{Website to design/create your wedding website}
Review: Very user-friendly and organized...offers a ton of styles and potential categories. Especially good for 'website dummies' like myself (i.e., it's idiotproof) - it takes the guesswork out of trying to organize things yourself.
I am a planner who needs as many details as possible in advance - especially when we travel. In my humble opinion, you really can't have too much information (ok maybe you can, but more on that later...). Because we had so many out-of-town guests, having all of our wedding-related details in one accessible place was important. August is also a peak travel time to/from the NY/NJ area, and I wanted to ensure that guests had plenty of time to book plane tickets.
Weddingwindow was recommended to me by a friend who had planned her own destination wedding in Mexico. We had such a positive experience using it throughout our planning process! We opted for the 18-month plan, which costs $99. We also chose to pay an additional fee for our own domain name - wifeandhusband.com is much easier to remember than wifeandhusband.weddingwindow.com.
The good:
*There are tons of styles and backgrounds to choose from - even more now than when we started back in 2008. You aren't boxed into a floral background or hearts aflutter. We chose an 'ethnic-looking' background that was perfect for an Indian wedding!
*The true gems of WW are its organizational categories. There were categories I hadn't even thought of (if you can believe it), beyond the standard 'Our Story' or 'Wedding events.' For example, you can add an online RSVP to save paper or add some Puzzles and Games to help your guests get to know you. You can also add your own categories (we added one for wedding events, since we were having a second and separate reception in Miami). One of our favorite features was having a 'What's New' pop-up window come up every time a guest came to the site. We were able to add reminders about booking deadlines, and link guests to our engagement pictures once added.
*The pricing timelines are pretty long, with an option to extend your time afterwards for a small, additional fee.
*WW has some great picture hosting capabilities! We uploaded at least 100 pics from our engagement ceremony with no problems, and later, some pics from the wedding ceremony and reception.
*You can password-protect your website. We didn't do this, just to keep things simple, but for many I'm sure the feature would be useful.
*You can include direct links to your online registries. Please don't be one of those people that lists the registries on the invitation (while many wedding faux pas have become outdated, I think this one still stands)!
*Music! You can include several songs on the website!
The not-so-good:
*It's not a free service, which may be a problem for some. However, I believe it's completely worth the money, considering the organizational features and picture-hosting abilities you get. I'm sure there are free services out there, but I doubt they are as comprehensive as WW.
Tips:
*Keep your family in the loop about your website, and ask them to spread the word. Whenever people asked our parents about directions or events, they always referred people to the website. Soon, everyone was checking it regularly!
*Make the website early...as soon as you book your location and know the date! If you want to send out save-the-dates, it's a good idea to get cracking on the website so you can include the url on your save-the-dates.
*Keep the site as informative and up-to-date as possible. In the beginning, if you have the location and date, you can include these, as well as some basic travel information if you have guests flying in. We had a ton of friends coming via train (NJ Transit or Amtrak), so we uploaded the train schedules in pdf form to the site, and some basic maps of the area.
*We kept things relatively simple, choosing the following categories: Welcome, Bride and Groom, Our Story, Family, Then and Now, NJ wedding events, Miami events, Travel Information, Accommodations, Local Activities, Gift registries, Guestbook, Photo Album, FAQs. Honeymoon info felt a little too personal to dish out to our hundreds of guests, but we're also very private people.
[I have seen wedding websites where the bride will discuss her dress and shoe options, makeup or hair ideas, etc. In my opinion, these have NO place on your wedding website, which is really meant for your guests. Additionally, I would never have posted pics of my design or floral ideas...you want to make an impact and keep things a surprise! My advice would be to make a planning blog and keep the 2 sites separate.]
*People LOVE to see pics of you when you were younger, so we included a handful of our baby and kid pictures. We also had several family pics, so that our guests would recognize the important people of the day!
*If you can, I would opt for the longest length plan possible. We were engaged for just about 1 year, and the 18-month option was perfect for us! After the wedding, many people wrote in our Guestbook congratulating us and saying what a wonderful time they had!
A nice bonus of our website was that it allowed our relatives in India to feel connected to our events, since most of them were unable to attend. The website had enough personal and wedding-related details to help our guests feel connected to us and our families even before the actual day! Similarly, posting pictures from the NJ and Miami events kept the 2 sets of guests informed about everything we had planned. A wedding website is usually very much appreciated by your guests...don't bother with trying to create your own or joining a cheap service...I urge you to try WeddingWindow...it will have EVERYTHING you need!
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