This morning I did the thing I do every year. I stopped. I made a cup of coffee (my Christmas 2025 present to myself). I opened Polka Dot Wedding, stared at the dashboard (after finding it amongst my 100+ open tabs) for a minute, bleary-eyed before the sun comes up, and thought, how on earth is this business nineteen years old.

Nineteen years looks like almost 20,000 posts. It looks like typing the names of more than 31,000 vendors, and still checking spellings like my life depends on it (and still getting it wrong sometimes). It looks like five redesigns (or more. I’ve lost count), over 700,000 images, and a hosting bill that makes me want to lie down for a minute. It also looks like 10,000 typos. Two finger typist still going strong.

And then there’s the stuff you can’t count.

Almost 4,000 wedding stories, shared by real couples in their own words. The messages that come in at odd hours. The ones you read with a cold coffee and suddenly feel less tired, and weirdly inspired to do it all again. Vendors finding their people at the right time, or admitting they’ve been doing it tough and needed to hear they’re not alone. A team thread that turns stress into laughing-crying in ten seconds. We kept showing up when life got very full. And 2025 was very, very full.

The internet has changed so much, and wedding content has changed with it. Running a blog in 2026 is not cute. It’s work. It’s constant change, shifting algorithms, rising costs, and a lot of invisible labour that only really makes sense when you’re the one doing it. And that’s before we even get to the wedding industry itself.

Because the wedding industry is in a really tricky place right now. Costs are rising, bookings feel more uncertain, and so many businesses are trying to predict what couples will do next. We felt that alongside our vendors this year. We had some really low lows, the kind that make you question everything for a minute.

But weddings are still hope. They are still that little nugget of gold. People choosing each other, making meaning out of moments, gathering their loved ones and saying, this matters. That’s what keeps me doing this work. It’s what gets me out of bed every day and helps me push through every tech disaster, every bit of worry as a business owner, and every stress spiral.

So this year, as we head into nineteen, we’re protecting what makes this place feel good. The stories. The community. The care. The feeling you get when you land here and think, okay, I can breathe. There’s room for me too.

To our paying advertisers and members, thank you. You are the practical reason Polka Dot Wedding keeps going. You back what we do in a real way, and it means we can keep showing up with care. I do not take that support for granted, not for a second.

To our team, thank you too. For the brains, the care, and the grit it takes to keep this place moving. For the calm when things are messy, and the humour when things are heavy.

And to you, our readers. If you’ve ever read a post, shared a story, sent us a message, supported a vendor from our directory, bookmarked an idea, or popped in when you needed a little wedding joy, thank you. You are part of this.

Every year, on the 13th of January, I make a moment of it. Business birthdays can slip by quietly when there’s no big party, but I refuse to let this one pass without stopping to honour what we’ve built, and what we’re building next.

And yes, there is cake. There is always cake. Our birthday cake is by our much-loved member Ladybird Cakes, who somehow takes the brief “just make it polka dot” and turns it into magic every single time.

Here’s to nineteen years of love stories. Here’s to the vendors who keep showing up. Here’s to the couples doing things their way. Here’s to a wedding world that feels more welcoming, more honest, and more inclusive with every year that passes.