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Miss Snapdragon, Chicago Age and Occupation: 30, Production Assistant for a Media Firm Fiance's Age and Occupation: 30, Education Administrator Wedding Date: June, 2009 Blogging Since: November 14, 2008 Venue: The Hyatt Lodge About Me: Vintage and crafting obsessed. Voracious reader of short stories, Russian literature, National Geographic and Cosmo. I am a GENIUS at spicing up Weight Watchers recipes and a pathological cheater at board games. A Texan transplanted to the snowy Midwest, I can't wait to marry my one and only. Is it June yet? ... What about now?
About Miss Snapdragon

A Winning Wedding Website

November 25th, 2008 @ 1:30 pm by Miss Snapdragon

Ok, so now that we’ve covered the technicalities of making a wedding website work in my previous post (redirects, masking, etc.) … onward with content! Obviously, this is just how we created our website. There are things that I wish we did differently and things that I really like about our site. Hopefully, this will help those of you in the midst of building your own fantabulous sites!

As I mentioned in my past post… I can’t say this enough: As soon as you set up your URL, have a few friends try to get to the site from different computers before you set up all your content. If the URL is tricky or prone to problems due to the company you chose… it’s good to know that early on, before you spend hours slaving away at your computer (but I’m not bitter). :)

We picked a wedding website service where I could just select a design theme and then enter text and pictures - one where we could use tools like RSVP, Guest Music Requests, etc. Mr. Snapdragon could have designed and built our own site… but that just seemed like a can o’ worms. Many props to those of you who started from scratch!!!

Our site includes a Welcome Page, Our Story, Bride and Groom, Bridal Party, Groom’s Party, Ceremony/Reception Info, Accommodations/Directions, Local Activities/Dining, Guestbook, Contact Us, Online RSVP, Music Requests, and Registry. SHEESH - it is now clear why our wedding website took two months to finish: the Snapdragons are apparently masochists. However, the site is attractive and informative and pretty user-friendly, which is an accomplishment, at least!

We used candid photos where we could - not the least of our reasons being that we don’t have engagement photos yet (!)… but I think candid actually can be much more emotionally accessible and show a couple as they really are - without fancy lighting. Sometimes not looking your absolute best actually is better, in my opinion anyway! This is not always the case, but it can be something to think about. People appreciate it when you are yourself. There’s a lot blurred out from these screenshots, but you should get the general idea…..

For the “Party Pages,” we wrote fun bios/tributes to each one of our brides-babes and misters. We also included three photos of each of them that showed off their personalities. If they are married and had their own wedding picture, we included that too. My favorite (!) part of our pages is that right at the top, we wrote about our parents and then included a picture from their respective wedding days, and then a picture from their most recent anniversaries.

Another handy part of our website has been the Guest Music Request page. We hired a DJ that we totally trust to gig our wedding without us feeding him every single song. He is a pro! However, it still helps him to have an idea what we are all into - our guests are BIG-TIME on the dancing… so we have already been getting music requests.

The last major thing I’d say about our website was that we put a lot of work into the Accommodations/Directions/Activities/Dining info. We have so many people flying and driving in from out of town, and our wedding’s on a Friday, so… this was especially important. We are really proud of our city, and we want people to be able to enjoy it while they are here! Mister Snapdragon and I listed our favorite places, and why we love them - hopefully, this will help our guests out quite a bit!

Later on, we’ll be updating our site with Wedding Events and other things that our guests will need to know about. We tried to make our site really focused on our guests - I have always loved the weddings I’ve attended where the bride and groom were super considerate and welcoming to their guests - and we are trying our best to do the same!

So in conclusion, even though this site made me curse my computer out [yes, mom, I curse sometimes ;) ] it was ABSOLUTELY worth it. Our guests are already using it, leaving messages in the guestbook, and bookin’ their hotel rooms. I highly recommend going tech-savvy with your wedding!

What information do you have on your wedding website?

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7 Responses to “A Winning Wedding Website”

1.
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Guest
Balltobe

I love the song requests via the website! Does anyone know if you can do this on weddingwindow?

 
2.
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Guest
Nicole

Which wedding website did you wind up choosing?

 
3.
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Miss Snapdragon (message)  439 posts, Helper bee

@Nicole: We went with WeddingWire - we liked their layouts and “extras” the best… and they were free. One caveat, however, is that the web addressing (for us anyway) was a pain in the booty. We had to set up a redirect (explained in my last website post.)

 
4.
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vickyvic (message)  1 posts, Wannabee

Miss Snapdragon,

I’m looking for ideas for reception and ceremony sites with a tight budget in Chicago. Any suggestions? Where are you having yours?

 
5.
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Bee
Miss Snapdragon (message)  439 posts, Helper bee

@Anonymous: Well, I am afraid I had a super-hard time finding a place I both liked and could afford in Chicago. First thing - I would say go to the suburbs. Second - trim your guest list. Third - Consider something unusual: a heavy hors d’oerves or luncheon reception. My venue is NOT really on the super-budget end. We could only afford it because we have a small guest list that exactly matches the minimum food/bev costs.

 
6.
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Miss Meatball (message)  613 posts, Busy bee

Great job! I’m impressed!

@Anonymous: check out the Barn in Barrington. My BF is getting married there and got a great deal on an off-night, off-season. Also, the Kenilworth Club is a great location, and affordable too!

 
7.
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Sarah

We had a bride and groom trivia quiz, an idea I stole from MSW. After the wedding, we added a wedding trivia quiz, a honeymoon trivia quiz, and as many of the crossword puzzles from the weekend as we could. I have a sneaking suspicion that the majority of post-wedding visits to our site were folks looking for puzzle solutions.

 


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Miss Snapdragon Miss Snapdragon, Chicago Age and Occupation: 30, Production Assistant for a Media Firm Fiance's Age and Occupation: 30, Education Administrator Wedding Date: June, 2009 Blogging Since: November 14, 2008 Venue: The Hyatt Lodge About Me: Vintage and crafting obsessed. Voracious reader of short stories, Russian literature, National Geographic and Cosmo. I am a GENIUS at spicing up Weight Watchers recipes and a pathological cheater at board games. A Texan transplanted to the snowy Midwest, I can't wait to marry my one and only. Is it June yet? ... What about now?
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