Why Have a Wedding Website?
Keeping in touch with guests in the run up to a wedding, and especially one that will take place overseas, is a communications nightmare. Every change or piece of updated news must be communicated to people in multiple locations, often people you don't see very regularly. Phone calls, letter writing, sending individual emails - it all eats up your valuable time.
Once you have a wedding website, all you have to do is use your site to create a single email message, automatically send it to everyone on your list, and they can just click through and see the latest news for themselves. Your guests can RSVP through your site, so that you always have real time information about your guest list available.
When your wedding is overseas the advantages are even greater than with a local wedding, since you can also use your site to link to other resources, letting people know about hotels and flights or just information about the area where the wedding will take place.
What can you do with a wedding website?
Having a website devoted for your wedding does not require you to be at all technical, if you can click a mouse and type you already know enough to create a really impressive site!
To be honest the list of thing you can use the site for is pretty much endless, but these are the features that couples planning a wedding abroad find most useful.
Provide Travel Information
Link directly to hotel reservation forms, airline websites, maps, weather forecasts, driving directions, tourist information etc.
Email Your Guests
Email all guests at once. This is a HUGE timesaver (and saves money on mailing and phone calls too!).
Maintain a Calendar of Events
Weddings are no longer really one day events and there are lots of special dates in the run up to and immediately after a wedding.
Share Your Photo Album
Both before and after the wedding you will be able to display your photos from any events online.
Keep information Organised
Your guest list, gift registry, seating plans, contacts, supplier information, wedding party information and anything else you can think of will be in one place.
How to Set-up a Wedding Website
You can of course do it all yourself, but for most people this is not a realistic proposition. Instead, take a look at the many sites that offer pretty much instant websites with all the functionality you could want at a usually pretty reasonable price. These are the best ones we have found. All have good functionality, pretty much the same in each case, and a range of professional designs to choose from which you can readily customise.
We have compared them on 6 month and 12 month prices and whether they have a free version.
| Provider | 6 Mths | 1 Yr | Free Version | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wedding Windows | $59 | $79 | 7 day trial | Nice flash intros, stylish designs, our favourite. |
| Wed Quarters | $20 | $25 | 7 day trial | Good functionality, great price. |
| ewedding | $59.70 | $69.48 | Yes | Elegant designs, limited functionality in free version. |
| Engagepage | $49 | $79 | 7 day trial | Plain & simple designs, good functionality |
| Wedshare | n/a | $79 | 14 day trial | Great functionality, nice but plain designs |