It's real. You're getting married! Once you've stopped jumping up and down, calling everyone you know, remember to carve out some time to create your wedding website—a handy tool that will share your love story and provide your guests with all the details about your big day.
An intimidating task for some couples, but it doesn't have to be.
A wedding website will bring your guests together in one virtual place, informing them of all the essential wedding details such as RSVPs, event times and location, gift registry, dress code, directions, accommodations, and last-minute updates. Plus, it's a great way to share fun photos and stories of how you met and more.
Thanks to the digital age, wedding websites are taking center stage. Today, nearly three out of four couples create wedding websites to share information with their guests (up 15 percent in the last three years) while more than half are organizing a wedding hashtag for social sharing (up nearly 10 percent since 2015), according to WeddingWire's 2019 Newlywed Report.
The wedding website takes your upcoming nuptials to an entirely new level, making it the event of the year.
Wedding planners Tejal Kamat and Sunita Sadhnanni of Hicksville-based Glamorous Event Planners and Productions, Inc., explain that 60 percent of their clients already have a wedding website in place.
"It's a fun project between the bride and groom and rehashes all the memories of how they met. It's also a great way to introduce the bridal party, the siblings, the parents," says Kamat. "We produce many South Asian weddings, and it is not just a wedding and a reception, there are usually four to five events leading up to the wedding. Henna night is one of the popular pre-wedding events. The website is also a great reminder telling the guests where the different events are taking place and the time."
So, without further ado, let's get started building your wedding website and get your guests just excited as you about this epic day.
There are many wedding resource sites to help you get started. Appy Couple, WeddingWoo, WeddingWire, Zola, and the Knot allow couples to create personalized web pages for free. Choose a template design that is easy to use. Many of these sites offer all the features the couple needs to inform their guests, including an RSVP widget to Google Maps, For those looking to create an all-in-one website building and hosting platform, Squarespace, Wix, and Wordpress.com offer more design choices. However, they typically charge a small monthly fee.
An invitation can only include so much information, and with infinite space online, your wedding website is a great way to add personal information about the two of you. Get your guest in on the excitement by sharing engagement photographs, a favorite snapshot, the story of how you met, your interests and hobbies, and even some fun facts about each other. Set up an online guestbook so everyone can participate in your wedding journey and even post song requests."The site is a great platform for everyone to stay connected," says Kamat. Express your style - modern? chic? vintage? classic? - color palette, design and preferred font. You can even personalize the URL through WeddingWire's Wedding Website Tool or create a custom domain.
The number of pages is up to you. A save-the-date page where you welcome your guests to your website is a great start. And, you can get as creative as you like. Kamat had a client that created a save-the-date video that they incorporated into their website. They texted and emailed their guests to visit their site that added to the excitement. Guests don't need to worry about mailing back an RSVP when you go paperless. The invitation is up on the site making it a more efficient way to track attendees (plus it is a great way to save on postage). Branding is a big part of the site. Think logo and hashtag. Kamat had a bride that was Hindu, and the groom was Jewish. The bride came up with a clever hashtag: #hinjew2019 that created a buzz. "Hashtags are the biggest things that couples are using right now. It is all part of the branding," adds Kamat. "I tell my clients to limit their hashtags to three; otherwise, it will be difficult for their guests to remember."
Set up privacy barriers to ensure that your website is only available for your guests. One way to do this is to disable search engines from finding your website. This way the link will not show up on Google or other search engines. Protecting the site with a password that you can share with other invitees is another way to keep your website secure.
Keep guests in-the-know from sharing the wedding day forecast to updating guests on travel information. Using a wedding website builder is recommended so you can add as much information as you like on your site. A page for Frequently Asked Questions is a good way to take some of the guesswork out for those who have last-minute questions. Since many of Kamat's clients have out-of-town guests, she likes to add a page entitled: "Things to do on Long Island" that family members can do during their stay.
Share photos and videos from the wedding (and the honeymoon) directly on your website. A great way to stay connected and share with loved ones who couldn't make it. Using a social stream app and a hashtag will help collect all relevant posts and will capture those special moments to share. It is also an excellent way to thank your guests.