Weddingbee PRO

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…

I think most vendors that participate on wedding blogs and boards have good intentions and are just trying to get their names out there, but don’t know what is and isn’t ok.  So this post is for vendors pondering that very same question.  

I thought we’d start with a few examples of what not to do.

This is a spam comment that we deleted today.  This vendor left several variations of this comment on threads where brides were looking for wedding dresses:

Would you like the opportunity to work with a designer who takes pride in her work first hand?  Well look no further because Ines Di Santo’s collection is definitely a must see for those brides who love either the sexy slender look or a full ballgown with just an edge of sophistication without being overwhelming. 

Call today to make your appointment now at:

Bridal Store
123 New York Avenue
New York, New York 11111
www.spam.com 

The following is a deleted thread started by a photographer.  It’s also the most common type of comment vendors leave in response to brides looking for specific services or products. 

try my site and if you don’t live near me I can travel!  I also give prices and packages that can give you a feel for what photographers charge.
 
www.photographer.com

If I’m not available for your wedding or you just have questions about what to look for in a wedding Photographer/photojournalist please just give me an email.

Cheers, johndoe
Read more…