Congratulations on your engagement! This is a really exciting time in your life. It’s also probably going to be a bit stressful.
During this next year, I want to walk through this process with you. I’ll give you a 12 Month Guide to planning your wedding and explain things along the way. You can start from the beginning here (click). Come back to this blog each week for the next installment.
Week 23 – Wedding Website
Hope your engagement session is well under way! This week we’re going to talk about one of the places you’ll use your engagement photos — the wedding website.
Don’t worry about not knowing HTML, there are several places where you can easily set up a wedding website:
Several of these companies also offer certain perks for using their program to build your site, anything from tips and unique designs to integrated guest list and registry recording. Look through them and figure out what you want and go with the one that best fits your needs.
Okay, you’ve got a site and are starting to design it, now what?
Make sure you stick with the classic: Who, What, When, Where, Why and How.
Who is involved in What big event (bride, groom, wedding party)? When is the deadline to RSVP and When is the wedding? Where is the wedding, Where can they stay and Where is the couple registered? Why/How did the couple meet and fall in love? How can guests RSVP and How can they get to the location?
In other words, in the end you want to include the following pages:
Home Page – your names, a picture, the event and the date
Basic Details – date and time of the ceremony, location of ceremony and reception (with directions)
About Page – story about you and your fiance, who your wedding party members are
Registry Page – links to the company sites where you’re registered for gifts
Hospitality Page – ideas of where guests can stay and blocked room information
RSVP Page – How do people let you know they’re coming to celebrate with you
It’s okay if you don’t have all of those figured out yet. You’re working through the details. Include as much as you can and then add to it as you go along. When you get engagement photos, (with the photographer’s permission–read their contract) add them to your site. Once you create a registry, add the links so people can see what you’re needing. Make sense? It’s really pretty simple in the end and it can be really fun. You may even play a game where you and your fiance write your own versions of your story.
Hope these tips are helpful as you make a wedding website. Who did you decide to use?
Next week we’ll briefly touch on something more personal and then move back into the planning stages.
Katelyn is a certified wedding planner. She is available for consultations.
She will even meet with you on Skype to help you work through part of your wedding planning.
Click here for more information.