It seems like there are a million and one blogs (actually, more than 95 million according to Google!) devoted to wedding advice and planning, many of which are written by wedding professionals. When you need advice on how to handle a particular planning problem, wedding pros generally offer the most authoritative suggestions, based on years of experience in the business and their own thorough knowledge of what works and what doesn’t.

Sometimes, though, you don’t turn to the Web for professional advice; rather, you just want to see how other “real” couples tackle the logistics and emotions of planning and celebrating their weddings. In the midst of planning your own big day, a blogger who manages to both inspire, educate, and amuse you can be a real blessing.

On that note, here are some of our favorite “non-pro” wedding and bridal blogs that we follow. Check them out, and then make sure to add them to your bookmarks!

Wedding Wire recently started the group blog Bridal Buds, with posts written by 24 brides-to-be. Its clean layout makes navigation easy, and these ladies’ succinct posts highlight their experiences navigating all the choices a wedding entails. Our favorite recent entry? Snapdragon Bud’s post titled  Not That Kind of STD — those pesky acronyms sure can be confusing!
We’ve discussed the Offbeat Bride before, but she bears mentioning again for her great advice on unconventional nuptials, not to mention the great “wedding porn” section of her blog, which is ripe with great photos, ideas, and inspiration for making your event unique. One of the featured weddings that we especially love marries (ha!) the couple’s Irish Catholic and Jewish faith traditions.
We always look forward to the Broke-Ass Bride’s updates on Twitter, but her fantastic blog offers a more in-depth look at her quest to plan her Los Angeles wedding on a minimal budget without losing her sense of humor. We hadn’t heard of the wedding tradition she discusses in her post In Case of Emergency, but think it’s a beautiful idea that represents B.A.B.’s variety of out-of-the-box thinking.
Although the Parenthetical Bride, or (bride.), is now a (wife.), her skilled writing and clear vision of what she wanted from her wedding make her blog a must-read. In To Open or Not to Open, she tackles the ettiquette of opening gifts before the bridal shower (or, as she puts it, “gift arrival purgatory”) with the mix of rationality and confusion that most brides face at some point.
Cats, Cheese, and a Wedding Please offers readers much more than just a catchy name. Her down-to-earth style and honesty are refreshing for anyone who is feeling the crush of pre-wedding stress. If we have to choose one post to highlight, it’s got to be Friday: Attack of the Panics, because, really, every bride needs to be prepared for Murphy’s Law!
And finally, The Mad Gay Wedding is a great blog that highlights the joys and challenges of planning a same-sex wedding… at Disney World, no less! Sometimes… is a true gem of  a blog post that should serve as a reminder for anyone planning a wedding, gay or straight.