You know that apocalypse thing we're always being told might be just around the corner? Well, do you feel the chilling breeze? Do you feel the troubled twittering in the trees?
For here is a tale that I know you will discuss with your loved ones, perhaps with other people's loved ones, even with your psychological professional, the minute you hear it.
It appears a man called Dana Hanna is standing at the altar on November 21. He utters those most solemn vows about how he will love and obey or whatever it is that married people claim to do these days.
The officiant pronounces that Dana and his lovely bride, Tracy, are now married. Does Dana weep? Does he kiss his bride?
Ah, no. For Dana's Twitter moniker is TheSoftwareJedi and his first loyalty is to his digital followers. So, much to his wife's surprise, he whips out his cell phone and updates his statuses on both Twitter and Facebook. Right there at the altar. He also hands his wife's cell phone over to her.
Now that he has uploaded the evidence (which we're assuming isn't staged), Dana insists that this was all done for fun.
Indeed, he explained on YouTube: "I have a lot of family scattered around the country and we all use Facebook a lot to keep in touch. So when Tracy and I were engaged, most of my family found out via Facebook because we updated our statuses."
If you're wondering what it is he tweeted from the altar, here it is: "Standing at the altar with @TracyPage where just a second ago, she became my wife! Gotta go, time to kiss my bride. #weddingday"
However, another tweet sent on Monday night by Hanna, who is chief architect of NextDayPets.com and president of Torian Technologies, might perhaps offer an even greater insight into his complex and socially networked psyche: "Just changed over the laundry for @TracyPage and was thrown off by the fact a bra was in there. Not used to living with a woman again."
Oh, Tracy, are you sure about this? I only ask because I just tried to access the Tracy Page Twitter feed and received the message "this page doesn't exist."
As someone who just celebrated his first wedding anniversary, I know what it takes to plan a wedding. Everything from the venue to flowers must be accounted for. It's no easy task.
Realizing that, I thought I'd use this space to make it a little easier for those planning a wedding. We have included some well-known resources as well as some sites you might not have heard about before but that could help you save some cash--or stress.
Before we get started, I should note that there are a ton of wedding resources on the Web. This isn't an exhaustive collection of resources, but it is a collection of some of the best.
Get your wedding going
Flowers
1-800-Flowers: 1-800-Flowers is best known for providing users with delivered floral arrangements, but the site is also a fine resource for those who want to get flowers for their wedding.
1-800-Flowers' wedding page lists several flower arrangements, ranging from centerpieces to bouquets for the bride. It even offers boutonnieres for the men in the bridal party. Although flower pricing varies in different areas around the U.S., I do know that 1-800-Flowers' pricing is far better than those in my area. Even better, the flowers are available on the same day the order is placed.
1-800-Flowers has several flower choices.
(Credit: Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)Grower's Box: Grower's Box is an online wholesale flower retailer that provides a slew of wedding packages. It's a fine resource for anyone looking to find flowers for their wedding.
When you first get to Grower's Box, you'll see several listings available to help you find the flowers you might be looking for. When you click the Wedding option, you'll see a listing of several "Weddings in a box." Those items include the ability to buy everything from bunches of roses, lilies, sunflowers, or just about any other kind of flower the bride might prefer. Even better, they're priced well, since you're only paying the wholesale price. In many cases the Grower's Box beats local floral shops by a wide margin, according to one bride-to-be I know who checked pricing in my area. Grower's Box has a slew of packages to choose from. The site even has a wedding guide if you want some ideas. If you're looking to compare flower pricing, Grower's Box is a great place to start.
Grower's Box has several "Weddings in a Box" options.
(Credit: Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)
WeddingBook, which allows engaged couples to search through the site's free directory to find local wedding vendors--ranging from reception locations to photographers to entertainers--launched in public beta Wednesday. According to the company, it will list each vendor for free on its site and the business owner can claim their listing and input specific details of their service, as well as upload photos and outline pricing information. Each listing also includes reviews, so the bride and groom can tell engaged couples what they thought of the company.
In what may add some drama to this announcement, popular wedding source The Knot announced last month that it acquired WedSnap, which was the developer of an online wedding planning app known as Weddingbook. Weddingbook is the most popular wedding Facebook application and is still in operation. WeddingBook, the online directory that launched in public beta Wednesday, claims to hold the trademark to its name.
Synchronica, a company that develops mobile e-mail and synchronization tools, announced Wednesday that its new Mobile Gateway 4.0 service will push social networking and news updates to any mobile phone. According to the company, Mobile Gateway 4.0 will support Twitter, Flickr, Picasa, LinkedIn, and Plaxo, as well as "thousands" of news, financial, and sporting feeds. All updates will be pushed to the user's mobile phone whenever new content is made available.
Phreesia, a company that provides an online patient-intake service, announced that it has closed a round of funding worth $11.6 million. According to the company, BlueCross BlueShield Venture Partners led the funding round. As part of the investment, Paul Brown, Managing Director of BlueCross BlueShield Ventures, will join the Phreesia board of directors. The company plans to use its funding to improve its patient check-in technology.
Online broker dealer TradeKing, launched an education platform Wednesday that offers any of its clients access to its Online Learning Center. The company says it wants to "equip clients at every level" with the information they need to succeed in the financial markets. The company's new Learning Center features basic information in its Rookie's Corner for beginner traders and a series of lessons on topics ranging from option trading to taxes. The Learning Center is free and available now.
Weddingbook is the highest-ranking wedding-planning application on social network Facebook, which recently awarded developer WedSnap $25,000.
(Credit: WedSnap)The Knot on Monday announced that it has acquired WedSnap, the developer of the popular online wedding-planning application Weddingbook.
With the merger, The Knot is marrying its site with the highest-ranking wedding application on Facebook, which last year awarded WedSnap $25,000 in seed money as part of its FBFund competition.
While The Knot remained mum on the purchase price, it touted the features Weddingbook will bring to its site.
The Weddingbook application features community boards on which users share wedding advice, a tool to create a wedding profile box to post updates to the upcoming nuptials, and direct links to the couple's gift registries.
"With this acquisition, The Knot community broadens by branching into the fastest-growing social network of brides on Facebook, while Weddingbook members will have access to our extensive repertoire of tools, content, and vendor directories," David Liu, The Knot's CEO, said in a statement.
My favorite app concept from the Facebook F8 Developers' Conference was Connected Weddings. Based on the fact that planning a wedding is a social affair (duh), it lets you connect with two different groups: the people coming to your event, and other people who are getting married. With the former, you can share stories and photos. With the latter, you can talk about your plans and get advice. But that's not the cool thing.
What I really like is that Connected Weddings will create seating charts for your wedding reception, based on the Facebook connections between your invitees. You can overrule the placements, but this concept is just cool. As anyone who's planned their own wedding knows, figuring out who to seat where is a difficult topology problem, and it's great to see the "social graph" applied to this real-world exam test.
The app's not out yet, unfortunately.
Somewhat related: Those trying to get to the wedding can use the Carpool app.
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