With This Blog, I Thee Wed
January 15th, 2008 @ 10:28 am by Mrs. Lovebug
Back when Mrs. Corn was still a single stalk, she wrote about hosting a wedding website on Blogger. Well, I took the Corn Challenge, and I thought I’d share some of the fun stuff I did to personalize our site:
These are the header and footer I knocked together to represent our Sweetest Type of Love theme. I also gave the site a cute matching favicon (like the bee in Weddingbee’s URL):
The whole reason we’re using a Blogger-based site is to have custom details such as these. I just didn’t want to be boxed in to one of the boilerplate templates that I kept seeing on the regular wedding websites - “Romantic”, “Coastal”, “Retro”… - especially since our wedding has (I hope!) a unique theme. I saw the website as an opportunity to help pull this whole aesthetic together. Plus, I wanted to be able to make an unlimited amount of pages.
I purchased a short, memorable domain for a whopping $9 from Go Daddy. I called them and they walked me through redirecting the blogspot URL to the new domain. In five minutes, our web address went from http://website.blogspot.com to the much simpler www.website.com - short and sweet for printing on our save-the-dates.
From there, I was able to turn our website into a veritable Easter egg hunt: pages within pages, and all kinds of funny stuff to show a bit of my personality to that 53% of our guests who’ve never met me.
There’s the “Sweet Peeks” page, where I’ve posted tiny portions of photos of things from our wedding such as my dress, our cake toppers, etc., as well as our first dance song (stolen without remorse from The Monkeys):
I also planted hints as to what the images are in the image files, so that mousing over them gives readers a “pop-up” clue.
There’s the recipe for a Peach Blossom, which is the cocktail I was drinking the night I met Mr. Lovebug:
The joke about French Stewart is explained on the “Timeline” page - a list of significant events leading up to our engagement. This little “extra” is found on that page.
In order to make the website as little blog-like as possible, I removed the “Next Page” and “Previous Page” links, disabled date, time, and comments on posts, took out the navigation bar, and set the blog to one post per page. By setting the publish date of every other page to an earlier time, you can keep the home page front and center no matter how many pages you add.
Each of the pages opens within the blog (as opposed to opening a new page), and guests can navigate the site by clicking on the left-hand column of links. There are all the same pages that a regular wedding website has (”About”, “Accommodations”, “Registry”, “Contact Us” and so on), and it has the same basic layout as those sites:
But by using Blogger as a wedding website, you can also add all kinds of other, non-standard (read: fun) stuff, as well. There’s really no limit to the information and links that you can put in: a page explaining what a honeymoon registry is, a guideline for guests wanting to know how formal to dress…
…we even added a “Reject File” page with funny photos of things we considered including in the wedding, but ultimately rejected:
I also played with the tint of several of our engagement photos, fading the color so they’d have a more vintage look and match the palette of the site:
Of course, there are drawbacks to hosting a wedding website on Blogger:
- You can’t have a song playing throughout the site, though you can install a player for guests to hear a tune on one page.
- There’s no way to really have a guest book, unless you want to enable comments on every post (thus making it look like a blog); instead, I added a fun link for readers to send a send an owl à la Harry Potter.
- There’s no RSVP tracking, such as some websites offer. You can, however, see what cities your readers are logging on from with Google Analytics.
- Tech support is limited to Blogger’s help pages, though Go Daddy offers help with setting up your URL, if you need it.
But for unlimited, cheap creativity and customization, it’s great. Especially for those of us who can’t write code or do web design. I’m not a Gocco girl, so this was my DIY project. In fact, everything I did I learned in one of two places: Tips for New Bloggers and Blogger Buster. And while other bloggers might recognize the format, non-bloggers probably won’t know the difference.
Here are some links to easy tutorials of the tricks I used to de-blog and personalize our website, in case anyone thinks they might like to try it:
removing the navbar
adding a favicon
making “drop caps” (to make the first letter of a post oversized)
adjusting margins
replacing the header with an image of your own
adding a custom footer
removing the “older post” and “newer post” links
adding music
Anyone else have tips for injecting some personality into a wedding website, Blogger-based or otherwise?
