Creating Your Wedding

I am 100% Pro Wedding Website! I think it's a really cute idea, and I found it super fun to create! It's a great way to inform your guests about your wedding day activies, however, you have to be carful to not give away too much. The main objective for your wedding website is to give your guests all the necessary information about travel, accomidations, start time, and other important practical items!

How much is too much detail?

Okay, so the last thing you want to do is give away every aspect of your wedding. I know, you are excited, and can't wait to show everyone what your doing, but it really ruins the suprise when you give it all away. You can tell your guests a little about your venue, but don't show too many pictures!

Here is what you should include on your website.

The Venue Address - It is extremely important to remember the address! No one can get there if they don't know where they are going. And sometimes, just the name of the venu is not enough.

Directions - For example, my family is 99% from Maryland, so I made sure I put basic directions from the Baltimore area, and from the DC Area. My fiance's family is 99% from Pittsburgh, so I gave basic instructions from that area. And of course, most of my friend's live in the same town as I do, so I put more detail instructions on how they could get to the venue. Make sure you note that they should plug the address into their own GPS, so they can get more personalized directions.

Timeline - Make sure you also post a basic timeline of how the day is going to go. But at the very least, inclued the start time of the ceremony! (To be honest, I put that my ceremony would start a half hour earlier than I really planned, because I know about 80% of my guests are late people!)

A list of your Wedding Party & Thank yous to family - I think this is super important because these people are dedicating alot of time to be a part of your day, it's very simple and a small gesture to talk about how much you appreciate them through your website. I guess it reall it not required, but it does show a little respect for those who are helping you!

Your Story - This is your wedding. I would want to know a little about who you are as a couple. Especailly for this people who may have not met one of those from the couple! Talk about how you met, how you were proposed to, how long you've been together, how excited you are to marry the person of your dreams! Dig deep, get a little sappy - it's a wedding, it's ok to get mushy!

Pictures! - This one kinda goes with the last one. Again, some of your guests may not know your fiancé, pictures will help give a face to the name. Plus, it's so cute to see pictures of the happy couple!

Your Wedding Registry - There is this ever going debate on how to address your wedding registry. Some say you should only talk about it by word of mouth, others see no issue with sticking it on your wedding invitation. I see this as the best of both worls. If you include your wedding website on your invitation, your guests can naviagte through the pages and find your registry without you really having to mention anything about it. I'll have an article in more detail about how to approach this the classiest way possible.

Things to do - I honestly doubt that any of my guests will really be staying in town long enough to do any local activites, but it's always nice to let your guests now the cool things that are in your area! For example, my home town has a lot of cival war history, so I posted the address, fees, and hours of the museum. Or for the kids, I posted the local go-kart track! This really is not something you have to do, but it's a nice added touch, if you have the time.

Wedding Website Creators

So, now that we have that out of the way, where is the best place to create your wedding website? Not everyone wants to pay for their site's domain name, some are not that creative and just need a lot of guidence in creating. Below, I'll post some of the easiest & free Wedding Website Creators!

1. The Knot

The knot is not just great for wedding websites. It has an amazing monthly checklist, a budgeter, vendor lists for you area, a list of your personal vendors, ideas, guest list manager, and a store to buy wedding accessories! I use The Knot pretty much everyday. It's kinda the greatest thing for planning. Plus, the website creator is really easy, cute, and has a lot of great options! Let me know your experience!

2. Wedding Wire

I have only used this website a little bit, but it is The Knot's biggest competitor. It has alot of the same great resources that The Knot has. And the Wedding Website is very similar to it as well. Very easy site to manage and create.

3. Minted

Again, It's really all the same. I think minted has more of a modern look than the other websites, so it's really just a matter of personal appearance preferences. And although there is almost 200 differnt designs to choose from, they are all the same layout, just differnt color schemes. Still, very easy platform!

Looking to spend a little for a better layout?

Here are a few sites that cost a little bit of money, but you get alot in return!

Wedding Window

With this site, you can add alot of differnt features. It costs anout $15 a month for the basic package. You can also add a custom domain name for $19 a year. They have a mobile friendly platform, a ton of differnt layouts and colors, video capabilties, and more.

2. Riley & Grey

This is pretty much the top of line as far as wedding websites. They have really elegant and professional looking design options, but at $35 a month, this is not for a budget-consious Bride!

There are many more wedding websites out there, please, let me know what sites you like the best!

Need more help or information about how to go about a Wedding Website? Send me an email and I'll help the best I can!

Arli:)