Photo Credit | Alante Photography
Having all the information your guests could possibly need before attending your wedding can be stressful! You want to make sure everyone feels prepared.
This is where your wedding website comes in! Your wedding website is one of the things we recommend to include somewhere on your formal invitation, so guests have a place to turn with their questions! If your wedding website is already made, but you aren’t sure you’ve provided enough information, we’ve got a list of 9 things that should be on your wedding website, to make sure your guests are set to be there on your big day!
9 Things to Include on your Wedding Website
1.} Welcome/Your Love Story
Everyone wants to hear how excited you are for them to be a part of your big day! Say hello, and that you hope they’ll be able to join you! Some websites have the option to include a wedding countdown–DO IT!
This is also a place to share your love story; where you met, how long you dated, how the proposal happened, and any other fun tidbits about you two! Remember, some guests may be from out of town and have not had a chance to hear/read about the proposal–some maybe haven’t even met you! But once your Aunt Sharon reads a bit more about your fiancé, she’s going to be even more excited to share in your big day! So share away!
Your welcome/home page is also a great spot to list the name{s} of the Ceremony Venue & Reception Venue, along with their addresses and times. This will be a great point of reference for your guests throughout the journey!
2.} Wedding Party
This is a fun addition to any wedding website! This is a great chance for you to introduce the people who will stand beside you when you say “I Do”, and give a bit of history of your friendship with them and why you chose them to share in your big day. If you want to get really crazy, post a picture of you two and share a silly story, a fun fact, or something you love about them! This is a great place to brag on your wedding party without taking the spotlight away from you on your big day! Your guests will love to know who your friends are–so share it!
3.} Things to Do
For all of your out of town guests, this page will be super fun and helpful, especially if they’re not familiar with the area! And even if they are familiar, there’s a good chance there’s something on that list they’ve been meaning to do!
We recommend to split it up into different categories/pages. For example,
you could have a different sections like Dine, Drink, Do, and Shop! Give a list of three or four things in each section, to give your guests a whole slew of options to choose from! After all, if they’re coming all this way, they might as well stay a while and see the sites, taste the eats, sip the drinks, and shop the stores!
4.} Directions
This is a not-so-exciting wedding website item, but it’s a crucial one! For those that aren’t smartphone GPS savvy, {like your grandma Ethel!} this is a critical piece of information. We recommend to give a few different directions for guests on this page.
For example, provide directions from:
Airport–>Hotel–>Ceremony–>Reception–>Hotel
If you are not providing room blocks or hotel recommendations for your guests to stay, simply provide basic information to get to the ceremony and to the reception, such as:
Name of Ceremony Venue
Address
Basic directions {Example: Heading South on I-5, take exit 167A toward 6th St. Turn right on 6th. Venue will be on your right}
Name of Reception Venue {if different}
Address
Basic directions {Example: Heading North on I-5, take exit 170 towards James St. Turn left on 4th St. Venue will be on your left}
5.} Registry
This is a great and almost nowadays crucial page to include in your wedding website if you’re ever hoping to get that adorable bar cart from Crate & Barrel! To alleviate clutter inside their invitation suite, most couples have opted for the online route for guests to access their registry, not only because it relieves clutter, but because you can so easily link online registries to your website! It make it so much easier, and saves trees as well! A win-win!
6.} RSVP
Another trending page to have on your website {if your webpage provider offers} is an RSVP tool! This is a convenient way for your guests to indicate their attendance or decline to your wedding and again, takes away the clutter from your wedding invitation. It also saves on postage, as well as a few trees! It also is just so much easier on both the sending and receiving side. On the sending side, tracking becomes so much easier when done electronically. On the receiving side, besides electronically putting in your RSVP, it also saves you from having to remember to drop that envelope in the mail on your way to work! This option tends to have a much higher margin of RSVPs than snail mail RSVPs, mostly because it’s just so easy!
7.} Accommodations & Transportation {If Any}
If you’re offering room blocks at a few hotel for your guests to stay while visiting, this would be the place where you list those options! It’s helpful to include the name of a hotel {and a picture if you can!} of the hotel{s}. Also include their website, phone number, and the promo code {if any} in order for your guests to get their rooms at the lower rate!
If you just have hotel recommendations for hotels nearby, this would also be the spot to list those too, and in the same manner.
Another item to include in this page, if applicable, is any transportation information. Some couples have shuttles that will pick-up/drop-off clients to and from their hotel{s} to the venue. This would be a good place to provide the Shuttle Schedule for guests to have with them at all times. Other couples have lists of transportation alternatives, like Uber and a promo code for a discount on their first ride, taxi numbers, or rental car options.
optional additions:
8.} Schedule of Events
The reason this is optional is because this page would’t be applicable to everyone. A schedule of events is basically a list of the weekends events all in one place. Here’s the list of events in a nutshell:
Rehearsal & Rehearsal Dinner/Welcome+Drinks
Place:
Time:
Ceremony
Place:
Time:
Reception
Place:
Time {if applicable}:
Brunch
Place:
Time:
It typically starts with the The Rehearsal and some sort of gathering around food afterward. Traditionally, it’s a rehearsal dinner. But there is this new trend we see, and we call it the Welcome+Drinks. We are finding more and more couples like this option instead of a rehearsal dinner because it gives the couple a chance to visit with out-of-town family they rarely get to see, all while not having to foot the bill of a 75 person rehearsal dinner. It also gives guests the option to choose their place of dinner, and follow it with a drink and welcome with the couple afterward! It’s a much more laid back feel. For some, this isn’t realistic, say if they have a guest count of 150. Others want the rehearsal dinner just to be the bridal party and any immediate family, so this also wouldn’t be a good option, since everyone would know about it if it was posted online.
The next events listed would follow the Ceremony + Reception, which should be already listed on the home page, followed by the Brunch.
This is also a rising trend we see with our couples. The morning after the big day, we find that our couples opt to have an organized brunch for guests who are still in town and wanting to get together one last time before they all go their separate ways! It turns the wedding celebrations from a single day to a weekend event! And we love it!
9.} Photos
Our final optional suggestion to include in your wedding website is last but not least, photos. Whether you have photos from your different phases {dating, proposal, engagement} or just a few, of your favorites, pictures are always so effective and helpful in having friends and family engage in your website. So share away! And kickstart the amount of traffic you have on your wedding website!
We hope this has all been helpful information in knowing what all should and can go on your wedding website. Choose which ones are a good fit for you!
Happy planning!
Until next time,
Danae
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If you have yet to build a wedding website, don’t sweat it! They’re super easy, and some of them even come with cool, additional features like your very own wedding app! Take a look at the list below, and find one that best fits your needs!
http://www.appycouple.com/
http://www.rileygrey.com/ {One of our faves!}
http://www.weddingjojo.com/
http://www.weddingpaperdivas.com/personal-wedding-websites
http://www.mywedding.com/free-wedding-websites
https://www.weddingwindow.com/
