Lovers' bliss knows no boundaries

By KATE FOREMAN

Jess and Josh are getting married. I know this because I found their wedding homepage.

It is a slick site, providing professional-looking photos of the pre-nuptial couple in various poses, details about their backgrounds, wedding arrangements and a gift register.

Despite myself I was fascinated.

Like Big Brother, we find out more about these strangers than we really need to know. For example, Josh can play two recorders at the same time using both nostrils and Jess likes to listen to Christmas carols all year round. And these people are going to procreate.

A much simpler and saner homepage may be found at Courtney's wedding page.

Bride-to-be Courtney Brooks profiles herself and her husband-to-be, names the attendants, and announces the wedding theme. There is also a mass of detail about the all-important wedding gown, which I thought was meant to be a surprise.

But you don't need to be an internet expert to set up your own wedding site.

At NZ Wedding Planner, for example, you can sign up for a free wedding homepage which friends and family can find using the site's search engine.

NZ Wedding Planner provides a basic, but adequate page that allows you to put in all your personal details and wedding arrangements. However, in the pages I looked at, there were no photos and no gift register, but the latter was available elsewhere on the site.

If your main interest is publishing photos of the happy occasion, local site Wedding Album will provide an online wedding album as well as giving you a CD-Rom to keep.

You can opt for restricted or unrestricted access and your album will be hosted for up to a year. A dozen photos will set you back about $250, plus GST, which might be a nice touch if you have loved ones overseas.

Of course the fun part of getting married is the presents - oh, and the honeymoon. At Trousseau, you can see what other couples would like as gifts from the site's shopping list. If you are invited to a wedding, the checklist of what other guests have already bought is a good prod to get in early so you don't end up wrapping up the facecloths.

Another good gifts register site is ACQ Gift Store. It includes photos of the products but doesn't indicate what has already been bought.

The best recommended present I found was a "sanitised" bidet. The sales blurb alone is enough to make those of us without one quite paranoid and it is the perfect present for the newlywed.

Jess 'n' Josh would probably be thrilled to receive one.

Links:


Jess and Josh

Courtney's wedding page

NZ Wedding Planner

Wedding Albums online

Trousseau Gift Consultancy

ACQ Gift Store

Sanicare