How to choose a wedding website to fit your needs

Today we’re going to look into a relatively new phenomenon in the vast world of weddings: the wedding website. How do you choose a wedding website from the vast number on the Internet? How do you create one? Why should you put time and effort into managing one? What can your website do for you? All of these questions and more shall (hopefully) be answered below!

Let me start by saying that I have done a decent bit of research into the array of available wedding websites, and I know one thing to be especially true: There is no need to pay for a fancy schmancy website when the free ones out there are so good! However, if you feel like you need all the bells and whistles or you want to just deal with one website instead of having accounts on a few different ones, there are a few subscription wedding websites that look pretty cool.

If you want to pay for a wedding website…

Appy Couple

As the name states, this website allows you to sync all of its wedding planning tools between its app and the website.
I love that your guests can download and take pictures through the app, which are then automatically added to your photo gallery.  Plus, the website templates are just darling.

Wedsite

This website seems like it gives a unique spin on all the things you can expect from a wedding website: RSVP tracking; photo galleries; great design; and customizable pages to give your guests all the information that they’ll need.
I love that everything comes together in a book format, allowing your guests to flip through the pages and making sure they don’t miss something because they didn’t scroll all the way to the bottom. Also, you get a free 7-day trial, no credit card required!

If you want to be budget savvy and still have a great wedding website…

While these sites both look great, I just want to emphasize that there’s no need to spend money for features you can get for free! I primarily used two wedding websites: one that was circulated for my guests to use, and one that I used solely for planning. Let’s start with the one my guests interacted with!

Wedding Wire

This website is everything that I ever wanted in a wedding website, plus some. First of all, let’s talk design. While there were enough website templates to fit any bride’s vision, it also offers the ability to completely customize the website to your liking. I used a picture from our engagement session as the background and changed the standard font colors to match my wedding colors. I also input our online registry lists, a photo gallery, and a page all about the members of our bridal party. And this was all completely free! No premium membership, no sneaky fees.

The main reason I chose Wedding Wire, however, was for its RSVP tools. I’m so glad I did because it saved us hundreds of dollars in return envelopes, RSVP cards, and stamps! I simply uploaded my guest list to the website and was able to customize the RSVP settings to fit my wedding. For instance, I didn’t need to track dinner preferences for our reception (buffet all the way!), but you can have them choose “beef,” “chicken,” “vegetarian,” or input your own dinner options right there when they RSVP!

You can also separate your guests into certain lists, create seating charts based on who has RSVPed, and track when you sent out invitations, what gifts you have received, and which thank you notes still need to be written. The interface is really simple to use, so my guests just have to put in their last name and then choose their household from a list right on the wedding website. I seriously could not be more happy with my Wedding Wire website!

The Knot

My The Knot account is more for me and my sanity. I go back to it pretty much daily for the great planning tools. I seriously swear by the “My Checklist” and “My Budgeter” options, and whenever I have an odd wedding question, I immediately head to the forums. It’s a great reminder that you are in no way alone in this crazy wedding planning world.

“My Checklist” is the best because the wonderful individuals at The Knot have already thought of it all. Seriously. Whenever I feel like I’m forgetting something, I go to the checklist and see if I’ve missed any “To-Dos” or (heaven forbid) “Overdue” items. Plus, you can add and delete items based on your unique wedding. Basically, everything that I do at The Knot is for my peace of mind, and it has worked beautifully thus far.

Also, I’m not using The Knot as my primary wedding website for my guests because I like Wedding Wire’s RSVP function better, but it does have a pretty cool feature where all of your online registry lists can be combined as one, complete with pictures and the ability to click directly to the website to buy them. I have to admit that this one function almost had me abandoning my online RSVP plan. Thank God I dodged that quite expensive bullet…

So here are a few of the best options out there for your wedding website needs. Not only is a wedding website an expected element of any twenty-first century wedding, it can actually take a load of stress off of your shoulders. Just be sure to have a contingency plan for any unexpected server outages or Internet crashes!

Did you use a wedding website for all of your nuptial needs? Have you used any of the websites that I listed, or do you have some others to share? A second opinion is always appreciated!

P.S. You should start with a good guest list and then your life will be even easier.