Wedding Essentials’ Cover Proposal: Say “I DO!” to the Offer of a Lifetime!

He proposed, you said yes. And there began the wedding of your dreams. Now WE’re popping the question on another opportunity of a lifetime. Do YOU want to be on the cover of a magazine? If you say I DO! then all that’s left is for you to answer the following question: What makes a beautiful wedding?
Is it a thousand fresh flowers shipped from abroad? Every single member of family confirming to attend? Is it a garden wedding? A wedding by the beach? Are there five hundred guests? Or fifty?
WE want you to tell us what makes a beautiful wedding. From the gown you picked to the food you served, from the guests you invited to the surprises that came—tell us how your wedding day was beautiful and YOU could be on the cover of our magazine!

How does this work?

• Beginning April 27 we want to receive stories from YOU on your real wedding. The WE Editorial Staff will read through your stories and determine the ones they want to feature in the blog based on the following criteria:
  • Theme/Concept – Uniqueness and creativity of the wedding. How is this wedding different from others? What overall ideas reflect creativity and care for having a beautiful wedding?
  • Execution of Theme – Relevance and personalization of wedding details. What makes the wedding uniquely personal to the wedded couple? How do the details express the bride and groom’s personalities and journey towards each other?
  • Expression – Entry substance and picture quality. How well does the entry manage to move its readers through the words and pictures used?
• Starting May 10, Monday, we will feature one (1) wedding story per day on this blog.
• Throughout the week, readers will get the chance to vote on their favourite wedding story via the online poll on this site. Voting will end at 12 midnight on the Saturday of that week. At the end of the week, we will announce the Wedding of the Week winner as determined by the votes received in the poll.
• This promo will run for ten (10) weeks ending in July 18, 2010. There will be 10 Wedding of the Week winners.

What’s at stake?

• If you are one of the ten Wedding of the Week winners, you will receive Php1,000 in cash, a WE gift bag worth Php3,000 from our sponsors, AND be featured in our Beautiful Weddings -October Issue.
• If you are not a Wedding of the Week winner, you still get a chance to be featured in our magazine. At the end of the promo period, the WE Editorial Staff will pick five (5) of their own favourite wedding stories. These Editorial Staff picks will also receive Php1,000 in cash, a WE gift bag worth Php3,000 from our sponsors, AND also be featured in our Beautiful Weddings -October Issue. That’s a total of fifteen (15) slots we are opening to the general public for our next issue. Fifteen slots = fifteen chances of being featured in our magazine!*
• BEST OF ALL, each of the 15 wedding stories we feature will have their own cover! Because this is the FIRST TIME IN HISTORY that a print publication is offering people writing in a chance to BE ON THE COVER of a magazine, we want to make this event even more special to you—which is why WE’re inviting each of the 15 couples being featured to the Beautiful Weddings-October Issue Launch where they will receive one (1) complimentary copy of Beautiful Weddings with their own wedding on the cover.
• PLUS, if you submitted your wedding story but were not featured on our blog, you still get a chance to win something! Every person submitting a write-up will immediately be entered in a monthly raffle drawing for a Php 1,000 cash prize, a bottle of designer perfume, and a WE gift bag worth Php5,000 from our sponsors. Announcements of raffle winners will take place at the end of every month from May to July.

*Note: All 15 couples to be featured in the magazine will be asked to make a few revisions to their submission according to our magazine writing guidelines in order to prepare their story for publication.

So how do you participate? Well, here’s the deal:
Weddings that will be featured must fulfil the following criteria: (1) have already taken place last September 2009 or later and (2) have a Philippine connection. By Philippine connection we mean that your wedding must have one or more of the following: (a) a Filipino bride, a Filipino groom, or both; (b) a Philippine venue; or (c) at least 3 Filipino wedding suppliers.

1. Email your entries to bw10@weheartweddings.com. Entries must:
   1. Contain 600-800 words in English
   2. Express details of the wedding in blog or photo essay format in your own voice (no formal language necessary)
   3. Include 3 tips for soon-to-wed readers on how to have a beautiful wedding
   4. Be accompanied by 8-10 color or black-and-white photos in JPEG format (minimum resolution: 150 dpi)

It must immediately be clear to the reader how the wedding fits the above criteria. Aside from that, WE want you to be as creative as possible (TIP: Check out our previous issues of Beautiful Weddings or entries on this blog to see the kind of articles we like to receive).

1. Any of the following people are eligible to submit story write-ups: the bride, the groom, or a supplier (e.g. stylist, coordinator) to the wedding. WE reserves the right publish all submissions in any of its affiliate magazines. It is the responsibility of the person sending in the write-up to obtain permission for any material submitted, including photos, to be published online and/or in print from the appropriate persons. Additionally, submissions must not have previously appeared in any other print (newspaper or magazine) publication as a feature story.

Questions? Leave a comment in the blog and WE’ll get back to you. If everything’s clear, start writing. WE’re looking forward to reading your stories!

Re-posted from:
We HEART weddings!