When we heard about the Wedding Lens, a new wedding photo-sharing site, we have to admit we didn’t even know what a wedding photo-sharing site was. But we knew that a service that allows friends and family to share wedding photos sounded like something right up our alley. So we caught up with Chuck Templeton, one of the three masterminds behind the service, to find out a little more about it.

If you’ve considered leaving disposable cameras on reception tables for guests to take pictures of your wedding, the Wedding Lens is something you might want to know more about. The idea was hatched when one of Templeton’s business partners was getting married. He and his bride wanted guests to be able to share photos, but they could find only photo-sharing sites that allowed each guest to upload pictures to a different account and then send the links to the albums back and forth. “It made for a disjointed experience,” Templeton says. It was also hard for the bride and groom to upload high-resolution copies of the photos that guests had taken.

In 2007, the Wedding Lens was born. On Theweddinglens.com, a bride and groom sign up for a free account, customize their album with their wedding details, and upload the e-mail addresses of their guests. A week before the wedding, the Wedding Lens e-mails the guests, encouraging them to bring a digital camera to the wedding. The day after the wedding, the company e-mails the guests again to remind them to upload all the photos they took at the wedding. Brides rave about being able to see photos of their celebration from the guests’ perspective. Another bonus? Not having to wait six weeks to see shots from the professional photographer.

Want to know more? Chuck gave us the details on why this new service is worth a second look.

In an age of constant email, there’s nothing more thoughtful or personal than a handwritten note. So when we stumbled upon these adorable bridal notes and invitations, we couldn’t help but share them with you.

When Joanna Alberti sat curled up at night with her sketchpad after a long day at an ad agency in Boston, she didn’t know she’d end up creating a stationery company out of her doodles. “I’ve always kept a journal for funny stories and ideas,” says Alberti, named one of the top five entrepreneurs under 25 by BusinessWeek in 2005. “Realizing how much I loved to be creative and how much time I spent on doodling made me realize that this little idea was something more.”

In 2005, Alberti created philoSophie’s, a stationery and gift company whose main character, Sophie, is illustrated on cards and notes for many of life’s occasions—from holidays to birthdays to new babies. Her bridal line includes thank-you notes, invitations, congratulations cards, bachelorette-party invites, and more. Alberti has created recipe cards for a wedding shower, cards to ask a friend to be your maid of honor, and cards to ask your dad to walk you down the aisle.

More couples today are getting married later, and many find that their cabinets already are stocked with the traditional registry items. Blender? Check. Silverware? Check. Even a waterproof shower radio? Check. But how about a romantic sunset dinner in Hawaii or a snorkeling trip in Bermuda?

Traveler’s Joy is a honeymoon registry company designed to let guests give experiences instead of sheets. Couples create a registry page with activities they’d like to do on their trip. Their guests can visit the registry page and pay for part or all of an activity. Setting up an account is free, and couples can customize it with gift descriptions, pictures, and travel plans. A pair of newlyweds headed to St. Lucia for their honeymoon this month registered for a couples massage on the beach, a windsurfing trip, and a four-hour deep-sea fishing excursion.

The idea for the company was hatched when Brandon Warner met Tony Alexander on a hiking trip in New Zealand in 2003. The two travel enthusiasts started the Wilmington, Delaware-based company in 2004 and expect to have more than 10,000 couples register this year. We asked Brandon a little more about the idea behind a honeymoon registry and what some of the most unusual adventure-gifts are.

Personalized with a groomsman's initials, these cuff links make the perfect thank-you gift.

When I was searching for Christmas present ideas for my boyfriend this past winter, a coworker suggested a gift that he’d gotten from his own girlfriend for a past holiday: cuff links made from typewriter keys—one for each of his initials—from What’s Your Type? An unusual take on a staple in many men’s wardrobes, I thought, and it was a hit with my boyfriend. While I realize no one’s holiday shopping right now, here’s an idea for any grooms out there searching for a way to thank their groomsmen—or for any bride looking for a little way to say “I love you” to the groom-to-be.

Rachel Hannah started What’s Your Type? in 1995, armed with an artistic background and a passion for words. When she met her now-husband, Kerry Loeb, five years ago, he added a marketing background to the company they now run together. They buy old typewriters, then clean and refurbish the keys and turn them into jewelry—from cuff links to bracelets to necklaces. A groom from New York told Rachel and Kerry the cuff links he bought for his groomsmen were a hit: “They are great! Thank you so much for all of your help, and for making this process so painless for me. I wish every aspect of our wedding was this easy!”

When I was about eight years old, I posed for a caricature on the streets of a northern-Wisconsin theme park. The artist emphasized the way one of my eyes squints a little more than the other when I smile, and, wounded, I swore off caricatures forever. Or until yesterday, when a coworker walked into my office waving around a sketch of a bride, a groom, and nine guys with cartoon bodies and oversize heads. Her brother, Brad, had gotten it drawn to reprint and give as groomsmen’s gifts.

Last night, while chatting with a woman at the Sweet Charity sugar-and-chocolate fashion show, we hit the topic of bridal-shower gifts. “It’s impossible!” she exclaimed, telling the story of her most creative gift giving: having everyone buy a bottle of wine so the bride and groom could start their own cellar.

If you’re stumped about what to bring to your next shower, check out three other won’t-get-pushed-to-the-back-of-the-closet gifts.

Embroidered toasting flute ribbons—one of the many personalized wedding items made by Alexandria's Laura Swanstrom Reece.

The merchandise in Lillian Vernon catalogs always made me raise my eyebrows (a coffee scoop engraved with my initials? Really?), but it turns out old Lillian was ahead of her time: Lately, the personalization trend is lifting off. There are custom cocktails and cartoons of yourself and my latest find: a custom-embroidery business run by an Alexandria mom. Laura Swanstrom Reece started the Silken Thread after deciding that her “something blue” would be a monogram stitched into her wedding gown—and then having trouble finding a place to get it done. She thought: Why not start my own business? Since 2005, the Silken Thread has expanded to carry dozens of personalized wedding items (plus gifts for baby showers, pets, and more). I caught up with Laura to chat about her work and what we can expect next: