Wedding Websites and Bridal Blogs

I was reading back through one of my posts today and realized that I don't always give credit to the sources of my inspiration.  I've been saving pictures for a while now, so I don't always remember where they came from!  Usually the Knot is a safe bet, but if you really want to know where it came from, I can do a reverse-search for you using the picture upload function in Google.  In any case, if you are planning your own wedding or helping out with a friend's, you can check out some of the sites I follow below (most are on Facebook).

Big Two:

The Knot and Brides Magazine are the two biggest names in the wedding industrial complex (WIC).  The Knot is my favorite, because it's easy to search past real weddings by color, season, theme, location, etc.  They also have a lot of etiquette advice and will make suggestions for registries, honeymoons, and local vendors.  Brides is similar, but I find it harder to navigate.

Smaller big sites with communities:

Weddingbee is home to legions of DIY and casual brides.  They have very active boards for members ("bees") and are usually more friendly than other discussion forums.
Project Wedding is also DIY-heavy.  It has a lot of pre-sorted photos, but is less organized than the Knot.
The Wedding Channel was purchased by the Knot a couple of years ago.  They still add some new material, but there is almost nothing on TWC that isn't on the Knot.

Websites:

Bridal Guide Magazine is neat, because it has a lot of the organizational power and size of the Knot, but tends to be a little more free in its interpretation of weddings.
Martha Stewart Weddings features high-end and difficult, but gorgeous DIY designs.  The personality of the site is very traditional.
WeddingWire is cool, because it allows more personalization; users can create a profile and build and review a site-specific vendor list.  The site also collects wedding-useful tools from around the internet and makes them available to people planning a wedding.
OneWed feels like a home-made Pinterest for wedding images.

Blogs:

Style Me Pretty collects real weddings and ideas from photographers around the country.  Their site is dedicated to really Pretty things, and tends to be very feminine and ethereal.
Offbeat Bride is the home of the non-traditional bride.  They feature real weddings that would never make the Knot, because the themes or couples themselves are so different from the mainstream.  This is the place to go when you start to get too fussy about tying tiny ribbons on everything.
It's a Bride's Life belongs to David Tutera, and hosts several bridal bloggers with different styles.  They are very prolific, so there are a ton of ideas backlogged on the site.
Snippet & Ink is a blog that focuses on elegant and meaningful details in weddings.  They have a whole corner of their website dedicated to inspiration boards to help couples find their niche in the wedding world.
Elizabeth Anne Designs features glamorous and timeless wedding inspiration.  Usually the photos they post are classic, with a twist.
Ruffled Blog is another pretty, feminine blog.  They like to post DIY, but doesn't look DIY ideas.
100 Layer Cake posts are for people who want their wedding to be colorful, fun, and upbeat.
Green Wedding Shoes features weddings with an interesting focal element, such as environmentally green, circus, or handmade themes.
Landlocked Bride features real weddings from the interior of the country.  Specifically, it exists to show that Midwestern weddings are every bit as beautiful as coastal ones, although they are often overlooked.
DIY Bride is for the person who wants to design and hand-make every element of their wedding, from dresses to stationary suites.
A Practical Wedding is great because it reminds you that your wedding is not your whole life.  The site also has a lot of essays on what it means to be a bride and a wife, and how your idea of each influences your identity and choices in life.

Photos:

Moment Junkie is a minimalist blog that posts individual photos that tell a story.  A lot of them will make you cry.
Carretto Studio, the photographers we booked for our wedding, have a blog online.  They do some amazing work, so I like to stop by every now and then just to see what's new.

A lot of these websites have been around a long time, but every once in a while, a blogger finishes what she has to say, or moves into the mommy blogger realm, and the blog is over.  I used to follow blogs Lovely and Gracious and the Unbride, but they have since retired... so those above probably won't be around forever!