I’m getting married! Now what? Truly Engaged is a new blog series written by Rachel, our *newly engaged* staff writer. As she wades her way through the wedding planning process, she’ll be sharing some of the emotions, inspiration, and insight she uncovers along the way. With less than three months to go before the wedding (gulp!), I've been feverishly working on all sorts of tasks--from invitations and bridesmaids dresses to ceremony readings and centerpieces. The more I tackle on the to-do list, the more I realize that planning a wedding is a truly a group effort. It takes the help and support of many people: my mother, my wedding party, my future in-laws, and most importantly--my wonderful and amazing partner, Tim. To keep everyone connected and involved throughout the wedding planning process, I've been taking advantage of some great online wedding planning tools. Now, there are a zillion tools out there for digital and social wedding planning. However, I've been using two main tools online to help collect, collaborate on, and share ideas with my wedding party. Pinterest: Shared Inspiration Boards 
Most brides are very aware of Pinterest by now. Pinterest calls itself a "virtual pinboard", but I like to call it my own social wedding binder. Not only can I find, collect, and organize wedding inspiration via pins and boards, I can also invite my wedding party to view, comment on, and contribute to my boards. For example, I created a Bridesmaids board with pins of dresses, shoes, and accessories. I invited my Maid of Honor to help contribute to this board, and my other bridesmaids can comment on pins, telling me what they think of various options. My mom is even on Pinterest! I invited her to help contribute to the Reception board. I love being able to share inspiration and ideas with my wedding party, and in turn collect their input on ideas. Note: I'm still working on getting my fiance on Pinterest... :)
Facebook Groups: A Private, Virtual Meeting Spot 
When it comes to Facebook groups, most of us think of brands and businesses. However, Facebook groups can also be set to private, so that no one else can see or have access to it--which is great for personal groups. I have a Facebook group for my bridesmaids, and so far it's been a great online tool for us. With our busy lives (and one bridesmaid living out-of-state), it gets hard to meet in person on a regular basis. With our Facebook group, we can post pictures, asks questions, or create a poll for everyone to vote on (ex. What color heels do you prefer to wear on the wedding day?). And since not everyone could make it to go wedding dress shopping with me at the various shops, I uploaded photos of me trying on dresses. It was great to get their feedback and keep them involved in that "classic" wedding experience. (And since it's private, my fiance can't see it--very important!)
Google Docs: Collaborative Task Management 
While not as visual or "pretty" as Facebook and Pinterest, Google Docs has been a great organization and planning tool for me. Google Docs is where I get down to business with the "Big Three" of wedding planning: budget, guest list, and to-do list. Since these three are very complex and constantly need to be updated, I've found that Google Docs is a great online tool for managing them. And since I can share Google Docs with my fiance and mother, we can all edit and contribute to the documents (even at the same time!). For example, if a friend recently moved and the address needs to be updated on the guest list, no problem: I can go in and change it. If my mom thinks of another to-do task to add to the list, she can add it herself. We can move things up or down on the list, depending on how priorities change from week to week. And we can add photos to the documents for reference, reminders, etc. What about you? Do you have any social planning tools that you use to keep your wedding party connected in the planning process? I'd love to hear what works for you!
