Many people love the old-fashioned charm of a wedding. You’re going through a rite of passage that billions of people have experienced over thousands of years. Perhaps this is why weddings took a while to modernize. Despite the internet and the proliferation of much more accessible and often fancier methods to invite guests to your celebration, many people still send physical wedding invitations in the post.
But even the more traditional among us have slowly started to recognize just how much more convenient modern technology has done planning, throwing, and organizing a wedding. You can send out invites, including video clips and RSVPs that require clicking a link. Gift registries have never been easier than online. Regarding the actual planning, you can share seating plans with your wedding planner or significant other to make real-time changes when you need to at the last minute. For this reason, wedding websites have become a popular feature for most modern weddings.
The good news is that while setting up a whole new website might sound like you need a degree in web design, at the very least, it is much more accessible than ever before to take advantage of this innovation. With a website builder like Wix, it’s as easy as one, two, or three. With an easy-to-use site like Wix, you can design your website with the help of a wedding website template that covers all of your bases. You don’t need any coding skills, as all of the website’s inner workings are taken care of for you. It’s simple to use your imagination to design it as you want it to be and let the website’s powerful tools do the rest for you.
Still not convinced? Still, wondering why you should go through all the trouble of setting up a website for your wedding when you already have enough to worry about? Here are 5 of the most compelling reasons.
Table of Contents
Coordination
Chances are you know precisely what you want for your wedding day. You probably also know exactly what needs to be done to achieve it. But just because you know exactly what you want doesn’t mean that everyone else knows what you want. There’s a good chance that your future spouse is blissfully unaware of the ins and outs of your vision for your special day. It is simply impossible to get there without the coordination of everyone involved. Considering this includes everyone from the caterers to the guests, there is no way of guaranteeing success.
A website just makes coordination between all parties involved so much easier. You can create a schedule, make it easy for guests to RSVP and choose meal options, connect guests and hotels or lodges, coordinate your wedding registry, and provide exact details on how to get to the venue. This makes it infinitely easier for you and infinitely easier for your guests.
You can even use your website to coordinate between you and the caterers, your accommodation, your wedding planner, and everyone else involved in making your wedding day perfect. This can be very quickly done by setting up sections of your website that are only accessible to those who need to access them.
Participation
Your wedding day is technically all about you and your future spouse. It is. But let’s be honest, though they may well drive you to drink at times – and not in a good way – your wedding day would never be the same without having your experience elevated by the presence and participation of your loved ones. And, I suppose, work colleagues and extended family that you haven’t seen since you were a child. Traditionally, this has meant having their presence with you, receiving presents, and perhaps most importantly for a vibey wedding, dancing. With a wedding website, you can set everything up and achieve much more.
You can provide the capability for guests to post messages, photos they take on their devices, videos, and words of wisdom, before, during and after the wedding. By inviting them to engage like this, you give them more ways to enjoy the day, feel their presence, and experience the often hectic event from a different set of eyes. Instead of standing by and watching, they become integral to the wedding itself.
Share Causes
Many people love using their wedding as an opportunity to bring attention to a cause that is important to them. These may include charities, NGOs, local institutions, and more. Traditionally, this meant mentioning the cause on your invitation or wedding registry or even donating a portion of the money you receive as gifts to these causes. It’s a fine idea, especially if you’re so well off that you don’t depend on gifts to furnish the small apartment the two of you are set to move into straight after your honeymoon.
With a website, it’s never been easier to organize such charitable causes. With a website, you can set up a page that provides information on the cause and the opportunity to donate and get involved. You can show guests how their contribution is contributing to significant change and encourage them to give by making it as easy and attractive as possible. In addition, you give the cause itself a chance to engage with your guests and keep track of how your celebration is helping them.
Share Media
Whether someone is simply a regular guest or one of the select few that make up a part of the retinue, they become an indelible part of the day by being present in photos and videos. This includes posed wedding photos, of course, but also those all-important candid videos and photos that properly capture your happy day. In the past, however, guests rarely got to see the videos and photos unless they went to the happy couple and asked to see some photos or even the wedding video. Couples posted some of their photos and videos online or, before that, would send over select photos by post, but these were just the highlights.
This could be particularly frustrating for the retinue or wedding party members, who spent hours on the day of the wedding posing for photos. They want to see how these turned out, especially since they were dressed and made up like on a few other occasions. And, of course, as they are your nearest and dearest, they would simply want to have some memento of a day that was genuinely meaningful to them too.
Your wedding website can stay up for as long as you want. It can continue serving as a hub for wedding-related activity long after the event. It is the perfect platform for you to share all of the professional photos and videos you paid so much money for.
Thank Yous
It used to be traditional for couples to send out individual thank you messages in the post. This was a tiring and frustrating part of the post-wedding experience, especially as you had to figure out exactly who had given you what and word your message accordingly. There’s even this whole plot in the hilarious show New Girl, where Schmidt, literally decades later, won’t be given his bar mitzvah money by his mother until he sends out those thank-you notes from when he was just thirteen years old!
These days, thank-you messages are no longer seen as being quite significant. At least not in their more traditional pen and paper forms. However, people still do enjoy knowing that you appreciated their presence and their gifts. A wedding website makes it so much easier for you to keep track of your guests and the gifts they gave you and to generate personal thank yous that don’t require hours of your time – let alone the hassle of posting or even emailing them.
This is also much cheaper than the traditional printed thank you messages that were yet another considerable expense on your wedding account. This is true, also, of actual physical invitations, which would cost a fortune to mark up and post, only for them to be discarded by the recipient like so much garbage after your wedding or even once they have RSVP’d and taken down the vital information about where and when your wedding is or what the dress requirements are.
A wedding website can provide so many benefits for your special day; it would also almost be shooting yourself in your foot not to use one. And best of all, it is more intuitive to design and financially accessible than ever to set up a website for all your wedding needs.
