I totally used to be one of those fourteen-year-old girls who had a livejournal account with dozens of silly entries talking about everything from the boy I liked at the time to the poetry I'd been working on. So it makes perfect, logical sense for me to have an inner blogger that was just waiting to emerge! It's only shocking to me how long it took for me to really discover the world of blogging as a grown-up!
I started my personal blog, Diary of a Manhattan Actress, about a year and a half ago, right after we moved into New York City. Mr. Star was working a lot and I was making a concerted effort to explore the city as much as possible. I saw some crazy things and often wished that I had more people to share them with who would understand my passion for the city. I also loved sharing some of the wacky experiences that you inevitably have when you're working as a NY actress!
Why I decided to apply to Weddingbee:
I had been reading Weddingbee and yearning to become a Bee blogger for months. I commented on posts and board threads every now and again, but mostly tried to keep my mouth shut, for fear of giving away any of our wedding details in the unlikely event that I became a Bee! I kept talking about applying, but was always too afraid to try. Plus, I didn't even have a wedding blog to show for myself at this point!
Finally, Pengy posted about the new generation of Weather Bee icons that were being unveiled and this just about pushed me over the edge. I wanted to be Miss Star SO BAD! I mean, how perfect was that icon for me? And yet, I still just pined to be a Bee for days and kept whining to Mr. Star about it. Finally, he turned to me and said, "You have GOT to apply. I don't know why you don't think you'd get accepted, but I know you're never going to be satisfied unless you blog for Weddingbee, so do it!" He knows me so well. I probably never would have gotten over my fear of being rejected without him pushing me to write and encouraging me when I felt like no one would want to hear about our wedding. So I started a whole new blog and wrote about what I felt like were some of the more interesting and unique parts of our wedding.
Why I got picked to be a Bee (umm, I think...):
Besides Mr. Star's encouragement, there are a few reasons why I think I am now a Bee. One, I had good timing. I knew that there had been a lot of recent Bee weddings and that the time was ripe for applying. Two, I knew what was potentially interesting and unique about our wedding and how to sell it. I was really worried that because our wedding is in New York and Mrs. Swan was already writing about her New York wedding, that we wouldn't have a unique enough perspective to offer. So in my application I emphasized a few things:
- How young I am and how I thought younger brides didn't have enough representation on the blog!
- Our willingness to really let the wedding represent us, even if it meant doing something totally different like getting married in a theater
- The fact that our wedding is being done relatively affordably in a major metropolitan area
- How much Weddingbee has been an emotional support system for me and that I want to help pass that on to other frazzled brides
Those were the things that I thought were my strongest suits as a potential Miss Blogger and I was ready to sell, sell, sell!
I've also found from the several Bees I've met in person that they are exactly how you would expect them to be in real life. I think that's an indication that Bees are really great at letting their individual voices come out in their posts! I try to always write how I would talk, even if it makes me sound a little goofy or spazzy sometimes!
Why Miss Star?:
I guess it's probably pretty obvious by now why I would choose "Miss Star" as the cover for my top-secret identity :) I thought it was too perfect to pass up, although I was initially a little torn between Star and Cavalier, since we have our little Cavalier pup! I was also secretly hoping that the obvious perfection of the nickname Star would help me get picked, although I now know that had nothing to do with it!
What the experience has been like:
I love sharing the ups and downs of wedding planning with such an immensely supportive group of ladies (with a few guys thrown in for good measure!). And when even just one bride comments on one of my posts saying that she's inspired to try a craft project I've shown or that I've made her feel so much better about being a young-ish bride, it makes all the time and effort spent worth every second!
Blogging for Weddingbee has become one of my favorite things to do (what am I going to do after recaps??) and being a part of this community has taught me how to be such a much better bride and wedding guest alike! I have learned how to be so much less judgemental about people's choices and have even made some really special internet friends :) A year ago, I would have scoffed at people who had made friends they met on the internet, but now I'm happy to say that I have lots of them and don't regret it for a second!
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