Any bride or groom knows that planning a wedding can be tough. I personally am still 10 months out, and it’s been a lot of work already! However, there are lots of free tools out there that have helped (and will continue to help) me…and they could help you too!

Here are my favorite six…

1. Twitter

In my first {PRettySocialBride} post, I detailed how I used Twitter to crowdsource my vendors. Twitter is an awesome tool for this! There are tons of past brides and grooms, along with wedding planners and the like on Twitter, and I’ve found that they’re all more than willing to help. Crowdsourcing isn’t a replacement for research, but it is a really great place to start…and to find recommendations. Think word-of-mouth only your friend-base reaches much further.

2. Facebook

Michael and my wedding party spans the globe – from Tennessee, to New Jersey, to Florida, all the way to Costa Rica and Iraq – so you would think it would be a bit challenging to keep in touch with everyone. However, we’ve found great success with Facebook for this one so far. Even when planning my dress shopping weekend, the easiest way to coordinate all the girls has been via Facebook messaging. I assuming this one will continue to be helpful as time passes. It’s simple and ultra-helpful. I’d be lost without Facebook!

3. The Knot

The Knot has quickly become my favorite website to browse when I have downtime. With tons of photos and articles, it’s an awesome place to get ideas from everything to hair – to escort cards – to dresses – to colors…and much more. I’m pretty sure its photo galleries are ENDLESS! And these are all real wedding photos, many with descriptions on how you can replicate their style. The Knot also has other helpful tools like checklists, budgeting tools, guest list tracking and more.

4. Adobe’s Kuler

I’ve been SO indecisive when it comes to our wedding colors. Our original color scheme was hot pink and black, but the venue has dictated otherwise. Knoxville’s L&N Station is a gorgeous restored building with stained glass windows, eggshell blue walls, lots of gold trim and a maroon and yellow tiled floor…so I guess you can picture what pink and black might look like in there. Kuler is nice because I was able to import a photo of the stained glass and pull colors from it. It’s also helpful with figuring out which colors compliment each other. So what are our colors now? I’m thinking some shades of light blue, dark purple and pink.

5. WeddingBee

I actually stumbled upon WeddingBee a few times while I was searching random questions in Google. It’s a great place to check out the forums and the classifieds, as there are lots of other brides there to answer questions for each other and to sell some of their old reception decor. From what I’ve seen, there are some pretty good deals on there too! And what are you planning to do with all those glass cylinders and random decoration items when your wedding day is over? I’m listing mine on WeddingBee!

6. Remember the Milk

Remember the Milk is more than just wedding – it’s all things to-do lists! I recently went on a hunt for a good web-based to-do list too that would also sync with my Android phone — and RTM is the one I ended up with. The reason it’s on this list is because you can make tabs for each list. I have one for work, personal, and a separate one for my wedding deadlines! It’s a perfect free tool to track everything I need to do.

So there you have it — my six favorite free tools (so far). What tools did you find helpful when planning your wedding?