• Craft tutorials
• Real DIY weddings
• Real engagement sessions
• Articles about wedding planning and crafting

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Craft Tutorials:

Some of our reader’s favorite projects include: invitations and stationery, bouquets and florals, jewelry, decor, favors, and cakes. Projects for weddings, showers, engagement parties, and rehearsal dinners are all welcome.
We prefer projects that are modern and on-trend with the current crop of brides and grooms. (No tulle-wrapped bottles of bubbles, for example.)
Supply lists that must be able to be fulfilled by most crafters (no wholesale-only suppliers, for example)
Directions must be clear, concise, and easy-to-follow. Our audience is primarily at the intermediate to advanced level crafters however, we will accept projects at a beginner level as well.
Step-by-step photos must be submitted whenever possible, along with crafting tips and technique information if needed. Any variations to projects are also beneficial.
We’re open to all wedding-related crafts and would love to see techniques such as sewing, paper crafts, printmaking, floral arranging, jewelry making, and clay.
Use of current popular color schemes and themes should be considered when finalizing projects.

Real Weddings & Engagements:

In the body of an email as plain text (no Word, PDF or other formats are accepted)

Your first names
Wedding date (including year)
Wedding location (include city, state, country, resort, etc.)
What made your wedding creative
What projects you DIY’ed
Any other details that made your wedding special

Please attach: at least 25 pictures of your wedding (75 – 100 is ideal), as attachments to the email. (A zipped file is ok as are individual photos; pdf, word, or other formats are not.)

For photographers and other vendors:

We are a two bright lights editorial partner. This is our preferred method of professional submissions because it’s so easy for all involved however, we also accept direct submissions.

25-100 pictures of the wedding (A zipped file is ok, pdf; word, or other formats are not.)
Your name and company name
Couple’s names
Wedding date (including year)
Wedding location (include city, state, country, resort, etc.)
What made your wedding creative
What projects were DIY’ed
What you loved about this wedding

Everyone:

• Please make sure you have the rights to send in the images of choice. In most cases, the photographer owns the rights to the images she/he took at the wedding – the couple does not. Do ask your photog for permission before you send pro shots, please.
• Please use low-res images! My email server tends to freak out when I get large files and I end up not receiving those emails. Do NOT send links to your photos. Send the actual photos in an email, please.
• Do NOT send your submissions in any format other than text in the body of an email. NO PDF, MS Word or other file types will be accepted.
• Please send images from your wedding(s) only. Do not submit shots from other peoples’ weddings or events (unless you are the photographer or otherwise have permission to do so).
• I cannot guarantee that I’ll use every image or will feature every submission.
• It will take time for me to sort through submissions. Please be patient!

Ready To Submit? Have Questions? Use our handy dandy contact form to hit us up for the 411.

DIYBride.Com is expanding and we’re looking for bright, witty writers to help make us a more comprehensive, more hip, and more visible resource for do-it-yourself brides (and grooms).

What you get:

Fame and I’d love to say fortune, but, alas, this is a free resource. There’s no cash involved, but you do get your name in print and you’ll be part of a hip and rapidly growing bridal
community. Build your rep, promote your expertise and help thousands of DIYers create their awesome
celebration. (Plus, you’ll benefit from the mad publicity when my book drops in January 2008). We’ll
give you credit for your submissions, of course, plus create a fab little bio for you and a link to
your web page or business.

We need people who can write original tutorials, reviews, opinion pieces and more in the following
areas:

* Craft tutorials – Any wedding-ish craft is fair game.

* Trendspotting – What’s hip, hot, and happenin’ in the wedding industry?

* Pop Culture – Are you the Queen of Pop Culture? If you know who Perez is, subscribe to fashion rags galore, and know every hip design blog we want you!

* Expose / Editorial – Have you experienced the deep, dark wedding underbelly? What lurks behind the silk shantung curtain of the industry?

* Book Reviews – Help! I can’t keep up with all the fab craft & weddings books on the market. If you have a weakness for books, tell us about the latest reads on your list.

* Reality Bites – There’s a huge disconnect between the WIC (Wedding Industrial Complex) and real world weddings. What’s your take?

* Advice – Be part of our board of experts and answer burning queries about planning, etiquette, and all-things-weddings. If you have a knack for giving solid, “real world” advice, you may be the one we’re looking for.

* Are we missing anything? Let us know!

