Wedding blogger extraordinaire Dana LaRue, aka Broke-Ass Bride, needs a little help right now. And you can make a difference.

Dana has chronic autoimmune diseases that require frequent surgery (she’s had 11 operations in the past 9 years) and regular ongoing medical care. When she was 19 she was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease called Uveitis which causes her immune system to doggedly attack her eyes, resulting in inflammation, visual disturbances and blurriness. It is incurable and will cause blindness if left untreated.  She also has a very rare deep-tissue form of a disease called Granuloma Annulare, causing a different type of inflammation in her foot.

The medical expenses to deal with these diseases are the primary reason she and her hubby are “broke-ass”,  she says.

She recently learned that she needs surgery in her left eye, costing $18,000.

To help raise money for her medical expenses, she is holding an online fundraiser called Dishing for Dana: bad-ass bloggers cooking comforts for a cause.

Dana is in the process of compiling comfort food recipes and stories from “the most bad ass bloggers and beyond”. Make a monetary donation towards her medical expenses and you will receive a password to access the full recipe database. (Donate big and her rapping hubby will create a personalized rap for you or your business! See other incentives here.)

To help raise money for Dana, for the next week I will be donating 15 cents for every new “Like” I receive on the Intimate Weddings Facebook Fan page. As I write this we have 1, 111 likes – so any new likes from now until April 30, 11:59 pm Eastern will count. (We capping it at $500 US.)

So come on over to FB and Like Intimate Weddings on Facebook. (Remember – we’re giving 15 cents for each new ‘Like’)

You can also donate to the cause yourself. Even small amounts can make a difference!

First Photo: Chennergy Wedding Photography

Did you have a small wedding (less than 75 guests)? Did your photographer snap some fabulous photos? Or maybe you are the photographer. We want you!

If you recently got married and can’t wait to tell the world about your AMAZING intimate wedding, drop us a line! Or if you are photographer who recently shot an intimate wedding, please get in touch! Your wedding might be a perfect fit for the real weddings section of IW!

“But how do I submit my wedding?” you ask.

Here’s the scoop:

Please send 25-40 images in one zip file to christina(at)intimateweddings.com with Real Wedding in the subject line.

Photos should be unwatermarked and be 600 pixels in width. After we review your photos we will contact you if we are interested in featuring the wedding.

If we don’t feature your wedding, don’t take it personally. We get quite a few submissions and unfortunately we can’t feature everyone.

Good quality images are extremely important. Please browse through our real weddings to get an idea of what we are looking for.

Photo: Genesis and Kevin’s real wedding in Paris photographed by Amy and Stuart Photography

How do you feel about lying to wedding vendors?

BTW, The Globe & Mail also ran an article on the top trends in 2010. No surprise that smaller guests lists made the list.

Before I launched IntimateWeddings.com I was a freelance writer for magazines and newspapers. Even though I had been at it for close to a decade, I never got tired of the feeling of seeing my story in print.

It’s been a while since I’ve had that feeling. In fact, it’s been close to a year and a half since I’ve done any freelance writing. Sometimes I miss it. I miss learning about so many interesting topics. I miss the interviews.

A few weeks ago I got the opportunity to write an article for The Professional Association of Innkeepers International (PAII) about The Rise of the Small Wedding. I jumped at the chance. I got to write again! Yes, I write just about every day for my blog – but it’s not the same as writing a beefy article for a print publication. Aside from allowing me to get my writerly juices a’ flowing – I got to write about one of my favourite topics in an informative, well-respected publication!

I was pretty tickled to see it as the cover story. Check it out here. Hot off the press!

We are delighted to be included again this year in Bride Tide’s Top 100 which was announced Saturday. I love that we were placed in the ‘inspiration’ category!  Thanks so much Bride Tide! The list itself is an awesome resource for brides. Do check it out!

Along with banner ads, you will notice sponsor posts in the upcoming weeks. All blog posts that are paid for will be clearly marked ‘Sponsored Post’. I want to make this REALLY clear. I’ve spent nearly 10 years as a journalist, and I have no respect for companies that try to pass off advertising as editorial content. So if you read the words, ‘Sponsored Post’, you will know that a company has paid for this post. That said, I will be selective in choosing who becomes a sponsor. I will be choosing companies that I feel are a good fit for Intimate Weddings, and who I feel would be of interest to my readers. And sponsored posts will be added on a limited basis.

So, stay tuned for lots of great EDITORIAL content in the upcoming weeks, with a dash of clearly marked paid content sprinkled in here and there.