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Christy Terry of Manolo for the Brides fame brings us iDo: Planning Your Wedding WIth Nothing But Net. In other words, using the Internet to your utmost advantage when putting your wedding together. This book proves to be a huge Web resource for everything wedding from money to monogram and fashion to photography, with tips on how to get the most from your surfing time and how to feel confident buying online. Written in Christy's witty style, it's anything but a boring read. As a bonus, each chapter ends with a great list of websites so you're not lost in cyberspace wondering if you'll ever resurface with anything that resembles a pretty flower display. The book is undoubtedly worth the admission price (around $16) for the list of websites alone, and you might pick up a laugh, a good idea, and some great advice as well. I will be bringing you a small smattering of these good ideas in a series of "computer-savvy bride posts," but get the whole book. It's a three-point "nothing but net" shot for every bride who intends to click and type her way through any of the wedding plans.
This is Part Two of our series of interviews with Jay's Bridal and Special Occasion, a one-stop bridal salon located in Gainesville, Florida and online at jaysbridal.net. Throughout the series, we'll discuss everything wedding, ranging from bridal gowns to music to tuxedos.

Shopping for wedding gowns online is becoming more and more popular, but in many cases, it's a truly frightening thing to undertake. How can you feel confident that you're ordering the right dress, and the right size? What if you want the assistance you'd receive in a store without having to travel? That click of the button just feels so final.

One of the unique things Jay's offers is its online store. It began in 2005, and since then, Jay's has sold dresses to brides as far away as Australia, Ireland, and China. And what's so great about their online shop is that customers can still get the personal relationship and experience that they would get if they walked into the brick and mortar store.




Continue reading Buying your wedding dress online: Interview with Jay's Bridal and Special Occasion

Some celebrity couples keep their divorce proceedings quiet, and out of the public eye. Of course, some celebrity couples don't name-drop on national TV in order to receive oodles of freebies for their weddings. Then again, Al Reynolds and Star Jones have never been an average couple.

After Al's publicist stated that he and his client would be "taking the high road," Al decided that the high road was reached by way of a 485-word defensive rant on MySpace and Facebook. He starts out by stating that he won't try to defend himself because there's no point, and then goes on to ... well ... defend himself. Awesome.

Al has a reason to be defensive. Since Star filed for divorce, he's been called an assortment of names, including (but not limited to) a gigolo, a freeloader, unemployed, and a sham. However, we don't think his his rant does much to help his cause. Do you?

There are some unfair things about the bridal industry. For one thing, you'll probably wear a size (or two, or three) up from what you normally wear. Then, to add insult to injury, if you end up in a plus size gown, there's a good chance you'll incur a plus size charge. This depends on the designer, of course, but some designers charge quite a bit more for sizes over 16.

That doesn't mean plus size brides don't have options, though. Check out Torrid's line of bridal gowns for women of a certain size -- they're affordable and stylish, and they could be exactly what you're looking for. Check out the gallery to see what they're offering.
Paper wedding invitations can cost hundreds of dollars (some can even cost thousands!). And, what's more, the cost doesn't end when the invitations are printed and assembled. The cost of stamps alone (to send and to apply to the RSVP card) can set you back a considerable amount of money. More and more people are turning to electronic invitations because of exorbitant paper invitation costs. Even though it's more financially feasible to send out an evite or e-mail, electronically inviting guests may seem to lack some originality and design for some brides and grooms. That is until now.

Pingg.com offers a new, more attractive way to invite guests without bothering with the high cost (and stress!) of paper invitations. At pingg.com you can design your own online invitation -- either by choosing a pre-designed theme (there are tons to choose from!), or by designing your own with any of nearly two million available images or with original art work you can design and upload yourself. The best part: most pingg.com invitations are completely free.

After you have designed a beautiful, theme-friendly invitation, you can choose RSVP options and then send it off through e-mail, SMS or even Facebook! Another fun feature on pingg.com is a customizable Web page for your special event, with guest list, registry and event detail options.

Finally, if you have your heart set on a snail-mail invitation, pingg.com does offer printed invitations at a reasonable cost.