The Deets:

* Articles can be any length and we’ll evaluate each one on a case-by-case basis. Ideally you’ll submit 1,500 words or less (I know, I know – it’s hard to condense your brilliance). All articles submitted will be edited for length, accuracy and clarity. Your article may be edited for other reasons. If you want your article untouched then please note this in your submission. Please understand that if your article is not accepted it could be for many reasons (standards, content,
grammar). Don’t take it personally. You’re still loved.

* You must be fun, fabulous, opinionated, and write well.

* Are you crafty? We already love you.

* Submit articles in email or Word format only, please. Others formats will be rejected unless you send them by carrier pigeon (because that’s just way cool).

* In addition to your article please include the following info:

1. Your Name
2. Story Title
3. Brief Summary Of Your Piece
4. Your Contact Info

* Terms & Conditions – Writers maintain their copyright of every article that they wish to submit to DIYBride.com. Writers may re-publish electronically (on the web) provided that the re-published
article states: This article was first published on www.diybride.com.

The comments on the DIY Bride are moderated. Comments may be rejected (and deleted) for any number of reasons, the most frequent being:

1. Spam or spam-like language. Any person who attempts to use the comments feature for promoting his/her product or service is out of luck unless I specifically ask for vendors to use the comments section to reply to a specific query.

2. Hateful or spiteful replies. I can’t be bothered with jerks and my site is not for use as a flame ground of any kind. Under no circumstances will I publish comments that are abusive, spiteful, insulting. You are welcome to disagree with others but, you know, be an adult about it. Be civil. State your position with respect. Thanks.

3. Comments that are meant to be a private message to me. Use the contact form, please.

4. Comments that don’t make sense. Use full sentences, please, and comment on the post you have a question, kudos, or problem with. If you comment that you’re looking for help with monogram instructions on a post that’s talking about flower arranging… ugh. If there’s no post that corresponds with a question you have, please use the contact form. I appreciate it.

5. Link requests do not belong in the comments and guarantees you won’t get a link. I do not participate in link exchanges.

What We’re About

We’re all about weddings and commitment celebrations of all kinds between consenting adults. Our focus is on weddings and wedding-related crafts and ask that our members share their knowledge, experience, and ideas to help and inspire others create their own awesome celebrations.

Our members are smart, opinionated, irreverent, fun, playful and diverse. The DIY Bride community is made of people from different races, orientations, religions, personal convictions, economic status, etc. who have the right to feel comfortable in our community space. We expect – at a minimum – that our members treat each other with respect and dignity at all times.

To keep our happy little home free of unnecessary drama and spam, the following rules are in place. Violators will be unceremoniously removed and banned from our site.

1. Don’t be a jerk. While we appreciate and encourage open discussion and debate, members are not allowed to wage personal attacks, flame wars, or abusive behavior of any kind on any person(s) in our community. This includes racist, sexist, homophobic, and threatening comments. You may certainly disagree with another member, but you are expected to do so in a mature, level-headed manner. If you feel the urge to attack anyone, don’t. We’ll boot you off the site forevah.

2. Don’t use the site for commercial purposes. It’s not fair to use our site to sell anything or promote your business. If we find you selling (or promoting) products, services, or yourself through your blog (hosted here), posts, community profile or other site features, we will terminate your account. If you want to advertise, please contact us for rates and options.

3. Don’t upload content that’s illegal or prohibited. Keep porn, illegal activities, copyright violations, illicit materials, etc. off the site. We report violations to law enforcement as necessary.

In Conclusion

We’ve crafted these guidelines to ensure that everyone within the community has the experience they want. We’re all here to have fun, learn, and talk about weddings so it’s important that you understand the importance of moderating your content responsibly. If you don’t feel that you can abide by our Community Guidelines as outlined above, DIY Bride isn’t for you. No hard feelings, cupcake.

If you ever have any questions or comments, we’d love to hear from you. Please feel free to drop us a line anytime.

Reviews & Promotion

The products, services, and resources featured on DIYBride are determined by the owner, Khris Cochran, or the editorial staff of this site.

DIYBride sometimes accepts money in exchange for reviews or featured editorial content. These are called “sponsored posts” and are clearly marked within the body of the post so that our readers are aware of advertorial content. We accept sponsored content only from businesses we can truly support and honestly recommend to our readers.

We occasionally publish and promote events, products, services, and resources from businesses that are (or have been) advertisers on DIYBride.com. These are non-paid endorsements and are are chosen by the merit of the information:

• is it of interest to our readers,
• does it fit the context of our site, and
• is it good/fun/interesting?

