That kind of geography is not untypical these days. Besides, most small towns do not have a local wedding planner, much less a bridal shop. I began to wonder if one could plan a wedding off the Internet. Actually, I found more wedding sites than I can outline in 600 words or less. Weddings are a major Internet industry.
Commerce is the watchword here.
Virtually every wedding site is selling directly or is a vehicle for the advertising of wedding vendors. It's sort of like a bridal show in cyberspace. You can't buy this stuff in most of our towns anyway and some young women I know who recently walked the wedding route tell me that some of the items are very favorably priced. I explored all five sites in well under an hour. I would estimate that I found over 500 merchants and more than a hundred articles.