I propose you use the web
by Kimberley McKeown

I recently heard a story about a man who proposed to his girlfriend by building her a web site. Imaginative? Definitely. But it kind of makes the bending down on one knee difficult, doesn't it?

Over the last few years, the Internet has become a part of our lives in a variety of ways. Even though people have found many unique ways to use the Internet, I admit that I was surprised that something as impersonal as technology would be involved in something as personal as a proposal. The online proposal caused me to start to wonder: in what other ways has the Internet affected the wedding experience?

The New Role of the Internet in Weddings
When I started to look into weddings on the web, I was amazed to find out how much information was out there.

Research
One of the obvious ways to use the Internet to plan your wedding is as a research tool. In my travels, I discovered that there are a great many web sites dedicated to wedding-related information. On these sites, you can find advice about such diverse topics as the stepparent’s role in the receiving line to wedding day superstitions.

You can also find lists of vendors of wedding related products. The best thing to do is use a combination of web research and personal recommendations to identify a list of vendors for attire, photography/video, and venues.

To get a list of wedding sites, visit a search engine such as yahoo.com, excite.com, or google.com.

Web Sites
Creating a wedding Web site was the most imaginative way that people used the web to augment their weddings. Although it may not be the ideal way to propose, a wedding Web site is a great way to organize, plan and communicate wedding details.

Freebies
The quality of sites varies, as do the costs. You can get free web pages from a number of wedding-related sites.

A great way to save time and money communicating with your guests is to build a complete wedding web site. You can fill the site with up-to-date information, pictures, and anything else that you need for the big day.

From this Day Forward
I will leave predictions about the future to psychics, although it appears that the Internet is here to stay. What you need to do is use the Internet to save time, help with planning and, above all, have fun!