If you’ll be getting married soon, then you may want to create your own personal wedding website to keep everyone in the loop — and to keep yourself more organized, as well.
A wedding website is a great way to keep everyone up-to-date with all the latest changes and the nitty-gritty details.
The best part: all of the legwork associated with creating a website from scratch is done for you by the website host.
You simply choose from several free wedding website templates in order to create a unique look and design to make the pages exactly as you want them!
Why Brides Use Wedding Websites
As a busy bride who is trying to plan the perfect wedding, you’re going to have more than enough to keep you busy without having to be constantly answer phone calls and e-mails with questions about your wedding. That’s why a free wedding website makes so much sense!
When you create a personal wedding website of your very own, you can:
- Post important dates like dress fittings (for your bridesmaids), wedding rehearsal, bridal shower, and all the other events associated with your wedding (including the ceremony itself) — along with maps & directions for how to get to the events.
- Keep track of the dates you sent out invitations, who they were sent to, and even set it up so people can RSVP online (instead of via telephone, mail, or e-mail).
- Set up an interactive online guestbook where people can leave their well wishes for you and your new husband.
- Provide links to all of the locations where you have gift registries set up — which makes finding wedding gifts a really simple process for your friends and family members.
4 in 10 couples have a wedding website that links to their online registry.
The Knot
- Share a list of everyone who will be in your wedding party. You can even include photos of everyone.
- Create a page to share the story about how you both met, along with any other stories about the two of you that you would like to share with friends and family.
- Share photos and fun stuff so those who cannot attend your wedding can see all the best highlights from your wedding (and the days and months leading up to the ceremony) via photographs and the stories that you post online.
There are lots of different things that you can post on your personalized free wedding website:
- Photo albums
- Videos and audio files
- Mailing list
- Polls and quizzes
- Files to be downloaded
- Personal blog
- Who’s who in the wedding party
- Gift registries
- FAQ page
- Maps & directions
- Your personalized vows
- RSVP forms
- Guestbook with personal messages
- Fun widgets
Then, after your wedding ceremony has taken place, all of your friends and family will have one place where they can go to see photos and highlights from each of the activities you posted.
It’s like an online wedding scrapbook!
Best Free Wedding Websites
Now, I bet you’re wondering which ones are the best free wedding websites.
Following is a list of the ones I think are best, based on the features they offer and testimonials from couples who’ve used them:
- Destination Weddings
- eWedding
- Joy
- Minted Wedding Website
- Squarespace
- The Knot
- WedSites
- WeddingWire
- Wix
- Zola
Before You Choose A Free Wedding Website…
Your best bet is to explore the offerings at several free wedding websites before you decide which one you will ultimately use.
Keep in mind the following things:
- The more space (bandwidth) they allow you for free (without upgrading), the better — especially if you’ll be uploading lots of photos.
- The fewer ads they display on your wedding website, the better. Most important is that the ads are not intrusive and distracting to the quality of your pages.
- The quantity and quality of templates available may be important to you. You want to be able to create the right look that matches your personality.
- The longer they will host your wedding website for free… the better.
- Ease of use is important. Most free wedding websites are legitimately free and virtually dummy-proof — meaning anyone can create their own website without any website or computer knowledge at all. Others may expect you to jump through a lot of hoops in order to take advantage of their “free” wedding website.
