Will It Be Happily Ever After for Wedding Blogs?

Wedding blog article - Photo Credit Anneli Marinovich www.annelimarinovich.com

Once upon a time for wedding blogs...

Following the rise of Style Me Pretty and Ruffled Blog in the US, the first UK wedding bloggers were lone voices with a small, devoted following. Kat, Charlotte and Annabel all used the internet to plan their weddings, and their blogs grew as their fans spread the word.

These dedicated bloggers were writing about weddings in their spare time at first, until quite recently their blogs became so popular they 1) didn't need other jobs anymore and 2) didn't have time to go out to work! It was a turning point for UK wedding blogs the day Kat left her job at a TV shopping channel, and shortly afterwards we saw Annabel commit to Love My Dress blog full-time. Others followed - Julia from Brides Up North went full time. Kelly from Boho Weddings still works as a planner and I still split my time (evenly now) between English Wedding blog and my calligraphy work. It seems those of us with wedding industry jobs love them too much to let go!

Photo Credit: McAvoy Photography www.mcavoyphotography.co.uk

 Wedding bloggers - a new adventure

2011 was the year wedding blogs in the UK became big business. The bloggers took on multiple sponsors (count 'em in the sidebars on the major blogs - at an average of about £200 each a month, the blogs are making serious money now) and embarked on exciting new projects. There were shoots and collaborations, many more daily blog posts, more weddings - and more money for the bloggers. (See the Big Fat UK Wedding Bloggers Photoshoot here - just for the record I hate the name!!! - and Kat's Rock n Revolution Paris shoot - two of my favourites.)

The publicity grew and grew, with features in the national wedding press, bloggers co-writing inspiration features for the magazines, as well as columns in both wedding and photography magazines. There was public speaking and even Rock n Roll Bride TV - then Annabel's Love My Dress Soiree made a big splash over the summer. Let's not forget Rock My Wedding who partnered with the National Wedding Show in 2011 (and have done so again for 2012), and Staggered who went 'on tour' to chat to grooms-to-be all over the country.

The wedding bloggers are famous!

Not only have the UK wedding bloggers achieved great financial success, these girls are celebrities in the wedding industry. I don't expect to see pink hair at a wedding show any more (well, not that pink hair) but I'm waiting to see Kat on the cover of a wedding magazine this year - or on mainstream TV telling us about her brand! We've already seen she's collaborating with Ian Stuart on a wedding dress design - now that will be exciting.

I have huge admiration for the way Annabel, Charlotte and Kat have driven their brands to this level of success. And yet... the public face of wedding blogs has changed. The blogs now are what wedding magazines used to be: they outstrip all of the mags for readership figures, and many times over. They're big business, incredibly popular and in a position to change the UK wedding industry if they so choose.

Can a big business feel the same as a blog?

I've heard a few people say wedding bloggers are losing their appeal. Personal contact with the blogger used to be a major part of these brands. Now it's just not possible for the bloggers to communicate on a one-to-one basis with all of their readers, via email or comments or on other social media. However - their audience continues to grow.

The disillusioned readers are only a minority; those who have been around the wedding industry for the last few years. But brides- and grooms-to-be still adore the big wedding blogs and the bloggers themselves. The key? This is an industry where someone is a reader / fan / potential customer for 18 months at a time. People get married, and new people come along to follow in their footsteps. Wedding blogs are changing, but they're changing with the times and to suit an ever-new audience.

Diversity from wedding blogs

The beauty of the UK wedding blog scene is the variety of blogs to enjoy: from the girls at the top of the tree - Rock My Wedding, Rock n Roll Bride, Love My Dress - to the established smaller blogs - English Wedding, Boho Weddings, London Bride, Adore, OMG, Whimsical Wonderland, Staggered, Brides Up North and Beyond Beyond - and the multiple newcomers.

We all have our individual styles and focus. We inspire each other and all provide our readers with something different to enjoy. The best thing about UK wedding blogs is diversity: there's something for everyone.

Photo credit: Phil Drinkwa­ter www.phildweddingphotography.co.uk

The future for UK wed­ding blogs

There’s no stop­ping the UK wed­ding blog scene. The trail­blaz­ers will con­tinue to grow and I’m sure in a cou­ple of years’ time at least one will be pub­lish­ing a reg­u­lar print mag­a­zine, with oth­ers host­ing pol­ished and excit­ing events for brides and grooms, and for the industry.

And the big three wed­ding bloggers?

I expect Rock n Roll Bride will keep build­ing on Kat’s celebrity sta­tus with more fan­tas­ti­cal shoots and involve­ment with cut­ting edge brands. Her Marie Antoinette would fit right into an Ian Stu­art adver­tis­ing cam­paign… I’m sure there are top bridal design­ers plan­ning feisty pro­mo­tions with our pink-haired trail­blazer already! (I won­der if she’ll ever tire of the pink and change the colour…?!)

I can see Rock My Wed­ding becom­ing even more of a pro­fes­sional blog — with a net­work of blogs and local sites, maybe world­wide — like Style Me Pretty has done. With a ven­dor net­work and Charlotte’s voice at the cen­tre of Rock My Wed­ding, this is a busi­ness which will grow into some­thing the wed­ding indus­try in this coun­try has never seen before. Will there be a Rock My Wed­ding Amer­ica on the cards?

And Love My Dress is, for me, the wed­ding blogger’s blog. Annabel has slipped into being the effort­lessly cool wed­ding blog­ger — the fash­ion­ista, the entre­pre­neur of us all. I’d love to see Love My Dress carry on just the way it is, with care­fully selected guest blog fea­tures and thought­ful dis­cus­sions — LMD is the blog I read most of all, and while I wish Annabel every suc­cess, I don’t want her to change!

wed­ding blog photo by Mar­tin Bed­dall www.mcbweddings.com

The future for Eng­lish Wed­ding blog?

Shall I men­tion Eng­lish Wed­ding blog? Oh go on then… I’d like Eng­lish Wed­ding to wear the man­tle of an ‘inde­pen­dent wed­ding blog’. I like not being afraid to say what I think, to pro­voke dis­cus­sions when the wed­ding indus­try feels stale and to stick with what a wed­ding blog used to be.

I have a small, selec­tive group of spon­sors. I fea­ture wed­dings with a story behind them or some­thing inspi­ra­tional about them. I also want to pro­vide a plat­form for wed­ding busi­nesses I admire to get the atten­tion they deserve. For me, it’s per­sonal — I’ll never be one of the big three, but I’d like to own this lit­tle space and keep things just as they are. I like it here!

Fur­ther reading

• The Top 100 UK wed­ding blogs — Easy Wed­ding Search
• 9 ways to write a bril­liant wed­ding blog — Eng­lish Wedding
• 15 favorite wed­ding blogs — You & Your Wedding
• Great British Wed­ding Blogs website

Do you think wed­ding blogs have changed? Are my pre­dic­tions for the big three wildly inac­cu­rate? How do you see wed­ding blogs and the girls and guys behind them?