The internet is such a resourceful place, especially when you’re planning a wedding! There are so many blogs and sources of information out there and because the internet is so vast, it can be hard to digest and utilize all the info that’s available to you. Trust me, I know. As a part of my job I read dozens (and dozens) of blogs and visit a lot of sites daily to see what’s going on in the wedding industry. It would be nearly impossible for me to keep track of all the latest trends, news, and ideas without a little bit of help (and I imagine the case is the same for you!). There are a lot of ways to save and utilize all the information you read as you scower the internet for a tablescape idea and the gown of your dreams. I’m going to share with you some information to make your wedding planning a lot easier!

My first recommendation is to subscribe to your favorite blogs. I have no doubt that as a bride, you’re reading a lot of blogs and magazines. Whether it is weddingbee.com, stylemepretty.com or wedconnecticut.com (that’s our blog in case you didn’t know!), it can take a lot of time to go through your favorite blogs for new postings. How do you “subscribe” to a blog? Well, it’s pretty simple! The easiest way is to have the blog entries delivered right to your Microsoft Outlook (or Thunderbird for all you Mozilla junkies). Almost all blogs have a link to their RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed (to learn more about RSS visit its Wikipedia page). Look for the RSS icon on a blog page for a subscription link, or, they may have a link that says “subscribe to an Atom feed.” Once you click the link it will immediately set up a folder in your outlook, thunderbird, or email program to receive the author’s blog posts. So, every time the blog author(s) write a new blog, it will be delivered to their very own folder in your email program!

Sometimes while you’re browsing the internet you come across a great idea or picture that you’d love to use for your wedding. Our instinct is to usually bookmark it in our browser or save the image to our hard drive. The problem with that is it can be extremely difficult to find these links and files later. Also, a lot of times you forget that you’ve even bookmarked them! The solution to this is to use an internet bookmarking system which a.) allows you to bookmark any page you come across. The beauty of it is that it’s saved to an internet website that you can access from ANYWHERE (aka your 9-5, home, and your MOH’s house), and b.) you can categorize your links with tags. So, if you come across a picture of a beautiful invitation design that you just love, you can bookmark it and tag it with “invitation.” Later, when it’s time to discuss with your Wedding Coordinator and stationeries the ideas you have for your invitations, it’ll be so much easier to sort through your bookmarks and find the invitations you loved!

There are a ton of internet bookmarking sites and they all offer the same advantages. I use delicious and love the versatility it offers with no unnecessary frills. I also use Firefox as my browser, and there is a delicious extension available which adds it to your toolbar for super fast bookmarking and tagging. Even if your bookmarking system doesn’t have a browser extension, many blogs and websites have little icons (like ours) at the end of a post that quickly allow you to save and tag the post for future retrieval. Besides delicious, you may want to check out digg, stumbleupon (one of my other favorite tools), and technorati

I hope that this post helps you in saving all the information that the internet has to offer. There are so many talented professionals, writers, and designers out there who have blogs worthy of subscribing to and bookmarking. Be sure to check out some of our favorites on the right hand side. If you have any questions about configuring these systems on your computer please leave us a comment!