Australia: Wedding Social Networks
I’m an out and out romantic. An eternal optimist. And I’ve been thinking for a while about an online community for brides. Why? Well, social networks work really well around Rituals and Events, for starters. Plus the site would look sooooo pretty. Aw shucks. I looked at a few of the Australian wedding communities –…
I’m an out and out romantic. An eternal optimist. And I’ve been thinking for a while about an online community for brides. Why? Well, social networks work really well around Rituals and Events, for starters. Plus the site would look sooooo pretty. Aw shucks. I looked at a few of the Australian wedding communities – basically they stuck up a forum and called it a social network.
Wedding Centralphpbb forum, and maybe tinyportal CMS?
i-do.com.au not sure of the forum software, they have a few tools
there was another one I can’t think of right now Diary something.
None of the sites have moved away from being a marketing portal and into a useful social networking tool. They place the wedding directory first and bride second. Celebrante is also a typical directory, although nicely laid out. Ah well. Have you got married lately? Are there better tools/sites out there?
I looked at India, and they have some great “MyWedding” style sites. if you are into Bollywood style weddings, I guess. 🙂 But Australian women like a more laid back, no-fuss wedding. Think of the sites whose primary aim is to sell you a big fuck-off wedding with all the trimmings and how overwhelming it is to use those sites when all you want is to organise a little dinky ceremony and reception.
Pick it up here, for $300.
Hat tip to Cheryl (who is marrying Scott) : Godawful Wedding Crap blog is hilarious. Warning: you will waste hours looking at pictures of penis presents and trying to understand the rationale behind colour co-ordinating your loo water with your bridesmaids flowers.
So there are a few niches left. Any site that is willing to put the bride first and the directory second. And for no-fuss weddings. i.e. a site that is not dedicated to selling as many ads for caterers and flowers and reception-y thingies as possible. There’s enough bridezilla sites out there.
Another is for gay weddings. Amanda and Amanda (yah, I know) are getting engaged. w00t! You Go Girls! As I was saying, gay wedding/ceremony sites could work as social networks, not wedding portals – I looked at:
Gay Weddings
and a UK gay wedding expo
Two Grooms and so on
But none of these sites have what I’m looking for. So I have a proposal for you…
OI! COME BACK! NOT THAT KIND OF PROPOSAL! *puffs* Sheesh. I meant LET’S BUILD A WEDDING SOCIAL NETWORK. Together*stops running* I’ve got some ideas…
Ah yeah, and here’s a picture for Ben Barren:
If you read his blog (and look at the pictures), you’ll understand why. (I’m glad she’s got leg warmers on, wouldn’t want her to catch her death!).
If you are rhyming moon with June sometime soon in Australia, what would you like to be able to do online? Besides mortgaging the flat to pay for the whole damn thing…
EDIT: I forgot a blogroll of the most worthy, readable wedding blogs. Even if you are a marriage shy bloke on the way to the footy, you should take a few minutes this weekend to peruse to your romantic heart’s content. Or not. :p Actually, just go to Manolo Brides. She (Never teh Bride) has got the best blogroll in the world. Humorous and real blogs. Mixed in. Scrumptious.
Hi Laurel,
I am the owner of WeddingPath.com, a UK site which I like to think is a REAL social network for brides. I agree 100% that most other sites are comapny-centric rather than putting the bide first.
We start by giving our members free, and easy to create personal wedding websites, which they use to showcase their wedding plans. You can see examples of the content which our members create in our gallery here:
http://www.weddingpath.com/web/membersgallery/Page
These are real world sites from people whom we’ve never met (i.e. it’s just like facebook or myspace).
Although we do have a forum (http://www.weddingpath.com/WeddingTalk), it’s hand written just for people getting married (and allows folks to check out other people’s personal sites via links from their posts – providing the member is happy for others to publically view their sites).
Our vendor directory (http://www.weddingpath.com/vendors/London/page1/category27/group1/size10/list) allows members to vote for their fave wedding businesses, and our online magazine (http://news.weddingpath.com/) puts out regular wedding based news.
I hope you don’t think that all sites put themselves first – some of us are trying our best to do something different….now if we could only find a rich Australian backer, then we could do the same down under 🙂
Best wishes
Sujay Jayaram
MD – WeddingPath.com
Hi. I will go live with a wedding social network later in the month. Go to http://www.weddinic.com.