5 Online Steps to Planning Your Wedding

Rings have been exchanged, champagne has been gulped, tears have been shed...now the fun (er, frightening) part begins. Questions begin creeping around the periphery of your newly-betrothed happiness bubble...When will you get hitched? Where will it take place? What do you want the event to look and feel like? Who will make the invite list? And HOW are you going to pull all of this off?

Luckily, you live in the digital age where practically anything is accessible as a result of a few clicks and keystrokes. There are tons of online resources—from full-blown wedding planning websites, to enormous repositories of fantasy wedding images, to interactive tools for managing budgets, organizing guests lists, and building a personalized wedding website—that can turn your planning process from a scary slalom through opinionated relatives and dead-end recommendations to a (relatively) painless experience largely accomplished while ensconced on your couch with your laptop or mobile device. Follow along below for our best recommendations on where to start and how to navigate wedding planning on the web.

1. Get Organized
To calm your nerves (and your pesky inquirers), set your wheels in motion by grabbing your computer and setting up an account with an online wedding planning platform. Look for a site that is rich with both inspiration and information; you'll want to peruse lovely photos while also accessing helpful planning tips and resources, a vendor directory, and a way to save, organize, and share your favorite ideas and advice.

Once you're well-equipped to do some serious online research, you and your fiancé(e) should plan a special evening to discuss those big-picture questions. (Note: a fabulous meal at your favorite restaurant never hurts.) Determining together your ideal wedding location, date, number of guests, type of ceremony service, and reception venue (not to mention who will be paying for what) will not only be an important step in making decisions as a lifelong pair, but will arm you with a clear mission for the next stage of online planning.

2. Get Inspired
With a slightly sharper idea in mind for the kind of wedding you're crafting, now's the point at which you should take to the internet and go hog wild. Google like it's your job. Wikipedia terminology such as "poly-satin" and "letterpress printing." Gasp audibly at bouquets and sunset landscapes as you hone your vision of absolute wedding perfection. Every soon-to-be-bride (and some grooms) scrolls through Pinterest for hours while supposedly "working," pinning every centerpiece or pair of fly shoes no matter how implausible the choice might be.

Yet beware the Pinterest planning curse: while it might be exciting and harmless to pin all sorts of random ideas in the first few weeks, too much pinning can quickly go from useful to abuseful. For starters, no one wants to wind up with a dreaded "Pinterest wedding": an event so chock-full of trendy choices and cutesy details that it becomes inauthentic and, worse of all, impersonal. In the mathematics of wedding planning, remember this equation: pinning = passed around = quickly passé.

Also, what good are photographs that don't provide you with any tangible information on how to actually get that item, or allow you to discover who's responsible for that to-die-for creation? Better yet, opt for an online source of inspiration that provides information on—and puts you in contact with—the vendors whose work you admire. Like or save favorite images within your personal account (see Step 1), and start to notice trends within your personal tastes.

3. Choose Your Style
Now that you have a better clue about what you and your partner are visually drawn to, (you've been getting input from your S.O. on everything, right?), narrow down and try to define "your" wedding style. Don't worry if you have wide, varying tastes, or if you and your partner's instinctual preferences are not identical. Coming up with your unique style recipe, and applying it to the decorative elements of your wedding, is what will make your celebration feel well-planned, thoughtful, and distinctly you.

If you love the idea of a super romantic, bloom-filled garden party, but your partner is more into a modern, black-tie bash, find a sweet spot in the middle where you can incorporate a few elements of each look: perhaps you hold the ceremony and cocktails in the outdoor gardens of an historic estate, but move the party into a formal ballroom for a chic, seated dinner. Get creative, and make your own rules; "modern romantic upscale garden party" can totally be a thing if it truly calls to you.

Yet there is a limit to how many disparate styles you can realistically pull off in combination. Incorporate the things you and your betrothed absolutely love, but try to keep a cohesive mental picture in place. Consider the season, the geography, and the size of your wedding, and aim for a style that works in harmony with these big-picture factors. Refine your online searches as you pinpoint your ideal look and ambience, and create a well-edited collection of "final" inspirational material. Once you have a few keywords, illustrations, and specific decorative or thematic ideas to capture and define your personalized wedding style, it's time to find the experts that can bring your look to life.

4. Research & Select Vendors
This is perhaps the most time-consuming and potentially confusing aspect of planning your wedding, but it's the crucial step that will make or break your event. Finding the dream team of wedding professionals to pull off your perfect day takes time, patience, and lots of online research. You'll not only want to get a full lay of the land when it comes to your selection of local vendors, but learn specifics such as their average pricing, their reputation among the community (including reviews from past clients), their availability, and most importantly, examples of their work.

If you can't see the kind of products and services that a vendor delivers, then how can you confidently choose them to successfully handle whatever aspect of the day, large or small, you might entrust to their care? This principle is why we here at Borrowed & Blue feel it's important for couples to discover vendors through their work, which we make possible by providing examples of real weddings that are directly linked to local vendors within a comprehensive market-by-market directory. Beware of online directories or websites that only include vendors who've paid to appear; you want a complete resource that you can trust, otherwise you might miss out on that one vendor who is a perfect match for your budget, style, and needs.

Once you've completed your fundamental online vendor research, including reading reviews from past brides and grooms (make sure they're authenticated!), make a short list of potential matches and schedule in-person consultations (or phone chats, if you are planning a destination wedding). If you and the vendor have good rapport and you can acquire their services at the right price, then sign that contract and cross one more item off your wedding to-do.

5. Become an Area Expert
With the big questions answered, your style nailed down, and your vendors in place to make it all happen, the last step in your online planning will be to gain as much knowledge as possible about your wedding location. What are the hot spots for dining out, the local traditions and historic lore that make it special, the parts of town to check out (or definitely avoid) during certain times of the year?

Your wedding will really stand out for out-of-town guests as a fantastically memorable event if you can help make their experience the best possible during their stay. Reserve blocks of rooms at convenient, comfortable, and variably-priced hotels for guests to book on their own; suggest some great local restaurants and fun activities for them to try during unscheduled time; fill welcome bags with maps, suggestions, and locally sourced treats and leave them in guests' hotel rooms as a thoughtful way to introduce them to your locale.

Gaining area expertise will also be helpful when arranging wedding logistics and contribute towards a hiccup-free wedding weekend. For example, knowing major events occurring during the same weekend—think marathons, festivals, or college graduations—that could cause street closures or complicate travel plans can save you major headache down the road. Or having directions handy for a drop-in medical clinic should a guest need to see a doctor for a non-emergency condition might save your ceremony from the plague of Aunt Sally's constant allergic sneezing. It's these little details that will take your wedding from "pretty nice" to "absolutely amazing," and will make the extra time you spent planning online all worth it.