Wednesday, May 21, 2008

I heart Google and I am a winner!

I know I promised an escort card post, however that will have to wait for tomorrow. Two amazing things happened to me in the last 24 hours and they all have to do with Google.

I want to state that I have a crush on Google. It started a year and a half ago when I learned about igoogle. Igoogle is basically the Google search page that lets you customize your view almost making it a very personal homepage. I receive my "Today in History", "Art of the Day", and get to watch NASA TV. (What can I say? I'm a huge nerd!) In particular, my back drop is my google fox. Every time I log in, he is doing something different....washing dishes, eating, feeding the ducks, etc. It's wonderful and he brings me so much joy.

My Google obsession only continued from there and having a wedding to plan has really caused me to utilize their features. First, there is google documents. Mr. Scott and I have uploaded our guest list, budget, gift list, etc and have the documents shared so anytime one of us makes a change, it automatically updates the other persons. This saves us a lot of time emailing attachments back and forth. I also love Picassa which has allowed me to upload lots of photos of inspiration, mock ups and trials, as well as fun things Mr. Scott and I get to do. Obviously I love blogger since I am on it all the freaking time! But I have really found how awesome it is and how much I have loved using it compared to other blogging machines. Google Calendar is another lifesaver. Not only do I get to make multiple calendars for myself (work, personal, etc) but Mr. Scott and I have a shared calendar and I can share my calendar with my friends. This has saved me some time from saying to people "when are you free" because I can just look.

More recently I have created a google group for my bridesmaids. Mr. Scott and I may expand it to the whole wedding party. I am still a newbie with this feature but I like it already! Finally, I LOVE google reader. When you write a blog, you often get inspiration from other blogs. Google Reader allows me to type in web addresses and then will let me know when an update to that site happens. It is amazingly useful and has actually cut my blog reading time down because it doesn't show me what I have already read unless I want to. There are still some sites I visit on their actual page (Knot and weddingbee) for things like their boards and wikis because google reader will not work with that.

So....you ready for my good news? One of the sites that I read daily is With This Ring. I happened on their site the other day and they were having a contest for the Perfect Table Plan Software. Planning a wedding on a budget = I often enter myself into free giveaways hoping for a win. And what do you know? I WON! I am so incredibly excited to use this amazing new program. I truly cannot wait to get it. YAY!

And second good news (and the real final google gadget I love)? Mr. Scott introduced me to google analytics. It has helped me stay motivated to keep posting because I can track if people read my blog and the average time people stay on it. While looking at my most recent report yesterday I stumbled upon another wedding blog. "ANOTHER?" you say? Yes. This one is different though because I am listed as a link in her blog. AKA someone actually reads my posts! I was so excited I spent nearly an hour stalking her and her blog. I discovered her GORGEOUS invitations and that she is planning a wedding in LA (like me!) for around 300 people (a little more than me). Her bridesmaids gift also inspired me, but for my ladies...don't get any ideas and start stalking her and ruin any potential surprise I may have. I got so excited thinking about the fact that maybe just maybe someone else is getting use out of this blog. Anyway, if anyone else is reading this blog, definitely check her out at Orange and Pink!

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