Creating your own wedding website only takes a little bit of time and a good platform. It’s inexpensive, and is particularly great for communicating evolving information to your guests.
At the time of writing this, we’re in the midst of the 2020 Covid-19 global pandemic, so this is especially useful for your 2020-21 wedding. However, wedding websites have been a thing for a long time now, and will continue to be a great way for you to give your guests one central hub of information they can access at any time leading up to your big day.
So let’s dive in!
Wedding Website Platforms
Squarespace
This is one of the most on-trend and professional-looking platforms. The templates you have to choose from are customisable, and they don’t have that “weddingy” look, they just look like cool websites. We love their image-focused look with clean designs.
Squarespace allows you to share photos, information, create pages of information and even your wedding registry, including a cash registry.
With Joy
Making the planning side super easy, With Joy allows you to keep absolutely everything for your wedding in one place. You can make your guest list, issue a Save the Date, and collect RSVPs, keeping an up-to-date accurate count of those attending. There is even a mobile app!
There are hundreds of designs to choose from. Here’s an example site to get some ideas.
Appy Couple
Appy Couple has ALL the bells and whistles, offering features you may not have even considered needing, like being able to keep track of plus ones and allowing guests and those unable to make it to offer a virtual toast. It’s very user-friendly with drag and drop widgets, and allows you to group guest lists to family or work friends, for example, and allows multiple admins and multiple privacy settings, so you can set certain information to only be accessed by specific people.
What to Include on Your Site
Essential information
Anything you would put on a paper invitation – date, time, ceremony location, reception venue address, dress code.
RSVP information
How and when you need your guests to RSVP.
Travel or location information
Details on how to get to the venue or ceremony location. Any tips about places to stay, eat, or explore would also be greatly appreciated by your guests who need to travel to get there.
Extra event information
If you’re having a rehearsal dinner, DIY bump in session, next day recovery session, or any other event surrounding your wedding, be sure to include these details, too.
Sweet Extras You Can Include
Your love story
It’s a nice touch to dedicate a whole page to sharing your love story – how and where you met, and why you fell in love. You could also include your proposal story, and any other milestones you have reached as a couple, like buying a house, travel you’ve experienced together, getting a fur baby, or having a human baby. This can really help your guests feel excited to be celebrating your love with you, and catch up on anything they may have missed.
You can illustrate your story with happy snaps from your life.
Engagement photos
If you’ve had an engagement photo shoot, your guests would love to see these! Be sure to upload a few to set the mood.
Introduce the bridal party and those with special roles
Allow everyone to get to know your chosen bridal party and anyone else significant to your day (eg. performer or MC) before the day by including their name, photo, role and perhaps a line or two about why you chose them for their specific role.
Other information that might be useful to include
Menu information
People like to know if they are going to be treated to a sit-down dinner, or if there will be delicious canapés coming around while they mingle. It’s great to set up expectations and share special details, like the dish you’re personally most excited to try, or how it’s being prepared by a chef whose food you really love.
This is also where you could let your guests know how to communicate their own dietary requirements should they have any.
How to gift you
Whether you have a gift registry, wishing well, or other kind of wishes pertaining to how your guests should plan to gift you, this is a great place to share it.
Traditions or customs you have planned
Particularly if you have guests coming to your wedding, who are not part of your culture – or if you have families of different cultures blending – it might be nice to let them know what to expect. When glasses and plates start smashing, it might be nice to have had a heads up prior for those to whom it would be unexpected!
FAQs
This actually makes it really easy to address those queries that many of your guests may have, like whether or not they can bring a date or their kids. If you have one central place where they can learn exactly what is acceptable or not, you have covered your bases and it may prevent potentially awkward conversations.
Keep Using the Site After the Wedding
Share wedding photos & videos
You and your guests can share wedding photos and videos all in one centralised place. You can also share your online wedding photo gallery from your professional photographer. Many photographers give the option of online ordering for any of your guests, so your Gran and Aunties can all order their canvases for their walls themselves.
Most photo booths also have an online gallery component you can send to everyone – these are great for a giggle after the day, and they’re moments that may otherwise go unseen by many.
Thank your guests
It’s always nice to send out personalised thank yous to all your guests and those who had roles in your wedding. The beauty of a website, however, is that you can issue a nice thank you immediately to everyone who was there to make your day so memorable.
