Turning a WordPress blog into a bespoke directory platform for BolenBliss

The problem.

BolenBliss was a WordPress blog when Zane and Carmen Bolin approached MP Software. They wanted to turn it into a wedding directory where vendors could create accounts, publish services across multiple markets and pay for featured placement.

Extending WordPress would have required several plugins working together. It would have been cheaper initially, but the added complexity would have made the exact workflows harder to deliver and created a performance risk as the directory grew.

The blog already had useful content appearing in search results. The replacement needed to introduce the directory without losing the posts, images, metadata, URLs or search visibility that BolenBliss had already built.

Our approach.

We began with discovery and proof-of-concept work. This gave Zane and Carmen a clear comparison between extending WordPress and building a bespoke application. Once we had explained the trade-offs, they agreed that Laravel and React offered a better foundation for the product they wanted to create.

We designed the platform around the people using it. Vendors can register, create listings for the services and markets they cover, manage their presence and pay for premium placement. Customers can search the directory, view vendor profiles, save businesses, leave reviews and make enquiries.

Administrators can review listings before publication, remove unsuitable content, manage accounts and subscriptions, and oversee the directory from a dedicated administration area.

We built a dedicated importer to migrate every WordPress post, image, metadata record and URL. Existing blog addresses were retained so indexed content continued to resolve after the new platform went live.

The platform launched on 1 April 2026 after approximately 11 weeks of delivery. We have continued to provide bug fixes, new features and performance improvements. As data volumes grew, we changed parts of the administration area to load asynchronously so larger datasets no longer delayed the initial page load.