Virtual Bride

Sunday, March 29, 2009

The thing about brides these days is that while they may still be "blushing", they're also blogging, connecting with other brides virtually and sharing tried and true wedding advice, blunders, vendor recommendations, hot honeymoon spots, do-it-yourself tricks and so much more. 

Say "I Do" to planning your wedding day with the help of other brides online. 

Photo Source: www.RealLifeWeddingPlanning.com

I, for one, am thrilled at the prospect of knowing that this information is at my fingertips, and I plan to use the resources and advice of saavy brides before me to help me plan the single most important day of my life. So many brides are tapping into wedding social networking sites like the Knot that you'd be crazy not to do the same (no pun intended). Check out this great Washington Post article from a bride and reporter who attributes her ability to plan a Hawaiian wedding more than 5,000 miles away to the women who helped her electronically along the way. 

Wanting to impart my own very limited wedding wisdom with others, if you haven't visited Project Wedding, one such social network, I highly recommend it. When I stumbled upon PW earlier today, I felt immediately as though I had unearthed a treasure. With a large selection of DIY wedding articles to regional wedding guides, vendor reviews and more, it really was too good to be true. 

In addition to being a part of a network of tens of thousands of brides to offer advice and support, Project Wedding has some functionality perks including some cute (and free) Web templates that offer a place to share the soon-to-be-wed couple's story along with space for photos, a guestbook, registry and a piece that I thought was really cool -- wedding maps.

The wedding map function on Project Wedding is a 

great tool for out-of-town guests.

Photo Source: Project Wedding

Maybe I'm just easily amused, but I think that this is such a great, user-friendly tool that is a particularly nice feature for out-of-town guests to become acquainted with the area so that they're able to fully enjoy every moment of the celebration, including time spent outside of organized events. I'm currently building my page in the Butterfly Drift theme by Blume Designs, but there are other templates modeled after popular wedding stationary aids such as Wedding Paper Divas, Papeterie and KenzieKate Invitations so that if you happen to be a type A personality, then you can order invitations to perfectly match your wedding web page!

Designer invitation-inspired Web templates are one Project Wedding perk.

Photo source: elum

Check out one Project Wedding DIY calligraphy article that bears mentioning not only based on major craftiness and cleverness points, but also because of the sheer number of times that I've seen it in different places. Originating on With This Ring, I've also seen this post make it's way to Design*Sponge and now Project Wedding! I think it's a great read not only for brides-to-be, but anyone planning a party in the future. 

One creative bride spills her secret on "learning" calligraphy.

Photo source: With This Ring