Wedding Planning Online - The 2010 Outlook
Author: Dave Winter
Despite the economic recession, the rate of couples getting married has stayed rather consistent and is on track to increase significantly in 2010. However, much like everything else, couples are having to cut costs to ensure they can still enjoy the wedding they've always hoped for. Thus, brides across the country are hopping online to plan their weddings, and with the ever-increasing rise in social media & web 2.0, the options are getting easier and easier. In response to this demand, wedding websites have popped up in increasing amounts, in an attempt to streamline the wedding planning process.
Take for example, Strictly Weddings, a
Chicago wedding resource that offers the top 3 vendors for any wedding category, a comprehensive wedding blog, and an innovative "Ask Us" forum where wedding questions are answered by experts.
These three features embody the three facets of a successful wedding website, as they reflect three core tenets, simplification, information, and socialization. In other words, the wedding vendor selection is simplified, information on any facet of the wedding is available, and the bride can interact directly with the website owner via social media. As an added bonus, wedding planning online dramatically increases the speed of the whole proceedings. Instead of the long, arduous process of the past, brides can utilize online resources to plan weddings in not only half the time, but usually half the price as well.
Before this upsurge in online activity by brides-to-be, the main resources utilized were bridal magazines. Thus, just like Esquire & The New York Times, bridal print publications are focusing all their efforts on the online market. Thus, as competition has grown fierce in the online wedding space, websites that offer a unique approach to combining the bridal magazine vendor directories with social media and interactive blogs tend to drive the most online conversions for wedding vendors ranging from florists to bridal gown designers.
The wedding industry is still very much alive and booming, and the Internet has become a very important resource, with over 75% of brides utilizing the web to plan all of their wedding proceedings in 2009 alone. These numbers look to increase even more in 2010 as the economy gradually improves, and sites that follow the sacred three tenets of simplification, information, and socialization stand to provide the most value for the "laptop brides" of the world.About the Author:
I'm a freelance travel writer based out of Austin, TX. I have been published in Barcelona Metropolitan, Barcelona Connect, The Skinny in Edinburgh, Scotland, ENVY & D Magazines of Dallas.