Sometimes companies will send us products to test and/or review on our site. It is our policy to note this in our online reviews and to give our honest feedback about the product.

User Comments

DIYBride allows users to comment on nearly all of our blog and forum posts in the comments sections accessible at the end of articles and in forum topics.

User comments are rarely edited but there are exceptions when we deem it necessary to alter or delete a submission:

* Violation of comments policy
* Spam, advertising, blatant self- or business-promotion
* Clarity (Textspeak such as “Wot R U doing?” will always go under the editorial knife.)

DIYBride is committed to protecting the privacy of its members. The following policies apply to diybride.com and any other of our other sites.

Our web site may contain links to other web sites for your convenience and information. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of those sites. We urge you to review the privacy policy of any company before submitting your personal information.

Personally Identifiable Information

Registration For Our Site
Anyone can view our site, but free registration is required for access to the full range of information and services.

Diybride.com requires that you supply an e-mail address to register. You will also be asked for demographic information, which is optional. By using diybride.com, you are agreeing to the terms of our User Agreement.

Contests and Special Offers
On occasion, DIYBride collects personal information from readers in connection with optional contests or special offers. If this information is to be shared with a third party other than DIYBride, we will notify you at the time of collection. If you do not want any personal information shared, you may always decline to participate in the contest or special offer.

Reader Surveys and Market Research
DIYBride may collect personal information from members in connection with voluntary surveys. Data may be collected on our web site, on a survey company’s web site or through the mail. The information you provide in answer to optional survey questions may be shared, but only in the aggregate, with advertisers and partners unless we notify you otherwise at the time of collection.

Aggregate Information Collected Through Technology

Cookies and Other Technologies
As is standard practice on many web sites, DIYBrides uses “cookies” and other technologies to recognize you and provide personalization, as well as to help us understand which parts of our web site is the most popular, where our visitors are going on our site, and how much time they spend there. Users who do not accept cookies from the domain “diybride.com” cannot access most areas of our site.

We reserve the right to place a cookie on your computer with a unique, anonymous number to ensure that your browser does not see the same advertisement repeatedly, to sequence ads in a series, and to measure the number of unique visitors who have viewed a particular ad or visited a particular web page.

In addition, advertisers may elect to use third-party advertising companies to serve ads onto our web site. In the course of serving these advertisements, the third-party advertisers may place or recognize a unique “cookie” on your browser. We do not have access to these cookies or any information that they may contain. Acceptance of cookies from domains other than diybride.com is optional and will not affect member access to our site.

IP Addresses
DIYBride logs IP (Internet protocol) addresses, or the location of your computer on the Internet, for systems administration and troubleshooting purposes. We use the IP address log in an aggregate fashion to track access to our site. We also use IP addresses to identify problem users, spambots, and other disruptive users in the event of removing users or disallowing access to our site.

Log files
Log data is only used in aggregate to analyze usage of our Web site.

What Do We Do With the Information We Gather About You?

Statistical analysis
DIYBride may perform statistical, demographic, and marketing analyses of subscribers and their subscribing and purchasing patterns, for product development purposes and to generally inform advertisers about the nature of our subscriber base. We also use such information to allow advertising to be targeted, in aggregate, to readers for whom such advertising is most pertinent.

Banner Advertising
We may use demographic and preference information to allow advertising on our web sites to be targeted, in aggregate, to the users for whom they are most pertinent. This means users see advertising that is most likely to interest them, and advertisers send their messages to people who are most likely to be receptive, improving both the viewer’s experience and the effectiveness of the ads. We will disclose information to third parties only in aggregate form.

User-Generated Content (comments, forums, and discussions)
We offer the ability for readers to post content in a number of areas on our web site. Any information you disclose when posting on our site, along with your user name, becomes public and may be used by DIYBride for online and off-line promotional or commercial uses in any and all media. Any posting becomes public as soon as it is published online. For more information, please refer to the User Agreement.

E-Mail Communication and Addresses
If you choose to receive them, DIYBride will periodically send you e-mail newsletters or promotional e-mail about services offered by DIYBride and its advertisers.

E-mail Policy
We will not share, sell, rent, swap, or authorize any third party to use your e-mail address without your permission. If you feel you have received an e-mail message from us in error, please contact info@diybride.com.

