A wedding website is one of those things you're told you need without anyone explaining what it should actually contain. The result is usually one of two extremes: a sparse one-pager with the date and a venue name, or a fifteen-tab beast that nobody reads. Neither helps your guests.
This is the practical checklist — what to include, what to leave out, and the order to build it in.
The non-negotiables
Every wedding website needs these. Without them, your guests will message you instead of finding the answer on the site, which defeats the point.
- The date — in writing, not just on a graphic. People copy it into their calendars.
- The venue name and address — ideally with a Google Maps link or embedded map. "St Mary's Church, Surrey" is not enough — there are multiple.
- Start time — for the ceremony, not just "afternoon". If there's a separate reception venue, both arrival times.
- The RSVP method and deadline — a clear button or link, with a deadline 4-6 weeks before the wedding.
- Dress code — even if it's "no dress code", say so. Otherwise people will agonise.
If your site has only these five things, it's already more useful than half of all wedding sites. Anything below is a bonus.
The strongly-recommended additions
Schedule / running order
A simple timeline so guests know when to be where:
1.30pm — Guests arrive
2.00pm — Ceremony
3.00pm — Drinks & canapes
4.30pm — Wedding breakfast
7.00pm — Evening guests arrive
7.30pm — First dance
12.00am — Carriages
People love this. It removes anxiety about timing, especially for guests with kids or older relatives.
Accommodation
Two or three nearby hotels with a price range and rough distance from the venue. If you've negotiated a group rate, mention the booking code. If you've block-booked rooms, list which guests are confirmed where.
Travel and parking
Nearest train station, whether there's parking on site, whether you've arranged buses or taxis. If guests need to plan a 90-minute drive on country lanes, telling them in advance saves a stressed phone call at 1pm on the day.
Gift list / honeymoon fund
Either a link to your registry, a honeymoon-fund page, or a polite note that your presence is enough. Guests will ask. Save them the awkwardness.
Children
Are kids welcome? Just to the ceremony? Just to the daytime? Adults-only? Be explicit. This is the single most-asked question to couples by guests. Answering it on the site means you don't field it forty times by text.
The nice-to-haves
- Your story — how you met, the proposal, etc. Some people love this; others skip it. Worth including a short version.
- Photos of the venue — especially if it's somewhere unusual or off the beaten path
- Things to do nearby — for guests staying the weekend
- Song requests — collected via a form, sent to your DJ
- Dietary requirements — collected at RSVP time
- FAQs — pre-empt the questions you've already been asked twice
- A photo gallery after the day — for guests to upload their own snaps
What to leave out
The temptation is to put everything on the website. Resist. The more there is, the less anyone reads. In particular, leave out:
- Long bios of every wedding party member — nobody reads them. A photo and name is enough.
- Detailed seating plans — this lives at the venue, on the day. Putting it online invites disputes weeks in advance.
- Your full love story in essay form. A short paragraph, yes. Five paragraphs, no.
- Multiple contradictory contact methods — pick one (a website RSVP, an email, or a phone). More than one and people pick the wrong one.
- Anything sensitive — venue access codes, gift values, exact guest counts. Public-internet things should stay public-internet appropriate.
The order to build it in
If you're starting from scratch, build in this order:
- Save the date page — date, venue, "more details soon". Send the link 9-12 months out.
- Add the schedule, dress code, accommodation — once these are confirmed, usually 6 months out.
- Add the RSVP form — 3-4 months out, in time for invitations.
- Add gift list and FAQs — 2-3 months out, when guests start asking.
- Add travel and final-week details — 4 weeks out: parking, taxis, anything timing-critical.
This staged approach means the site grows with the planning, rather than being a wall of "TBC" eight months before the day.
Personalised vs. one-page
A personalised wedding website (each guest sees a page tailored to them — their name, their plus-one or not, their accommodation if you've booked it) gets dramatically better RSVP completion rates than a generic public page where they have to type their own name. If you can use a platform that supports this, do.
It also lets you do small thoughtful things at scale — greeting each guest by name, showing only the events they're invited to (some are evening-only, some are daytime), and collecting their dietaries against their record automatically.
Mobile first, always
Roughly 80% of your guests will look at your wedding website on a phone — usually on the train, in bed, or while they're meant to be working. If your site only looks good on a desktop, you've effectively built it for the wrong audience. Test it on your own phone before sending the link.
One last piece of advice
Write the homepage as if your most-distracted guest will only read the first three lines. Date. Venue. RSVP link. Everything else is bonus content that the curious will scroll for.
That's the entire skill of a good wedding website — making the essential information impossible to miss, and the everything-else easy to find when needed.
If you'd like a wedding website that does all of this out of the box — personalised guest pages, RSVP tracking, song requests, photo upload, the lot — that's exactly what ourbigwedding.day is for. One link replaces a fortnight of admin.