Hello!  This is a new blog that I'm starting (and hopefully that I will be keeping up) in order to track the progress of my wedding planning.  Ideally this will be a place for me to keep track of my own research, but also a condensed place where people can find information for their own weddings.  I've spent a lot of time online trolling for information, and it will be nice to share here. :D

Anyhow, I think that I will break this up as much as possible into little vignettes.  So rather than start off with a long introduction, which I will save for later posts, here are a few websites that I find to be particularly helpful for people just getting started.  Just as a note a lot of this info will be Southern California specific but don't feel limited.  I've gotten some great information from sites based in Canada, the UK and Australia!

So here are my favorite sites for all around information and ideas.  I've found bits of info here and there, but these are great of you are just getting started, and so far have been helpful now, four months into it.

The Knot: http://www.theknot.com/

Pros:  this is a huge site, and a good place to poke around and browse when you're just getting started.  What's great about this is all of the information and etiquette that you can find here, as well as overall ideas and suggestions.  The pictures are useful, but get overwhelming.  Lots of good basic how to's, I really recommend checking it out.  I haven't checked out the organizational software, but there are some budget and organizing tools that it offers that might be good too.

Cons: There isn't a lot of local information on this site, so if you want to start getting serious and looking up vendors, this isn't really the place to do it.  Start here for general ideas, but it isn't a good place to get serious and really start hiring people.

Here Comes the Guide: http://www.herecomestheguide.com/

Pros: Another getting started basic.  I actually was able to start looking up vendors with this site, and we were able to scout some venues here.  They do offer some breaks though and discounts.  I haven't used one yet, and may not ending up doing that, but it's out there!

Cons: Not so much for the pictures or the design ideas, and again very ad heavy.

The Wedding Bee: http://www.weddingbee.com/

Pros: I LOVE this site!  It's really personal, and people have posted a lot of those nervous questions you have and lots of comforting advice.  It feels a lot more real and a lot more from the side of real people than vendors trying to sell you stuff.  Depending on where you live you can also get some great information on local vendors.  They have reviews and links to many more vendors than the sites above.  I found this site while looking for information on having an outdoor Catholic wedding (more on this later-we decided not to go with this because it's a pain), so it offers that kind of advice along with the same sort of budget, design, etc you find everywhere else.

Cons:  It's kind of unwieldy, but no real complaints.

Style Me Pretty: http://www.stylemepretty.com/

Pros:  I was turned on to this site years ago by Lucky magazine.com for tips on hair styles.  They offer a blog with photos from real weddings, design suggestions, lots and lots of photos, but with a more tailored aesthetic than The Knot, and a handful of designers.  Again, I love this site, it's just gorgeous.  They don't show weddings from everywhere, but they include all of the details for the weddings they feature, so it can be a good place to find vendors, just not from their actual vendor list-look at all the fine print at the end of the photos.  This is also one place where I found the ads to be useful, rather than just pushy, mostly because the tastes are so tailored.

Cons: This is not necessarily a place to find budget friendly ideas, so can be frustrating sometimes.  Some of the weddings are budget, but others were soooo not.  Still not that serious a con, so check it out!