Anatomy of an awesome wedding website
When Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge, formerly Kate Middleton, were planning their 2011 wedding they had an official palace website to explain every detail of their nuptials. Onlookers and guests alike could find out more about the royal couple and the wedding party, view photos and even make a donation to their official charity.
While not everyone's ceremony is at Westminster Abbey and televised to millions of people, most couples still choose to provide guests with an online guide to their wedding. When created correctly, these sites provide factual information as well as give attendees a better idea of the bridal plans.
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Newly engaged couples should not be worried about their tech skills, as these websites are not difficult to put together. In fact, couples have many options when it comes to choosing a host for their wedding website -- and for those counting pennies, many companies offer free templates.
"If a couple has Web design skill, then building a wedding website from scratch can be a fun project," Erica Taylor, a wedding planner at Tinsel and Twine in New York explained to CBSNews.com. "Otherwise, services like The Knot and Wedsite have very user-friendly templates for couples to customize. Sites like MyWeddingSite.com have really fantastic curated templates by traditional stationers like Minted, Delphine, Hello! Lucky, and Paper + Cup Designs."
Once you have a host, a design and a URL settled for your site, the next step is to decide what information to put out there for your guests to see.
The most important bits of information to include are location specifics. Adding in exact addresses, venue contact information and even a map will alleviate a lot of headaches for everyone involved. Guests with smart phones can directly input the address into their GPS and contact the venue through your site if they have questions or get lost on the day of the big event. This prevents attendees from frantically calling you as you're getting your makeup done or chatting with your bridal party.
Although nearly all couples start their websites with information about the proposal or how the bride and groom met, it might not be the most helpful information. It is safe to assume that people attending your event know a little something about the parties involved.
However, what is really helpful to guests is to include suggestions that will make attending the wedding more like a fun family vacation, and less like a summons to a mandatory trip.
"We recommend that couples suggest local attractions and activities, especially for guests that are unfamiliar with the city." said Taylor. "It's a really sweet touch to include the couple's personal recommendations like their favorite spot for oysters or best view of the skyline."
According to Taylor, it is also important to include the "why" when setting up your wedding website. Often couples remember to include the who, where and when, but forget to add in the reason why something is happening. Taylor suggests that these little tidbits of information can go a long way in sharing your story with your guests.
"If a couple chose their wedding date or location for a particular reason, it's a nice touch to share that with guests," she said. "It's important for guests to share in the knowledge that, say, the wedding is being held at a couple's first date location or at a venue the couple passed every Sunday on their walk to brunch."
Taylor said that something couples are often "hesitant" about is adding a link to their registries on their website -- but they really shouldn't be.
"Especially now that 99 percent of registries are digital and automated, guests can take care of their present for you with the click of a button," she said.
On the other hand, something a couple should steer clear of is over-sharing information on a wedding website. It's important to remember that this space is for people attending your wedding, so try to resist the urge to post the URL on social media outlets. Along the same line, it is also not the place for status updates or other pieces of information you'd post on Facebook or Twitter.
"In the excitement of getting engaged, sometimes people go overboard with their wedding websites. We've seen full-out blogs with daily entries, photo albums of vacations through the years, status updates throughout the planning process, etc," explained Taylor. "Of course, you want to add personal details and touches to make the site relevant to you as a couple, but all of that extra information belongs on a personal blog or Facebook page, not your wedding site."