For many engaged couples, a personal website is an important part of the wedding-planning process. Supplied picture.
For many engaged couples, a personal website is an important part of the wedding-planning process. Often, it’s where guests go to find gift registry information, directions to the reception, preferred attire suggestions and other useful information about the upcoming nuptials.
Here are a few tips for building a stylish, fun and innovative website for your big day.
1. Go Beyond Standard Builders
Wedding resources like the Knot, WeddingWire and Zola allow couples to create personalized webpages for free. Their standard templates are easy to use, which helps streamline the process. But they aren’t your only options.
If you’re looking for something more distinctive, all-in-one website building and hosting platforms like Squarespace, Wix and Wordpress.com offer more design choices, though they typically charge a small monthly fee.
2. Design With a Minimalist Aesthetic
It's fine to choose a fancy template and maybe add a few creative flourishes to the layout, such as a live countdown to the wedding day or a vibrant colour scheme (perhaps one that matches your wedding’s theme or palette). But don’t go overboard.
“Keep things simple and minimal,” said Carrie Schwab, general manager and editor-in-chief at JunebugWeddings.com. “Couples sometimes forget that older guests might not be able to read small text or understand how to navigate more complex websites, so my pro tip is to make your website easy to navigate and read.”
3. Make the Site Searchable
Many of the website builders will charge extra for you to create or use a customized web address, or URL. Buying one, however, makes sense.
Industry experts recommend keeping a site active for about a year after the wedding, since the general rule is that guests have up to a year to buy the couple a gift.
4.Address Privacy Concerns
If you want to keep your wedding details and photos out of the public eye, you can add password protection to the entire site or just some of the pages. This is an option offered by many of the website builders.
5. Create a FAQ Section
Don’t just slap basic wedding information onto the home page and call it a day. Schwab recommends constructing a page on your site that is dedicated to frequently asked questions.
Here a few questions you might want to include:
— When is the RSVP deadline?
— Are children welcome?
— What should I wear?
— Can I take photos during the ceremony?
— Is the venue wheelchair accessible?
— Where are you registered for gifts?
6. Tell Your Story
Share information about your relationship — how you met, when you knew your partner was “the one” and how you got engaged.
To break up the text in this section, you can also share photos that illustrate notable moments from your relationship, such as pictures of your engagement or eventful trips the two of you might have taken together.
7. Play Tour Guide
Out-of-town guests visiting for the weekend will be looking for things to do. Use real estate on your website to share information about restaurants, museums, shops and tourist attractions.
8. Introduce the Wedding Party
Include short bios of your bridesmaids and groomsmen (or bridesmen and groomswomen) on your website.
9. Promote a Wedding Hashtag
If you plan to have a designated wedding hashtag that attendees can use when posting photos on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other social media platforms, let your guests know what it is on your website.