You might be asking yourself if you need an entire website dedicated to your wedding and the answer is a very loud “YES!!!!”.  A wedding website is the perfect place to host (no pun intended) all the details of your wedding day.  It’s a dedicated spot and resource for your guests to view your wedding registry, hotel accommodations, transportation info and so much more.

 

In addition to your invitation and reply card, I recommend that couples include an enclosure card for their wedding day details.  On this card we can include any information that is important to your wedding day.  Maybe you have a specific code for hotel accommodations or valet instructions.  Perhaps your cocktail hour doesn’t begin immediately after the ceremony.  Or maybe you have so much information to reiterate to your guests that it would just be more simple to point them to your website in the first place.  This way, your guests aren’t overwhelmed with five insert cards explaining transportation, accommodations, dress code and weekend details.  They can easily check out your website and find all the information in a simple click.  Easy, peasy, lemon squeezy.

The majority of the couples I work with use a free website creator through The Knot’s website template.  They have many themes and color schemes to choose from, so it’s easy to select something that represents your wedding aesthetic!

Once you’ve chosen a platform and color scheme, it’s time to build the website!  This is the really fun part.  Set aside a few hours for this, but don’t stress — setting up your wedding website can definitely be done stress-free.  While it doesn’t have to be perfect right away, you do want to make sure that (1) the link works and (2) the information is correct and (3) everything is spelled correctly before giving the link to guests and ordering your stationery (hiii!  I can’t wait to work with you!).

 

 

So, what exactly should you include on your wedding website?

The Home Page: The Important Basics

Yup, all the important basic stuff!  Your names, wedding date, time and location of the ceremony and reception.  Bonus points for an engagement photo of the two of you.  Easy, right?

The Wedding Day Details

Aim to have a specific page just for the details.  This is where you can reiterate the information from your insert cards and include anything else that wasn’t listed.  This is an excellent place to inform guests of a suggested dress code or specify Adults Only if you’ve having a child-free wedding.  Other details can include reception information, if its a different location than the ceremony, parking instruction, accomodation information, shuttle information, etc.

The Travel Information

It’s likely that some guests will be traveling from out of town to attend your wedding.  Consider setting up a page for your out of town guests and recommend hotel accommodations and any group/discount codes for the hotel block.  This is a great place to list any directions, transportation information and airport information as well.

One idea I love to share with my brides is a “Things To Do” list for out of towners.  We made hotel bags for our out of town guests and shared fun things to do around Pittsburgh.  It was a huge hit with our friends and family, and I always share this tip with my brides.  Include restaurants, shopping and local attractions that would be fun for your out of town guests.

The Registry

It’s impolite to include registry information on your invitations or any of your accompanying enclosure cards.  Even though it’s expected for couples to create a registry, including that information with your formal invitations is considered a faux-paux.  Registry information can be spread via word of mouth or included on your wedding website.

Read more wedding invitation mistakes you didn’t know you were making here.

You can even directly link to the actual wedding registries on your website and make it super easy for guests to gift you!

The Love Story + Photos

Everyone has a great love story, and I have to admit, this is secretly my favorite part of wedding websites.  I’m a sucker for a great love story!  My favorite wedding websites have a His and Her (or his and his, and hers and hers!) version written, accompanied by photos, and lead up to the proposal story.  Some stories are simple, some are short and sweet, some are long and sappy, but they all make me so happy to read!

The Pretty Pictures

This is the perfect place to show off your pretty pictures!  Be sure to credit your photographer, but show off those engagement photos with some of your candid photos taken throughout your relationship.

The Wedding People

Don’t forget to add your wedding party to your wedding website!  Bonus points if you add photos for each member of your wedding party.  Consider listing your relationship to each person and even a fun fact about them.  Your guests likely don’t know each person so this is a really fun way to introduce them and get the party started!  After the fact, you can update these listings with a couple of photos of them from the wedding, perhaps rocking out to the wedding DJ or biting into a huge slice of your wedding cake!