In a year-and-a-half I will marry my best friend of over six years (Rashad), and I am planning the majority of my wedding online.

By doing so I take advantage of new internet tools and “go green” at the same time - and I will share what I find with you.

Right now I am using The Knot (www.theknot.com) for the core of my planning. The site was founded in 1996 as a modern answer to the “white-gloved, outdated” etiquette experts favored by previous generations. And according to their website they are “the Internet’s most-trafficked one-stop wedding planning solution.”

And it’s not just boasting. The Knot really has many of the elements needed for planning.

• Articles on budgeting my wedding
• Tips on selecting dresses & accessories (my favorite part!)
• A “Knottie” profile that lets me track of all my guests and manage my communications with them.

The Knot even offers a budgeting tool. However, with the help of a quick Google search, I found one which I find much better.

Wedding Budget (www.weddingplanningonabudget.com) gives me an interactive spreadsheet through Google docs that I can use to plan and estimate costs. With it I can:

• See all my likely wedding needs
• Split my overall budget into percentages that let me meet my needs
• Let me see how my costs change when I play with those percentages
• Add in actual costs and see how that shifts everything

And since the spreadsheet is on Google docs, I can access it from any computer that can reach the internet while remaining secure in the knowledge that nobody else can get at it unless I let them.

So far I have not needed to use one piece of paper!

Mind you there is still a ways to go until the big day, so I’m definitely looking for more ways to keep it up. If you know of any online resources to help plan a wedding (or really any paperless tools for planning a big event), I’d love to hear about it!