What to Put on Your Wedding Website (With Examples)

A wedding website does not need to be beautiful to work. It needs to answer your guests' questions before they text you. All of them.

Try this: picture the messages you will get in the weeks before the wedding. "Where do we park?" "Are kids invited?" "Is there a hotel nearby?" "What does 'garden formal' actually mean?" Every question that reaches your phone is a section missing from your website.

Here is what we would put on it, in the order guests go looking.

The essentials, above the fold

At the top of the home page, without scrolling: your names, the date, the city, and a button to RSVP. That is it.

Everything else can be longer, but those four things need to jump out on a phone screen, because that is where most of your guests will open the link. Hardly anyone reads a wedding website sitting at a laptop.

The schedule

Hour by hour, with a location for each part. Guests want to know when to arrive, how long the ceremony runs, and whether there is time to check into the hotel between the ceremony and the reception.

A clear example:

Saturday, June 13

• 3:30 p.m. Ceremony at St. Mark's Church
• 4:30 p.m. Cocktail hour on the terrace at Willow Creek Farm
• 6:00 p.m. Dinner and toasts
• 8:00 p.m. Dancing until 11

Sunday, June 14

• 10:30 a.m. Farewell brunch at the hotel, for anyone still in town

If some guests are invited to the ceremony only, or you are hosting a rehearsal dinner for a smaller group, do not show them events they are not invited to. Awkward conversations start that way. It is one reason to prefer a website where each household only sees its own events.

Travel, parking and getting home

An address on its own is not enough. Add:

• a map link for each location;
• where to park, especially if it is a field, a garage with a fee or spots are limited;
• the nearest airport and roughly how long the drive is;
• shuttle times, if you are running one, including the last ride back;
• a line about getting home ("rideshare pickup is at the main gate; cell service is patchy, so book your ride ahead").

That last one matters more than it looks. It is the question nobody asks out loud and everyone thinks about.

Hotel block and accommodation

For an out-of-town wedding, this is the most-visited page on the site. Include your hotel block details: hotel name, booking link or group code, the rate, and the cutoff date after which unbooked rooms are released. Guests miss that cutoff all the time if it is not in bold.

Add a couple of alternatives at different price points, and the drive time to the venue for each.

Dress code, in plain English

"Cocktail attire" or "garden formal" mean different things to different people. Translate them into practical advice:

Summer cocktail attire. The ceremony is on the lawn, so heels may sink; block heels or flats are your friend. It cools down fast after sunset by the lake, so bring a layer.

Two useful sentences beat one trendy label. If you have a specific request (a color to avoid, a theme, no white), say it simply, without apologizing.

Kids and plus-ones: be explicit

These are the sections couples most want to skip and least should.

If your wedding is adults-only, say so warmly and clearly:

We love your little ones, but we have decided to make our wedding an adults-only celebration. We know that takes some planning, and we are grateful. If you need a sitter near the venue, message us and we will share a few names.

Same for plus-ones. The invitation envelope should already make it clear who is invited, but a line on the FAQ helps: "We are only able to accommodate guests named on your invitation." It sounds firm because it is. It also saves you a dozen individual conversations.

Online RSVP

If your website does one thing, make it this. An RSVP form saves you from compiling texts, emails, and answers given in passing at a family barbecue.

Ask only what you need: attending or not for each event, names of everyone in the party, dietary restrictions or allergies, maybe a meal choice. Every extra question is another reason to put the reply off until later. For what comes next, including follow-ups, see how to get guests to RSVP.

Registry

One page, simple tone. No need to justify a honeymoon fund at length. One sentence does it: "Having you there is the best gift. If you would like to contribute, we have set up a fund for our trip to Japan." Still choosing between gifts and cash? We compare the options in cash fund vs registry.

FAQ for everything else

Collect the questions that do not deserve their own page. Some that come up again and again:

• Is the venue wheelchair accessible?
• Will the ceremony be unplugged? (If so, explain why, nicely.)
• Is there a coat check or a place to change?
• Will there be vegetarian options?
• Who should we contact on the day if something goes wrong? (Give a wedding party member's number, not yours.)
• What happens if it rains?

Nice to have, not required

"Our story", engagement photos, a page introducing the wedding party: lovely, gives the site personality, but nobody will mind if they are missing. If you write the story, keep it short. A few paragraphs, one good anecdote, not your biography.

After the wedding, the site can have a second life as the place where guests upload their photos from the day. More on that in how to collect wedding photos from guests.

What not to publish

A wedding website holds personal information: your full names, a date, a place where you will be away from home, sometimes family photos. A few common-sense precautions.

Password-protect it. Print the password on the invitation and you keep strangers out.

Do not list your guests anywhere visible.

Skip search engine indexing unless you genuinely want the site found by searching your names.

Keep your home address off it. Guests who want to mail a gift will ask, or ship to the registry.

When should the website go live?

In two stages. A first version with the date, city and hotel block when the save-the-dates go out, around 6 to 8 months before. The full version, with the detailed schedule and RSVP, when you send the invitations. Our wedding planning timeline puts those steps in order.

If some of your family speaks another language, add it. A couple whose grandparents live in Mexico will make the grandparents' week by offering the schedule and travel page in Spanish.

The iPlanMyWedding wedding website covers all of these sections, with RSVP by household and by event, password protection and multiple languages. Whatever you build it with, the rule stays the same: every question you get asked twice deserves a line on the site.

FAQ

Do I need a custom domain for my wedding website?

No. A free address with your names on a wedding website service is perfectly fine. A custom domain is a nice extra if you want something short to print on the invitation.

How long should the website stay up after the wedding?

A few months at least, long enough to share photos and thank everyone. After that it is up to you; some couples keep it as a keepsake.