I cannot believe I pulled this off and had it ready to launch today. But, Brenda's Wedding Blog has an all new look - it's cleaner, simpler and now it's totally mobile ready :) You can also heart a post if you like it {of course, I'm always loving comments too}, but now there's one more way to interact.​

I also spruced up my logo - it's was rather drab and blah before. Still not sure if this is the "final final" one though. What do you think?​

​Please note that some things might still be a bit odd in their behavior and I'm still working on getting some sections up and running again, but the biggest parts of the site are here and ready for your viewing :)

image source

Before I share with you ALL the amazing sales and deals going on for the weekend - I wanted to ask for your help and participation in something.

Christina is a marketing student at Otterbein University who contacted me to see if I could share her survey with my brides. She is conducting a survey about wedding photography as part of her research methods class. Your responses will help her complete her project and will definitely be kept completely confidential and anonymous. The survey shouldn't takeyou any longer than 10-15 minutes and when you're done, please come back here as I have LOTS of great discount offers for you to take advantage of, plus a contest for a free honeymoon in Barbados. Please note: this survey is scheduled to close this coming Monday April 8th.

And, now it's time for the weekly savings . . .

Minted is celebrating their 5th birthday with a week-long promotion of 15% off the entire Minted site that ends on Monday April 8th with coupon code 5YEARS. Minted is your "go-to company for the freshest, most fabulous paper products, wall art and party déco". UPDATE: It is now 20% off with code MINTED2008

Stories Divinations on etsy has the perfect vintage wedding gift at 20% off with coupon code TRUELOVE. You will receive a set of any three fun and funky picture maps {your choice} that are from a 1930s schoolbook. Your maps will even arrive with a little packet of stars and hearts so you can pesonalize your map making it that much more special. Each map measure about 8" X 10" on 8 1/2 x 11" paper so they can easily fit a standard size frame.

Couples Resorts is giving away a free honeymoon to their new resort in Barbados. Entry is easy, simply create your dream honeymoon board on Pinterest and then submit the link to their Facebook page and you are entered to win.

April is Diamond Month: Save 20% on All Diamond Jewelry + Free Expedited Shipping + Free Gift Wrap AND even Free Ring Engraving at My Love Wedding Ring with code DIAMOND20 through TODAY {5/5/13} so HURRY on OVER!!!

Be sure to request your free wedding catalogs - you will find catalogs from jewelers, favor shops, accessory companies, invitations + stationers and more.

And, lastly I have something wonderful to start your weekend with . . . Lisa of Lisa Walsh Photography has started a new venture in hopes of "making the world a better place, one good deed at a time". Reading the entries she has already received will leave you feeling so happy. And, if you have a good deed to share, please do send it in to Lisa.

Happy Monday. Today I have something completely different for you. I have teamed up with a lovely group of other WAHM {work-at-home-mommy} pro-bloggers {see list at end of post} and we're going to be sharing what it's like to work at home and blog full-time with kids in tow. Some of us have older children, and some of us have babies. For those of you that may not know - I fit into both groups as I have a 6 year old and a 6 month old {two girls or shall I say princesses?}.

When I started blogging it was pre-kids so things are definitely different now, but I couldn't imagine it any other way. Although I'll be completely honest and say that since having our 2nd girl, there are days where I think I should completely give it up. But, then I either receive a wonderful email from a vendor, have a record traffic day or see that I've now crossed 13,000 followers on twitter. It's then I realize I've come too far to throw in the towel and I keep going. My working hours are very scattered right now as the baby is not sleeping through the night and I'm pumping exclusively, but as us WAHM bloggers know - it's all about dealing with what's in front of us at the moment.

And, now for the behind the scenes look into my day . . . I should say this is going to be a typical work-week day. This basically means a day that my husband goes into the office and isn't staying home to work, my 6 year old daughter goes to kindergarten and I don't have any dr appts for either myself or the girls}. The photo above shows my office chair during the day when I'm actually sitting and working {not on the floor with baby}.

My day typically starts between 6:30-7 am. On a good day when the little one stays sleeping after the morning feed, I can sleep until 7:30 am. That's when my 6 year old comes downstairs and the two sisters are super excited to see each other. {Guess I should mention that during the week I sleep on the couch with the little one in her bassinet next to me - she wakes many times yet during the night, so the crib sleeping hasn't happened yet. On the weekends, hubby takes over nighttime duties and I sleep upstairs in our comfy bed}.

Around 7:30 am, the little one is playing on the floor while I get breakfast ready for our kindergartner after some morning cuddles and chatting. Then she gets dressed and I do her hair for the day. Hubby brings her to school and he heads off to work. I then quickly get my make-up done.