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47 Responses to “With This Blog, I Thee Wed”
I love the design! Very impressive. I have no idea how to do even the most basic things on Blogger, so thanks for the tips! I also think your reject file is hysterical. Nice work, Miss L!
great job!! we’re super lazy so we decided to go with a pay site (which has the “theme” limitations that you mentioned earlier)… i wish our site looked as good/unique/cool as yours!
i’m so glad you’re back. =)
Nice job… i went for a basic template via wedding announcer… but as a designer… im not very happy with it! 
I was thinking of switching to blogger… but with all the html and stuff… its quite time consumer…
im thinking about and youve def… made me want to do it now
Oh how I wish this was around when I was planning our website…I did your typical template and I wish it had more unique elements! Your site is ADORABLE!
This is one of the best posts ever!
Your website looks adorable! It looks like you put in a lot of work towards it!
This is really beautiful! I love the Sneak Peeks and the cocktail recipe. I will say though that I don’t think you should feel too bad that you can’t have a song playing continuously. That is one of my biggest pet peeves with websites–way to make sure the rest of my office knows I’m taking an internet break!
Love, love your website!!! It’s so unique and it reflects your theme and personalities so well.
you did a fantastic job! plus, after the wedding has come and gone, you can simply close it [i randomly found someone's wedding website from like, 2000 so that's been a concern of mine for a while].
you can have one guestbook page if you don’t mind the bloglike look. just do it the same as the other pages you have. it’d be nice to have a spot for people to scribble on online.
i think i may borrow this idea myself. thanks for the links! now i won’t have to bug the tech-saavy bf. lol
Hahaha…I bet this will lead to requests!
I had to rely on my super cool blogging/website guru friend to help me with mine.
Great ideas for manipulating blogger!
Great post! I went with blogger for our website too and have really enjoyed putting it together..you might want to check out http://wufoo.com/ You can create your own RSVP form that you can add to your page..and then you can create a report from it. Or you could use it track gifts, registry info. etc.
Calaveritas: awesome tip, thank you! I’m gonna do that tonight. Oh, and I forgot to mention to everyone else another cool thing you can do with a Blogger wedding website: add video! 
I. am. so. proud.
Seriously!!
For any of you looking for a step by step on how to set up the most basic of what Lovebug has done, my earlier post that she referenced has it.
Unfortunately, I took down the NickandJessicawedding blog, but the instructions still work.
And again, Lovebug, you are da’ bomb!!
This is great! I’ve been feeling like my own blog is a bit lacking and now hopefully I’ll have some tools and ideas to help me spruce it up. Thank you1
Thank you so much for this! I’ve spent all night going through this and Mrs. Corn’s posts.
The thing I don’t get is, how did you turn off date and time on your posts? I can’t figure it out at all!
Amanda: on your template page, click edit Blog Posts. In that window, uncheck all the “extras” - everything that says Select Items - EXCEPT “show quick editing” (so you can easily edit your posts).
Make sense? If not, just say and I’ll email ya to explain further.
I tried that but I don’t have a “edit blog posts.” You’re with Blogger.com right? When I click on the template page all I get are Page Elements, Fonts and Colors, Edit HTML and Pick New Template.
So I found the button you were talking about! It turns out I hadn’t updated my template which you need to do.
But now the listing of my past posts dissappeared 
Miss Lovebug and Mrs Corn, you guys are amazing. When I saw Mrs Corn’s post months ago, I bookemarked it because I just knew I wanted to use blogger for my wedding website, but Miss Lovebug’s post was the kick I needed to get me started. It’s not quite done yet (now that I’ve started I’m obsessed with making it perfect, lol), but it was so much easier with the tutorials you guys provided. Thank you so much!
Thank you so much for the tips! I had an additional question. How did you remove the date from each blog entry that’s listed at the top?
Amanda: oh no! I hope you didn’t have a ton up yet. I know I went through lots of trial and error before I had mine set up how I wanted. Let me know if you want me to take a gander at your site, or if you’d like to see mine.
Jody: under Template, click Edit (on the Blog Post section). Just uncheck all those boxes under “Select Items”.
Miss. Lovebug - you can enable comments on only the posts you want to have comments on on Blogger - set the default to no comments in your setting page and when you are creating a new post, simple click the lower left corner (same area you would adjust timestamp if you wanted to) and enable comments on that post only.
Hey Miss Lovebug! I love the idea and I have been working on my own for the past 4 hours now…it helps that there is football on to keep FI busy…lol.
