It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man or woman of a certain age will have a family overseeing a profile on a matrimonial website with a beady eye and an iron fist.

It would be an incomplete story if it ended at ‘boy meets girl,’ though. We’re as sentimental about fragrant paper invites and old-school videography as the next person, but our favourite thing about weddings these days is often the wedding website, a virtual home for the couple, their friends and families to create an engagement-to-honeymoon resource of their big day (or days, in the best desi tradition). For distant loved ones, disorganised best friends, and couples looking to consolidate all the paraphernalia of the pheras, it’s just ridiculously easy, and pleasingly romantic in that slightly geeky, wholly 21st century way.

The great thing about the Internet is that whether you’re looking for recession-friendly shopping, offbeat ideas, or the weather forecast for your honeymoon destination, it exists to help. In the melting pot of the web community, resources, advice and a bit of saving laughter are as ubiquitous as they are in the markets and courtyards where couples traditionally prepare for their ceremonies, and life after.

MONEY FOR MAKE-BELIEVE
In the curious world of Second Life, the virtual world that allows people to role-play and interact with each other as avatars, virtual marriages are a serious deal. Paying in ‘lindens’ (conversion rate: about 288 to a real life $1), Second Life residents can create a splash with digital dream weddings if they’re willing to put it on their credit cards. A lavish 65,000-linden wedding in the game environment would set the participants back by about $2,257.

CONNUBIAL KITSCH
Weddings don’t always fail tragically: they do it comically, sometimes, and if you’re ever looking for a handbook on what not to do at an upcoming ceremony, tackyweddings.com provides a hilarious, borderline-discomfiting look at trainwreck wedding celebrations from all over the world: from disastrous photographs to robots modelling wedding dresses, you won’t know whether to laugh or cringe: but you will steer clear.

Hook, Online and Sinker: Our Favourite Bridal Bytes

The wedding registry: Through which engaged couples can choose and communicate gift preferences to wedding guests. Coy ‘presents in blessings only’ graciousness aside, we know the tradition is here to stay. (Local link: shaadionline.com does a nice one for desi couples.)

The Twitter proposal: Crazy? We think so. Unromantic? Back up a second. One of Twitter.com’s most memorable tweets of all time happened when Drew Olanoff, a lymphoma patient, asked his girlfriend to marry him – in 140 characters. She tweeted back a ‘yes,’ and the Twittersphere exploded with glee.

The Facebook status: Because announcing it on your blog may get you a polite trickle of congratulations, but changing your relationship status on Facebook is the way to get flooded with instant reactions.

The YouTube dance: Why don’t sangeet videos go viral? Just last month, Jill and Kevin from Minnesota, America, saw their groovy aisle procession (a choreographed dance to Chris Brown’s Forever) garner over a million hits on YouTube, as well as invitations to several high-profile news programmes like the Today show. Whether you want a side-order of celebrity to go with your day of all days or not, if you’re busting those Kawa Kawa moves, then you deserve a bit of fame.

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