I started my first blog back in 2008. That’s when I sold my house and most of my belongings and moved across the country for a boy. He’s my husband now and has been for almost 10 years, so needless to say, it worked out.
When I made that move, from Dallas to New York City, I started a blog to help my friends and family keep up with my adventures. I also moved without a job and to a city where I had zero friends, so I had some time on my hands. Not to mention that when you’re moving to The City That Never Sleeps, there’s pretty much always something interesting to write about. Blogging was a creative outlet for me and kept me occupied for the nearly six months I had before I finally landed a job in the event industry. And once I did, I was working crazy hours. Opening up my laptop to type up my thoughts at the end of a long day just wasn’t happening. And so my first blog, Kimberly in the City, died a fairly sudden and rather uneventful death.
My second blogging experience was on the wedding website WeddingBee. I have to credit my coworker Mia for introducing me to that site. Mia was planning her wedding when we worked together in 2009, and when I got engaged that same year she told me to check out WeddingBee. Back in the day, WeddingBee was the wedding blog to follow. It was started by blogger Bee Kim, who chronicled her own wedding planning experience. As her blog grew in popularity, Bee invited other collaborators to the site to blog about their own weddings. At any given time you could follow along as a dozen or so women blogged about their wedding plans, beginning to end, from different parts of the country. I soon became obsessed with the site and was invested in the weddings of these women I didn’t know as if they were characters on a reality television show. It wasn’t long before I told Mia I was thinking about applying to be a WeddingBee blogger, and although it was supposedly highly competitive, the stars aligned and I was selected for one of the coveted blogging roles.
I loved blogging for WeddingBee. Not only did it ignite my passion for weddings and give me a place to focus my writing, but I became a part of a great community. I still keep in touch with many of the WeddingBee bloggers, mostly through social media, and I’ve met several of them in person over the years. And… funny story… My current team member Stephanie was also a WeddingBee blogger, which is how we met so many years ago!
WeddingBee was acquired by Internet Brands in 2011, and since then the format of the site has completely changed, sadly. No longer are there regular people blogging about their wedding planning experiences, and the sense of community seems to be missing from what it was when Bee was the queen bee (ha!). While it’s definitely not the same site anymore, it still holds a special place in my heart…. and my life journey. Truly, if it weren’t for WeddingBee, I don’t think I would have fallen as in love with weddings as I did. And I certainly wouldn’t have met my right-hand woman, Stephanie. We met for the first time in person in 2011, and we’ve been working together non-stop since 2016…. and all because of a blog!
So, why start blogging again? Well… two reasons actually, and I’m not yet convinced that either one of them is any good.
First… I finally own a decent URL for my personal brand.
I’ve tried to get my-first-name-last-name.com for years. Literally years! The person who owns it has been holding onto it pretty much since the beginning of the internet. And there’s not even anything on the site! I had a domain broker (yep, this is a real thing) reach out to the owner of the .com of my full name to see if they were willing to sell it. I’m not sure if the person who owns it has the same name as me, has a child with the same name as me and that they are hoping wants it at some point, or they are just holding onto it until someone gets desperate enough to offer them way more money than I did. Whatever the reason, they aren’t giving it up. Boo!
I’ve been using @kimberly.notkim for my personal Instagram handle for a few years. I figured, if I’m not able to use my own name for the URL, KimberlynotKim was the next best thing. Of course, nothing can be easy, and someone also owned that one. After a lot of back and forth and waiting (impatiently), I finally was able to get my hands on KimberlynotKim.com last November. It’s funny… I wanted it and literally waited years for it. But once I had it, I was like, “What the f’ do I do with it?!” So yes… getting back to blogging because I own a URL? Lame. But also true.
The other reason I’m getting back into blogging is probably a better reason. I actually enjoy writing! I’ve never really been a journal writer, meaning… get out a notebook and write down your thoughts. But behind a keyboard writing certainly is my jam. I was a Communications Major in college, with a minor in English, so writing is totally up my alley. And if I’m being completely honest, I’ve been looking for hobby! I hear that writing helps keep your creativity flowing, so why not?!
And… I’ve been using my personal Instagram for various challenges the last few months – gallon of water a day challenge, 30 day push-up challenge, get your booty in shape squat challenge. Why not leverage my blog for some of that stuff too?
So, here we are! My plan is to blog a bit about the things I’m up to, including some of my favorite products, books I’m reading, health and fitness things I’m up to, and maybe even a little bit of fashion. But since I’m just starting out, it might end up morphing into something else all together. I guess we will see, but I’m excited to have you along for the ride!
If you’ve gotten this far, I’d love to hear from you! Let me know that you’re here in the comments. And if there’s something you want to see me write about, let me know!
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