Anyways, I was wondering how you made the side links to each individual “post”
I tried following Mrs. Corn’s instructions, but that is for the “classic” and it looks like you are using the “new Blogger”
Thanks for any help you can send my way!!!
Miss Lovebug can you please send that email my way too? Right now I did it the cheating way of making each post a ‘link’ but I’m sure there’s a better way.
Also, can you please send me your website? If you don’t mind, I was hoping to steal some ideas from you. I haven’t seen too many blogs and I have a feeling mine is turning into the cheesy ‘wed’sites you see everywhere.
Miss Lovebug, you are a genius! I’m so excited to get started on mine!
Would you mind sharing your website with me, I’d love to see it in full screen for inspiration!
Lovebug, would it be possible to get the link as well? I’m just starting my blog/website, and would love to see some of the extras that you added, and how your site flows.
Miss Love Bug,
I am having some difficulties with this : ( I emailed you earlier. But started trying to go through the step by step of Mrs. Corn’s post and cannot seem to edit the Achieve section so the posts line up on the side : ( dang it! Any help you can offer would be phenomenial! : )
thank you,
ashley
Ashley: I just emailed ya, but in case you’re having trouble getting ahold of me, you can reach me at grumpgirl@gmail.com
Send me your website’s URL and I’ll take a look and see if I can’t help ya out. =)
Miss Lovebug, could I see your website as well? 
I’m one of those people who needs visual stimulation…I’ve got my own website for personal blogs, but I really want to do a separate one for me and the honey. Once I get some inspiration (hopefully your site!) I’ll be ready to create!
[...] I couldn’t help but feel a little ashamed. Then I read Miss Lovebug’s post about her blogger wedding website and it was official - I needed to redo our website. When I told Mr. Flamingo about it… he [...]
Miss Lovebug, I saw this post and bookmarked it and Miss Corn’s post. But I can’t seem to turn off the date/time either? Under my “Template” tab all I have is is “Edit HTML”, “Customize Design”, “AdSense” and “Pick New”. Can ya help?
I’ve been trying to convince my fiance for a while now that a wedding website would be fun. He seems to think it would be too much work.
Could you maybe [pretty, pretty please with sugar and gum drops on top] email me the link to you site so I can show him? I think we might be able to figure this thing out. But [bless him] he’s a visual person.
Miss. Creativ LOVEBUG… you are just like me trying to turn your original blog in to a lovely wedding page!!!
I have accomplished just about some of the same things you have after reading your blog.. but I believe yours is a better than mine!! lol
take a look at mine and let me know what ya think..
I am really interesed in how you got the tabs on the left side of your page and make it look like a real web page keeping all of the new windows on the same page..
give me some more advice i would love to be able to get the full look of your page as well!!!!
thanks danielle!!
OMG!!! THAAAAAAAAAAAAAANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH for posting this!!! I can’t believe it actually!! I was looking for the old post last week and I could not find it for the life of me. I was searching and searching, but to no avail. I’ve been married for almost 2 years now, so I don’t really check this site anymore, but I just happened to click on it today and - vua-la! Here it is!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!
mrs. lovebug…if you are still around the good ole weddingbee….would you mind e-mailing me your link too!?! xoxo jessica.froshaug@gmail.com
Jessica Lynn - I’m sorry, but I’m afraid I’ve dumped the site/blog. =( If you have any questions about how to set anything up, though, you’re welcome to email me directly at grumpgirl@gmail.com
I’m happy to help any way I can.
[...] wedding site which will go live once I send out the Save the dates courtesy of Mrs. Lovebug. I’m still working on some some final touches, but you get the [...]
Mrs. Lovebug, Tucson
Age and Occupation in 06: 31, Writer
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Professional Game Show Contestant
Engagement Date: February 18, 2007
Wedding Date: April 19, 2008
Venue: Historic Inn
About Me: Likes: blogging, wikis, semi-colons, cuddling, fragrant flowers, syntax, and spooning. Dislikes: typos, dangling modifiers, flypaper, citronella candles, and run-ons. If I had my druthers, I'd exchange simple vows in a candlelit library. But I lost my druthers long ago...anyone seen them?
Great job! I like how you have humor interspersed with all the sweet personal touches…it makes the website very much like you!