Hello lovely people. Well, you're either here, reading this page because you're a regular of Love My Dress (hello!), or, you're a brand new visitor to these much loved interweb pages. Perhaps you've found yourself newly engaged (hey, congratulations!!) and have stumbled across Love My Dress in your height of excitement to google just about everything 'wedding'.
I wouldn't blame you, I did them same after my hubby proposed to me on Christmas Eve 2007, and if so, may I offer my congratulations, alongside the warmest welcome ever…
Love My Dress Wedding Blog – photographers are fully credited via the original posts links – see below
Clockwise from top left; embroidered table cloth wedding dress, flowers in her hair, couple hugging, gorgeous fur shrug, pale blue bridesmaids dresses, tweed & billy balls buttonhole, in love, 'LOVE' sign.
I've been blogging for over 3 years now and as I like to do at the
end of each year, today I'm going to share some of the marvellous bits
from the past 12 months.
2012 has been an incredible year for Love My Dress. Readership has continued to steadily increase, our social network
community has gained thousands of new followers and we became an award
winning blog in September this year. I took on my first paid member of
staff, the gorgeous Franky, and now have a team of writers supporting
me. That's fabulous Franky bottom left there in her wedding car on the way to her wedding ceremony where she wed her beloved Carl, cinematic Pinewood studio style. Isn't she supremely beautiful?
Clockwise from top left; Marcel wave, bride wearing Ugo Zaldi for her wedding at the Lanesborough Hotel London, Russian Bride and her Medieval Castle Wedding, black tie wedding on the Isle of Wight, Franky and her cinematic style wedding, swallow broach in her hair, from a Water for Elephants inspired wedding in Newcastle upon Tyne
In preparing this post for today, I trawled through 175 pages/over
700
blog posts that were published in 2012. These are just a few of my
favourite memories from a year of wedding blog inspiration that I feel
exceptionally proud of – I had to
practically force myself to cull some of the many images I had
shortlisted (it is far too hard to try to find my 'favourites' – because
I love everything so much!). It took a while to get everything together but in so doing, it reminded me just how much inspiration Franky and I and all those who contribute to Love My Dress have provided over the past year.
And I feel so proud of that.
Clockwise from top left; Kooples jacket, black tulle dress & heels, black headpiece, Indian Tikka headpiece
Colour took off in a big on the blog this year. BIG way. So much so, I added a brand new drop down menu listing every popular colour that we file our blog posts under, with new colours that include turquoise, gold and pale blue. Here is just a tiny peek in to a colourful world of inspiration that you can see more of by using the drop down menu to the top right of the page…
Clockwise from top left in to centre; little girl carrying a colourful pomander, pink frilly petticoat & red shoes, yellow ceiling pom poms, beautiful bouquet with pink bridesmaids dress, pretty little maids all in a row, mini flag wedding cake, charlotte's wedding, colourful stairs, red & white polka dot bridesmaids, colourful heart flag wavers on chairs, soda pop bar
Love My Dress brought me so many opportunities in 2012, including the chance to fill a life dream; I wrote my first book! It's not out just yet, but it will be out in March and you can pre-order it right now from Amazon. To have been approached by my publishers, Anova Books, and asked to work on the book, was like a dream come true, it really was.
Working on a photoshoot with a dream team of people was so much fun and such an incredible opportunity that I will forever be grateful for. It was also bloody hard work. I mean really, really hard work, and for a short while this year, I sailed seriously close to absolute burnout. I've learned a lot this year about my personal limitations, the importance of getting good sleep, learning when to switch off (and close that laptop) and be with family and good work/life balance.
Clockwise from top left; pretty flowers, beautiful bouquet, just married, bride with short hair & gold beaded flapper dress, beautiful floral crown, elegant long lace veil and Vera Wang gown
But hard work, I've found, tends to pay off
in the end and in September this year, Love My Dress became an award
winning wedding blog. Franky and I travelled to London to collect our
award from Perfect Wedding Magazine and hang out with some lovely
wedding industry people. We are immensely proud of first award.
2012 also provided an opportunity to join a host of wedding experts on the judging panel for the 2013 Wedding Industry Awards – I was lucky enough to get to hang out with my fellow judges at the beautiful Fetcham Park earlier this month, where we finalised our decisions for the regional winners. I can't wait to hear the winners announced at the awards ceremony in London next month! 😉
Clockwise from top left; original 60s dress, Edwardian wedding dress, outdoor embrace, red shoes, white tights
Clockwise from top left; sparkly dress, original Edwardian dress, 1950s full circle dress & pink bouquet, twirling!, romantic
Clockwise from top left; short polka dot veil, daisies bouquet, fur wrap, fish net bow headpiece, black bow tie, outdoor embrace, 1920s flapper style, swing, yellow billyballs buttonhole
One of my proudest achievements this year (apart from taking a big gulp and speaking publicly to a big room full of professional photographers about the benefits of working with bloggers) was leading on a project that helped to raise almos £40,000 for Oxfam. I am so pleased that I was able to use my blog as a vehicle for helping to raise awareness for this wonderful organisation (see part 1 and part 2 of the posts and published to celebrate the success of the Oxfam project).
