Congratulations, you’re engaged! One part of wedding planning couples often overlook is creating a wedding website. A wedding site can be a wonderful tool for showcasing your engagement pictures and also a great time-saver for fielding questions about your wedding. Simply giving your guests a link allows them to see to all your wedding information and your great pictures conveniently.
For those who want to DIY (do-it-yourself), we’ve listed some tips for building your own wedding website. The staff of Validity also offers wedding website design services. We use the following methods when we build a site for someone, so you know you’re getting reliable advice.
Planning
It’s important to plan out your website before you start to avoid getting overwhelmed. Focus on the big picture. When scheming in your head about your dream wedding site, think about what you want your guests to see when they hit your page for the first time. If you have some engagement pictures you really love, you might put those on the main page, so they are the first thing your guests will see. If you don’t have great engagements, plan to write a paragraph or two for the front page. You can talk about how excited the two of you are to be getting married and thank your guests for stopping by.
Now is a great time to think about integrating your wedding colors into your site. If you need a little help, try Adobe’s free color picker online at color.adobe.com. This web app will allow you to try different colors together before you start making the site.
A Google search will find a lot of beautiful example sites for you to view, since the main task at this point is to visualize your end result. But remember to keep it simple if you are creating the site yourself. There will be plenty of time later to add features.
Organize Information
Almost every wedding website has a list of tabs at the top or on the sides. This is to organize information for your guests. We recently created a wedding site for Emily, who chose the tabs Gallery, Wedding Party, Registry, Information, RSVP and a page where people can post Instagram pictures while enjoying her wedding just by using her unique hashtag.
There are unlimited options for tabs, so choose about five when you’re planning. You can always add one or two more later if you find you missed something. Some other options for tabs include Our Story, Schedule, Directions, Travel and Accommodations and Guestbook.
Create Content
When you have four or five topics, start working on the content for each page. Take your time with this. Content is the most difficult part of creating a wedding website.
You might want to tell your proposal story on one of the pages, and you don’t want that to seem thrown together. Just take your time and be yourself. If you get stuck on something, take a break and come back later.
Also, make sure to check for grammar errors before you post it to your site.
Get Awesome Pictures
Even if you don’t have official engagement pictures, there are certain to be a few good photos of the two of you. If there aren’t, now is a good time to take some. Even if you have to beg a friend to snap a few, find some cute pictures to put on your site.
Make sure the photos are high quality, even if they are just selfies from Facebook. Good pictures are crucial to a great looking website.
Find a Website Builder
Once you’ve gathered all your information and pictures, you need to figure out how to build your site on the internet. Many free website builders exist. You simply need to Google “free website builder” and pick one that you like. There are better website builders for people who are willing to pay. Some sites will allow you to build and keep a website for as little as ten dollars a month.
Another alternative is to use social media. Creating a Facebook or Google+ page for your wedding makes it easy to let all your friends and family know you have a wedding site. Social media pages aren’t as configurable as an actual website builder, however, so if you’re going to go this route, you might adjust how you plan and create content. Also, if all of your Facebook or Google+ friends aren’t invited to the wedding, make sure to politely state somewhere on the page that the event is invite and RSVP only.
Design the Pages
Planning is now officially over, and now you get to design each page. Take the information you’ve written and the great pictures you’ve found and put them all together. This might be the most time consuming part, but it’s also the most fun. Watching your site come together can be so rewarding.
Don’t give up until your site looks just right.
You’re Done!
No matter how you decide to create your wedding website, just remember it is uniquely yours. This isn’t anyone else’s wedding, so make it how you want it. Whether you hire a professional or DIY, your wedding website should be a joy to your guests before and after your wedding. Happy website building!
Need help? For a flat rate, the staff at Validity can create a gorgeous website for you and your future spouse. To get started, simply go to our website, ValidityBridal.com, and send us a bit of information about what you’d like.