Do/did you have a wedding website?

[gwendolyn]

A bunch of my friends have gotten married within the past 2-3 years, and they ALL made wedding websites that gave background info about them, how they met, the proposal, registry info and upcoming wedding plans. Did any of you do this? Did your friends and family find it useful, or was it mostly for your benefit? Are you glad you have it?

Thanks!

 

[ash313]

Hey Gwen! It''s nice to see your face around these parts!!

We don''t have one yet, but it''s at the top of my to-do list once finals are done this week! Very few of my friends have made them, but when they did, I always felt a little more connected to the event, and it made me more excited to celebrate with them! I think it would also be a fun way to communicate with family beforehand.

We are using weddingwindow.com There is a fee, but I really liked their design, layout and usability the best.

 

[bee*]

No we didn''t bother doing one in the end. We talked about it when we first got engaged but then we were both so busy with work and study that we didn''t have the time. I think they''re cool though.

 

[marchswallowbird]

I''m not doing one. My wedding is simall, and many of our relatives are older and don''t use online stuff that much. I can''t rely on a wedding website to communicate important info, because a lot of people won''t look at it. So for me, it''s one less thing that I have to do.

 

[kama_s]

We have one, and most of our guests have found it incredibly helpful. Our wedding is in a historic wine town, and majority of our guests are making a weekend getaway of it. So I''ve added a lot of information on things they can do and see, wine tour information on some of the major wineries etc.

We didn''t put any information on how we met, how Mr. proposed or any of that. We wanted it to be strictly about the wedding (and I''m just not mushy like that

)

 

[violet3]

Hi Gwen! i loved following your engagement thread....and i love your grandma''s ring I don''t have a website, but i thought about doing one. I wonder the same thing, about whether it''s helpful for the guests or not. Does anyone know what''s the best way/place to go about making one?

 

[wyndham]

Date: 4/18/2009 9:34:07 AM
Author: leeNY
Hey Gwen! It''s nice to see your face around these parts!!


We don''t have one yet, but it''s at the top of my to-do list once finals are done this week! Very few of my friends have made them, but when they did, I always felt a little more connected to the event, and it made me more excited to celebrate with them! I think it would also be a fun way to communicate with family beforehand.


We are using weddingwindow.com There is a fee, but I really liked their design, layout and usability the best.

Hi Gwen,
Like leeNY, I used WeddingWindow and have been really happy with it. I think what leeNY said above about websites making guests feel more ''connected'' to the event has been really true in my experience, as well. Our friends from high school and college have gotten married all over the country, so I''ve found that websites are especially helpful in destination wedding situations. One caveat -- several of our friends have ''started'' wedding websites and sent out the address with half-finished sites...and they''ve never bothered to finish them. I think a wedding website only makes sense if you''re going to really build it out and provide a good deal of information.
Good luck!

 

[jstarfireb]

Definitely - wouldn''t even think of getting married without a website! That''s where all our info about the reception, venue, etc. is. We used Wedding Announcer for ours. It''s really easy, and the format is like a blog. You can upload pictures too.

 

[FrekeChild]

We have one. It''s with The Knot. I''ve updated it several times, and since they now allow you to make multiple pages for free, it''s a lot nicer looking. I''ve wanted to do one since I can remember and since our wedding is in Vegas, and that''s a trip for everyone, it''s really helpful in letting people know about our plans, the weather in Vegas, what hotels to stay at, where certain events will take place, etc. Everyone seems to like it so far!

 

[gwendolyn]

Thanks for your help, everyone! And your excitement at seeing me here (for real) in BWW.

Date: 4/18/2009 11:27:21 AM
Author: kama_s
We have one, and most of our guests have found it incredibly helpful. Our wedding is in a historic wine town, and majority of our guests are making a weekend getaway of it. So I've added a lot of information on things they can do and see, wine tour information on some of the major wineries etc.


We didn't put any information on how we met, how Mr. proposed or any of that. We wanted it to be strictly about the wedding (and I'm just not mushy like that

)

Yeah, ours will be a destination wedding too (for at least half the guests, possibly all), and I like the idea of having that info available to people to refer back to, because it would have info on things to do in the area and prices for things for the wedding and other hotel options and things. I was slightly put off the idea because some of my friends' sites were over-the-top cheesy but the usefulness of them might outweigh my fear of possibly looking corny.

jstarfireb, is your site free or do you have to pay like leeNY? If there's a fee, do you think it's good value?

Oh, Freke, you posted while I was posting! Might have to check out TheKnot then, if it's free and does everything you need it too. Haven't checked out any wedding websites yet! Other than PS, that is.

 

[SapphireLover]

We have one. DF is a geek and says it is the only thing about the wedding that he will have any control over!

It only has two posts on it, nobody actually knows about it, but hey, we get married in 470 days, so there is no rush to advertise it!

We will eventually put registry info on it, plus descriptions of where people can stay nearby, if they want alternative accommodation. We might put details about what to do in the local area if people want to make a weekend of it!

xx

 

[jstarfireb]

Date: 4/18/2009 1:55:51 PM
Author: gwendolyn
jstarfireb, is your site free or do you have to pay like leeNY? If there''s a fee, do you think it''s good value?

