Before I was a day-of wedding coordinator, I was a journalist.
I graduated from the University of Oregon with an honors degree in magazine journalism. My last job before I went full-time with my wedding business was as the managing editor of a magazine with a monthly reach of 1.7 million.
This experience was never notable to me until, about a month ago, my vendor friends started to ask if I’d consider writing for their blog. The conversation usually went something like: “So, it’s the slow season and I really should be working on my blog… You write a lot… Weren’t you a journalist?”
When I had the same conversation with the fourth person in four weeks, I threw up my hands. “OK, universe!” I said. “I get it. Message received.”
I will happily write, edit, or consult on your blog but if you’d like to do it yourself, here’s how you can write a regular blog as a wedding vendor.
Ask yourself, “What are the work stories I always tell friends?”
I’ve got a few. One of my favorites: the time two adults dressed up as sock monkeys for Halloween accidentally wandered into a straight wedding and the bride, who happened to love sock monkeys, lost her ever-lovin’ mind.
What are your must-tell stories? What anecdotes do you always turn to when someone says, “You work weddings, huh? That must be interesting!” Write these down. These are your story ideas.
Pick the idea that most excites you
Note the word I used there — “excites.” I didn’t say “the idea that has the best SEO” or “the idea that most demonstrates your talent as a wedding vendor.” I said “excites” as is “makes your heart pace, stomach flip, fingers itch because you’re just so eager to write.”
Use this five-paragraph template
Remember the five-paragraph essay we all learned in elementary school? Well, guess what? You can use it as an adult, too! And it doesn’t even have to be five paragraphs. Three will do the trick. Take that idea you picked and apply it against this template:
Your introduction (3 to 5 sentences) — Write down how you start that story you always tell your friends. Don’t sweat the actual language. Just write it down. The goal here is to get something (anything!) on the page.
Your middle (3 to 5 sentences) — Stop your story at a pivotal part, a real cliffhanger. And then, right when I was about to… Zoom the camera out. Introduce your experience as a vendor. This might feel choppy at first but let it be. You’ll iron it out later.
Your conclusion (3 to 5 sentences) — Pick up where you left off in your story and draw it to an end. This is the place to put your punchline, land the joke, send them home laughing (or crying, depending on what kind of story you’re telling).
The moral of the story (1 sentence) — For your rough draft, I encourage you to write this out as a separate section. The moral of the story is… Put another way, this is why you’re telling this particular story in the first place. The moral of the story is… never leave your photo gear unattended. The moral of the story is... always ask where your flowers come from. The moral of the story is… include a question about pronouns in your intake form.
That’s it, 10 sentences on the short side, 26 on the long. Roughly 300 to 500 words, the same length that I always used to assign digital stories when I was a managing editor.
Be warned: Your rough draft isn’t going to sound good. Hell, it might not even make a lot of sense. How did we get from a toilet trailer in the middle of a field to experience as a DJ back to the toilet?
It doesn’t matter. What matters is that you’ve got something to work with. You’ve actually gotten the thoughts out of your head and onto paper. Now, you can shape and mold them however you want.
Final tip: Remember who’s reading
As you do this, I encourage you to remember your audience. One of the most popular stories on my site is “Why He Doesn’t Care About the Wedding As Much As You Do.”
This story has very little to do with the tactical work of planning a wedding. Rather, it’s about a struggle that many of my straight women clients have faced as they planned their weddings: They felt like their male partners didn’t care.
You might read this story and be like, “That’s great but how does this help? It helps because it makes those who read it feel less alone. It’s an open hand outstretched in the darkness. It uses knowledge I have only because I work as a wedding vendor to help those who are actively planning weddings do it more successfully with less heartache.
And isn’t that what we vendors ultimately want: To find couples we can help?