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Laptop Bride: Using The Internet To Plan Your Dream Wedding
by Cathy Lynn

With the explosion of the World Wide Web, planning a wedding has never been more fun or filled with so many choices! The Internet allows you to personalize your wedding, find great ideas, prices, items you want and sometimes items you never knew existed. Best of all, you can shop anytime of day 24/7, in any type of weather, any kind of dress, and you don't have to worry about parking or salespeople. Laptop Bride's focus is to help you find what you are looking for quickly while saving aggravation and money. For example, who would have thought that you could rent a chocolate fountain over the internet? Well, you can! Perhaps the groom wants to forego the tux and wear an Elvis jumpsuit instead. Want to surprise your groom? Have a U.S. Flag flown over the capitol on your wedding day. Simply go to HomeofHeroes.com and order your flag (in advance of course) to fly at the exact time of your wedding! Need a recipe and directions to make the groom an armadillo cake? We have the links. We have links for designer gowns, veils, favors and more. Let's face it; shopping on-line is the ultimate in convenience, opportunity and fun.

Whatsoever God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.

— Matthew 19:6

Congratulations! He has asked and you said yes. The two of you have made one of the most important decisions of your life and the next step will be to plan your dream wedding. Planning your wedding will be filled with the most wonderful and stressful moments of your life. It will be time consuming, yet wonderful. It will be exciting at times and frustrating at other times. In the end, you will realize that your wedding will be one of the most pivotal moments of your life. You will be full of emotion, fear, love, and tears, while filled with the promise of a new life to come. As time goes on, you will realize how important this day is, not only to you, but everyone around you as well. Weddings have a way of enveloping everyone around you. Your family, friends, co-workers and even strangers will offer congratulations and suggestions. Weddings represent new beginnings and a reminder of the love and romance everyone has encountered in their own lives. So make this the wedding of your dreams.

The Internet has thousands of web sites to view and they are all very competitive and unique. The question you are probably asking is, "Why should I plan my wedding using the Internet?" The answer is, "Why shouldn't you?" With wedding costs skyrocketing to over $20,000 for a mid-class traditional wedding, wouldn't you find it much easier to shop and get ideas "on-line?" It makes sense to investigate your options. On-line, you can seek out the latest wedding trends, find gowns, order gowns, look at headpieces that are simple, elegant or even gaudy, and get the best deals. The Internet gives you the options to think romance, personalize your wedding, fulfill your hearts desire and find great ideas, prices, and items you want. Sometimes even items you never knew existed. Best of all, you can shop anytime of day 24/7, in any type of weather, in any kind of dress, with someone, without someone. Secondly, you don't have to purchase everything on the internet. You can just look or if you see a few things, get them. Let's face it; shopping on-line is the ultimate in convenience and the wave of the future.

Laptop Bride's book is full of links that will enable you to:

• Personalize your wedding
• Find unique ways of celebrating your wedding
• Save time
• Save money
• Give you ideas and tips on trends
• Help you make your wedding unique and different from the one you went to last month
• Offer other alternatives to what is available in your town or city
• You may still wish to hire a consultant; however, you can still find some unique items for your wedding and compare ideas and costs
• Pick and choose. Allow you to obtain various ideas from various web sites, while using your own computer at home, work, or wherever you may be
• Find information, compare prices, purchase, look or just get ideas without having to deal with store personnel, finding parking, or dealing with the weather
• You can save money! Sometimes the best deals are on the 'net', because the overhead is lower
• You find exactly what you want
• Find more sizes, color, quantity, quality and availability. For instance, you may find a gown in a magazine that is not available in your town. You can go to the net, find the gown designer and see where the gown can be purchased
• Allows you more quiet, private time to think out your decisions
• Allows you to better utilize your budget

While you are surfing the "net," take notes. When you see something you like, write the web address down or save it in your "favorites" list. This will enable you to remember prices and lead you back to where you saw the item. Keep your notes; your notes will also serve as a piece of memorabilia that you can look back on. You should always carry a calendar with you, a highlighter and a pencil or pen to keep a record of your likes and dislikes. If you need a personalized calendar with outside access go to http://www.myvisto.com. At MyVisto.com you can set up a free personalized calendar where your friends can view your calendar and make an appointment with you. What better way to keep track of your time!

A fun thing that you might want to do is to keep a diary or journal. It can be beneficial in helping you keep track of what you have done and what needs to be done. Some excellent journal sites are: DiaryX.com, LiveJournal.com; DeadJournal.com; Blurty.com, DiaryLand.com, Diarist.net and Blogger.com, which are free. Simply submit your name and e-mail address and you will receive a password. Upon logging on, post your entry. You can make your diary available to everyone on the net; share your password only with certain people, or with no one. You can even ask the Blogger.com site visitors for feedback. Most experts will tell you that keeping a journal can be good for you. Writing thoughts and feelings about issues can bring clarity to problems and help you understand what is going on around you.