By 9 am the little one is usually ready for her nap {we'll just forget about those days last week after her vaccines and how the entire routine of each day totally went bye-bye}. Once she's fed and asleep - I then get my breakfast ready and start pumping. I alternate between replying to some emails, tweeting and eating breakfast while pumping. I think all WAHM are pros at multi-tasking - but my brain definitely loves it when I don't have to multi-task.

If the little one stays sleeping, I can usually get started on a few blog posts - I like to be ahead by a day, but lately that's not happening. My goal in the next few weeks is to get ahead by 1-2 days with blog posts as my posting schedule is always planned out by at least a month, sometimes more. It's also during this time that you might find me in my "official" office printing off etsy orders and crafting cupcake toppers, etc for customers. Did I also mention that I am Wedding Girl on etsy? By having an etsy shop I'm able to tap a bit more into my creative art background and be off of my computer for a while which I find to be super relaxing. Above is the little crafting area of my office - you can often find me on one side of the table with my 6 year old on the other side doing her own craft. She even has her own cubby of art supplies to encourage the creativity. This weekend we were crafting Easter printables while the little one crawled around us - it was so fun to have them both in the office with me.

And, now back to my day . . . the little one will usually sleep for 2 hours {but more often than not, it's only 45 minutes}, so when she awakens I'll put her on the floor to play a bit while I finally do my hair and get dressed for the day. Oh, did I mention that getting totally ready for the day by noon lately is an accomplishment? Our girl is only 6 months, but she's already crawling so I can't leave her alone for long. And, she's not much of a fan of the play pen. Thank goodness for her little activity center with built-in seat on wheels to keep her contained.

Once I'm ready, I will either give the baby her bath or try to get a few more things done with work. When that happens, this is usually the result - I have a little "helper" LOL.

Throughout the entire day I will check email on my phone to keep up to date with what's coming in, delete all non-needed emails right away and if an ad inquiry comes thru - I will either flag it for a later reply or I will try to quickly get on my laptop to send a response. I haven't mastered being able to do lengthy emails from my phone - I need the larger screen. I can receive 100-150+ emails on a weekday, so I definitely like to stay ahead as much as possible by filtering out the unnecessary ones right away. I'm trying to work on a better organization system for all the emails, but haven't gotten there yet. The mailbox app didn't work for my needs so I might try thunderbird next. What's your email organization trick?

My mom usually comes over between 12:30 - 1 pm and it's now time for lunch. If we can, we'll try to squeeze in loading up the washing machine - with two kids it seems laundry needs to be done at least every other day {my hats go off to all the moms out there with more kids}.

At 2 pm you will find me pumping again and starting to prep the next days blog post. I will usually try to pin my latest posts at this time as well. The little one is sometimes down for anther nap at this time, but it's often just another cat-nap. After that it's time for eiither myself or my mom to head over to the school to pick up our kindergartner and I then spend time going over her paperwork and hearing about her day while she munches on her snack. We're slowly starting the little one on solids so we'll give her some food at the same time her big sister is eating.

Between 4 - 5 pm I try to squeeze in a little more work, but that's all dependent on if the little one isn't super fussy. If she is, it's in the Baby Bjorn she goes and I have to keep walking around with her. Vacuuming during this time is always a good idea.

By 5 pm I am usually in the kitchen preparing dinner {sometimes with baby on board}. Although I can never figure out how we don't end up eating until 6:30-7 pm each night. Hubby arrives home around 6 pm and we say goodbye to my mom around that time, or earlier. We all sit down to eat together and the little one will usually have a little rice cereal with her milk at this time while I'm pumping again

The little one is usually ready for bed by 7:30 pm so it's all lights out in the living room as hubby puts her to bed in the bassinet and I pick up the kitchen, makes my daughter's lunch for the next day and she often helps me wash the dishes.

Between 8:30-9 pm I bring our older daughter up to bed and then I head downstairs to get some quiet working time in. The little one usually wakes 2-3 more times between going down and midnight {along with at least 2 more times before the morning}. It's during this evening time {before 11:30 pm} that you will find me blogging away like a mad woman and replying to emails and tweets.

Around 11 pm, it's time to pump again and get ready for bed afterwards. I then awake at 4 am{usually earlier though for another feeding or diaper change} to pump again. It's during this pump session that you can find me scheduling my tweets for that day. I feel like my entire day is thrown off when my tweets aren't pre-scheduled. You will still find me on twitter RTing and interacting throughout the day, but if I have to schedule them in the morning - it typically doesn't happen since something always comes up that needs to be dealt with.

