How To Build a Beautiful Wedding Website: 4 Simple Steps

Ready to create the best wedding website for your special day? From figuring out a domain to gift registry information and the best functionality, follow our step-by-step wedding website design guide.

For many newly engaged couples, the wedding website design is an important part of the wedding planning process. It’s where guests go to find wedding details like directions and hotel accommodations, information about the reception and ceremony, and the gift registry. It acts as a resource and a countdown to the big day, plus helps minimize the number of questions you field from inquiring wedding guests.

The trouble? Putting a cohesive wedding website together can be overwhelming. The good news: Our comprehensive step-by-step guide can help.

Your Step-By-Step Guide to Build Your Wedding Website

1. Choose a Domain Name

Most websites will give you the option to buy a custom domain name that’s easy for wedding guests to find. You don't need to overthink this part. Make your custom URL something simple and memorable, such as “zola.com/maryandmattswedding” or “zola.com/mrandmrsjohnson.”

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2. Make It Private

Yes, wedding crashers are still a thing. And since nobody outside of a fictional movie wants that happening to them in real life, a good way to protect your information is by putting a password on your website and sending it only to guests. You can include your password-protected wedding website on your save the date or the invitation.

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3. Choose a Theme

This also shouldn’t require too much brainwork and can even be made easier by staying on theme with your actual wedding. Boho chic or modern and sleek, your wedding website should follow suit. Thankfully, websites have different design templates and fonts to pick and choose from, so you’re not stuck building anything from scratch (unless you want to).

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4. Build Out the Homepage

The homepage is the first thing your guests will see when they visit your site. Make it clear that they’ve landed in the right place. Include basics like the couple’s names, the wedding date, the wedding hashtag, a sweet welcome message, and photos of the couple (if you have engagement pictures, this is a great place to show them off). Guests shouldn’t be bombarded with too much information right off the bat, so keep this part minimal and straightforward.

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5. Events

The different sections of your website are where the details should live. The wedding date, time, and location should be displayed in the events tab. You can also include a breakdown of what your wedding day will include—from pre-wedding happenings to planned after-parties. If you’re having events that are exclusive to the wedding party or close friends and family (like a rehearsal dinner or post-wedding brunch), leave them off the site and reach out to those individuals separately.

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6. Travel Information

Here is where information regarding hotel room blocks, airports, car rental details, discount codes, and directions to the venue should appear.

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7. Things to Do

If you want to cater to your guests even further (especially those traveling from out of town), you can make a quick and fun list of things to do in the area—from restaurants to local parks. Chances are your guests will be staying more than one day, so suggestions for keeping busy are always a nice, thoughtful touch.

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8. Online RSVPs

This is more of a modern add-on. If you have older guests who might have trouble with technology, you should probably go with the traditional mail-in RSVPs to your wedding invitations as opposed to wedding website RSVPs. If not, digitizing your RSVPs will make your life a lot easier and help you keep track of all of the cancellations and plus ones.

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9. Gift Registry

Including registry information on wedding invitations is considered a no-no, so your website is the best place to include a link to your online registry to make sure your guests know all of your gift requests. If you’re accepting money or donations in place of presents, you can also add those details here.

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10. Your Story

This is another optional add-on, but also a good way of personalizing your site. Include a short-but-sweet section detailing your love story, how you met, and how you got engaged along with some of your favorite pictures together. Some couples also choose to include brief bios of their wedding party (from bridesmaids to parents).

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11. FAQs

Here’s where you can list out all the logistics that might not fit on the wedding invitations. Think the dress code, whether there’s parking at the venue, if the wedding is indoors or outdoors, any rules surrounding social media, whether children are allowed, etc.

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12. Contact Information

It’s almost inevitable that, even with all the love and detail you pour into your website, some guests will still have questions. For those individuals, make sure to include a personal email where they can reach out with any additional questions. You can also change and update the wedding site as the date creeps closer (just make sure to notify guests) or even add pictures from your big day and honeymoon after the fact.

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Tips to Help Build Your Best Wedding Website

While the steps to creating an informative wedding website are fairly straightforward, there are plenty of quick tips that can help you take it to the next level. The following will aid in taking your own from just okay to helpful, beautiful, and easy to understand.

• Be true to your personalities. While it’s important to keep things clear and concise, it’s equally important for your website to sound like you. The goal is to strike a balance between informative and familiar. Try not to force a very formal or gushing tone if that isn’t who you are as a couple.

• Write a short welcome message. Aside from your banner, this will be the first thing guests see when they come to your website. Welcome them with a brief greeting, followed by an introduction to your website, including what you’re celebrating or what information can be found throughout. Keep it short, since more detailed information can be located on your other pages.

• Share your wedding hashtag. Whether it’s at the top of bottom of your template or included on a couple pages, remember to share your wedding hashtag. That way, when guests share photos from your wedding day, you can easily locate them and create a photo gallery if you like.

• Dedicate a page to your wedding party. If you’re choosing to have a wedding party, consider using a page to introduce them to your guests. Guests of larger weddings—and even smaller ones—won’t often all know each-other. Provide a small photo, name, and brief introduction (your relationship to each-other or how you met) of each party member for guests to get acquainted.

• Don’t include/mention invite-only wedding events. If you’re hosting a rehearsal dinner, bridal party only brunch, or other events that are limited to specific wedding guests, refrain from mentioning them on your website. Share that information via private group chats or the like to avoid making other guests feel left out.

How to Share Your Website

You put a lot of work into building and filling out your wedding website. Not only that, but it’s the primary hub of information regarding your wedding day (or weekend) for all your guests. It’s crucial that you successfully share your website with everyone you’re inviting to your big day. Luckily, there are several ways you can do this. Follow each of the steps below to ensure that your guests are fully aware of your website, what it contains, and how to get to it.

• Step 1: Include it on your save the dates. This will likely be your first opportunity to share your website. Simply place the URL in small or otherwise easy-on-the-eyes text somewhere under your main message. This can be directly under or at the bottom of the card.

• Step 2: Include it on engagement parties and/or bachelor/bachelorette party invitations. Like save the dates, you can include your website’s URL on the invitations of any wedding-related events and celebrations leading up to your wedding day.

• Step 3: Use Zola to share your personalized link. Alter via email or text message. If you’re using Zola to manage your guest list, odds are you have everyone’s contact information (email, phone number, or both) already filled in. With that already done, it’s incredibly easy to share your Zola wedding website URL with everyone as a clickable link. Not to mention, it’s easier for guests to manage (compared to typing in a URL) and allows guests to save the link to their computer or phone.

• To share your personalized link, navigate to “Guest List” from the Zola Weddings dashboard. If you haven’t already filled in your guests’ phone numbers or emails, do so now. After, select certain guests or click “Select All.” Then, click “Bulk Actions” from the dropdown menu. Choose “Send Message,” write a brief message including your link (and website password, if applicable), and send.

Wedding websites may be a relatively new staple as far as wedding planning goes, but they’ve proven to be incredibly important. By making your own, you’re given guests a place to refer to for all the information they require about your wedding day—from basics to dress code, to accommodations, and more. If you’ve yet to make your free wedding website, allow us to point you in the right direction.

Create Your Own Wedding Website Using Zola

Did you know you can create a beautiful wedding website for free by using Zola? Not only is it easy to set up, but there are also more than 200 unique and beautiful designs to choose from that come with matching invites, and your wedding guests can shop for gifts on your registry directly from your wedding website. Choose a theme from the dropdown choices for style, then choose any specific color schemes from the dropdown navigation as well, and there you have your choices. This is a wedding website builder where you can complete set-up in no time and begin sharing with friends and family.