Wedding web site

[newbie124]

Does anyone have any tips on how to go about creating a wedding site? Not so much where to find a template but rather what''s the best approach to organizing all the info and any interesting tools/resources to include?

You would think this would be one of the easier things for FI and I to check off considering that we both do web-related work, but I''m starting to feel quite stressed about creating our wedding web site!

Mostly, I''m just not sure of the best way to start. Part of the issue it that we''re having a semi-destination wedding in Napa and many of our guests have never been to the Bay Area so there is all this information I want to include to help people out. Plus, I know some people are a bit worried about hotel/airfare costs (or have really skewed and not entirely correct assumptions), so I want to provide some helpful info on where/when to look.

Also, does anyone have a site (or know of some good sample sites) that they''d care to share for inspiration?

TIA!

 

[Pandora II]

I did mine with wedding window - super easy and they have loads of pages and tips to choose from.

I wanted a fairly basic site that I could customise as much as possible. I looked at loads, liked this the best and have been very happy with it.

I think it cost $80 for a year - plus I can buy a copy of it on disc to keep at the end of the year.

 

[musey]

We really needed one as well, because our guest list is 90% OOT, and many of them have never traveled to Los Angeles (where we live and where the wedding will be). FI and I designed our website from scratch, and since you two do web design work you might want to do the same.

We started by picking a theme for our site. Since we're having a 'backyard' type wedding in October, we decided base it around tree/leaf/fall type images. We picked one to make a banner with, then based the color scheme of the rest of the site on that.

Here is our homepage.

Under 'About Us' we just have brief--VERY brief--bios for us (like where each of us grew up, what we majored in in college, and what we're doing now. This is mostly for extended family members that haven't yet met or gotten to know is.

'Event Details' includes start times for both the ceremony and reception, and detailed directions/maps from every airport in the LA area. We've also included registry info in very, very, very small font, tucked at the very bottom of the page.

The 'Where to Stay' page includes vital information about a bunch of hotels we found for our guests to consider (I'll attach a pic in the next post).

The 'Area Information' page just has a little blurb about important things to consider when traveling to/within LA (traffic and road conditions, navigability of different areas, public transportation (or lack thereof), etc.). There's also a link to our wedding mapper, which has flags for the venue, all hotels we've suggested, airports and points of interest.

 

[musey]

Here''s the "where to stay" page. All the icons are clickable, which will show a popup key with price breakdowns and the meanings of the amenity icons. There are more but I just chopped it off in the screenshot.

FI had fun with this one

 

[newbie124]

Thanks for the suggestion, Pandora. It''s funny b/c I just randomly googled "wedding site" and came across Wedding Windows. I saw that they offer a 7-day free trial, so I went in to see if it could at least offer some guidance I could use to create our own (if we decide to build from scratch).

Wow, musey, your site looks great (especially that hotel page)! Can I ask what you are using to host your site? My FI knows a little more about that stuff than I do. Also, did you password protect yours?

 

[modernsparkler]

We have also used Wedding Window and it is fantastic! They have tons of ready made templates and you can also make your own page if they don''t have one that you want. They have tons of designs to fit any wedding style and lots of features. You can essentially add anything inlcuding info for OOT guests, the bridal party, etc. So far it has been great for us!

 

[musey]

Date: 5/6/2008 5:23:57 PM
Author: newbie124
Wow, musey, your site looks great (especially that hotel page)! Can I ask what you are using to host your site? My FI knows a little more about that stuff than I do. Also, did you password protect yours?

Thanks! We really wanted it to be fully customized. If you have a basic knowledge of photoshop and dreamweaver (or similar), it's really not that difficult to throw together.

FI's parents have an account that gives them up to 6 domain names (they use it for their private business) through dreamhost, so we just used up one of their slots (they were only using 4). So we get to have museyandbob.com (you know what I mean). It is password protected.

 

[karasue91]

Hi, just wanted to add that I used weddingtracker.com and I'm pretty happy with it. It's not as intuitive as it could be, but it serves it's purpose. I only paid $30 for a year though, because when I was ordering my subscription it had a space for a discount code, so I just googled "weddingtracker.com discount code" and found one on the knot! It saved me $30 (normal price is $60/year)!! So, if you don't design your own from scratch, just an idea!

ETA: here is a link to weddingtracker's page of real wedding websites. mine looks basically exactly like Ann & Derek's, but with a pink background. http://www.weddingtracker.com/service/realweddings.asp

 

[Sassee]

we have used wedding window and have loved it! (as have our friends and family)

I am absolutely techno-phobic and found it super-easy to use!

Good luck with it

 

[violet02]

I read reviews on the top sites out there and just went with what seemed to work the best and had the best functionality.

I use www.wedshare.com for our wedding website. The content blocks are easy to add, there are lots of templates to choose from and there''s a great backend planning and database tool that I use to store all my guests information, correspondence etc etc.

I come from a web developer background and could have possibly made my own site but I found that wedshare was really easy and fast to use so I just went with it.

That''s my two cents!

 

[newbie124]

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone! Wow, I didn't know Wedding Windows was so popular. I didn't have a lot of time to fiddle with it yesterday, but will try it out again today. Also will check out wedshare.com.

Yeah, ideally, I'd like to be able to do our own fully customizable site (and for less than the subscription sites), but it might just depend on how much time I want to devote to it Nice to know there are some good alternatives out there at least!

 

[sumbride]

We used weddingannouncer.com which is free. I found it easy to use, though not quite as fancy as some of the other options. The part about it being FREE negated that issue though. As you are both web people, you may want to do your own, but by looking around at the available services you can get a better handle on what to include.