Southern California Brides : Soup-to-Nuts Nuptial Planning Online

It’s no surprise that wedding planning Web sites are popping up all over the Internet. A wedding--even a small one--is a huge undertaking, often involving lots of spending on everything from clothes to flowers, food, gifts, travel and services, such as photography and catering.

Angling for a piece of the pie are Web sites such as the Knot, WeddingChannel.com, Wedding411 and 1800Wedding. They beckon with the promise of saving time on all those endless errands, as well as making it easier for friends and family who want to buy the newlyweds gifts.

Of the hundreds of sites out there, some bill themselves as full-service, while others offer links to local vendors, budget help, etiquette advice, consumer tips, places to find gowns, honeymoon packages or wedding planning software.

The Knot (https://www.theknot.com) bills itself as the “No. 1 online wedding destination,” boasting 23 million page views logged in July. Each month, some 35,000 brides and grooms become members.

Since its debut three years ago, the Web site has also spawned two books, “The Knot Ultimate Wedding Gown Guide” (self-published twice a year) and “The Knot’s Complete Guide to Weddings in The Real World” (Broadway Books, 1998). Future plans include a PBS television series called “Tying the Knot: Real Weddings,” set for production this fall.

“I think competition is good,” says Knot spokeswoman Jessica Kleiman. “It’s raising visibility for the whole industry. When we launched the Web site, the press was paying no attention to weddings because it’s a niche market. Now all of a sudden, with the competition, people are paying attention.”

WeddingChannel.com (https://www.weddingchannel.com) refers to itself as “the most comprehensive and customizable wedding planning, gift registry and communication resource on the Web.” As of a few months ago, the site had some 6 million page views per month.

One of its major draws is a massive online integrated registry, thanks to a partnership with Federated Department Stores, which owns Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s, the Bon Marche, Burdine’s and Goldsmith’s. Couples who register with a store can manage their registries online, and guests can purchase gifts either online or in-store.

“Saving time is one of the No. 1 benefits to planning online,” says Diana Meltzer, director of marketing for WeddingChannel.com. “But there are a lot of ancillary benefits, such as stress reduction.”

Couples thinking about using a planning Web site should check it out thoroughly before making a commitment. Although prices for registry gifts are usually competitive, they can vary. And some sites that offer local vendor links are no more than glorified Yellow Pages ads. Also, “local” can be defined loosely. On one Web site, a search for bakeries in Los Angeles turned up a bakery in Minnesota, a deejay in Berkeley and musicians in Costa Mesa.