Why hello there,

May I present Bridal Musings shiny new look…

 

I'm over the moon to be able to finally share it with you all because I love it!

No, scrap that, I'm pulling out the capitals. I LOVE IT.

For the last year or so I've felt that my pink, lace topped blog design didn't reflect my own personal aesthetic or the look and ‘feel' I've created here on Bridal Musings.

Don't get me wrong, I love blush pink and always will (note the subtle pink touches pretty much everywhere on the new design) and the design was a great fit, two years ago, when I first started Bridal Musings.

But, like people, blogs grow and change and it was time to move on.

A CHIC NEW BLOG DESIGN

My goal for the new design was to be clean, chic, modern and a little playful. What do reckon? Goal reached?

Every last detail has been lovingly designed with you guys in mind. I drew on the feedback lots of you shared in my reader survey last year.

The feedback about the actual layout of the blog was extremely positive so I didn't want to change it too much. (If it ain't broke and all that.)

I also thought about the things I value when I visit my favourite blogs and websites.

It's taken 7 long months to get to this point.

Mainly because I am such a perfectionist and had to get involved with the design and development every little step of the way.

Which brings me to the two talented (and incredibly patient) ladies who made this happen:

Tabitha Emma, an Australian based illustrator and designer and Zoe Rooney, developer extraordinairre. They rock! I'm ever grateful to them for putting up with my indecisive ways and stupidly long, detailed emails. (Yes, I was that girl.)

Thanks also to the brides, grooms, photographers, vendors, and film makers who have been so supportive and understanding as I've had to push their publication dates back due to working on this.

Thanks also to my mum who helped to pay for this redesign as part of my birthday present. She is my very own Bridal Musings cheerleader!

While Zee has gone above and beyond the call of husbandly duties throughout the process, answering seemingly inane questions such as ‘Should this be aligned a fraction more to the left?' and many, many, many more.

Ok, before this turns into an Oscars speech, let's take a little look around the new digs, shall we?

Navigation

– Real Weddings are the heart and soul of Bridal Musings so of course they take pride of place on the home page (with the 3 latest real weddings at the top) and on the navigation bar.

– Streamlined categories along the top bar: Real Weddings, Inspiration, Planning, DIY, Beauty and Style.

(There are exciting things to come from regular contributors in the planning and inspiration category so watch this space!)

– All the info pages are at the top right, if you're looking to find out more about Bridal Musings, submit something, advertise or get in touch.

– Scroll down to the bottom and you'll find lots of helpful links in the footer too.


– I've also included a ‘scroll to the top' button to get you back to the top of the blog in a jiffy!

New Features

I'm truly thankful to the talented photographers and film makers who have been kind enough to share their work here.

They have played a huge part in the success of Bridal Musings.

So for me, I felt it was important to make sure I showcase their work as best I could.

Hence the clean white space and focus on all the beautiful imagery.

Plus the awesome new addition of photo and film galleries for you to browse through at your leisure.

My favourite parts. Woo-hoo!

Photo Gallery

Browse through hundreds of the loveliest, most inspirational and creative photos on Bridal Musings in the photo gallery.

– Use the drop down menu on each gallery page to browse the different galleries or go back to the gallery page.

– Click through photos easily by using the up, down, right and left arrows on your keyboard (or click the arrows on the screen).

– Share individual images on Facebook, tweet about them or pin them to your pretty Pinterest boards.

– The best thing about the photo gallery? There is a link to the original post so you can go find more loveliness where each image came from!

– Dasha Caffrey Photography kindly shared her photos for the photo gallery and the real weddings pages. Don't they look gorgeous?

Film Gallery

Wedding films have always had a special place here on Bridal Musings but this gallery is something special.

– Search by location, style of film, style of wedding (rustic / vintage etc.) and so much more.

– Take a browse through my personal favourites as well as looking through the work of talented film makers highly recommended by yours truly.

– The photos for the Film Gallery page were provided by Studio 1208 – a talented husband and wife photography and cinematography team!

I really hope you guys find theses galleries useful and inspirational throughout your wedding planning / browsing pretty things time.

(Yes, it's a thing.)

It's Not All Roses and Unicorns.

Right, let's be serious for a minute.

A big change like this means that there's bound to be bugs which will take a little time to fix.

So, as a heads up, things may look a little funny around here for a few days.

Images need to be resized, some may even be missing and it'll take quite a while for all the photos and films to be imported into the galleries.

But I just couldn't wait any longer to reveal my new favourite place on the internet. (Perhaps it might turn into yours too?!)

So please explore and have a play with the fancy new features and let me know how you get on.

As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Elizabeth  xx

ps. As some of you might be aware I had a pretty rocky start to the year and feel like I've been playing catch up ever since. With the redesign on top of all that, I wasn't able to dedicate as much time as I'd like to blogging.

Thank you for your patience and your support throughout this difficult and busy time.

But I must say, this fabulous new blog design has certainly helped me to get my blogging mojo back and I can't wait to share all the awesomeness that I've got in store for you over the coming weeks and months! It's going to be Epic.