 Utilizing technology can make your wedding planning MUCH easier.
Overview
In this day and age, there is an amazing amount of high-tech tools that can be utilized to enhance a wedding. With the availability of software and gadgets available to everyone, many of these tools can be utilized by anyone with the desire to learn them. This page is updated every month. To see the previously discussed topics, see the links from Previous Technology Topics.
Building Your Wedding Website
There are several ways to build a wedding website. You can either build one yourself from scratch, build one using an already-exiting site, or hire someone to build one for you. If you already have a webserver and are familiar with webpage design, you probably already have your site up and running. If you're not, here are a few free resources to help you build a great wedding website.
- Edit your userpage here! Just click on your name at the top (right next to where it says "my talk". You can upload photos and have your very own webpage- whatever you like! You can even have connecting sites. For an example, click on User page and see an example on how to use AppleBride to host your "wed"site.
- WetPaint is a free webhost that gives you beautiful pre-made designs. It is also a community, so people can leave you comments, add extra pages, and find information quickly. Because this site is relatively new, you can most likely get exactly the page you want.
- LiveJournal is not just a blogging site but a place where you can make a free wedding website. You can either have one that others can also post in (like a community) or use it as an individual and post all of your wedding plans. Because you can make public, private, and friends entries, you can control what the public sees.
- Wedding Announcer is another free site that offers free, highly customizable wedding websites. They also have a community that can help you get started and give you suggestions.
Making a Web Page
There are many different companies out there that offer space for your Web site. You should consider a paid Web hosting plan, since free web hosts such as Geocities and Tripod attach a great deal of advertisements on your pages. Paid Web hosting plans are usually charged by the month, and prices usually depend on how much space and bandwidth you need for your Web site. Be sure to check out all the details and features, as web hosts vary greatly in service. Some paid webhosting plans come with domain names.
You can make an HTML Web page with a WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) editor such as Microsoft FrontPage (part of MS Office), or you can make one with a plain text editor such as Notepad. When editing HTML, you should read resources such as the World Wide Web Consortium's HTML home page and HTML Goodies.
 Avoid color combinations such as these on your Web site. Design
- Avoid loud or dissonant color combinations (like the ones shown on the right) and other unprofessional design gimmicks (such as blinking text and trailing cursors). Black text on a white or near-white background (such as beige) works well and make your text extremely easy to read without hurting the reader's eyes.
- Only use red (and other intense colors) and boldface in hyperlinks and other text that is meant to call attention to the reader.
- Avoid underlining. Generally this formatting is reserved for hyperlinks. Some people may confuse underlined text on Web pages as hyperlinks.
- Don't embed music. It can greatly slow down anyone's computer.
- Don't put too many images on one page, as they can make the page too long to load, especially on dial-up connections.
- If possible, use CSS sheets for layouts rather than tables or frames.
- Make sure your site is readable in Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Opera.
Intellectual Property
- Include a brief copyright notice at the bottom of your page, such as "Copyright © (this year) (your name)."
- Don't upload copyrighted material without permission. Don't hotlink images. If you have permission to use a certain image or if you own that image, upload it on your Web server.
- Avoid copy protection scripts (disabling right click, etc.) Most of these measures can easily be circumvented, especially if they are written in JavaScript. Even worse, such copy protection scripts may even interfere with normal browser use.
- If you would like to give permission for viewers to use your content, you should do so with licenses such as Creative Commons, GNU Free Documentation License, MIT License, or Free Art License, among many others from the Free Software Foundation's list of licenses.
Other Issues
- Use TITLE, META tags, and ALT tags to make your site easily searchable.
- On some Web servers, you could control access to your site (IP banning, disabling hotlinking, password protection) by uploading an .htaccess file.
- If you do disable direct image linking, do not redirect a hotlinked image to some other image, especially not an image that is intended to shock, annoy, or chastise its viewer. That is unprofessional. Instead, redirect an image hotlink such that nothing is displayed. Replace the RewriteRule URL with a dash ( - ) instead.
External Links and Sources
Blogs
With a blog (short for weblog), you can easily update it with wedding developments for others to read. Some blogs allow you to add or link to images as well.
There are many blogging services out there. Some are free. Some are subscription-based with free demo versions.
- Blogger - Owned by Google, the free Blogger service is very advanced yet easy to use and has many customization features. You can upload your Blogger blog to Blog*Spot or even on your own Web space (if it supports FTP uploads). Users do have profiles, but Blogger emphasizes far more on blogging rather than community aspects.
- LiveJournal - LiveJournal, a Six Apart service, is heavily community-oriented, with community-owned blogs (where community members can post) and a friends list system. You can also restrict who reads entries on your blog. However, several features, particularly those related to customizing your blog, require a paid membership.
There are many other blog services too, that offer various features. Some are even based on LiveJournal code (as much of LJ is open source).
| Tip: | This section deals with copyright law and is not to be construed as legal advice. If you are uncertain of anything regarding copyright law or Creative Commons licenses, please consult an attorney who works with intellectual property. |
Copyrighted images and other online material cannot be uploaded on Web sites without permission from their authors. Some of these authors, however, may grant such permission using Creative Commons licenses. There are different kinds of Creative Commons licenses out there, so be sure to check which license is used on a licensed item before using it.
You can also use Creative Commons licenses for your own material, such as wedding pictures that you took yourself and your own blog articles, if you would like other Web sites to use your material without plagiarizing.
All Creative Commons licenses require attribution, or giving credit to the author. This ensures that users copy without plagiarizing. If you are going to use a Creative Commons licensed work, you should indicate which license gave you permission to use that work, and where people can get the original work.
In addition, standard Creative Commons licenses may come with certain restrictions:
- NonCommercial (No Commercial Use; currency sign with a no symbol): Don't make money off of the work. Obviously, don't sell the content or put it in a members-only area of a pay site. Don't using the work on sites paid by advertisements, either. (For example, AppleBride makes money from the ads on each of its pages, so we cannot use images licensed as NonCommercial).
- NoDerivs (No Derivative Works; equals sign): Don't make modifications, adaptations, translations, and other derivative works based upon that work. Don't embed (as opposed to simply hyperlink) a NoDerivs-licensed item on your web page either, as your web page could be considered a derivative work of such an item!
- ShareAlike (Share Alike; 360-degree rotating arrow): If you make derivative works based upon that work, you must license them with the exact same license as the license used. If you embed (not simply hyperlink) a ShareAlike item on your Web page, you also need to license the page with that same license that's applied to the item.
External Links & Sources
Virtual Bachelor/Bachelorette Parties
 Webchats can connect people via video images.
Along the same thread, there is an increasing trend in having webcasted bachelor and bachelorette parties. Some brides and grooms choose this option in order to include out-of-town friends who could not attend the parties physically. In this scenario, the party takes place in someone's home or a hotel room. Using a webcam and a chat program, participants can chat with the people at the party, webchat with the participants, or just look in on the action.
Virtual Disc Jockeys
 iPods and other portable mp3 players can be easily hooked up to speakers and stereos for broadcast.
With the proliferation of portable, digital audio players (iPods, Zen Micro, etc.) there are more options for couples who wish to still have music but forego using a professional DJ. Digital audio players and laptop computers can both be hooked up to speakers and used to provide music for the reception.
Que has an article on how to install your portable mp3 player for broadcast both indoors and in your car.
Previous Technology Topics
- Design your gown - Free, technology savvy ways to design your own wedding gown or other wedding attire.
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