I owe you a (kinda long) story

Bride begins wedding planning
Bride decides the couple needs a wedding website.
Bride thinks most pre-fab wedding sites are fugly.
Bride decides to turn a blog into a website.
Bride works tirelessly on website.
Bride starts to dislike website.
Bride stumbles across RainyDay Templates.
RainyDay Templates re-vamps website.
Bride is enamored with website.
Bride shows off site to anyone interested (plus those who aren't).

Totally true story. As you well know, I've been on an emotional roller coaster when it comes to our wedding website (you can read about it here). I decided fairly early on (possibly even pre-engagement) that we would have one and that it would be THE source of information for our wedding guests. Turning it into that mecca of information was easier said than done.

After the initial blog-turned-website-excitement died down, I found myself making silly cosmetic changes to the site while skirting around the real issues: content and organization. You see, we had entire pages that had nothing on them. I could tell you how to get to SoFla, but there were no suggestions on what to do while there. I had thrown a couple e-pics up and changed the background, but there were typos all over the place and no info on the bridal party. Its almost as if in my mind, a site could be ugly, but still be worth its weight in click-thru's if it had the information you needed. Kind of like an ugly person having an awesome personality. Except our site had neither - no personality, no bells and whistles.

So I decided to use some of my bridal perogative* and get some serious help for our website. If you remember, I only briefly mentioned here that I was even getting help, but no details. Enter Ellie from RainyDay Templates (she also blogged about her own wedding on WeddingBee as Mrs.Lovebug).

Basically, Ellie decided to open a blog template shop. In her work with her own blog she picked up lots of tips and tricks and figured she could use that to help other people. She offers pre-made templates and custom work, all for a nominal fee. I contacted her asking for her "expert" opinion, knowing full well our site needed work. She didn't see our site as the disaster I thought it was, but did suggest some organizational and cosmetic changes. After a few emails back and forth we both went to work: her with the cosmetic changes, and me finally facing my "content demons." Within a week or so we had completely changed the website...for the better. I went into the relationship wanting a website that was cute, but in a classic way, and informative. Now it is. And I have Ellie to thank:

Ellie, thank you. Thank you for taking a few adjectives, a newly revised color scheme and some e-pics and turning that into a website that I am proud to show people. Thank you for trying to accommodate all of my random requests. And thank you for not thinking that any of my ideas (or the time of day I Gmailed them) were too zany to address. Basically, thank you for being awesome. Thank you from the bottom of my bridal heart. I ♥ our website and I know it would not be what it is today without you. I cant say it enough...you rock.

I had one more thing to tell you, but I'll save that for another post. What are you waiting for? Go see our wedding website! Feel free to let me know what you think in the comments section.

♥

*bridal perogative = taking everyone up on the sometimes rediculous notion that its my day and I can do what I want to do...because I'm the bride.