When planning your wedding there are a million different tasks that get added to your ‘to do’ list. Lately one such task has been creating a wedding website or wedding app – both for yourselves and your guests to use in the lead up to your big day.
Once you’ve secured a wedding date and chosen a wedding venue, now is the time to start thinking about creating your wedding website. A wedding website could even be considered a must-have tool for the modern wedding. A wedding website lets you communicate with your guests and enables them to find all the most important information about your day in one handy location. It becomes the digital hub for all your wedding information and a amazing place to store all your hard work and intense planning! Your very own personalised website – all about your wedding, genius!
Whether you are wanting free, basic customisable templates or luxury bespoke design, we have put together a list of the five best wedding websites out there at the moment and provided an overview with at a glance features to help you weigh up which site is best for you.
Wedding Website Questions Answered
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What is on a Wedding Website?
Essentially they are a hub for all the information about your wedding, The lead up, the big day itself and any post wedding functions. They are the perfect place to share all the crucial information about your wedding day such as dates, locations, registry options, accommodation and travel selections and RSVP preferences. Most wedding websites will have a template you can follow and some let you completely customise to suit you – you can add as much information as you like or opt for a more minimalistic style, the choices are endless.
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Is a Wedding Website necessary?
No, however having a website can sometimes make life a little easier for both you as a couple and your guests. It can streamline your organisation into one arena, which for the overwhelmed bride and groom can be a lifesaver. Keeping track of your RSVP information in a digital form can be a marvellous addition to your planning organisation as well as contacting guests and communicating important information in bulk which can save you precious time.
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When Should you Create a Wedding Website?
The best time to create a wedding website would be once your date is set and when you have secured a venue. There is no need to jump ahead and create a site the moment after you get engaged. You can start adding in important information as you confirm your choices and book vendors – save the launch for when you have information to share.
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How Do You Direct Your Guests to Your Website?
You can send a Save The Date, either electronically or by mail, and have your wedding website information listed there. Couples could also use social media platforms to publish the website address or via email.
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How Much Do Wedding Websites Cost?
Wedding websites have a wide range of cost options, one being free! There are many different options in regards to pricing and most sites seem to be very customisable to what you need. Most are listed in US dollars, so be careful to convert before you commit!
$0 – $249 USD
Five Best Wedding Websites
The Knot:
When you first sign up, The Knot creates a personalised URL – theknot.com/janedoeandjobloggs (any name you want – you can alter to suit!). A ‘copy and paste’ function is right at the top of your dashboard for ease of sharing the URL with your guests. It is incredibly easy and quick to set up – you’re live within minutes. The Knot is mobile friendly and you can switch to mobile view at any time on your dashboard to see how it will look on a mobile phone.
The Knot has a huge selection of professionally designed templates. They are super easy to use and you can change the theme at any time. There is also the option of matching your stationery to your webpage; The Knot offers 3 free stationery samples with an online code when you initially sign up!
All in all, The Knot is very user friendly and clear cut – simple layout and editing tools make it a great choice for beginners and the digital savvy alike!
The Knot also offers the added security and privacy of allowing you to hide your URL from search engines if you so wish.
Guests can ask questions via the website and also boasts a messaging hub where you can communicate with guests via email or text.
Price: Free!
Of course there are added extras available such a custom domains and stationery to match the website that you purchase as a download. But the website itself is absolutely free.
At a glance features:
Tabs:
- Home
- Our Story
- Photos – add photos of the two of you – a place to spam the guests with that gorgeous engagement shoot you had with your photographer
- Wedding Party – a page where you can introduce the wedding party to the guests. This is an amazing addition especially for guests to know who will be running the Hen and Stag parties.
- Q + A – any website worth it’s salt has FAQ’s – now you can too!
- Travel
- Things to do
- Registry – can add gifts or create a Cash Fund
- Online RSVP’s – you can share your website’s link with your guests, sit back and watch the RSVP’s roll in directly to your website allowing you to instantly track your guests’ responses right there on your wedding website.
- + ability to add other pages
Squarespace:
A step-up design wise, that’s for sure. Many businesses use Squarespace as their webpage platform, so you’re definitely getting a more professional looking site with Squarespace.
Squarespace boasts all the features listed above with The Knot, but on a more professional scale. It could even appear to have been created by a designer – sharp! You can customise pretty much every aspect. We found it a little more difficult to start with initially, to be honest. There was a lot of faffing around before you even get to the template. The dashboard/backend is quite straightforward though and allows you to make changes easily.
Squarespace is primarily a business platform, so there aren’t quite as many wedding friendly features as the purely wedding related website builders have. This can also make it a little harder to navigate as the tools are aimed at a whole different demographic. They do offer linking and embedding gift registries, but they are for American based companies. Their cash fun option would be a great choice for New Zealand based couples.
Price: $12USD per month for 12 months. $16USD month to month. You can also purchase additional domains, but the monthly fee includes one free custom domain for one year.
You can use the webpage free for two weeks as a trial, then you are required to pay. It can certainly start to add up if you have a long engagement or get excited and make your webpage directly after getting engaged. Being in USD is also a bit tricky – essentially double what they quote. An expensive and slightly less wedding-friendly option (especially for those unfamiliar with web design), but still classy!
