Category Archives: Founder Stories

I LOVED going to the National Stationery Show. My first time was two years ago, when all I had was WeddingInviteLove and didn’t know many people in the industry, so I snagged a press pass on a whim (in fact, I created this blog at first solely to get that guest pass) and flew myself out there. I met SO MANY amazing stationers, made a ton of new friends, and really started to grow my connections in the industry.

Last year, I went again — WeddingLovely now had a bunch of different wedding vendor directories, not just stationery, and I even had an employee. This year was also our big WeddingLovely Shindig (planned with the amazing 5th Avenue Weddings & Events) — we held a huge party at Etsy Labs, met MORE people, and had an amazing time again.

Each year was a smashing success for WeddingLovely. So why am I not going this year? It’s been breaking my heart to get email after email from friends asking to meet up. The big reason has been a major change in direction for WeddingLovely — last year, we had a small bit of funding from 500Startups, but the business as a whole was losing money (ah, the joys of a traditional startup). Rather than raising money again (and potentially getting investors on board pushing WeddingLovely into a bad direction, you know the weddings industry), I decided to lower our expenses drastically (one reason why the full-time WeddingLovely team is just me again), bootstrap the company, and run a much leaner business.

The good news is that WeddingLovely is now profitable (though I have a teeny-tiny salary) which is pretty much amazing — the bad news is, I won’t be able to go to NSS while also pinching pennies. Being a West Coast gal, it would involve flights, food, lodging, and probably a slew of miscellaneous expenses, and I’ve made the decision to stay at home and watch the goings-ons from afar.

Like I said, it breaks my heart — I’ve had such a good time at NSS over the years. That said, if any stationers at the show want some coverage-from-afar, I am more than happy to blog photos or anything else sent to me from the show or after! Just send an email over to features@weddinglovely.com.

I hope all my lovely friends at NSS have a great time, and hopefully I’ll be there next year!

Cheers,
-Tracy

Horribly unflattering photo of yours truly working on the Fall WeddingLovely Lookbook!

If you’re a small business owner, you know the work day isn’t just Monday through Friday, 8am to 5pm. I’ve gotten into a good routine lately with my schedule, but it’s a little odd, and I thought it would be fun to share it with you so you get an insight into how I spend my day! Also: this generally applies to six days per week, with one day which’ll be lazier than the rest or I have some event going on.

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2012 was an amazing year at WeddingLovely. As the founder, WeddingLovely is pretty much my child, and nothing makes me happier than seeing it grow. I’ve compiled some great stats about 2012:

• Grew from 519 vendors to 1720 vendors across the WeddingLovely vendor network: WeddingInviteLove, WeddingPlannerLove, WeddingPhotoLove, WeddingVenueLove, and WeddingVideoLove.
• Launched our wedding guidance app to help couples plan their wedding and find amazing wedding vendors on WeddingLovely.com.
• The WeddingLovely Blog had it’s best month yet, with over 30,000 views in November.

I’m so excited about 2013! One of the biggest things done behind the scenes was a major update to how our directories run, so new features and new directories can launch faster! Sneak peek of new features planned for this month alone:

• Profile and search page redesign for all of our directories.
• New vendor recommendation widget, so vendors can recommend others!
• Launching WeddingFlowerLove.com, WeddingMusicLove.com, and WeddingCakeLove.com.
• New templates and themes for WeddingLovely.com’s wedding websites.

WeddingLovely is a one-woman project, and I plan on keeping busy—running this blog, launching new features, and helping vendors and brides/grooms. Stay tuned for more posts about the best posts on the blog in 2012 this week!

I’m so excited about 2013!

Love to all,
-Tracy

Photo credit: Photo from Christmas day near my cabin in the Sierras. It was a beautiful trip!

It’s almost Thanksgiving here in the United States. Every time the holidays roll around, I do a lot of thinking — about what the holidays mean to me, what I’m doing, the people I love, and things like that.

When I was a kid, I loved Thanksgiving. Who didn’t? It was a day that revolved around delicious food and loving family. My parents divorced when I was two, which means that all I remember is switching back and forth between parents for holidays my entire life.

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One thing I get asked a lot is how did WeddingLovely start, especially since I’m not married nor engaged, nor have I ever been! It all started when I left my one-and-only “real” job I’ve ever had — I’ve worked a variety of service positions like most teenagers/young adults, but my only “real” job was working during and after graduation from college (with a BFA in Art & Design) as the “Lead Design & Optimization Manager” of an online education startup. I was there for 4.5 years, and after leaving, I tried freelancing web design for a bit until I got it in my head that I wanted to do a startup. This jump was a bit less scary since my significant other was running his own startup at the time, and I got to see him go through working on it and learned a lot from him.

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