How to Create Your Own Wedding Website
Got engaged? Now, how will you let your guests know that wedding rites will be held in Santuario de San Antonio and the reception follows at Kaisa Heritage Center? Of course, the details are in the wedding invitation complete with a map. Indeed, but there is a much clever way to present details to your would-be guests. A wedding website!
Why set up a wedding website?
Wedding websites can serve to-be-wed couples various purposes. First, it is the most convenient way to reach family members, relatives, and friends in distant places and letting them share in the excitement with you. Second, it can be the go-to place to see all the wedding details from the engagement story to the members of the bridal party to registry links to the menu, so phone calls won’t be that necessary. Third, it includes features that can make wedding planning easier such as checklists, countdowns, group email capabilities, RSVP tracking, registry links, and multi-media uploads. Fourth, it is a paper-less, eco-friendly solution that contributes to a guilt-free wedding planning.
Do we need a wedding website?
It depends. For small scale weddings with guests living near any of the couple’s residence and they are not really big on computers and is only a month away, then you can do without. However, for out-of-town weddings with guests hailing from different parts of the world and is at least four to six months away, then a wedding website will be a big help.
How do we get started?
It is always a wise idea to set up the website early in the process, perhaps before you distribute the save-the-date cards. Logically, you should put the website details in the cards, saying that your guests may visit the site for further details. The earlier you set up the site, the more it will be beneficial to you both. You can always point the people asking for details onto the website. Communicate all the vital details surrounding the wedding plans. Specifically, include information about weather, accommodation, attire, or anything that your guests will find useful.
How do we create a website?
Online is a plethora of services that can help any couple regardless of how less tech-savvy they are. Some of the Internet services that provide free wedding websites are TheKnot.com, MyWedding.com, Ewedding.com and MomentVille.com. These services offer hundreds of wedding website designs based with choices of themes (vintage, eco-friendly, beach, etc.) and customizable templates, backgrounds, and color schemes. You can personalize the website to suit your chosen wedding theme and motif. Some services allow couples to obtain their own domain names. Ultimately, there are also services that allows multi-screen testing or wherein your guests can view the website on their laptops, tablets and/or smartphones. Security will not be an issue because the services enables password-protecting the website, so only the family, relatives and friends can access the site. You can experiment until you find the perfect website for your wedding.
What should we include in the site?
All the relevant details! After figuring out how the site will be built, the next logical step is to determine what to put on it. Absolutely, it should include all the basic information such as your names, a picture of you together, the wedding date and church and reception locations and a brief greeting to the visitors of your website. Then, you can post other details including the bridal party with a photo of each member, the order of ceremony, the reception program, the directions–modes of transportation and fare (if necessary)–the suggested attire, the menus, the available accommodations, and the nearby attractions or restaurants. Optionally, you can include fun activities like polls and quizzes and contests.
How can we make it more personalized?
While any wedding website is personalized enough, you can make it more personal by going beyond the basics. Why don’t you share your love story? How you and your fiancée met? You can tell the story through a photo collage. Try recounting the proposal as well or how about uploading the proposal video? You may also create a galleries page where you can upload casual snapshots of the two of you vacationing together or doing your favorite sports.
Should we add a wedding registry page?
Gifts can be duplicated, and this is the main reason for having a registry or registries. Feel free to include a registry and gift ideas page. However, etiquette dictates that it must not be the very first thing that the visitor should see. Only the most interested visitors will click the page link as if asking ‘What do you want for a wedding gift?’
What else should we remember?
A lot! Here’s what…
1) Don’t get too link happy.
Sure, updates are welcome. However, make sure that you are announcing a change such as a sudden change in wedding location, hotel rooms, etc. These are the essentials, so you really need to announce these. Don’t bother sending a link about your fight with your mother about your choice of wedding gown, your complaints about the wedding gown designer, your objections with your future parents-in-laws wish, etc. Your guests need not know about this, and you need not publish these either.
2) Don’t get too upload-happy.
Pre-wedding events are inevitable. For example, not everyone will be invited to the engagement party. Some might get angry or offended by uploading pictures wherein they weren’t invited. With this, be mindful of the e-announcements. Leave these invite-only events off your wedding website, so no one will get hurt emotionally.
3) Don’t get too mushy.
Save the romantic blah blahs as your wedding vows. You need not publicly praise one another on the website. Everyone knows that you are getting married because you love one another. Not everyone will appreciate the e-public display of affection. Instead, write about how both of you are grateful to have the best parents in the world as well as the best bridal party especially the bridesmaids who make things easier for the both of you. They’d surely appreciate the gesture.
No matter which design you choose, the wedding website must be regarded as a fundamental tool in the wedding planning process. It cannot only save you a lot of time and energy, but also lots of money! Not that we are asking you to scrimp. But hey, if you can scrimp on other things and devote the extra money to other more important things like the wedding gown, why not, right?
Image credit: TheKnot.com