Visit pingg.com and read the press release, which is full of information and helpful tips to use pingg.com without a single headache that one comes to expect with paper invitations.
For every bride who wishes she could have added those blank patent-leather heels from Banana Republic or a few Stila eyeshadows from Sephora to her wedding registry, myregistry.com was created for you. This one-stop registry shop allows all brides- and grooms-to-be to hand pick what they want on their registry -- not just what they want from one store but what they want ... period.

You can begin adding items to one comprehensive registry from all your favorite retail stores for no cost. Not only can you add items from every store imaginable, but you can use the resources on myregistry.com to find the perfect must-have and must-buy items for you and yours.

Myregistry.com has an extensive FAQ page to walk you through growing your perfect wedding registry in one specific and easy-to-access Web site, and you can also peruse a "Gift Idea" section (gifts to ask, gifts to give) and a "Sample Registry" section at myregistry.com.

Just pass the word to friends/family through an e-mail, a note on your wedding Web site or an add-on in your wedding invitation. Then sit back and let the perfect products come to you!
Bridesmaids dresses aren't cheap, and while you certainly don't want to ask your attendants to break the bank to buy their dresses (and you don't want to go broke buying dresses for them), we understand that you don't want to give up on the vision you have of your wedding day. Sometimes part of that vision is a bridesmaid's dress. An expensive bridesmaid's dress.

If you find a dress you like, you very well might be able to find it for a lower cost online. However, there are several things we ask that you keep in mind it you opt to order bridesmaids' gowns online:

Continue reading Shopping online for bridesmaids gowns: 4 rules to follow

Wedding planners can bring an enormous wealth of experience to the planning process. Unfortunately, if you choose the wrong one, they can also bring a wealth of problems, which is why you really should get referrals on any wedding planner you choose -- after all, you're basically putting you're Big Day into their hands!

For brides getting married in the UK, I have good news -- Simply Wedding Planners has taken care of a great deal of the research for you when it comes to choosing a wedding planner. Every planner on their site has proven to be professional, qualified, and experienced, and by filling out just one form, you can receive quotes for four wedding planners.

Brides have used wedding planners for ages -- it's about time there was a resource to make the planning of the wedding planner a bit easier!
Hooray! For those of you who read my earlier post about the proposal on Cute Overload but didn't have 30 minutes to scroll through the comments to find out the answer to whether or not Jess said yes, I can end your misery -- she accepted the proposal!

Her response is posted here, and it's great. I also love how excited all the commenters were about it -- who would have thought that so many random internet folk would be so into an online proposal?

I'm hoping that the kitty is part of the wedding, or at least included in some wedding pictures. I mean, without our furry friend here, Colin and Jess might not even be engaged! I say the kitty should be best meower, or feline of honor, or something. I'll be checking back for wedding pictures for sure!
First of all, I'm not going to tell you whether Jess says yes or not -- you'll have to click here to check out Cute Overload and read through the comments just like I did.

But how cute is this? As a huge animal lover and mom to a cat who looks a lot like this little kitty (well, she did look like that several years ago), I think this proposal is purrr-fect. Yes, I'm just that corny.

What do you all think about internet proposals? In this day and age, as the internet becomes more and more involved in wedding planning, are online proposals the next step? Will we soon be checking our iPhones for pictures of a diamond ring?

How do you feel about e-proposals?

Good news, everybody! I am officially a wedding expert (as if I wasn't already). I planned food and flowers for four weddings, seated every guest and kept them happy, served food, delivered gifts, and got everyone on the dance floor by the end of the reception, and that was just this afternoon.

Although, probably I should admit that all of this occurred in a video game. Still, I kicked wedding butt!

My husband has always been the video game nerd of the family, but after 40 minutes of playing Wedding Dash, I might just have to give him a run for his money. It starts a little slow, but the intensity steadily grows and grows until you begin to feel the TRUE FRENZY OF A PROFESSIONAL WEDDING PLANNER ... and then you can stop playing, because it's not a real wedding! It's perfect!

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