Online wedding planner engages both brides and grooms, covers details beyond the special day

A new Grand Rapids web site proposes to take the worry out of planning one of the biggest, most stressful events in a couple's life – their wedding.

In just a few clicks, GRBrides.com provides brides, grooms and parents with detailed checklists outlining what to do before, on and after The Big Day. And it's all free.

The site is the creation of Denise Kolesar, owner of Grand Rapids-based Kohler Expos which produces three bridal shows a year at DeVos Place. Kolesar has been in the wedding industry more than 25 years, 13 of them with Kohler.

"Couples deserve a worry-free wedding and with proper planning they can have just that," Kolesar says. "[Brides and grooms] can go to GRBrides.com and get their to-do lists, and then the brides and their mothers can come to our bridal shows and get all the planning done in one place."

The checklists include detailed to-dos for the wedding day – the wedding announcement, music for the wedding and reception, photography, flowers, a groom's To Do list – and a surprising collection of information brides and grooms need to know:  expenses to include in a wedding budget, who pays for what, what to know about buying a first house and the legal requirements for getting hitched.

"There's a fun hot button for wedding flowers that tells what each flower means," Kolesar says.

Visitors to the site can link to information on Kohler Expos' West Michigan bridal shows, which, Kolesar says, feature between 75 and 125 wedding vendors each.

"At our bridal shows brides are saying how hard it is to find basic, simple guidelines for planning their weddings," Kolesar says. "Our site is meant to provide information in a very simple format and to keep you up-to-date on the bridal shows."

Source: Denise Kolesar, GRBrides.com; Mary Ann Sabo, Sabo Public Relations

Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected].


Enjoy this story? Sign up for free solutions-based reporting in your inbox each week.