry, as evidenced by the caliber of the speakers at each of her Engage conferences.
I spoke at the last Engage 08 conference, and I just found out that I’ll be able to attend Engage09! I’m honored to be speaking alongside some of my favorite people in the business like the iconic Darcy Miller, the hilarious Sylvia Weinstock, and the charismatic Preston Bailey. Everyone on this roster is so impressive, and they have so much wisdom and inspiration to share! If you want to take your wedding business to the next level, I think this is the single best conference you can attend.
I first fell in love with Llubav’s work when I saw one of her yellow hairpins featured on the Editor’s Letter page of Martha Stewart Weddings a couple years ago.
Llubav handcrafts the most amazing customized ring pillows and accessories, and I’m so excited that she’s going to give us a glimpse into her crafty world. She’ll be introducing herself later today, so please stay tuned!
I recently wrote a 5 part series on how Mr. Bee and I met on Weddingbee. Our story isn’t really complete until I talk about how I started Weddingbee, since it was our engagement that lead to the eventual launch of the site!
I started Weddingbee as a separate blog on xanga because I didn’t want to force the male readers of my personal blog to read about every aspect of our wedding. I had just moved to New York and didn’t really have any friends that could help me plan, so my wedding blog became my best planning friend.
People always ask me if I intended Weddingbee to turn into a full blown business. The answer is yes and no. When I first moved to New York, I’d been planning on launching a blog-based site geared towards Asian Americans because there wasn’t (and still isn’t!) any great media targeted to Asian Americans. But when my little wedding blog started getting popular, I decided that it made more sense to start a wedding site because that’s what I was completely immersed in at the time. I blog best about whatever I’m obsessed with, as evidenced by my numerous other blogs: my personal blog, Korean cooking blog, decorating/newlywed blog, and animal blog.
After Mr. Bee and I got married, I updated my wedding blog, personal blog, newlywed blog and cooking blog daily. I was in blog training mode. In his recent book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell says you need to have 10,000 hours of experience in something before you can master it, and I’ve definitely put in my 10,000 hours. I also took photography and photoshop classes at FIT, because they’re definitely helpful skills when it comes to blogging. I set up Busy Bee Blogs LLC through our accountant, purchased weddingbee.com for $1500, commissioned the bride illustration from artist Paige Pooler, had a friend design the site (in a couple hours), and launched Weddingbee using Wordpress. Setting up the business cost me about $3000.
Initially the Weddingbee concept was to pair bloggers with planners since we were New York based, and I thought bloggers would need an incentive to join the site. I met with a ton of planners who were all on board, but eventually killed that idea. Instead I asked a couple of “blog friends” who already had wedding blogs to join Weddingbee, and I was ready.
Read more…
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Mrs. Bee, New York
Age and Occupation: 29, Weddingbee Publisher
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 33, Internet
Engagement Date: May 7, 2004
Wedding Date: March 5, 2005
Venue: Westside Loft, New York
About Me: Yes, my name really is Bee! I love my blogging, wikis, and tabasco sauce!
