Dearest readers: As you may know, we’ve never been big on wordy posts or personal details here at the Ritzy Bee blog…pretty pictures with (often ridiculous) puns yes…but pouring our heart out to you…never. Today’s post is different because with a very bittersweet click of “publish” this will be our last post…exactly 2,130 posts after our first back in 2008. We've spent thousands of hours doting on content and have absolutely LOVED every minute of creating a site that has been a creative outlet for things we see we love and an extension of our own brand’s aesthetic and style. However, we've decided it’s time for us to move on to new places and projects with our business.We certainly are not going anywhere - we'll just be concentrating on more instant forms of social media so be sure to keep up with us on Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram. Most important of all, we'll be dedicating more of our precious time to our growing families. If you care to read our heartfelt, way more lengthy musings on ending the blog, please see below. If you are stopping by our blog for the first time, welcome…and so glad you stumbled upon Ritzy Bee…we hope you enjoy the (almost) 7 years worth of content we have curated + collected just for you here in our tiny little space. xo, M + K
Oh good, you want more of the bee-hind the scenes explanation...well here it goes: It’s impossible to sum up how much this site means to us. It's never been about money or traffic stats...though we are elated we've had thousands of unique visitors from all 50 states and 151 different countries resulting in millions of page hits. NEVER in our wildest dreams did we think that would happen. We also never imagined starting the blog would lay down a shimmery, yellow brick road of sorts...leading to the most incredible friendships, clients, industry relationships and business opportunities for our company Ritzy Bee Events. In fact we still need to be pinched on occasion that we wrote a book for one of our favorite brands, design and work at The White House, crafted with the First Lady and a Prince, and established relationships with best-of-the-best creative colleagues in the industry. This little blog has even helped promote and launch other businesses too and that just makes our hearts swell. It's also how 95% of our clients found, connected with our brand and booked us - the most successful marketing tool in our humble opinion! SO.GRATEFUL.
As if the accomplishments above were not enough…the real reward of this blog resulted offline, with the most amazing and supportive friendships. This blog is how the two of us found each other, a match made in wedding details heaven, and ultimately led us to become business partners but more importantly best friends for life. It led us to our other best friend, the talented and extremely kind and generous Suann of SIMPLESONG design, who we have collaborated with and produced more branded and printed goodness than we can count…but even more important…endless laughs, memories and stories that will continue after the blog ends. Über talented photographer friend Kate Headley was one of the very first readers of our blog who became a colleague, studio mate and who’s beautiful work has led to our own event work getting published the most - thank you KHP. To the sweet bloggers who in the early days rallied around Ritzy Bee right from the start to make us feel at home among their established wedding blogs: Janie, Vané, Anne, Bee, Christy, Kathryn, Courtney and Abby. You were/are the trendsetters before so many other wedding blogs that have come and gone - thank you for taking us under your wing…we admire you all so much for the amazing businesses you have created and know how much work you put into your own blogs. To Tristan who created our first blog branding identity, logo and image…we owe you many thanks! To Calder, Beka, Liene, Marcy and Shira…we can’t think of sweeter friends we have made to spend our free time with on visits (or vacationing with) and laughing over conversations that go way beyond the wedding world.
From our hive to yours, whether you read us every day for inspiration planning your own wedding...or if you only stopped by for a second to grab some inspiration, THANK YOU...we love each and every one of you for supporting us and this creative conduit! Finally, to the designers, stylists and most of all photographers who made this blog possible because of your bee-uitiful images and inspiring work - we dedicate this blog to you.
With love and gratitude,
Maria + Kelly
