A wedding website is a hub where you can store all of the important information about your wedding for your guests.  And because you can personalise a wedding website with imagery and other fun details about yourselves and your wedding, it’s a great way to build excitement about your big day whilst giving your guests easy access to all of the information they need to get to your wedding and have a good time. Some can even help you with the planning of your wedding by giving you a way to collect RSVP’s and share your gift registry.

If you’re not familiar with wedding websites you might be wondering how you go about setting one up and what information to include.  Further on in this article I’ll share with you some of my favourite Wedding Website builders (which are all super easy to use), but first let’s get clear on why you might choose to have a wedding website

The Purpose of a Wedding Website

A Wedding Website is simply a way to share information about your wedding. And you might be thinking – can’t I do this via my invitations?  And you can.  But guests like details and they often have questions that won’t be answered within your invite.

Here’s an example of what I’m referring to.

Aunty Cheryl calls your Mum to ask about the best place to park her car so she doesn’t have to walk too far to the Church where your ceremony will be held. And what about the Reception?  Is there on-site parking there?  Have you heard of Google Cheryl? Now you could include details about this with your Invitation but human nature means Aunty Cheryl might still ask this question of your Mum (there’s an Aunty Cheryl or two at every wedding!).  Now your Mum is not actually sure herself and she doesn’t want to give Cheryl the wrong answer so she calls you.  

And then there’s Tony. Tony remembers a map coming with the invitation to your country wedding located on a huge property that is a little tricky to get too, but for the life of him, he can’t find it.  No problem, he’ll just call you on the way so you can direct him.  Good one Tony!

A Wedding Website is a good way to share details about your wedding with guests – and in a way that makes it as easy as clicking on a link to find the answer to whatever question a guest might have.

Another Wedding Website Feature

A Wedding Website can be used to replace paper invitations and even if you don’t use it in that way, it can be used to collect RSVPs and information about your guests such as dietary requirements.  This is a huge time saver for you and makes collating the information you need to share with your Vendors (like me) so much easier than going through all of their RSVP cards, recording details and then sharing it with everyone.  As a Wedding Planner this is probably my favourite feature of a Wedding Website.  

Wedding Websites – Essential Information To Include:

Wedding Websites have come a long way and there’s a lot you can do to personalise them and make them work with the overall design of your day. But you don’t need to get too carried away either.  If you remember the purpose of the site is to answer questions before they get asked and create some excitement in the lead up to your big day – you’ll be on the right track with your website.  But to get you started here’s a handy list of what tends to work really well for our couples with their websites:

• Your names (obvious but I’ve seen this information left off a wedding website previously)
• Wedding date (ditto)
• Event Schedule (this is especially useful if your wedding is happening over a weekend)
• Dress Code and any other information that will help guests dress appropriately such as; bring a jacket or wrap – it gets chilly at night
• Travel information (transportation, venue parking, hotel/accommodations, maps, etc)
• Local info (things to do, see, eat, plus weather predictions)
• Gift/Registry information and links/
• Wedding party information/bios/details
• Your love story/engagement photos (this is a fun addition but keep in mind, a little goes a long way)
• Social media and technology guidelines for your wedding/personal hashtag if you have one
• RSVP details including dietary restrictions
• FAQ’s – especially helpful in light of Covid-19
• Contact info – yes the aim of the wedding website is to answer the questions people have but in the case of an emergency or something so specific that it’s not covered on your site it can be helpful to include contact info.  This could be your Wedding Coordinator’s details if you prefer

When Should You Set Up Your Wedding Website?

You will want to have your Wedding Website set up before you send out your invitations.  You can set it up as early as when you send out your save the dates – but if you do this you will want to add something to the site that encourages guests to check back closer to the date as you’ll be adding more information along the way.  

I recommend sharing the link to your site in everything you send guests about your wedding – so it’s always handy for them. If your invites are electronic you’ll add a clickable link.  If they’re paper invites you can add it to the invitation or include an enclosure card or even a magnet – that way the link will always be handy for your guests.

Building A Wedding Website

Wedding Websites are super easy to set up.  All of the companies I’m listing below have templates that you can use and adding information is very straightforward.  You don’t need to understand code or be able to do much more than upload photos to a site and drop and drag information.  Where these builders differ will be in the pricing, features and how far you can customise elements within the template. So do your research and choose one that suits your budget and what you’re trying to achieve with your wedding website.

• WedSites (this is the builder we recommend to our Wedding Coordination clients in Australia, because it comes with a suite of tools that make planning your wedding and collaborating with your Vendors super easy).
• Zola
• Joy
• Squarespace
• The Knot
• Riley & Grey

When you choose our full Wedding Coordination or Partial Planning package you will receive complimentary access to the full suite of WedSite tools including the wedding website builder.  Contact us to find out more.

A Final Word On Wedding Websites

Whilst a wedding website is a handy way to keep your guests informed so you can stay focused on planning your wedding, it is by no means a must have.  If you’re not into the idea of one, or you don’t think the majority of your guests would interact with it (based on their age or other factors), don’t have one.  The great thing about planning your wedding in the modern era is that  you can pretty much make up the rules! But if you do think that a wedding website is a great idea, put aside a couple of hours set your site up and don’t forget to update it as new information comes to hand or details change.