Categories: Dating Tips

Wedding Planning on the Web: 100 Tools and Resources for Brides to Be

Wedding planning is an exciting but incredibly involved undertaking, so it’s important that you take advantage of all of the tools you have at your disposal. One of the most useful of these tools is the Internet, which is full of advice, planners, and other great resources for pulling everything together. Here, we’ve shared 100 of the best of what the Internet has to offer for brides.

Motherlode

These sites are the ones you hear about often. They generally have full-service tools, vendor listings, inspiration and more, creating a one-stop shop for brides.

  1. The Knot: This perennial favorite has it all-dresses, fashion, planning tools, and loads of inspiration. Just take it slowly, and don’t get overwhelmed.
  2. Martha Stewart Weddings: Martha has awesome planning tools, crafty advice, etiquette, and so much more.
  3. OneWed: OneWed offers planning resources, an active community of brides, plus free wedding websites.
  4. Brides.com: This popular bridal magazine’s website is alive and well offering wedding style, planning, and much more.
  5. WeddingWire: Wedding Wire is an awesome resource for brides. You can find vendors and ask them to bid their services, build a site, talk to other brides, and a whole lot more.
  6. Get Married: Lifetime’s wedding site has feature video, planning tools, advice, and plenty of other useful resources for brides.
  7. WeddingChannel: Here you’ll find resources for planning, lots of photo galleries, and shopping tips.

General Advice

Visit these sites to find answers to your wedding questions.

  1. WikiWeddings: WikiWeddings has advice for just about every part of wedding planning.
  2. Mahalo: Mahalo has a great collection of wedding how-tos.
  3. About.com Weddings: About.com has an incredibly helpful and extensive collection of wedding resources and advice.

Money

With these resources, you can get your wedding budget under control.

  1. How to Make a Wedding Budget: Mahalo offers some sound advice for putting together a wedding budget.
  2. Easy Budget Wedding Worksheet: About offers a worksheet for figuring out your wedding budget.
  3. The $28,000 question: Why are we all hypocrites about weddings?: Ramit Sethi offers some frank advice about financing and saving for your wedding.
  4. Top 5 Biggest Wedding Money Wasters: About.com covers a few things you shouldn’t bother spending money on.
  5. Mint.com as a Wedding Budget Tracking Tool: Find out how you can use Mint to stay on top of wedding finance.
  6. How to Save Money on Your Wedding Ceremony and Reception: wikiHow shares a few pieces of advice for cutting costs.
  7. She had a fabulous wedding on a budget: CNN profiles a woman who had an affordable wedding, and offers a lot of tips for brides who want to save money.
  8. Revealing the Hidden Costs of Weddings: Investopia takes a look at some expenses you might not have thought of.
  9. Wedding Budget Etiquette: This article simply breaks down the etiquette rules for wedding costs.
  10. The marriage industrial complex: Salon interviews the author of “One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Wedding” and breaks down the idea of the wedding industrial complex.

Wedding Planners

With these tools and resources, you can make wedding planning a simple task.

  1. One Stop Wedding Planner: This online planner will cover all of your bases with ease.
  2. Planganza: Organize your wedding, get vendors, and lots more on this site.
  3. Why Hire a Wedding Coordinator?: Find out why a coordinator can help you save your sanity and money at the same time.
  4. Wedding Control: Use this site to manage your invitations, guests, and more.
  5. OurWeddingDay: On this site, you’ll find loads of free tools for managing your wedding.
  6. Weddinic: This awesome tool will help you stay on task with wedding planning.

Guests

Get your guests organized and happy with these resources.

  1. How to Organize Your Wedding Guest List with Complete Ease: Learn how you can make creating your guest list as painless as possible.
  2. See You Then: Get all of your guests organized on this event planning site.
  3. JotSpot: This family site can help you corrdinate schedules and get your family organized.
  4. SimpleSeating: Use this tool to drap and drop your guests into seating arrangements.

Music & Entertainment

Get ideas for ceremony music, find a DJ, and more with these resources.

