Oh hi, hive! Remember me? (Probably not—that’s OK, though. 
) I think with just over 100 days (WHERE HAS MY TIME GONE!?) to go, it’s time to start talking about the things that we aren’t including in our wedding. Or wedding planning, in this case. Today, I’m talking about why we aren’t having a wedding website.
Websites by MyWedding / Photo by Matt Ramos Photography / How cute are these!?
So initially, I just assumed that like most other couples that I know who’ve recently gotten married, we would have a wedding website. We’d share the engagement story, more details about the wedding day, places to stay and things to do while guests are in town—things like that. Pretty much the “norm” of wedding websites these days.
I also thought I would allow guests to RSVP online. While I know there are some guests who won’t utilize that method, I thought—why not? Speaking personally, I know it would be a lot easier for me to hop online and RSVP than it would be to mail something back in—I would forget about it! So that was my plan…or so I thought.
After talking to Mr. O about the RSVP situation, he said he really didn’t think his family would utilize that function. Then after a closer look at the guest list, we realized that over 90% of our guests would be from the area—they won’t need our instructions on where to stay or what they can do for entertainment should they choose to stay in town rather than go home at the end of the night. I also realized at that point that I would be spending quite a bit on postage only to have the cards be tossed if they used the RSVP function online.
After that realization and a little more discussion with MOH Cubbie, we decided that maybe a wedding website wasn’t necessary for us. Even something pre-made, like the cute ones above, didn’t really seem necessary the more we thought about it.
So that was it—no wedding website for us (and more time for me to get back to the ‘Bee!).
Did you have a wedding website? If so, what was the reason you decided to have one?
We are getting married on a little island in SC where there are no hotels….only villas and houses to rent. So yes, we have a wedding website even though our event is pretty small and low key. We do have people traveling from all over the country to SC so I wanted to give them as much information as possible and even earlier than our invites going out so reservations could be made.
I’m not sure if they will really use it but it’s made consolidating all that information in one place much easier.
We have one but we have guests coming in from out of town, out of state, and out of country. We wanted to make sure our guests had an idea of local accommodations, attractions, and restaurants for their stay as well as an idea of the weather and what to wear in Florida in early November for an outdoors wedding. We also plan to use our website for RSVPs; we saved some money removing RSVP cards and postage from the budget. I figure it will be “fun” calling the stragglers but since we are only inviting around 80 guests it shouldn’t be too bad.
If I could have not had a wedding website I wouldn’t have. We needed to since about 70% of our guests are from out of town and there are only 3 (tiny) hotels within 40 miles of our location. Instead of replying to a zillion questions about lodging, we are using our website to try and answer all the questions they might have and give them 20+ options of vacation rental homes they can utilize.
We have one, but 90% of our guests are flying in from another state and we are doing online/email RSVPs only. Since our guests all use email regularly, we figured this would be easier for our guests, and easier on our pocketbook.
@courtoni: I definitely get the need to have one in your case, but can I say how jealous I am that you’re having a wedding in SC!? It will be gorgeous 
@beachbride1216: Oh, 80 guests shouldn’t be too bad at all! I have a feeling that no matter what option I give, I’m going to end up calling almost everyone. Just how it goes!
@Anesya: Good idea & a great reason to have one! We have so few guests coming from out of town that we can house them with family, so we’re going to just go that route.
@housebee: I was a big fan of email/only online, but Mr. O didn’t think any of his family would do it. In the end, it just made more sense to pay for the postage
We had a wedding website, it was sort of a must for our wedding because the majority of our guests were from out of town. Another reason why we had to have one: Mr. B and I met while studying web design! Not having one, seemed like crime! We spent tons of time on the site (it was designed and coded by Mr. B) and we both LOVE how it came out, but I’m not so sure it was utilized to its potential because we still got questions about basic info that could be found on the site!
I did simply because I have a younger second cousin with a name almost identical to mine. As in one letter different. I go by a nick name and my last name is very unique (if you have we are related unique). I was afraid people might not know my given name and either of ours would work. She. Got married about a month and a half before me. I createda wedding just to help prevent confusion. Ottherwise I wouldn’t have had one and in fact never planned to have one.
We had one, but I think only a few to no one utilized it. If I had to do it again, I wouldn’t have wasted my time
we have a wedding website, but mostly to reduce the amount of paper needed in the invitation. I don’t know if people will use it, but oh well, it didn’t take that much time
We had one for meal selections, travel info, and registry information. I pulled down a lot of information right after the wedding and I’ll do a full purge shortly.
We have a wedding website since it’s a destination wedding and every person will be traveling for it. We first mentioned our website on our STDs and me being the digital nerd that I am, implemented Google Analytics so I could track if people were even visiting the site. Surprisingly enough, it seems like the majority of our guests have visited and spent a decent amount of time on the site. I expect that number to go up once the invitations are sent out later this month!
We’re having a wedding website, for a few reasons. One being that many of the wedding guests are not from the area and the additional information will be helpful. The second is that we are not sending out RSVP cards with the invitations. Its an expense I don’t find necessary, guests can RSVP online, call us, or write back to the address on the envelopes.
I was just thinking about wedding websites earlier today. I’m actually a little disappointed concerning ours. I put a lot of time and effort putting it together and making sure it had the most up-to-date information on it before our Save-the-Dates WITH the website address on them went out and so far, I’ve gotten questions from people that could have been answered had they visited the site. I keep getting, “What hotel is it?” “Can you send me the hotel phone number and address?” “Will you be sending directions?” – ALL things that are on the website in detail. I mean, it’s not a huge deal, obviously I don’t mind providing the information, I’m grateful that people care enough to want to come and ask about it, etc. It’s just a little frustrating.
So, to sum up my mini-rant, I totally support your decision not to have a website, ESPECIALLY if you are already thinking people won’t use it. Better to save the time, effort, energy, etc. and put it toward other fun wedding things.
Hi,
I’ve created a website with http://www.theweddingwebsitegroup.com and we love it. It was so easy and quick to set up…and I had fun doing it.
We’ve sent invitations via the site and guests seem to be responding. It was only £25 (approx $38) so it’s nothing compared to what the invites would have cost. We are also finding that guests are getting venue details from there too so we’re not being phoned everyday with the same questions.
Mrs. Otter, Indianapolis, IN Age and Occupation: 22, Freelance Social Media Consultant Fiance's Age and Occupation: 23, CVS Shift Supervisor Engagement Date: November 11, 2011 Wedding Date: April 2013 Venue: Mustard Seed Gardens About Me: I'm a born and raised Hoosier girl, but a diehard Michigan Wolverines fan. I have a tendency to take too many photos and spend full days having TV marathons. Mr. Otter and I met in high school, started dating a couple years later, and moved in after a month of being official. He is easygoing and makes plans on a whim, while I'm color coordinating my planner and organizing everything in sight. He hates glitter, but it's my favorite thing. I have tattoos and he still won't get one, despite my attempts to convince him. We're planning a small, rustic, and (hopefully!) peony-filled wedding to get our married life started. (And yes, there will be glitter involved!)
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