Normally, booking your wedding would involve such things as in-person meetings, shaking hands with people, driving across town, and standing within six feet of a stranger. Unfortunately, all of those things are now illegal. But don’t worry! You can book your wedding from the comfort and seclusion of your private home office, living room couch, or basement coffee table. We’ve compiled this list of handy tools and resources to help you navigate this futuristic new world!
Video Chat – Skype. FaceTime. Zoom. Google Hangout. If you said these words to someone in 1995, they would throw you in the creek for being a witch. But nowadays, these are quite simply some of the many ways you can look at the face of someone who’s not in your house. Rather than arranging an in-person meeting with a wedding planner, vendors, etc., you can instead set up a virtual conversation. You can accomplish pretty much all the same things without being in the same room. (Bonus: you can even have more time to talk than if you were in-person, because now no one has to drive anywhere!)
Facebook Bride Groups – “A million brides sharing tips and tricks for marriage booking online isn’t cool. You know what’s cool? A billion brides sharing tips and tricks for marriage booking online.” – Jason Tomberlake in The Facebook Movie. Wow. What prophetic words. Here we are, ten years later, and there are so many Facebook bridal groups you can join!
You’ll probably prefer one that’s more specific to your region, so search for “(Name of City) Brides” and something is bound to come up. If not, perhaps a more general “wedding help” or “brides helping brides” search will yield something near you. If that fails, simply make a post asking people for advice/recommendations. We guarantee you’ll get 95% helpful information and 5% your Aunt Linda commenting, “HELLO SWEETIE THIS IS AUNT LINDA YOURUNCLE DWAYNE AND I HAVE BEEN THINKING ABOUT YOU CALL US SOMETIME LOVE YOU LOTS” like she does on every post of yours.
The Knot – This is a holy grail of wedding planning. The Knot is a comprehensive website that will help you untangle the complexities of wedding booking. They cover pretty much everything: planning assistance, local vendors, rings and dresses, general advice and ideas, wedding websites and registry!
It’s like someone wrote a thousand page encyclopedia on marriage, then scanned and uploaded it to the Internet. What a time to be alive! If they had The Knot in King Henry VIII’s time, he would have been able to plan his six weddings with ease, in a user-friendly interface, maintained by a helpful website staff. The Knot is a wedding resource site fit for royalty!
Apps – The app is mankind’s greatest invention since the 1976 Oldsmobile Cutlass. Apps are like websites, but they live on your phone instead of on your computer. There are apps for all kinds of things: navigation, banking, learning languages, and furious cartoon birds. Now, there are apps for planning/organizing your big day!
There are tons of great wedding apps available: The Knot has one, WeddingWire has one, Zola Weddings has one. And that’s just what we can think of off the top of our head! The app store is full of them. You just have to download and see which ones are right for you. (You might have to delete your nine different versions of Candy Crush to make room on your phone.)
Drink of Choice – This is maybe the most important resource of all. When you’re planning your wedding from home, don’t forget to pour yourself a glass of your favorite drink. Beer, wine, whisky, Coca-Cola, Gatorade, whatever floats your boat. The writer of this blog has been drinking a lot of pineapple champagne on his back porch, muttering in French to the squirrels. Les écureuils sont mes beaux amis.
With a cold drink in your hand and several browser tabs open, you’re ready to conquer planning your wedding from home! May the force be with you!