Do You Need to Create a Wedding Website?

Are they necessary? No. Are the helpful? Yes.

Wedding websites are perfect for destination weddings. Remember, destination weddings are not only those in some exotic sunny locale; if you live in Chicago and are saying "I Do" there too, but most of your family and friends are traveling to Chicago for the big event, you are having a destination wedding. So, why go through the hassle of setting up a wedding website?

1. A wedding website will provide your guests with pertinent information about your wedding -- event times, gift registry, hotel options, etc.;
2. A wedding website will give your out-of-town family and friends an opportunity to be a part of your planning process;
3. If you take the time to upload pictures of your family and friends, a wedding website will give your guests a chance to meet one another virtually before arriving at your wedding; and
4. A wedding website will lessen the amount of phone calls and emails you get from family and friends asking questions about event times, your gift registry, travel arrangements and the like. Honestly, they'll still call but you can deftly direct them to your wedding website!

So, how do you find the right wedding website? There are a ton out there, some are free and some aren't (average cost is about $60). All have some sort of free trial and a bunch of interesting templates to choose from. Every wedding website contains essentially the same components -- Greeting, Bride's Story, Groom's Story, Our Engagement Story, Gift Registry, Guest Book, Guest Information, Wedding Party, and Photo Albums. A word-to-the-wise, while almost all of these sites are very easy to set-up and permit a great deal of customization, set-aside a good chunk of time (at least one evening or weekend afternoon) to upload your photos and information. Create your wedding website shortly after you get engaged to minimize the amount of time you spend focused on your wedding website once the wedding planning really begins.

Free wedding websites: the knot, Wedding Jojo, Wedding Wire, Project Wedding.

Paid wedding websites: Wedding Window, Wedsite, E-Wedding, nearlywed.

[image from www.zmweb.com]