A Brand New Love My Dress

something beautiful

Good morning 🙂 Don’t worry! You’ve not landed upon the wrong site by accident! It’s the same Love My Dress® – we’ve just had a rather swanky make-over, so things are looking quite different around here.

I’ve been waiting for this day for what feels like so long now.   I’m incredibly proud of what Love My Dress has become – a gorgeous little resource in Internet land that inspires, supports and encourages many people, but for a long time now, the blog has struggled to keep up to date with changes in the way information is blogged and shared online.  We have a really strong following, our readers are loyal and they love what we do, but the look, feel and user experience of Love My Dress had begun to flag a little, and, dare I say, start to look a little amateur.

Fear of change, of losing work – of having to migrate several years worth of blog content (nearly 3,000 posts!) to a new platform – these and many other things caused a bad case of procrastination and prevented me from taking action earlier than now, but in January this year, I finally bit the bullet and committed to a complete rebrand.

Totally the best thing I ever have done for Love My Dress.  Ever.

The start of something beautiful

Image source

I can’t tell you how thrilled I am with this re-design.  I’m over-the-moon happy with our new look.   But what’s important to me is that you love it too.

I know it’s going to take a little getting used to – things aren’t where they used to be and change can cause confusion, but if my instinct is anything to go by, I think that everything is going to be fine.

Here’s a quick round-up of what we’ve focussed on:-

*  Much cleaner, less cluttered pages
*  Easier to access archived content
*  An overall fuss-free, fun user experience
*  An elegant, fashion illustration inspired vibe
*  Lots of inspiring features to come – thanks to a brand new team of writers and contributors

We’ve still got a bit of work to do – you may notice a few changes rolled out this week – each of them designed to streamline your user experience and add to the pleasure and ease of visiting our blog.  We also need to do some work on getting categories and tags right – but we’re working on that intensely and it won’t be long before everything is perfect.  There are bound to be a few bugs here and there and I’d really appreciate your support in helping to identify where they are – if you spot something that doesn’t look right, please do email us on [email protected] to report the error.

You will find key categories to the top of the page – a useful ‘show menu/hide menu’ function means you can keep the menu bar out of sight for clutter-free browsing, or bring it up at your command.   Useful drop down menus (covering era, colour, season and designer) are located in the right hand column – and other useful information like Recommended Suppliers, our  ‘About page’, contact page, details of how to submit work and advertise with Love My Dress can all be found in the footer (go on, scroll to the bottom now and take a look!).

I promise this isn’t a Gwyneth moment but I really must express gratitude to some special people for being simply amazing. First up – superstar coder, designer, developer and the original Geek, is Ian Davenport of Swash and Fold (also of Big Bouquet).  I commissioned Ian to produce our new blog and don’t think I’ve ever worked with anyone quite so brilliant, technically capable or knowledgeable about code!  This project has been a huge undertaking and Ian has handled it like a Master of his craft – I’ve felt completely reassured every step of the way – what I thought would be a nightmare process has turned out to be a fun, educational and highly rewarding one.

Secondly, Tamryn Lawrence, my trusty colleague and new team member.  Tamryn is a ray of sunshine – she sprinkles positivity wherever she goes and I adore working with her. She’s kept me sane throughout this project, but especially so over the past month when the pressure really started to hot-up.

Thanks also to the very talented Helen Simms for creating the beautiful new illustrations – you can expect to see more from Helen on Love My Dress over the coming weeks and months.  And finally, thanks to the master scribe, Paul Antonio for creating an elegant new logo that I feel truly represents the essence of Love My Dress.

I’ve been saving all my very favourite submissions of the past few weeks ready for when the new blog was live.  Our first real wedding feature will be blogged later this afternoon.  You can also expect a months worth of brilliant competitions and giveaways in celebration of our beautiful new re-design.

That just leaves me to say that I hope with all my heart that you fall in love with the new Love My Dress® – that you find new joy in exploring our content and that visiting this blog leaves you feeling happier and more inspired than ever before.  I’d very much appreciate your feedback below – please take a moment to leave a comment or ask any questions if you’re not sure about where to find something.

Now, would someone mind passing me a very strong coffee, please?

Love Annabel xx

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.

117 thoughts on “A Brand New Love My Dress

  1. Annabel, loving the new site! I know first hand how much work will have gone into this behind the scenes so enjoy your beautiful new wallpaper! Lots of love, Julia xx

  2. Oh Annabel. I adore the new site. The colours are beautiful and the illustration by Helen Simms is gorgeous. You must be so happy with it all 😀 Congratulations! xxx

  3. J’adore J’adore J’adore! Annabel it’s just lovely, feminine and elegant but also beautifully functional. I know how much hard work this must have been so congratulations for getting here, you’ll fall back in love with blogging all over again now you have a shiny new platform for it! x

  4. It looks beautiful Annabel and I’m sure your readers are going to love it. Off to have a nosey round 🙂

    1. Huge thanks Charlie! Do you remember me asking you all about re branding at the Etsy event we spoke at last year! Come a long way since, and have to admit to being inspired by brilliant blogs like your own. I hope you are well Charlie and thanks for taking time to leave kind words 🙂 xXx

  5. Very nice. Much cleaner design, the old site was pretty but it did get a bit busy.

    In fact, it’s so nice that here I am looking at it on Monday morning when I should be working! When I have to take the report I should be writing on honeymoon with me, I hope you will feel guilty 😉

  6. Hi Annabel, love the new look. I am missing one feature, though – the ability to click on next entry at the head of each post. Will this feature be restored at some point?

