A Wedding Blogger's Obituary

We pride ourselves on being fair here at Any Other Wedding.  We’ve worked hard to create a community based on trust and, we like to think, genuine friendship.   As wedding bloggers, we have a responsibility to our readers to be honest and upfront and we have a strong policy of never posting anything that isn’t from the heart, from the gut and absolutely sincere.  Anything else makes a mockery of what we’ve built, and you deserve only the very best.    

Today’s post needs no introduction.  We are absolutely privileged to be running a post that Rebecca Norris should have been able to post a long time ago; and for many reasons couldn’t.  Rebecca wrote this goodbye to her readers on Sunday July 31st, the day her departure was announced on Rock My Wedding. 
   
Rebecca, you are dignified, truthful and one hell of a writer.   We think we speak for the whole wedding community when we say we’ve missed you:

So today 'the announcement' was made, publicising my departure from Rock My Wedding. It was quite a day and one that I couldn't let pass without adding my own voice to...(removed at the request of solicitors acting for Rock My Wedding Ltd.)

Where to start? RMW was such a massive part of my life. Until the last couple of weeks, starting way back in October 2009, when my very first post was published (A review of the latest Ian Stuart collection in case you're wondering...) barely a day went by that I wasn't thinking, eating, sleeping and dreaming weddings and blogging. I worked hard trying to vary the posts, cover important planning aspects that I felt brides would need help with or benefit from, and making contact with photographer after photographer in the days when blogs were new and photographers not used to submitting their work. There were late nights, tears of desperation at times, the fear of having nothing to blog (... removed at the request of solicitors acting for Rock My Wedding Ltd.) and nights when I sat in front of the computer wondering why I bothered... because who was reading anyway? However, being a team meant there was always someone to share that with, both the tests and the triumphs and we spurred each other on.

For all of this hard work came the most fabulous reward... the viewing figures went up, but not only that, so did the comments. Slowly, slowly, the RMW community was born. It was the most rewarding thing receiving emails from brides who had found us and changed their plans, used my DIY ideas, or even my veil or necklace tutorial inspired by my own wedding. The best bit came when they sent in their wedding days and we got to play 'spot the RMW style' amongst the pretty. RMW was on twitter (totally new to me) and slowly I took over the role of tweeting and set up RMW's facebook page. Social Media became my friend and I met thousands of like minded industry people who inspired me and appreciated the blog and our efforts.

I like nothing more than learning a new computer trick (closet techie geek that I am!) and (... removed at the request of solicitors acting for Rock My Wedding Ltd.). The 2 blog queens even holidayed together.

As RMW grew it became more than a simple wedding blog, behind the scenes at least. It was a business and businesses are not always straight forward. Never having entered RMW to become a business woman, I became excited by it. I didn't think it was possible to find more drive whilst working all the late nights, but something spurred me on. Amongst all this my postgraduate training was nearing completion and I realised that my aspirations to combine my day job with something creative had been fulfilled. I made the decision to take the leap and go part time, to really put everything into the blog. Along with the success came recognition and the chance to shape the future of Wedding style and trends, with our own self-styled shoots and magazine articles. It was like a fairytale at times, so much so, my day job seemed like the real-life antidote to the whirlwind dreamland of RMW blogged by night.

In the end it wasn't to be. I don't believe in regrets and I have none, even now as I read the comments wishing me well in the future. Blogging has become so much a part of who I am that the natural response to seeing my departure announced was to let my fingers tap out this farewell to the Rock My Wedding readers and community. I hope that one day each and every one of my beloved and much appreciated readers will know how grateful I am to have been a part of their wedding planning and married lives.

It has been an absolute privilege to have even the smallest role in the wedding planning of so many brides and sometimes even see our blog posts influence the actual weddings of the readers. Seeing the RMW community develop restored and inspired my faith in woman-kind and the strength of female friendship, support and loyalty. The Brides have always been my number one concern and my own personal satisfaction in the success of RMW lies with them entirely; however, meeting so many creative individuals and building friendships within the industry has also been an enlightening and wonderful bonus that I hope will continue to enrich my life. I certainly owe them a moment of thanks for their support up to this point and as I embark upon a new and different journey. You know who you are.

And how to finish? No need, because as the Rock My Wedding community became a part of me, it shall remain with me. I don’t need to say goodbye.

Yours Truly,

Rebecca

xoxo

Thankfully Rebecca isn't going anywhere, and you can read more of her writing over at Love My Dress today, and of course, more in the future!