And, there you have it - my average day as a WAHM pro-blogger.The one piece of advice I want to share is that you are one person - if you can't get to finish a post you planned on, it's ok. You can always let your readers know what's going on - like I did last week when our little one got sick and my to-do list immediately grew with a huge load of laundry. I couldn't get my extra post up as I had hoped to do. Rather than panic, I simply let my readers know and I posted it the next day. Even though my schedule is planned a month in advance, I do have a little wiggle room for the unexpected events of life.

Want to read about other WAHM bloggers and their day? Here's the round-up . . .
Jen with Oh So Glam Blog
Heather with Style Unveiled
Meg with Happy Kids Inc Blog
Kylie with Made by a Princess Blog
Maddy with Somewhere Splendid
Chelsey with Chelsey Emery Design Blog

This has been a great week for Brenda's Wedding Blog - traffic is increasing yet again and each day I'm inching closer and closer to 13,000 twitter followers. Plus, I found out I'm listed in the top 20 out of 100 for the "best people known for weddings on Wefollow". Now, it's time to wrap up the week with another round-up and the latest top pins that everyone is sharing. Hope you have a terrific St. Patrick's Day weekend planned, see you back here on Monday morning.

1. SniqueAway {a free members-only site that offers up to 40% off luxurious hotels} has great honeymoon and vacation specials that are valid for a limited time only. The honeymoon deals this week include:
Paget Parish, Bermuda - from $425/night from $279/night
Tikehau, French Polynesia - from $776/night from $549/night 

2. Mallory Musante Designs is a line of fun and unique handpainted women's leather shoes to show of their individual personalities. Each piece is individually hand painted and customizable using inspiration from your wedding making them a completely one-of-a-kind design.

3. Bella Figura, known for offering one of the largest collection of letterpress wedding invitations anywhere in the world, has added 75 new wedding invitations to their already extensive collection for the 2013 wedding season. The new designs feature die-cut shapes, new calligraphy styles, colorful new envelope liners and new foil colors.

4. The S'well's Couples Collection features insulated and eco-friendly beverage bottles that make the perfect gift set for the bride and groom. The bottles keep cold beverages chilled for 24 hours and hot beverages warm for 12 hours. They are $85 per set and this gift gives back with a portion of proceeds benefiting WaterAid {an organization that provides clean drinking water for communities in need}.

5. If you are attending a wedding or special event soon, Beyond the Rack has some great deals on fancy dresses {but the sales are for a limited time only}. 

And, lastly, Wishing Tree Designs is offering 20% Off + Free Shipping on Wedding Invitations, Announcements, Stationery & More with coupon code WeddingFS. Valid thru March 31, 2013.

And, now for the top 5 posts from this past week on pinterest {these posts received the most re-pins}. Are you on pinterest? If yes, please come follow me on pinterest. Don't forget about my St. Patrick's Day ideas pinterest board for any last minute planning you might be doing.

1. Let's Go Camping Wedding Theme - Ideas and Inspiration
2. Strawberry Cupcakes in a Jar
3. New Wedding Cake Toppers for 2013
4. Cleaning Tips for Diamond Rings
5. Three Olives Cake Vodka : recipes using the official celebration spirit

1. SniqueAway has a couple honeymoon escapes on sale right now:
• Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - from $296/night from $209/night
• Imerovigli, Greece - from $260/night from $169/night
They also have a last-minute honeymoon escape with availability through the end of May:
• Seminyak, Bali - from $420/night from $249/night

2. With tie-dye and neon colors making a come-back - these hair tie packages from Mane Messages are absolutely essential this spring and they also double as bracelets.

3. Wedding Paper Divas is having a Sitewide Anniversary Sale and you can enjoy 25% off All Orders thru March 12, 2013. Save 25% off all orders using the code ANNIV13 at checkout. There is no minimum purchase required for this promotion.

4. Love is in the air as My Love Wedding Ring counts down to spring with 20% off all orders from March 31, 2013 with code SPRLVE20. You will also receive Free Expedited Shipping + Free Gift Wrap with all orders. At My Love Wedding Ring, you will find beautiful wedding rings and jewelry for your spring wedding, including matching wedding rings and unique mens wedding bands.

5. Beach Bunny has just launched their 2013 Bridal Collection of bridal swimwear and cover-ups. The collection features elegant and feminine swimwear pieces adorned in hand beaded pearls, delicate Chantilly lace and Swarovski crystals.

This week, I have two wedding dress giveaways to share with you . . .

1. PreOwnedWeddingDresses.com is having a 'Pin to Win Your Dream Dress' Giveaway. You could win $2,000 to purchase your perfect wedding dress.

2. Enter for a chance to win your dream dress from Justin Alexander who is a wedding designer known for vintage wedding dresses and bridal couture styling.