Key things to remember:

• Set up a "free" e-mail account for your wedding transactions and e-mails. This will keep your email separate and you can locate it from any computer. Free e-mail services are located easily on the Internet. Popular ones include: Hotmail.com, Mail.Yahoo.com and Lycos.com
• Some sites may require that you have Adobe Acrobat (.PDF format) which can be downloaded free at www.adobe.com
• Always remember "Buyer Beware." Be sure of what you are buying; get it in writing, use your credit card (for protection); when you pay by credit card, your liability for unauthorized charges or undelivered goods is usually limited to $50.00 due to federal consumer protection laws. If you pay by check or money order you won't have that protection.
• Before you buy, check the charges for shipping and handling. If you see "Free Shipping," listed, double check to see if there is a large "handling fee"
• Educate yourself on what the return policies are and read to see if they have a re-stocking fee
• Read the fine print. Some sites offer links to "Legal Terms" or "Disclaimers;" whereas others link to their policies. Some have a scrollable box that requires you to agree to the terms before you continue
• Check warranties, see if a product has a warranty and check who is responsible for repairs or breakage and how long the coverage is
• Check liability. Some sellers limit their liability to a fixed amount of money to repair an item
• Check "Legal Recourse," some sellers will specify that they can only be sued under a particular jurisdiction or under the laws of a particular state. Some require you to surrender your rights to go to any court of law
• If you decide to make a purchase, print out the form on your computer before you submit it (print and save the confirmation (some stores do e-mail you with a confirmation)). You want to keep the company contact information, description of the product ordered, the site's legal terms, completed transaction page and any confirmation e-mails. Don't just save it out in the virtual world. This way if a company should change their policies you can show that you placed your order under the previous policy

If you run into problems, you can utilize many of the government help links:

• First, contact the seller's customer service department to see if the problem can be resolved, if not, contact:
• Consumer Information Center in Pueblo Colorado has a pamphlet that costs money if you order a paper copy, but on-line it is free: http://www.pueblo.gsa.gov
• If you feel you have been a victim of fraud, report your case in full detail to the Federal Trade Commission at FTC.gov or 202-FTC-HELP (382-4357), the National Fraud Information center at Fraud.org or 1-800-876-7060, the Better Business Bureau on-line at BBBon-line.com or your State's Attorney General
• Should you have a problem with any purchase or service from the web site, you can contact the Better Business Bureau. Give them the name and address of the company, go to the BBB Web site at BBB.com and look up a bureau near the company. Contact their local office and request a free report about the company. The report should tell you how long they have been in business, whether they have had any complaints or legal actions taken against them

If you feel you may need a loan to pay for the wedding, two great sites to go to are:

• BankRate.com which is an on-line database of interest rates from banks and credit unions on different types of loans. Includes mortgage, car and home equity loans and credit cards. Another site is www.lendingtree.com.
• Need a credit card? Go to Cardweb.com and find out who has the greatest deals
• Another great opportunity is to request (in advance of course) is that a U.S. Flag be flown over the Capitol on the day and time of your wedding. There is a small fee, however it is minimal. For more information go to HomeofHeroes.com

Last but not least, there is the question, "Should you get wedding insurance?" Today it is an option that is available. With the cost of a wedding today, many brides buy wedding insurance "just in case." Most policies range in cost from around $150.00 to $400.00. Wedding policies normally reimburse all non-refundable deposits if you have to cancel or postpone the wedding due to illness, damage to the wedding or reception site, weather catastrophes or if a vendor is a no show. To find out about wedding insurance call WedSafe at 877-723-3933 (WedSafe.com) or look at this topic and others at TheKnot.com.

Now if all this has you feeling stressed, you can go to Origins.com and pick up some herbal chewing gum. Origins makes a gum called "Peace of Mind Gumballs" which contains a relaxing blend of peppermint, basil and eucalyptus. Purchase a pack (provided you are not allergic), and according to them, chewing gum helps the brain release serotonin, which in turn relieves tension.

Now that your mind is whirling with tons of ideas, start planning your wedding! Let your imagination run wild. The sky is the limit and there are great things out there to find! Make your special day one that everyone will remember!

And then I asked him with my eyes to ask again
Yes,
and then he asked me would I,
Yes
and his
heart was going like mad and
Yes
I said Yes
I will
Yes
~ James Joyce

© 2004 by Cathy Lynn

About the Author

Cathy Lynn works in desktop publishing and resides in the Washington Metropolitan area with her husband Ernie and daughters Katherine and Caitlin. With two daughters it is more than likely that wedding planning will take place sometime in the future.... After listening to so many brides and their parents worry, finagle, and try to cut costs to have that "perfect wedding," she decided to do a little planning early. This book is a compilation of sites that she found offering bargains, tips, ideas, comparisons and cool trends.