Appy Couple:
Cute pun and cute app. Perfect for the couple that wants an app for their guests rather than just a website.
Appy Couple is your one stop shop, all in one tool for everything digital – digital invites, website and app all in one place together!
Soooo much is included, but you are paying a pretty penny for it. Pricing starts from $49US for the Boutique package. Leveling up to the Luxury package will set you back $149US. Each package gives you access to hundreds of designs and features. The designs don’t need any building, they are ready to go. There is 24/7 support available and as well as all the usual wedding website features, you can also enjoy a guest list manager and unlimited storage for guest lists, RSVP’s, messages and photos.
This is luxury boys and girls! Your guests will be wow’ed with the professionalism and the added ease of an app. The designs look like they have been custom designed and the fact that it is so user friendly is a massive bonus.
The only downside we can see is that for the app to be fully functional, you have to ensure your guests download the app and use it. The cost is also something to be mindful of, it is pricey compared to the others and doesn’t offer any features or benefits that other sites don’t – apart from a personalised app of course. It is amazing if you want to communicate with guests almost solely digitally.
At a glance features:
- Access to hundreds (Boutique) + all designs and features (Luxury) – no building, the designs are all ready to go
- The ability to co-ordinate your website/app with print stationery
- Change your design at any time
- Guest list manager
- Use all the publishing tools to share your details with guests and all the planning tools to manage your invites, RSVP’s, photo sharing and more
- Enjoy unlimited access and storage for guest list entries, RSVP’s, messages and photos
- The ability to message guests via the app
- 24/7 Support is also available
- Additional custom domains can be purchased for $20US
Zola:
Zola is another user-friendly option with a more no-frills approach than the other website builders we have reviewed so far. Very simple in style and a little more limited in template styles, but still have some beautiful options to choose from.
Instructions are straightforward and easy to follow. There are tips along the way and mini-tutorials.
It is American based once again and did not like when we entered Christchurch as the wedding destination. It still allowed me to create a website, but may be difficult to link with accommodation further down the track. Another problem we faced when it came to looking into the Registry function was, they essentially want you to register exclusively with them. Zola boasts to be ‘one store curated just for you’ having the classic wedding gift options, cash funds, honeymoons and experiences listed for purchase. They are high end and super pricey – and more problematic – we can’t actually buy any of them being in New Zealand though. Essentially, this function is pretty defunct for NZ weddings couples.
Zola is the first wedding website designer we have come across that has a ‘Find a Couple’ function. A search bar where you can search for couples and go straight to their website. But, at further glance we found that you do have the ability to make your event private and only visible to your selected guests.
Zola is free and has about 250 templates to choose from and you can order print stationery to match. One downside to the templates is that colours aren’t easily customisable. Definitely not as accommodating as other website builders on this front. Fonts can’t be customised either, hence our no-frills reference above. A custom domain can be purchased for $14.95US
Out of all the websites this is probably the least appropriate due to the Americanised nature and not so ‘New Zealand friendly’. Great if you’re wanting a very basic website where guests can ‘check up’ on your date and photos etc.
Minted:
Minted offer a monogram maker! This is the only website that we found to offer this. What a great feature for the couple who want to really personalise their website and digital wedding experience. You enter your names and date and then Minted show you a selection of monograms. You can change the font and accent colour and then move on to designing your website. Minted also off a 20% off code for matching print stationery early on in the process.
The templates available are designed by professional independent designers making them very unique. It’s the Etsy of the wedding website world. There are hundreds to choose from and colours can be changed to suit your theme. The quick start guide is a great feature, allowing you to make your webpage within minutes. You are a little more limited with customisation on Minted. The designers have allowed some colour changes (similar to designing a Vistaprint invitation) but that is about it. Many of the designs are pretty exceptional to begin with and don’t really need much tweaking.
It is free for the basic website set up. If you are wanting the key features, this are only available on the Premium option. There is Premium Website Upgrade function available at all times and we had to do a bit of searching to find out pricing for this. Minted is a huge website that offers multiple wedding related services, so digging deeper was needing to find all the information we wanted to review.
It is a one-off payment of $15US and you get the website for one year. If you need it for longer than that, you can buy the domain for a further year if need be.
A pop-up box ‘pops up’ with $50 worth of credit towards wedding stationery when you create a Minted Website. I’m thinking this would be for the premium option clients? Cool incentive though if you’re wanting to have some printing done – watch shipping costs to New Zealand, however!
Minted seems to have all the functions of the other wedding website builders and is once again very user friendly. Perfect for the couple who want an easy-to-follow template and don’t have to do too much designing or customising to make it look sharp – it’s already been done for you by the designers! A very reasonably price option for the quality of website you will be providing your guests.
At a glance features:
- Free
- Matching print stationery
- Customisable templates
- Smartphone friendly
- Guest List
- RSVP
- Photo Gallery
- Maps/Directions/Accommodation
- Gift Registries/Cash Funds
- Privacy
- Custom URL
- NZ Friendly
- Ability to add additional pages
- Technical Support
Last updated: August 2021
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The Knot 
Squarespace 
Appy Couple 
Zola 
Minted 
Wedding Websites Key Features
(Click to zoom in)