Completely free, and it even sticks around a while after the wedding (not sure how long, but I have friends that are over a year out from their wedding, and their sites are still up).

 

[MakingTheGrade]

I'm using mywedding.com
It's free, very easy and instinctive to use. Lots of great features And fairly customizable.
Are we allowed to post links to those or is that against PS rules? I know we aren't allowed to post email addresses..


I started it because it gave me a place to put ideas, and share the process with my family who lives in China, and my friends who are scattered all over the place, lol. And it's just plain fun to upload pictures of all the little details as I finish them.

 

[Octavia]

I have a freebie website through weddingwire. It''s pretty customizable, though I didn''t put a ton of effort into it (I was mostly interested in giving people the basic info they''ll need about hotels, airport/Amtrak codes, etc). You can password protect it, too, which is nice. It probably wouldn''t stop a serious hacker, but we don''t have a much personal info there anyway.

We gave the website address and password at the bottom of our save-the-dates, so people would be able to access it.

 

[BigDiamonds]

We got one with Wedorama. If you access them through The Knot you get a discount. I think we ended up paying about $35.

We have found it very helpful and have gotten lots of compliments on it. It''s a good way to communicate details like hotels blocks and addresses/directions. Of course, it works well for us because nearly everyone coming is very internet saavy. It sort of depends on situation, but I would definitely recommend it!

 

[PilsnPinkysMom]

Funny you asked.... because I made one TODAY

Ours is through Project Wedding... and the address is pretty easy for guests to type... www.MrandMrsPils.projectwedding.com (not the real address, of course)

I didn't think that it was essential early on, until I considered the number of guests driving/flying from out of town. It also saves the hassle of printing detailed inserts (map/directions/registry/hotel/etc/etc) for each invite. Now I can just add a card that says, "For all wedding-related info, please go to ::address::"

Ours includes venue info with website/directions for both ceremony and reception, rehearsal dinner details, maps for all places, airport and car rental info, hotel block info, as well as info for other area hotels, transportation services, and around-the-area activities. ...Oooh, and we added registry info. Not as tacky as putting it in an invite, and it saves everyone from calling me/my family/his family to figure out if we're registered.

I liked that Project Wedding had cute, clean, simply layouts, and a nice way of linking to maps/websites/other info without looking too cluttered. Plus, there's the option of password protection, which is great when you don't want random people showing up at your wedding venue on your Big Day

Plus... it was FREE!!

We skipped all the cutsey "how we met" "about the proposal" etc stuff, and included only what our guests really need to know.

 

[mrscushion]

I am definitely doing one. I''m going to have a d-wedding in Europe and more than half of the invitees live in the U.S., so I want them to have access to all the information they could want about the location, why we are choosing it, things to do before and after the wedding, etc.

I did the free trial with WeddingWindow.com and liked the customizability with colors and images. I''ll either go with them or perhaps FI and I will build our own website.

 

[oakpark]

I have one on Shutterfly dot com (FREE) that I came across when I was doing my save the dates last week. It allows you to either make it private or public. If private (ours is), you have to be a member to see it (we aren''t announcing date, etc yet to anyone but close family & friends).
You designate members by their email address. So far I think it has worked OK, meaning my mom and FI''s mom were able to get on it (with coaching). It has several layouts you can choose and allows text boxes, photos, and links and even maps. It also has a guestbook and a link to your registry (we don''t have one yet).
I think it will be helpful, we are having sort of a destination wedding in a rural location and there are limited accomodations available and dining establishments, and it allows us to tell people good places to stay, how to get to wedding and reception, and weird things they might want to know, like this is a dry county, so the nearest bar/liquor store is 20 miles away. And, your cell phone may not work here. So, go for it, its fun!

 

[iheartscience]

Ha, my twin sis/MOH just made us a wedding website a week or two ago through mywedding.com! (I''m way too lazy to do something like that.) She put up our story, hotel info, bridal party info and the address of the ceremony/reception. There''s also a "Guest Book" thing that people can comment in. She said it was really easy to make, too!

 

[rhbgirl24]

Absolutely! and it was fun. My family loved the idea - they are large and spread out, so this was a way everyone could keep updated in what was going on up to the big day

http://www.mywedding.com/jenandralph/

 

[doodle]

We did one and even had the link to it put on the directions card that we sent with our wedding invitations. My favorite thing about it was that I could supply registry information to people without them having to ask about it. I felt a little awkward when people asked where we were registered, but once we put that info. on the site, people got it from there without having to ask us about it. It also wound up being the saving grace on directions because, just our luck, the week before our wedding, they changed the exit numbers (!!!!!!), so our directions cards were incorrect! It wound up being a lot easier to let everyone know about the change in directions than it would''ve been had I wound up having to call everyone and notify them. I did mine through the knot (added bonus for me: I also got a free magazine subscription for making my site through them).

