The 10 Best Wedding Planning Websites and Apps for Every Kind of Bride

Posted by on May 18th 2018

The 10 Best Wedding Planning Websites and Apps for Every Kind of Bride

If you thought coming up with a trendy wedding hashtag, using only e-vites, and having charging booths at your wedding meant you were having tech-filled nuptials, you’ve just nicked the tip of the iceberg. Heck, a couple just got married in virtual reality this summer! Tech can be infused into every part of the wedding, including the planning, all the events surrounding the big day, the attire, the actual wedding, and, of course, documentation. Plus, your guests can totally benefit from some of these new platforms as well.

Whether you’re just starting your wedding-planning adventure or checking off the very last things on your wedding checklist, here are our favorite digital tools for planning the wedding you want while still having a life.

The 10 Best Wedding Planning Websites and Apps for Every Kind of Bride

1. Best for the bride who doesn’t know where to start: WeddingWire

This venue and vendor database is a one-stop shop, with more than 200,000 local listings and 2.5 million reviews by real brides. So if you’re clueless about where to wed and who to hire, do a quick search and narrow results by type, location, price, or rating. When you’re done with the big-ticket items, you’ll find checklists, budget templates, and etiquette tips.

2. Best for inspo you can actually use: Carats & Cake

Ever see a wedding photo and think, “Who made that centerpiece?” Or “I have to have those shoes!” Carats & Cake eliminates the guesswork, providing a rundown of all the vendors used in its real weddings (caterers, florists, photographers, etc.). Check out full portfolios and reviews, then book them on the site.

3. Best for finding a Versailles-worthy chateau in the South of France: The Venue Report

With “reporters” who research the latest event spaces, this directory has the hottest hotels and party pads, plus off-the-beaten-path locales like, say, a glamping venue in Montana that can accommodate 250 guests. The experience is seamless: Filter results by region, price, and capacity, review essentials like site fees and curfews, and then contact venues directly.

4. Best for planning without the planner: WeddingHappy

Think of this free app as your personal assistant. It’s preloaded with tasks to guide you through your to-dos, and it even alerts you as you approach deadlines for things like “mail invites” or “pay deposit for the band,” the same ways a planner would do in real life. Share your “event” with your fiancé, mother, or hands-on MOH so everyone has access to the same info.

5. Best for color coordination: myPantone

Did a certain teal nail polish strike your fancy? Fire up myPantone (from $7.99) and snap a photo, and the app will identify the exact color. For anyone struggling to pick a palette or who’s letting her bridesmaids choose their own dresses “as long as they’re seafoam green,” this is a must.

6. Best for fab invitations that won’t break the bank: Minted

Minted works with indie artists and graphic designers to offer chic ready-made invites, save-the-dates, ceremony programs, escort cards, and more. Templates can be customized, down to the card size and paper stock. On a tight budget? Print your suite at home or take the file to a local copy shop. Minted also offers bespoke invitation design (from $234 per 100 invitations) in case you don’t have an illustrator on speed dial but still want a hand-drawn map of Nantucket or a watercolor rendering of you and your fiancé.

7. Best for a wedding website that looks totally different: Riley & Grey

Riley & Grey is where design-minded brides go to create their wedding hubs ($35 per month). Modern templates are added every few months, so you won’t accidentally use the same one as your BFF who’s getting married six weeks after you. Your site will be not only gorgeous but also user-friendly, with zero clicks required; simply scroll down to toggle between tabs like “People,” for bridal-party bios, and “Place,” for tips on where to stay, eat, and drink near your wedding venue. You can even embed links to Kayak for flight bookings and Google Maps for directions.

8. Best for organizing hotel-room blocks: Skipper

Your Maui destination wedding will be epic. Finding hotel rooms for 150 guests? Less so. Let Skipper do the work: Plug in your wedding location, dates, and the number of rooms needed, and the site will populate nearby hotels at a variety of price points. Smaller parties can lock in discounted rates at one hotel directly through the site (in most cases, 15 percent off); brides who need more than nine rooms can pick up to four hotels, and a Skipper booking agent will negotiate deals at each on their behalf and email contracts to secure the group rates.

9. Best for anyone who loves a to-do list more than life itself: Trello

Forget that massive notebook—organize your entire wedding on Trello’s virtual pin board. Line up each “card” in a column (which you can name for a category like Venue or Photography), and drag and drop as the task is completed or pushed back. You can attach photos (place-setting mock-ups) or documents (final contracts for review) to cards, then give them color-coded labels—to indicate things like “vendor paid” or “follow up later”—and set deadlines, which the auto-generated email reminders will help you hit on time.

10. Best for registering for what you really want: Zola

We love a blender as much as any kale-juice-obsessed bride-to-be, and Zola has that standard department-store stuff, like Matouk bedding and Waterford-crystal stemware. But you can also request specialty goods, like a Sonos sound system or a BioLite camp stove, or set up a honeymoon or charity cash fund. Bonuses: Guests can easily go in on pricier items together with group gifting, and you also get 10 percent off all items on the site for up to one year after your wedding date.