Wedding Wedding website

[luvthemstrawberries]

I know there are lots of "free" wedding websites out there if you sign up with company A or get invitations through company B. I''m considering using one of those, but BF and I are into some light web design ourselves, so I''ve started a draft of a site I''d use to give to my tech-savvy friends and family (and I''d have to call my grandparents with the info hehe

). This just sounds like it has more flexibility, but then again I haven''t looked into one of the premade sites yet.

So far the pages I''ve got include the following (besides a Home page): About Us, Photos, Events, Accomodations, Directions, Registry Info, Guest Book (maybe?), and Contact Us.

Anyone who is using / has used a wedding website - is there anything special you put in yours, or any advice as far as what should/shouldn''t go in one? Things you liked/disliked about the premade sites?

 

[luvthemstrawberries]

Haha so I guess no one else in the world has had a wedding website?

I''ll take just links too!

 

[CDNinNYC]

Hi luvthemstrawberries,

we're using a paid premade site called wedshare. I'm not tech savy enough to creat my own and I preferred the features on this one over the free sites available. This site is also flexible in that I can add/remove as many pages as I want.

I also liked that we have our own domain name (and email addresses) and there's a multimedia gallery where I was able to create a slideshow of pictures of our DW location, along with songs guests can listen to and download. We also added a Poll and Quiz section which I thought would be fun.

If you're expecting a lot of OOT guests (like us) you might want to consider adding a Sightseeing page. We did one that included local attractions, restaurants, shopping, and nightlife.

If you're having a wedding party, you might want to add a page on them. As well, wedshare provides a page that enables you to communicate with your bridal party (about fittings, etc) that is password protected so other guests don't have access to it.

Hope this helps!

 

[Amandine]

Date: 9/25/2008 9:43:14 AM
Author: CDNinNYC
Hi luvthemstrawberries,

we''re using a paid premade site called wedshare. I''m not tech savy enough to creat my own and I preferred the features on this one over the free sites available. This site is also flexible in that I can add/remove as many pages as I want.

I also liked that we have our own domain name (and email addresses) and there''s a multimedia gallery where I was able to create a slideshow of pictures of our DW location, along with songs guests can listen to and download. We also added a Poll and Quiz section which I thought would be fun.

If you''re expecting a lot of OOT guests (like us) you might want to consider adding a Sightseeing page. We did one that included local attractions, restaurants, shopping, and nightlife.

If you''re having a wedding party, you might want to add a page on them. As well, wedshare provides a page that enables you to communicate with your bridal party (about fittings, etc) that is password protected so other guests don''t have access to it.

Hope this helps!

We included this in our website, one page for restaurants and one for local attractions. I also had a travel page, which just mentioned the local (and close by) airports, Amtrack, etc.

 

[CDNinNYC]

Date: 9/25/2008 9:58:32 AM
Author: Amandine

We included this in our website, one page for restaurants and one for local attractions. I also had a travel page, which just mentioned the local (and close by) airports, Amtrack, etc.

Oh, good idea! I''ll have to add something like that.


FYI, luvthemstrawberries, we also added a Weather section that shows current weekly local weather. I also liked having the option of background music playing while guests surf through the site.

 

[Octavia]

I'm keeping our website pretty simple, just the essential stuff -- home page; venue page with directions; accommodations and transportation; guest book; "Other" (basically our registry links...I just don't want to call the page "Registry" and I may try to find some other random stuff to put there, too); and RSVP (when the time comes).

For us, it doesn't make sense to do a whole lot more. We're not inviting anyone who doesn't already know us and our story, few (if any) of our guests are completely unfamiliar with the area, and I was actually kind of uncomfortable being on my friend's "bridal party" page when I was her bridesmaid. It just seems kind of unnecessary to me. Short and sweet is much more our style, and I can't foresee our guests minding.

ETA: I'm using a free site, through Weddingwire, and it's been great for our purposes. There's a lot more stuff available (pages, interactive tools, etc) than we're actually going to use, and although I'm not 100% in love with any of the design templates, I found one that works just fine. I guess I'm more pragmatic about it, though, because as long as it's stress-free and easy to use for both us and our guests, that's pretty much what I care about.

 

[Sparkalicious]

Luvthemstrawberries - We''re using weddingwindow.com and LOVE it. They make it SOOO easy to build an amazing site. I love the fact that there is such a huge selection of tabs to assist with further personalizing your website.

The ones you would like to use, you simply "activate" and the ones that you don''t want to use at all or don''t want to use yet, you simply "deactivate". Also, I love the fact that you can upload music that helps add that extra bit of oomph to your site.
I cannot say enough good things about this wedding website, their templates and the absolute ease of their wedding website wizard. Makes it just so darn easy!!

My tabs are as follows, so far ... We are still working on it, though. As the wedding date draws closer, there are a few more that we might add and we will definitely remove some and add some, like the Thank you tab, after the wedding.
Welcome
Bride and Groom
Our Story
Proposal
From Our Hearts
Bridal Party
Ceremony
Reception
Travel Information
Accommodation Ideas
Local Activities
Gift Registry
RSVP
Photo Album
FAQ
Vendors
Guestbook
You can take a peek if you would like to see a real life example.