While there are many steps ahead in planning your dream wedding, one essential element is something all modern couples need to prioritize: a wedding website. A comprehensive yet eye-catching wedding website is an invaluable tool for you to showcase your love story and share important details with guests so the big day flows with ease. Think of it as a one-stop shop for your loved ones to stay well-informed in preparation for your upcoming union.
Building a wedding website is an exciting endeavor, and with the right tools, it’s surprisingly easy to create a virtual hub that’s both captivating and practical. It can also be a fun bonding experience for you and your partner, as you’ll get to relive your romance by including special memories and stories that will leave your guests weepy.
And by putting in the time up front, you’ll save time down the road. Once you map out all the important details for guests on your wedding website, you’re less likely to receive last-minute questions about what to expect, where to stay or what to wear. Many wedding website builders like Joy also allow you to manage RSVPs. With all these efficiencies, that means you have more time to enjoy your pre-wedding excitement and other parts of the planning process.
To leave a lasting impression on your guests and get them that much more excited for the big day, here’s everything you need to know to build the perfect wedding website.
Your Wedding Website Should Inform and Delight
When it comes to creating your wedding website, you need to strike the perfect blend of information and inspiration. As you start to sketch out what you want to share, it may help to organize the information into two categories: inform and delight.
- You’ll need to inform. Give guests all the facts they need to know in preparation for the big day.
- And you’ll want to delight. Tap into your storytelling abilities with photographs and thoughtful content to deliver an extra special experience.
From selecting your dream design and outlining the right information to choosing the perfect content and storytelling features, the 19 tips below will help you nail this part of the wedding planning process. Here’s how to impress your guests with a digital hub that’s as useful as it is captivating.
The Basics: Ways to Inform
1. Add your names, a photo and the wedding logistics
This tip is barebones and obvious, but it’s important. When building your wedding website, include the who, what, where, when and why — ideally on the main page. Who’s the focus? What’s it about? Why are visitors coming here? At the end of the day, keep your guests at the forefront, approaching any information you include from their point-of-view. This way, you won’t risk overwhelming or under-informing them.
2. Include a page briefly detailing the timeline of events
Everyone wants to feel in the know when it comes to your big day. Help out your wedding guests — and ensure they won’t be late! — by providing them with exact times and locations for key moments, starting with your ceremony. Include other nuptial events including your cocktail hour, reception and after-party, as well as any travel and parking details if those celebrations will be held in different locations. This will put everyone at ease and eliminate any last-minute worrying or questions that you probably won’t want to answer the day-of. Joy also has a mobile app that guests can download before your big day, which will give them easy access to their personalized schedule of events.
3. Schedule event privacy with Joy
Most couples tend to have family-only or wedding party-only events prior to the ceremony, but you don’t want to list those events publicly and risk offending guests (gasp) if they inquire about them and they’re not supposed to be included.
The days of having to figure out which events to leave off your site and which to discuss separately with your “exclusive” guests are over. With Joy’s website builder, you can create custom schedules, allowing loved ones to enter their names and see additional festivities that may have a more exclusive guest list, such as your rehearsal dinner or post-wedding brunch. This means you can list all of your events, control who can see what, and rest assured that no one feels left out.
4. Create a FAQ page to nip common questions in the bud
“Are kids welcome?” You’ll likely hear this more than once in the days and weeks leading up to your nuptials. One of the most efficient ways to address all your guests’ burning questions is with an FAQ page on your wedding website. It will not only be helpful for guests (especially anyone who might need special accommodations), but will bring peace of mind to you and your partner.
Some of the most common questions you may want to include are:
- “Where do I park?”
- “Can I bring a plus-one?”
- “Is the ceremony and reception venue wheelchair-accessible?”
- “What should I wear?”
5. Set up a travel directions and accommodations page
You can either include travel questions on your FAQ list or create a separate page devoted to this theme. Keep in mind that when a page is created for a component of your wedding, it’s ultimately a cue to guests that it’s important. While there’s no “right” and “wrong” method, we recommend creating a travel page because its importance becomes heightened, and the risk is low that it will get buried.
After all, travel — especially for destination weddings or out-of-town guests — is one of the primary concerns; you want to make it as easy as possible for your loved ones to locate these details.
And with Joy’s Booking Assistant (built conveniently into the platform), you can even help guests book and find the best deals on nearby hotels, establishing your travel page as a one-stop shop for directions, accommodations and booking.
6. Encourage guests to RSVP online but don’t make it the only option
With Joy’s sophisticated and intuitive RSVP system, it’s easy for guests to click yay or nay — and for you to collect your RSVPs in one place.
If online RSVP is your preference, make it clear across the board. That means if you mail out paper invitations, emphasize that you want guests to reserve their spot with an online RSVP, and then link directly to the page where they can do that.
At the end of the day, think about what would make their lives easier. For instance, while the traditional method of mailing paper invitations — including a response card and a pre-addressed and stamped envelope — to collect RSVPs might seem more official, relying solely on that strategy may not be in your guests’ best interest, or do your sanity any favors. After all, mail can get lost in the shuffle.
With a wedding website through Joy, you can easily set up an online RSVP page and, if you wish, also mail out paper invites that match your theme. Whatever route you take, ensure that you’re absolutely clear about your preferences on the paper invitation and website — and any other formats you’re considering. Your clarity will go a long way.
