Can you imagine what planning your wedding would be like without the Internet?  I was married 5 years ago, and the sites, blogs and tools available today were not even around in 2003.  One of my favorite wedding bloggers Christa Terry (author of Manolo for the Brides) just wrote an amazing wedding planning book filled with all of the Web sites you need to know about while planning your wedding.  iDo: Planning Your Wedding with Nothing But 'Net hits stores this month and is filled with hundreds of tips and wedding-related Web sites that will make planning easier, and even save you some money!

I asked Christa to send me five of her favorite wedding-related Web sites, and here they are:  

When you first get engaged, check out WeddingWire.com

Just getting started? Forget the phone book, put away the pen and paper, and tell your mom to stop pressuring you to hire her coworker's son's girlfriend to do the flowers because you'll be shopping around for florists—and doing just about everything else—from the comfort of your desk chair, thank you very much. Go to Wedding Wire to get the lowdown on local vendors from appreciative, ambivalent, and angry reviews written by former brides instead of relying on tired professional pitches. Then, when you're ready, hit up the site to build a slick custom timeline, fashion the perfect seating chart, and choose the ultimate first dance song.

When you’re shopping for your wedding dress, visit BrideCouture.com

For brides-to-be with champagne dreams and Bud Light budgets, dress shopping can be a mix of exhilaration and heartbreak. Salon shopping can make a gal feel like a princess, until the price tags remind her that's she actually a pauper. There are some great deals out there, particularly if you're willing to travel to a major metropolis, camp out in front of Filenes, and run with the brides, but who has the time? Leave the stampede to the fiancées who don't have better things to do, and buy online. You want to talk about a great deal? How does a size-12 Atelier Aimee gown for $599 sound?

For wedding inspiration, visit the Offbeat Bride Web site

It's so easy to fall into the "I'll send ecru invitations, wear a white gown, and carry red roses" rut when you're planning a wedding because those are the sorts of products the WIC peddles. Inspiration and support are a lot harder to find when you want to wear a smokin' hot purple gown, you and your sweetheart are vegans, and you think carrying flowers is a stupid idea. Brides-to-be who prefer not to run with the pack can check out the "wedding porn" at this primo blog and chill with their own kind on the accompanying forum.   

For creative favors and details, check out Save-On-Crafts.com

Your average nuptial accoutrements are manufactured en masse in Asian factories, which means you can buy the same fifty favors and decorative accents in just about every online wedding shop...only the price points differ. If you want to plan an affair that's anything but average—plus you know for a fact that you're a very patient person—you can't beat DIY, and DIY gets a hell of a lot easier when you have a one-stop source for everything from tulle tying basics to plantable petal cones.

Just for the fun of it, visit EtiquetteHell.com

You pretty much have to embrace your sense of humor if you want to survive the stress of planning a wedding. Besides the fact that you're probably putting the whole shebang together while working, socializing, and getting those fifteen facials every bridal mag recommends, weddings tend to bring out the worst in people. When bridesmaids turn into bitchmaids and dad throws a fit because you want to aisle-walk solo, knowing you can head over to Etiquette Hell and read stories way more horrific than your own makes staying cool that much easier.

You can find Christa's book in bookstores now, or click here to order it online. 

Mindy Weiss is well-known for the unbelievable weddings she has planned for Hollywood’s brightest stars, including: Jessica Simpson & Nick Lachey, Gwen Stefani & Gavin Rossdale and Heidi Klum and Seal.  And now you can have Mindy help plan your wedding, because she has written one of the most thorough wedding planning books I have ever seen.

From planning advice to a glossary of terms and helpful worksheets, you pretty much have an expert wedding planner (and I mean a person) in the palm of your hands.

The Wedding Book is available at bookstores nationwide, or you can click here and buy it at Amazon.com.  Below is Mindy’s book tour schedule, so you can get a signed copy of Mindy’s book, and ask her detailed questions about your own wedding.

I know this isn’t really a wedding themed movie, but there have been thousands – and possibly millions - of weddings that have been inspired by it. I know I was.

If you’ve ever seen the movie, then you know that many father-daughter/mother-son dances have been set to Sunrise Sunset. It’s a very touching song and really appropriate for a wedding – especially parent dances.

For our wedding, I started dancing to Sunrise Sunset with my dad, and halfway thru Dave and his mom joined in. The song is appropriate for both, and we only danced to the one song, so our guests weren’t sitting down for more than a few minutes. I find that after the first few seconds of watching the parent dances the guests lose interest.

Anyway, since we’re on the topic of cultural traditions I thought this movie was appropriate for our Reel to Real series. And speaking of cultural traditions, another Jewish custom is to get married under a chuppah or wedding canopy. Some couples will have their florist create one, while others will make one from a tallis (prayer shawl).

Josey, the iVillage Love Senior Editor learned at the last minute that her chuppah had fallen through. So she and her groom decided to build one themselves. At first they were overwhelmed, but after some thought, they realized they loved the symbolism. Chuppahs symbolize the “home” the couple is building together—and, the week before their wedding, they literally built it! But first they had to figure out what supplies they would need and where to get them. Too bad Khris Cochran’s book, The DIY Bride, hadn’t come out yet.

In addition to the dozens of creative DIY projects in her book, Khris has an easy and very affordable project to create your own wedding canopy. I’ll tell you more about The DIY Bride book next week. But if you want, you can check out Khris’ site DIYBride.com to learn more.

Tomorrow’s the last day in the wedding flick series. Before I pick the movie to write about, do you have a favorite wedding film you think I should know about?

Speaking of wedding movies, remember the scene in Father of the Bride (the remake, not the original) where Annie, George and Nina Banks go to meet the wedding planner? They squeeze onto a loveseat and flip through an album of wedding cakes. The “fabulous” one has a sticker that reads “1200” and George asks if that’s 1200 dollars - his first car didn't cost $1200.

This scene was played out when I took my parents to meet Ron Ben-Israel, my wedding cake baker. I was having a kosher wedding so it was either the cake the schul caterer baked (no way), Ron or Sylvia Weinstock. I went with Ron because I felt that he could design the cake I was envisioning, and I loved his chocolate cake.

The style and price of my wedding cake was a bone of contention between me and my dad throughout my engagement. I still don't think a 7-tiered tower is too outrageous, do you? Finally at the wedding he saw how amazing it looked, and when we cut the cake my dad, mom and sister all came up to taste it, and dad gave it 2 thumbs up. I have video and a photo to remind him how much he enjoyed it.

Anyway, as Frank the wedding planner explained to the Banks family, the cake can dictate the style of the wedding. And that’s possible if you fall in love with a wedding cake and choose your theme and colors based on the cake you want.

I received a copy of the new book, Martha Stewart’s Wedding Cakes, a compilation of over 100 beautiful wedding cakes that have been featured in the magazine. My wedding cake didn’t make the cut, but there are some amazing cakes included. If you're not sure what you want your cake to look like, or still mulling over your colors and theme, these cakes will inspire you. They range from classic white tiers to modern cupcake towers and cakes with fruit or flowers to cakes in almost every color of the rainbow.

I pulled a few images of some of my favorites and will feature them over the next few weeks with tips on how to shop for a baker and choose your wedding cake. So stay tuned...