    1. Hi Moz! Those link features are now at the bottom of each post but I’ve passed this over to my developer and he’s looking in to it for you – thanks for raising this! xXx

  7. It all looks gorgeous Annabel! So very chic from top to tail! Big congrats to you and all involved! x

  8. Looks beautiful Annabel! Super stylish and it really fits what you do so well. Love it. Congratulations xxx

  9. Oh my I am in raptures over the make over, it’so pretty.
    Adore the Pink/Gold shades, layout and the functionality.
    Congratulations Annabel this is super special and gorgeous. Much Love,
    Charlotte xxx

    1. This means the absolute world to me Charlotte, thank you so much! I hope I can continue to do you proud and represent Charlotte Balbier in the very best way to all our lovely readers xXx

  10. Congratulations on your new-look site Annabel! It’s absolutely stunning and all of the hard work has most definitely paid off! Your new logo and Helen Simms’ illustrations are TO DIE FOR!
    Kate x

  11. This is so beautiful Annabel – very apt to the whole feel that Love My Dress has built over the last few years. So elegant. 🙂 Big love Claudia xx

  12. ADORE the new site – love the delicate and more simple layout….but still very much you Annabel <3

  13. Well done for all the hard work Annabel…looks stylish and functional, and right on brand too! A grown-up version of a much-loved blog 🙂 xxx

    1. Thanks so much

      Anushé – honestly, that so many photographers have said such kind words has made me feel so humbled!! It is precisely the reaction I hoped and wished for, I could not be happier 🙂 xXx

  14. I can’t tell you how fantastic your update is. It looks absolutely beautiful! Congratulations (and well done on migrating those 3,000 posts. x

  15. Absolutely beautiful Annabel! I’m a little bit too in love with the whole new style, gorgeous colours and clean layout. Congratulations! xoxo

  16. Oh wow, so much love for your new look, Annabel it’s absolutely beautiful. I’ve just had a good look around and love it (it was also a good excuse to re-read your anniversary post, such beautiful words and images) Congratulations xx

  17. I love this Annabel, it looks fabulous – just what I expect from Love My Dress. Really looking forward to spending lots more time on here gathering wedding ideas. Xx

  18. You are such an inspiration for newer wedding bloggers like myself to follow their dreams. Your new site is absolutely gorgeous! Much Love!

  19. Whoop, whoop!! Huge congrats on the new look site, it’s BEAUTIFUL! Looking forward to lots more LMD loveliness, now sod the coffee and sit down and have a big glass of vino! Big love from the girls at Ruby & Diva – Sara, Carrie and Katherine xxxxxxxxx

  20. Wow Annabel…your redesign is absolutely breath-taking! Huge congratulations…you must be SO happy with it :-).

  21. Loving the rebrand Annabel, looks like the sleepless nights have paid off. Gorgeous colour palette and great structure xx

  22. Simply heavenly! xx Congratulations Annabel, you must be thrilled and relieved. Hurrah, no more TypePad! 🙂

  23. Looks very stylish Annabel. Really like the logo and the pull down menu too. I do like a bit of sparkle!

  24. Oh my goodness! Congratulations!! LOVE LOVE L.O.V.E the new look Annabel, hope the bubbles are in free flow! Just beautiful xxx

  25. Well Done Annabel! and your team, the new design is stunning, Loving the elegant fashion feel.
    Sammy xxx

  26. Annabel, I must say that your blog got an amazingly gorgeous look. It is simple yet much better. And to start with something new you have to look through differently.

  27. Late to the party! Have been cooing over your gorgeous new site design on my phone all day yesterday. it looks just as lovely on my phone ! always a good thing I think. Love the whole new look, very classy!

    1. Hi Lauren! So sorry about that – we’re in the process of moving Bloglovin accounts and bringing our Bloglovin followers with us – it takes a few days! Thank you for your lovely words 🙂 xxx

  28. I love the new look. Very clean and elegant. I always enjoyed the content but I think you’re right, it just needed a little freshening up. I think you’ve overwhelmingly succeeded in your mission and the whole team should be proud.

  29. I love everything about the new design! The fresh white look, but with so much personality and prettiness – features and photos will look amazing set against this! Also I love the pale greens, blush pinks and gold (my all time favourite wedding colours actually!)

    So excited for you – and so excited that I am part of Team Love My Dress!

    Naomi xxxxx

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