When you’re planning a wedding, you don’t realize you’ll also be the travel coordinator for all your guests. We had a destination wedding so we heard more questions than perhaps the average bride having a wedding in town, but be prepared for constant questions about the arrangements. That’s why I highly suggest you put together a website so guests can check out the details on their timeframe.
It’s very easy to create a wedding website, and often free. You can make it as simple or as fancy as you want. The sites are fully customizable and allow you to even take requests for music.
After checking out several sites, we settled on WeddingWire. It’s a simple, intuitive process to create your site. Within an hour, you can have it all set to go with pictures, a story of how you met, and details for guests.
You can customize your URL so it’s easy for your friends to remember.
You even have the option of setting the site to public or private. I set mine to private as I didn’t want strangers to know where our wedding was being held. Perhaps that’s not as big a deal for you, but do you really want the world to know when and where your wedding and reception are being held?
We got a lot of great feedback on our site, and it was visited 1,800 times as people made arrangements.
For our destination wedding, we even put tips on finding cheap flights and cars. We had a search engine so people could search right from the site. It made it easy on guests.
We still got quite a few calls, but I can’t imagine how many we would have gotten if we didn’t have the website. People want to talk to the bride, learn about the wedding, ask about travel arrangements, etc. It’s nice to talk to everyone, but I have to admit it’s tough when you’re planning an out of town wedding and taking care of all the details yourself.
That’s why I think a website is an easy way to defer some of those questions. I gave out our wedding website countless times.
The website also keeps you on task with a countdown clock and checklists. That way you are reminded of all the things you need to do in the coming weeks and months. It’s important to stay organized and on task so you’re not overwhelmed by all the planning.
Some brides are taking the customization to a whole new level by introducing the guests to each other on social media so they get to know each other before the wedding. We didn’t take this step, but I remember attending a wedding where there were details about the wedding party, main guests, etc. You could introduce yourself as well. It became a forum to get to know the guests so you could enjoy yourself more once you arrived.
Whatever you choose to do, be prepared to answer lots of questions from inquisitive guests from where are you registered to how do I get to the reception. Happy planning!