 

[Rhea]

I didn''t do it. We kept the weddings small (45 and 22 people) and most of those were older people who really wouldn''t have bothered with the information on them. I honestly don''t see the point of them. In most cases, I know how the couple met, the engagement story, and I can easily find out where they are registered. Post codes are printed on the invitations and easy enough to type into a sat nav on the wedding day. The only thing I might need is to know hotel information if I plan to stay over, but that''s usually included in the invitations.

 

[gwendolyn]

Hmmm, do these sites only cover vendors and things in the US? Project Wedding seems to have photos up from other countries/DWs, but not sure if they have vendor info or maps for places outside the US? Our wedding will be in the UK (probably England or Wales).

 

[havernell]

Date: 4/19/2009 6:43:00 AM
Author: gwendolyn
Hmmm, do these sites only cover vendors and things in the US? Project Wedding seems to have photos up from other countries/DWs, but not sure if they have vendor info or maps for places outside the US? Our wedding will be in the UK (probably England or Wales).

We also used mywedding.com for free and we were pleased with the results. I thought they had a nice array of "backgrounds" to choose from and it was quite easy and intuitive to set everything up.

As for maps, we were able to upload a map we copied/saved from our venue''s website onto our mywedding.com page, so Gwen if you can find or make a pdf verion of a map of the area in the UK where your wedding will be, you can do the same. There''s a website called weddingmapper.com where I understand you can make free maps for things like websites and invitation inserts, so you may want to check that out (I didn''t use it myself however).

As for vendors, I''m not totally sure what you mean about sites "covering" vendors, as we just typed in all the info about our ceremony and reception sites, hotel blocks, etc ourselves. So, you can certainly just type in UK vendors as well (if that''s what you meant).

Overall, I think having a website is helpful to the guests who choose to use it. Have fun building yours!

 

[emeraldlover1]

We have one. I set it up the week after we got engaged. I linked to it on our save the dates for guests that wanted more information sooner than the invites since it is a semi destination wedding.

I did NOT use one of the wedding websites however. I wanted to buy my own IP address because my fiance has a pretty funny nickname and I just had to throw it in their for our college friends. I bought web hosting service through yahoo and I think it was something like thirty dollars for the year. It was totally worth it cause their site builder is awesome and the website is truly one of my babies.

I also have a wedding blog and I own a bunch of IP addresses associated with the name of my wedding blog. While just a hobby right now I''m gaining readers and hopefully I''ll turn it in to a business one day.

I would suggest a website for people that want extra info and also want to know more about your planning. I''ve always found them helpful. We are the type of couple that missplaces thing easily so I always like going to the website for more information.

 

[PilsnPinkysMom]

Date: 4/19/2009 6:43:00 AM
Author: gwendolyn
Hmmm, do these sites only cover vendors and things in the US? Project Wedding seems to have photos up from other countries/DWs, but not sure if they have vendor info or maps for places outside the US? Our wedding will be in the UK (probably England or Wales).

Yeah, they should... I''m pretty sure they use Google or Yahoo maps, and map the location based on the address you use. So... yep

 

[katamari]

We are using Wedding Tracker, and I really like it so far. All of our friends and family are very much online, so it is more "real" to them if it is on a website than if we would send any number of paper goods. I like wedding tracker because, even though it cost $30 (using an online coupon that you could easily find) we were able to find a template that was our style (definitely not the case at most sites) and the address is www.meandhim.com, so no extra stuff to type in and remember for our guests. They also let you have a password so that someone who googles you couldn''t just get to your wedding site.

 

[lliang_chi]

I put up a wedding website as well. You can use any free website hosting site, like Weebly.com or Googlepages or even blogspot. I would NOT recommend the (fee based) one I''m using, nearlyweds.com. I signed up with them because they were new and I dunno, I wanted to give them a shot. It''s not very flexible and pretty annoying. But it''s okay for now and I''ve got all my info on there for guests. I linked to a weebly site I made that allows me to put a few more tid-bits on there.

Good luck Gwen.

~Lisa

 

[gwendolyn]

Oh this is great info, thank you all so much!! I was looking around a little at the sites last night before bed (with J giving me strange looks

) so I think I might look into it more on the weekend when he''s at work. Or Wednesday night, also when he''s at work. Basically when I can leisurely peruse the options without him giving me funny looks.

 

[dcgator]

Date: 4/18/2009 3:00:26 PM
Author: Octavia
I have a freebie website through weddingwire. It''s pretty customizable, though I didn''t put a ton of effort into it (I was mostly interested in giving people the basic info they''ll need about hotels, airport/Amtrak codes, etc). You can password protect it, too, which is nice. It probably wouldn''t stop a serious hacker, but we don''t have a much personal info there anyway.

We gave the website address and password at the bottom of our save-the-dates, so people would be able to access it.

I second weddingwire.com. I think the site is awesome. Not only does is it free, but it has a really easy to use, customizable website design tool. It also has an AWESOME tracking function, so you can input all info right down to the gift people give to the dinner choice. It also has a fun fuction for building tables, that lets you drop and drag people from your guest list. Yeah for toys...

Anywho, I would highly recommend weddingwire