Account and service-related e-mail: DIYBride reserves the right to send you e-mail about your account status. This includes order confirmations, renewal and expiration notices, other transactional e-mails, and notifications about major changes in our web sites or to our Privacy Policy. If you have registered for online discussions or other services, you may receive e-mail specific to your participation in those activities.

E-mail newsletters: DIYBride offers e-mail newsletters. If you no longer wish to receive a specific newsletter, follow the “unsubscribe” instructions located near he bottom of each newsletter. To manage your diybride.com e-mail preferences, please visit your Community Control Panel.

HTML e-mail: We may include coding to determine whether or not readers have viewed the message. This process does not leave any information on your computer, nor does it collect information from your computer. DIYBride will share this data with others in aggregate only.

E-mail from you: If you send us e-mail messages, you should be aware that information disclosed in those messages may not be secure or encrypted and thus may be available to others. We suggest that you exercise caution when deciding to disclose any personal or confidential information in e-mail. We will use your e-mail address to respond directly to your questions or comments.

With Whom Do We Share Gathered Information?

If you have registered with us, DIYBride will not sell, rent, swap, or authorize any third party to use your e-mail address or any information that personally identifies you without your permission. We do, however, share information about our audience in aggregate form.

Data Security
To prevent unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy, and ensure the appropriate use of information, we have put in place physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to protect the information we collect online.

Compliance With Legal Process
We may disclose personal information if we are required to do so by law or we in good faith believe that such action is necessary to:
(1) comply with the law or with legal process,
(2) protect and defend our rights and property,
(3) protect against misuse or unauthorized use of our web site, or
(4) protect the personal safety or property of our users or the public. (Among other things, this means that if you provide false information or attempt to pose as someone else, information about you may be disclosed as part of any investigation into your actions.)

Changes in This Policy
This Privacy Policy may be amended from time to time. Any such changes will be posted on this page.

YOUR FREE MEMBERSHIP INCLUDES:

Networking
Our social network helps our members easily communicate with other couples and crafters, collaborate on projects or wedding ideas, bounce ideas off one another, share your awesomeness, learn new skills, and just hang out. This is a no-stress, no-drama place just for you.

Tools
DIY Bride’s tools are always evolving – and designed just for DIY couples. Learn how to manage your budget, create customized printables, tap into the hundreds of free downloads, or work out common wedding craft problems with the multitude of free goodies within our pages.

Fresh, Relevant Content
As part of your free membership, you will receive DIY Bride’s Newsletter. You get the cream of the crop delivered right to your inbox, including:

• Weekly planning tips
• Craft tutorials
• Contests and giveaways
• Featured articles
• Featured DIY Blogs and Businesses

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We know there’s so much to see, we want to make sure it’s easy for you to jump in, find what you’re looking for and feel at home – right away! Here’s our <> so you don’t miss anything!

DIY Bride is among the most well-respected brands in the weddings and crafts communities. 2012 ushers in our 9^th year as one of the most comprehensive resources for DIY weddings bringing with it exciting new features and opportunities for our media partners and advertisers.

Through our blog, community forums, social network, live events, books, and beyond, DIY Bride is dedicated reaching creative couples who know that making something personal for their wedding is as rewarding as it is fashionable. The moment readers visit DIY Bride they enter a community where individual expression is celebrated and learning new skills is encouraged.

Together with our advertising and media partners, we look forward to bringing our community opportunities to experience new techniques, technology, products, and tools to help them attain their wedding and crafting goals.

Everyone deserves a one-of-a-kind experience and we invite you to help us show our readers how to do it with grand style and on a real world budget.

Philosophy
DIY Bride believes that advertising is a necessary and welcome source of information to our readers. It allows us great to connect our readers to the products and tools that will empower them to create the wedding of their dreams.

Advertising Options

DIY Bride offers a variety of advertising options such as banner ads, featured posts, and vendor guide to accommodate the budgets of our advertisers. For our latest media kit and ad rate sheet, please use the form below to learn about our our extensive ad options and special package pricing.

Advertising Inquiry

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Fruit! Bubbles! Jam! This fruit-themed real wedding of Molly and Nate is filled with special touches. The majority of the decorations were handmade, and they created a dessert table of berries, apples, and pies instead of cakes.

DETAILS

Location: Wheeling, WV

Photography: Rima Campbell Photography

Venue: Fort Henry Club

Dress: Jessica McClintock from Kaufman’s 

Florals: Margo Straight