Saturday, March 12, 2011

Wedding? There's an App for That!


In this day and age, you can do almost anything with the help of your trusty iPhone, iPod, or iPad. Why should planning a wedding be the exception? Fortunately, there are plenty of apps to help you make sure that your special day is everything you want it to be.

When you’re looking to get organized, find local vendors, or get wedding day inspiration, you can turn to your iPhone to find the help that you need. High-profile names in the wedding industry such as wedding planner Mindy Weiss and bridal media such as “The Knot” and “Brides” have developed apps to offer their expertise to tech-savvy brides.

Plan Your Wedding with Mindy Weiss” is the signature wedding application from celebrity wedding planner, Mindy Weiss. At 9.99, the app is on the expensive side as far as digital planning tools go. However, its vast array of features may be worth the price for you. Like many other wedding apps, this app allows you to search a database of wedding gowns and manage vendors. However, in addition to these standard features, “Plan Your Wedding” provides you with video advice from Mindy herself as well as a “dreamboard” where you can save wedding inspiration photos, a budget management tool, and a section for keeping track of your gift registries, guest lists, and thank you notes.

Wedding mega-resource, “The Knot,” offers a number of free application options to help you with your wedding planning. For iPhone users, “Wedding Dress Lookbook” allows you to search for the perfect gown by inputting your height, body type, personality, and wedding style in addition to other search terms. “The Knot” also offers “Wedding 911,” an app in which brides submit their questions about etiquette, receptions, ceremonies, saving money, and other wedding day details. For iPad users, “The Knot” offers a great digital edition of its magazine at $4.99 an issue, complete with a spot for saving inspiration and plenty of videos to help you create D-I-Y invites and favors.

Another free app option is “BRIDES Wedding Genius,” straight from the pros at Condé Nast’s “Brides” magazine. This app allows you to explore a huge database of wedding dresses, his and hers jewelry, and travel destinations for your dream honeymoon. For a few dollars, you can upgrade this application to the “BRIDES Digital Wedding Binder,” which allows you access to expert advice, inspiration folders, and a spot to manage your wedding to-do list.

This article was written by FIT Student Corine Brosseau.