This year we featured many more serious, discussion posts and I also introduced a new 'life and love section' too. These posts are designed to offer advice, reassurance and real life experience for our readers on a whole range of subjects and prove that we're more than just beautiful wedding inspiration. We're not afraid to tackle more difficult issues or taboo subjects either.
We also featured some fabulous DIY tutorials (see some of my faves via the links below these images)…
From top left clockwise and into centre; rustic bunting, bow ties, pom pom place settings, paper anemone pins, smoky eyes, personalised signature stamp, glitter star favour wraps, how to apply the perfect red lip, woven heart wedding fans, vintage book wedding ring box
….and there were so very many styling ideas…
Clockwise from top left and into centre; 'As two families become one', rabbit ears cake topper, suitcase table plan, vintage camera, polar bar in Union Jack flag, LOVE sign, hot sign, Pucker Up, fairy in a jar
But essentially, it was all about the weddings…
Clockwise from top left; sunshine engagement, 1920's tongue in cheek, vintage veil, laughter, black bow tie, vintage swimming baths wedding
Clockwise from top left; purple shoes & Indian headpiece, 1960s beehive, polka dot Candy Anthony dress, 1950s Americana red hearts, pale green wedding dresses, gypsy caravan, red dress
…and of course, beautiful, beautiful bridal wear, accessories and styling, all of which add up to inspire you in droves…
Clockwise from top left into centre; The Heavenly Collecion, Katya Katya Shehurina, Circa Vintage Brides, Kelly Spence, Temperley, Minna, Mira Zwillinger, Zoe Lem, Circa Vintage Brides
Clockwise from top left; buttons on lace, black tulle dress, finger waves, sequin dress, vintage wedding dress from the back
2012 has been a year that saw Love My Dress reaffirm it's position as one of the leading UK wedding blogs. I have absolutely adored working with the many photographers and suppliers who help make these blog pages look so very pretty and who are key in ensuring Love My Dress remains such a rich inspirational resource.
But for me, the best reward comes by way of the emails and notes from readers, thanking us for helping them find their perfect dress, or change their wedding plans into something that reflects who they really are, or connecting them with like minded people through our discussion posts. Receiving those notes, some of them incredibly heartfelt, makes me more happy and fulfilled than you might ever know. Sometimes, the men write to us too!…
"Hi 'Love my Dress', Just to say thanks for supporting my wife on the way to our wedding! Amy always had her nose in your website and it helped us discuss everything we wanted to do, and inspired some great ideas. Molly really was a great photographer and comes thoroughly recomended. A bit of LoMo Holga photography went down a treat. I know they will both be made up with being on your blog. Amy really loved writing down some memories and it has stopped me in my tracks at work looking at it, and almost a tear to the eye. Weddings are great and hope you keep up the great work for along time to come. best wishes and thanks. Greg."
Clockwise from top left and into centre; short hair and backless wedding dress, pretty pink peonies, movement & gold shoes, pink tulle & wire cake dome, flower in her hair, pale blue tulle dress, elegant lace headpiece
So, it's all good here in wedding blog world, as 2013 beckons us into a world of even more exquisite wedding inspiraiton. And well, that just leaves me to say, thank you so much, from the bottom of my heart, to all those readres and industry suppliers who have contributed to making this blog such a success story in 2012. You are all wonderful. A huge thank you too to my lovely friend Franky for helping me take Love My Dress on to the next level – I really could not have got through this year without you Franky!
We'll be back tomorrow with a post packed full of new year offers for our readers. In the meantime, you can keep up with Love My Dress on Twitter, Facebook and have blog posts delivered to your inbox daily by signing up to our RSS feed. You can also follow us on Pinterest and I'm on Instagram too!
With much love all,
Annabel
Annabel View all Annabel's articles
Founder of Love My Dress. Passionate Podcaster and Editor. Annabel lives in rural North Yorkshire with her husband and business partner Philip, their two daughters and menagerie of furry hounds. She loves photography, meditation, walking, being outdoors and star gazing. She is fierce when it comes to championing talent within the wedding industry and when she's not working on Love My Dress, she supports her husband Philip in the running of the family's sustainable flower farm and floral design business, Moonwind Flowers. In 2013, she became a published author.
