We get an email like this at least once a week:
I applied for the Offbeat Bride Tribe a while ago and I haven't heard back — did I get rejected because I'm not cool enough?
How do we figure out who to approve for the Tribe? Hint: It has nothing to do with how offbeat your wedding is.
Now, here's the much longer answer:
While our FAQ addresses general questions about why the Tribe is private and how "offbeat-ness" has NOTHING to do with it, we thought we'd provide a bit more insight into what we look for in the Tribe submissions, and why we ask what we do on the application.
The Tribe currently has over 20,000 members, with between ten to fifty new members applying every single day. That's ten to fifty new applications that we review and approve. Manually. Every day. Every single one. It generally takes us no more than a week to review applications, so if you applied over a week ago and haven't heard back … your application was likely declined. Here's why:
- Your answers were too short, or unanswered completely
- You included links/references to your business or ad-sponsored blog
- Your application didn't fit with our Code of Conduct (outright hostility, weight talk, vendors, one up/low-manship, etc.)
- You're already married
- You're not engaged but "just love weddings"
- Your wedding is more than three years away
- We made a mistake
Yep. About that last one: Mistakes happen. On your end, our end, on technology's end, who knows! You make typos, we click the wrong button, our emails end up in your spam folders: all these things (and worse!) have happened. If you think a tragedy has occurred with your application, Email us. We'll work it out.
How to make sure your app gets approved
Let's get one thing out of the way immediately: our applications are NOT a "Let's see if you're cool enough to join" test. Personal style and "offbeat-ness" has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with applicant approval. Mostly, we're looking to screen out spammers, vendors, trolls, and those "playing wedding" (i.e. dreaming about a someday wedding rather than actively planning an imminent event). We DO NOT CARE if you or your wedding are "cool" — whatever that may mean.
We also want to share this great advice from a Tribe member:
I found the easiest way to approach the application was to treat it as if I'd already been accepted and was writing my profile for the site (which made it especially convinient that the application info does become your profile.) So rather than stressing that I was being tested on my sutiability, it just became a matter of working out what I thought my fellow tribe members would want to know about me and my wedding.
Our application has lots of questions, with each one having a very specific purpose. Let's review them one by one, and we can show you what we look for when approving applicants… Continue reading »