7. Customize your RSVP questions and tailor them to each guest
Gathering information about individual guests’ needs and preferences in preparation for the wedding is a vital part of planning. Basic questions could range from the names of their plus-ones to meal choice and dietary restrictions, along with extras such as song requests and if they’ll need to book accommodations through your room block.
Joy offers the ability to customize your RSVP questions and tailor them to each attendee based on the events they’re invited to, not just the ceremony and reception. With one RSVP page, you’ll be able to discreetly gather all the necessary information you need for the rehearsal dinner and other weekend festivities.
8. Create a wedding email account for lingering questions
Unless you’re having a small wedding, or you’re fine with family and friends regularly texting and calling you about miscellaneous curiosities and inquiries, it’s not a bad idea to create a joint email account to address any lingering questions or concerns. It’s also a way to provide guests — of various generations, ages, needs and preferences — another way to communicate with you. Then, add this email address somewhere on your website, but make it crystal clear if it’s your preferred contact method or just an option.
9. Use a password to protect your site
A wedding website will include personal information about you and where you will be at a certain date and time, so we recommend protecting your site with a password or code and only sharing it with invited guests to minimize the possibility of unwanted wedding crashers or something more nefarious. Better to be safe than sorry.
10. Set up your site early to include the URL on paper invitations
Your aim is to encourage guests to refer to your website for all pertinent information, so it’s best to build it on the earlier end — but only once you’ve settled on a wedding theme, as this will bring more cohesion and intentionality to your wedding experience. Then, you can simply add the URL on paper invitations and include the passcode. Voila!
The Basics: Ways to Delight
11. Include a page about your wedding party
Detailing information about your wedding party — such as photos, names and your relationship to them — is a nice touch, especially for guests who may not be familiar with who they are. It’s also a courteous gesture to honor and recognize your closest loved ones who will be standing with you on the big day.
12. Keep a cohesive wedding theme across all platforms
Once you’ve decided on your wedding theme and venue, create a cohesive experience for guests by merging the physical and digital components. Since your website is the virtual face of your big day, use it to give guests a preview of your wedding vibe.
Let’s say, for instance, you’ve chosen a modern yet elegant black tie modern theme for your wedding invitation suite with a minimalist typeset and a monochromatic color scheme. For your website, you’ll want to choose a corresponding design theme. Matching or similar fonts and a black-and-white palette will set the tone for your event, and can be carried through to your wedding signage and other design elements on your big day.
13. Use professional photography to amplify this moment
Hire a photographer to snap a few engagement photos of you and your partner for the cover photo of your site, and intersperse them across different pages. The sharpness and crispness of professional images will add a layer of significance.
If you want to include a gallery of photos chronicling your experiences together, be sure not to include too many (as in hundreds) because it can come across as overwhelming. Choose some standout moments and maybe some silly ones if they symbolize you as a couple. At the end of the day, you want to leave a little bit of mystery, as less is usually more.
14. Add a registry page, but don’t emphasize it
When it comes to adding a registry to your wedding website, you have to balance a tightrope between accessibility and delicacy. This means making it easy for guests to locate your registry but also deemphasizing it. After all, their presence at your wedding — one of the most important days of your life — is a gift in itself.
You can simply add a page titled “Registry,” add it to your navigation bar or link to it from your home page, and let it live there without actively promoting its existence. For an added layer of class, include a brief message on the page expressing your thanks. The point is, be humble.
The Extras: Ways to Inform
15. Set social media and photography guidelines
If you want your guests to be unplugged at any point — for instance, during the ceremony — make those expectations clear. You can either add a social media or photo guidelines page emphasizing a no-phone policy during specific events or simply add social media- and photo-related questions to your FAQ page.
It’s ultimately a question of what your expectations are and how seriously you want to enforce them. Also keep in mind that your guests are excited for you and want to celebrate your love, so however you approach these guidelines, do so delicately and politely.
16. Recommend local activities to prolong your guest experience
Whether they’re traveling from out of the country, out of town or just a short drive away, your guests will appreciate any local activities you can suggest. If you picked your wedding location because it’s significant in some way to your relationship — for instance, you had your first date or kiss there — chances are there are surrounding spots that are also significant.
If this applies to you, share those sweet details as you recommend things to do and see. But if the location is new to you, too, it’s nothing a little bit of research can’t fix. Consider the date of your wedding as well, as there might be interesting festivals or events preceding or following the wedding. Trust us, your guests will welcome the insider knowledge.
The Extras: Ways to Delight
The Extras: Ways to Delight
17. Upload video to showcase your journey and future together
Who says your wedding website needs to be limited to photos and text? Including videos adds another dimension to this already special moment — and with Joy, it’s easier than ever. Maybe you have footage of the moment you got engaged or you’re planning to shoot video during a professional photography session. Both are fair game and delightful moments to include, but also feel free to get creative.
18. Write a description of how you met, but keep it short and sweet
Some guests may not know the story of how you and your partner met, especially if it’s a unique one. Consider including a description of your history to set the stage for the big day. This could be a great bonding activity with your partner. Reminisce about your journey together and determine what and how much to share. But, as always, be brief and show restraint.
19. Add a shout-out page to celebrate your vendors
Nothing is more thoughtful than showing appreciation to those who are about to bring your wedding dreams to life and make your day so special. Consider listing your vendors, describing their roles, and referring their services by linking to their websites or social media to express your gratitude. After all, without their vision, labor, and professionalism, none of this can be possible.
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