new to weddings...

So, I am a guy, but no other board seemed to cater to the type of request I have.

I dont have much of a family so I cant ask anyone pretty much, and dont want to ask my friends because, well.... but I am clueless as to how to go about this wedding process, even from the beginning.

I am not sure what the difference between an engagement ring is, or a wedding ring, or if there are any other rings involved.

When you ask the girl to marry you, what should be involved? In movies they have rings - what type of ring should it be? I really need a walk through to getting married. I can worry about the subtleties later - I have major problems with general issues now.

But aside from the above questions, here are a few I have:

-What is the typical cost of a wedding?
-Who do you invite?
-How is a wedding organized (bare bones) I mean, what are brides maids and how many are there, do I need them, etc? And are there male equivalents?
-what is the ringbearer supposed to do? do people still use those? what ring is he supposed to have?

I've never been to a wedding before, and have NO idea how these are done, what goes into proposing, or anything of that sort. If anyone could walk me through the process, that would be [b]great[/b]. I love my girlfriend with all my heart and I want to do this as appropriately as possible.