Happy Wednesday! Good news… we’re one day closer to the weekend 🙂 So I’m super duper excited this Wednesday to be talking about building your Wedding Website. But first, I have some other super exciting news. OUR WEDDING PICTURES FINALLY CAME IN! (Which is why you’ll find a gorgeous shot of our rings as the feature photo instead of one of my wedding website. I just couldn’t wait to post a ring shot!)
And seriously guys… they are amazing! Our photographer did such a fantastic job. I can’t wait to tell you all about her next week, when I talk about choosing your vendors. While I’ll be using our wedding pictures on Wednesdays from now on, I just HAD to show you a few of my favorites.
So good right?
Okay… now to the good stuff!
Once you’ve chosen your venue, and decided on the details of your wedding, it’s time to build your wedding website! My hubby and I loved doing this, and honestly, it was one of our favorite parts of the wedding process. We put a lot of time into our site, and our guests truly appreciated it. Here’s a fool proof guide on how to make an impression on your guests, before your wedding day even gets here!
Begin by choosing your platform. Are you really good on the computer? Maybe you know some coding. Maybe you’re a professional blogger. Maybe you know someone that can create a website from scratch for you. Each couple is different. Some, like me, may want to just take the easiest route possible and go with a pre-made website that can be customized to your liking. Others, may choose to start from scratch. There are so many great platforms that you can use. I suggest doing research, and seeing what you think works best for you. For Trevor and I, that was The Knot. It was SO user friendly. We also liked that if our friends and family forgot our web address, they could go to The Knot and search for us by name.
Once you choose your platform, the hard part is over! Now it’s time for the fun stuff… adding in all the information. I highly suggest that your website include:
- Your Love Story
- Your Wedding Date
- Wedding Day Information (Times and Places with specific addresses)
- Accommodation Information
- Things to Do
- Photos
- Registry
Starting up your website with The Knot is crazy easy. Just go to www.theknot.com, click “Wedding Website” and it will walk you through step by step! First you choose your theme. (Some themes even match invitations… just an FYI!) Make sure your website theme compliments your ideas for your wedding. Does it need to match perfectly? No. But when people visit it, they should get a sense of what your wedding will be like.
Once you choose your theme, it asks for basic information. Like your names, wedding date and location. It also lets you choose a photo if you’d wish. I would hold off on this until you have just the right photo to use. It will then have you create an account and it chooses a URL for you. (You can change this later!) And BAM your website is ready.
Once it’s set up, you will be taken to your dashboard which will look something like this:
Then you just begin filling in the sections.
Cover Photo: This is the picture that everyone will see as soon as they log on to your site. It has to be sideways, otherwise it stretches funny. I personally didn’t like how any of my sideways engagement photos looked in this space. So I chose four of my favorites from the same location, made a quick collage, and uploaded it. I was so happy how it turned out!
Our Story: Chances are, most of your guests won’t know the story of how you first met/ fell in love. Here is your chance to tell them! Consider writing it in story telling format, to make it more enjoyable for them to read.
The Wedding: Here is where you add the details of your wedding. It’s okay if you aren’t sure on times yet, but be sure to add the date and place as soon as you can! That way, when you start sharing your wedding website, guests can begin to prepare travel plans (especially if they need to travel far). This is also where you will choose what type of attire you want your guests to wear. Personally, I think this is important and shouldn’t be skipped. I always like to know how I am expected to dress for a wedding. Not sure exactly how you want your guests to dress? Check out this article from brides.com explaining dress codes.
Other Events: Are you planning a Wedding Welcome party? An after party? A golf outing? Here is where you can add these events. Be sure to give as many details as you can, and add a location!
Things To Do: Here is a place I notice a lot of brides leave blank, but shouldn’t. I know for Trevor and I, it was important that our guests enjoy themselves while they were in Northern Michigan for our wedding weekend. We absolutely LOVE the area we got married in, and wanted our guests to fall in love with it too. We spent a ton of time thinking about all the things we loved to do while we were in Glen Arbor, and then chose our top favorites to share on our website. We made sure to add pictures and exact locations too! We had so many guests sending us messages the entire weekend thanking us for doing this. We loved seeing the pictures our guests were posting on social media enjoying all the things we loved most about the area. Chances are, your guests are spending a lot of time and money to come to your wedding for the weekend. While your wedding day should be completely about you, the rest of the weekend should be about them.
Travel and Transportation: Do you have guests that need to fly in for your wedding? Then you absolutely must fill out this section. Don’t leave them hanging! Let them know what airport to fly into, where to get a rental car or information on public transportation. If you are getting married in your hometown, or guests can drive to the location, you may not need to fill this out. We chose not to fill this out, just because our guests were all driving to our wedding, and most were only an hour away and knew the area really well already :).
Accommodations: Whether you have blocked off rooms for your wedding guests or not, you must fill out the accommodations section. Chances are, your guests will need a place to sleep! (Unless you’re only inviting people from your hometown, and are getting married there.) If options are available, be sure to let your guests know. If you’ve blocked off rooms, they should know that too! Let them know a price range too if possible.
Photos: I’m a huge sucker for pictures of couples! If you happened to have your proposal photographed, you should add them to your wedding website! High School Sweethearts? Add a few pictures of you growing up together. The photos section can be utilized as you wish. While not necessary, I personally love looking at the photo section of a wedding website!
Registry: Finally to the registry! Chances are, you won’t have your registry set up right when you make your wedding website, and that’s okay! Just be sure to add registry items at the very least a month before your bridal shower… you want to be sure that your guests have plenty of time to purchase items for you!
And there you have it. One whirlwind round of “So You Wanna Build A Wedding Website?”. Super easy, and honestly, super self explanatory. (So self explanatory, I probably didn’t need to write a blog about it!) However, I know that when it came time for me to make mine, I liked to look at what other people did to see what I thought worked and didn’t. This is simply what worked for us!
Curious about our page? You can still find it at www.theknot.com/us/newklumpsontheblock. (We changed our URL to match our hashtag.)
Hope you’re enjoying your evening! I’m visiting my family and it’s crazy hot here today. We’re hoping for a thunderstorm to roll in and cool everything down!
Xx.
Savannah
Savannah Said It 