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Webbed ... err, Wedded ... bliss Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell Here comes the Web site: Megan Orlik and Christopher Bires are beginning a new wedding tradition, by putting all the information about their July 8 wedding on-line � from invitations to lodging details to which stores they�ve registered with electronically. Engaged couple�s online preparations are a site to see By Dani Dodge Something old, something fine, something borrowed, something on-line. Christopher Bires and Megan Orlik are beginning a new wedding tradition. You see, Orlik thought it would be crass to mention where she�s registered for gifts in her wedding invitations. Fortunately she�s marrying a technologically gifted man. He simply set up a wedding Web site. Not only does have links to the stores where the couple is registered (Target and JC Penney, which have on-line wedding registries), it also gives Web surfers directions to the wedding, links to lists of local hotels, and personal insights like "ACK, � ONLY FIVE WEEKS LEFT!!!!!!!" "I wanted it to be reasonably fun, but I wanted it to be information for my aunts in Fremont (Calif.)," Bires said. "They need hotels and want to go on the jet boats � and you can reserve all those things on-line." So when the wedding invitations went out, the couple�s Web site was at the bottom: www.geocities.com/biresc Clint Cerro, the manager of Tuxedo Den where the couple ordered their invitations, said it�s the first time he�s ever seen a Web site on a wedding invitation "but it seems like a neat idea and I see it as being a possible trend." Bires� mom, on the other hand, was slightly bewildered by her son�s non-traditional take on invitations. "Well, I�m old-fashioned and when he put his Web site on his invitation, I said �Oh golly.� " Ellie Bires admitted. "I was just surprised to hear about it ... but I guess it�s the way things are going nowadays." Actually, the couple are surfing the wave of the future, proclaimed Jim Teece, president and CEO of Project A. "It will get to the point where people do this automatically," Teece predicted. "The more people can share � that�s cool. It doesn�t always have to be boring business applications on-line." The wedding Web site doesn�t diminish the romance, Bires, 24, and Orlik, 23, insist. It�s only a combination of old-fashioned courting and newfangled technology. Bires and Orlik have known each other since junior high. At South Medford High School, they ran with the same crowd and were involved in the same church youth group. They were friends, but never dated. Bires went off to school, first to Seattle Pacific University, then Oregon State University. Orlik wandered off to Western Oregon State University. Both returned to the Rogue Valley in the last two years: Orlik to take a job as assistant manager at Medford�s Hollywood Video, and Bires to get his teaching certificate and graduate degree from Southern Oregon University. Because of their strange hours, the two found themselves uncrowded by their usual circle of friends. The one-on-one time proved as powerful as an 1-gigahertz Pentium III processor. "We found ourselves going out to dinner and talking for four hours afterwards," Orlik said. "We realized that �hey this is better than just friends.� " But with Bires� proposal in January (As they watched a video, he simply stated, "Megan, I�m going to marry you...") came the wedding details: flowers to order, tuxes to rent, invitations to send. "We were trying to think of a way to let people know where we are registered � Penney�s gave us stickers to put on the invitations, and that didn�t seem too classy," Orlik said. "But I came up with the Web page, and I knew he could set one up." Bires, who has a chemistry degree, worked his way through school troubleshooting computer problems. Even back in high school his friends� parents used to call him with their Web woes. Now, their intrepid wedding guests will find all the information they�ll need to get to the July 8 nuptials, and more. There are links to the Chamber of Medford/Jackson County, as well as the Southern Oregon Vacation site. Guests can download the invitation, if they�ve lost theirs. And of course, there�s links to shopping opportunities. "It�s a sign of the times," Orlik said. " It�s the easiest way to get information to people and it just makes sense." Bires planned the couple�s Tahoe honeymoon exclusively on the Web, and someday the couple will be showing off the fruits of their union there also. "We�ll definitely have baby pictures on-line," Orlik said giggling. "But not for awhile." 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