  1. WeddingWire Music Database: WeddingWire’s collection of wedding songs offers the ability to listen to clips.
  2. Wedding Music 101: Check out this advice site for advice on hiring a band or DJ, what to play and when you should play it, as well as tips for avoiding music mistakes.
  3. GigSalad: Book your wedding talent on this site.
  4. It’s a nice day for an iPod Wedding: CNet has a little bit of advice for couples who are thinking of using an iPod for wedding music.
  5. Out Wedding Songs: This site has a song for every moment of your wedding-and other brides have rated and commented on what they think of them.
  6. WeDJ: On WeDJ, you can find an awesome local disc jockey to play your wedding.
  7. Top 100 Party Songs: This site lists all of the wedding favorites.

Invitations & Website

These resources are great for help with sharing information.

  1. Wedding Websites: This site makes it easy to find the wedding website for you, offering lots of listings and reviews.
  2. WeddingMapper: This tool is great for showing guests exactly where everything is.
  3. Wedding invitation wording that won’t make you barf: Offbeat Bride has some great ideas for wording your wedding invitations.
  4. What to put on your wedding website: Aisle Dash offers 7 things you should have on your website.

Fashion & Style

Check out wedding dresses, learn about alterations, and get style inspiration from these resources.

  1. Bridal Gown Shopping Rules: A seamstress offers her advice for brides when looking for a wedding dress.
  2. Wedding Dress Creator: With this tool, you can design your own dress.
  3. Everything you need to know about having your wedding dress custom-made: The title says it all-this article has great advice for getting a wedding dress made just for you.
  4. Custom Fit Tool: Brides.com offers a tool for matching your body type with a flattering dress.
  5. Bride on a Budget: Finding Cheap Wedding Dresses: This article has some great advice for brides who want to save money on their dress.
  6. Wedding Color Palette: With this tool, you can put together a color palette for your wedding.
  7. 10 Resources to Help You Find and Purchase Blood-Free Diamonds: Check out this advice to find a diamond wedding ring you don’t have to feel guilty about.
  8. Dress Your Wedding: David’s Bridal’s tool will help you visualize your wedding party.
  9. Design*Sponge: Design*Sponge is one of the best places to go for inspiration and DIY ideas.
  10. Etsy: Even if you don’t buy from Etsy sellers, you’ll get some awesome inspiration for wedding style.
  11. The Great Bustle Debate: Get a look at a few different ways to bustle your dress here.
  12. Wedding Dress Directory: The Wedding Channel has amassed a collection of over 30,000 gowns for inspiration and planning.

Health & Beauty

These resources will help you stay healthy and beautiful for your big day.

  1. WeddingMakeup.com: This site has great advice and resources for wedding makeup.
  2. Makeup Trial: Aislewalk’s makeup worksheet will help you plan your wedding day look.
  3. Which Bridal Hair Style Should You Choose?: Style Hair Magazine offers ideas and inspiration.
  4. How to Adapt your Makeup for your Wedding Day: This tutorial offers a step by step guide to doing your own makeup.
  5. Taaz: Upload your photo to this site, and you can experiment with different makeup looks.
  6. The Pre-Wedding Health Guide: 25 Things Every Bride Should Do to Stay Healthy Before the Big Day: Check out this article for some great advice on being a healthy bride.

Tech Tools

Take your wedding planning to the next level with these handy tools.

  1. How to Plan a Wedding…Google Style: This blogger explains how she uses Google tools to plan her wedding.
  2. Streamlining Family Projects with Google Docs: See how you can put together your wedding on Google Docs.
  3. Backpack: 37Signals’ organization and collaboration tool is awesome for wedding planning.
  4. Excel: A perennial favorite, this spreadsheet program is still one of the best tools for wedding planning.

Vendors

Find and manage vendors with these resources.

  1. Selecting a Photographer for Your Wedding: Professional Photographers of America offers a few things to think about when hiring a wedding photographer.
  2. Citysearch: Citysearch is a great place to get the truth about potential wedding vendors.
  3. A Beautiful Affair of the Heart: Check out this site to find an officiant to marry you.
  4. Yahoo! Local: Yahoo!’s directory offers an easy way to locate potential wedding vendors.
  5. Wedding Cakes Across America: Check out this site’s gallery of cakes, and find a baker that will make one for you on this site.
  6. Yelp: Yelp offers easy to find listings and reviews on local wedding vendors.
  7. Wedding Cake Creations: This site has a great gallery of cakes, lots of advice, and a tools for finding your own cake maker.
  8. Google Local: Find websites, contact information and more for wedding service professionals in your area with Google.

Green Weddings

Use these resources to plan a wedding that’s easy on the earth.

  1. Portovert: Portovert is an awesome resource for finding an environmentally friendly location, vendors, and lots more.
  2. Great Green Weddings: Any bride interested in having an eco-friendly wedding needs to check out this site.
  3. How to Green Your Wedding: TreeHugger offers some tips and other great information for creating a wedding that’s light on the environment.
  4. Ethical Weddings: From wedding gowns to suppliers, Ethical Weddings has you covered.

Parties

With these resources, you can get involved with planning all of the fun parties that will surround your wedding.

  1. The Bachelor Party Photo Guide: Popular Photography has some advice for grooms who want to keep their night of debauchery a secret.
  2. BridesmaidAid: This site has some great advice for bridesmaids planning a bridal shower. If you want to make creative t-shirts or party favors for the event, take advantage of this Customized Girl Promo Code.
  3. Bachelorette Party Guide: Here you’ll find an awesome resource for drinking games, scavenger hunts, and more.

Wedding Horror

Look to these sites for both warnings and entertainment.

  1. Ugly Dress: Don’t subject your bridesmaids to this.
  2. Etiquette Hell: Check out the stories on this site to learn what not to do.

Blogs & Communities

Blogs and bridal communities are perhaps the most valuable resources a bride can have. They’re great about providing the latest trends, ideas, and tips that brides can use for planning, so be sure to check them out.

  1. Wedded Bits: Brides.com’s blog has planning tips, trend coverage, and weddings in the news.
  2. Hostess with the Mostess: The Hostess blog is good for any party, but brides will enjoy the fresh take found here.
  3. Offbeat Bride: Ariel Stallings’ blog is an ode to brides that don’t want to mess with poofy dresses. Here you’ll find inspiration-“wedding porn”-for making your wedding unique and personal.
  4. IndieBride: IndieBride’s Kvetch has a nice community of brides with great ideas.
  5. Wedding Bee: Wedding Bee is a group blog for engaged women, but it’s more than just entries-the blog has a strong community as well as classifieds.
  6. A Practical Wedding: Meg’s blog offers advice for planning a wedding that won’t drive you crazy.
  7. Bridal Bar Blog: The Bridal Bar is an awesome blog to check out for inspiration.
  8. WeddingWire: The Blog: WeddingWire’s blog is a nice mix of trend watches, current events, and advice for brides.
  9. Elizabeth Anne Designs: Elizabeth’s blog practically defines wedding style, featuring breathtaking photos and lots of inspiration.
  10. AisleDash: Aisle Dash is full of awesome galleries and advice.
  11. IDoSugar: This new blog is full of great ideas and current events in weddings.
  12. Polka Dot Bride: This Australia-based wedding blog is obsessed with cute style.

Miscellaneous

Find even more great resources for wedding planning here.

  1. Wedding Vows: This site is full of sample vows, plus entire ceremonies and poems.
  2. How to buy cheap flowers for wedding centerpieces: Find advice for cutting your floral cost at the reception here.
  3. Napkin Folding Arrangements: Check out a variety of arrangements and learn how to execute them here.
  4. Honeymoon Sex: Eight Adventurous Ideas: Grooms Magazine has some fun ideas for taking sex out of the honeymoon suite.
  5. DIY Network: The DIY Network has loads of wedding related projects to check out.
  6. Wedding Food Tips: Here you’ll find a variety of tips for food and alcohol.
  7. 7 Tips on Destination Weddings: Smart Money offers some advice for couples considering a destination wedding.
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Ruby Gardner - Women's Dating Expert - is a renowned relationship specialist and expert in women’s dating. With a strong educational background in psychology and human relationships, Ruby completed her studies at the prestigious University of California, Berkeley. Her passion for understanding the complexities of human connections led her to specialize in relationship counseling, with a focus on women’s dating experiences.

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