Your Guide to Understanding Wedding Website Lingo

Hint: It’s all about communication.

February 21, 2017

Natalie Schack,

You paid for those engagement photos; might as well use them. Created on wix.com.

Photo: WIX.com

Ah, modernity. We’re living in a wonderful time in which you don’t have to fit every piece of wedding info, from your dress code to your hashtag to your no-kids rule (it’s a thing) onto one 7-by-8-inch card. Ladies (and gents): Embrace the wedding website.

Freebie options abound, including the easy-to-use templates on The Knot, which will walk you through everything. If you want something more customizable, with which you can build your own pages, choose typefaces and menus, create a theme and even connect a custom domain, Wix has a free tier with ads that’s a great choice, with ad-free tiers that start at $10 a month. (Pro tip: Sign up for the newsletter to get the scoop on yearly sales and deals!). Squarespace is another beautiful, customizable option to check out, with sleek, gorgeous templates and an easy-to-use interface.

Whether you want to go to town or keep it simple, we definitely recommend getting something up in cyberspace. Guests will love having easy access to answers for their burning questions, such as “Should I get a rental car?” “Is it an open bar?” and “Will there be a s’mores station?” Plus:

Registry

So pretty, you’ll want to give us presents! Created on thankfulregistry.com.

Photo: Thankfulregistry.com

While Grandma may opt for a handwritten check and your flaky ex-roommate will just stuff cash into an envelope, chances are, more of your people will find online gift-giving to be ideal. Not only can you search *zillions* of products to add to your wish list, nifty interfaces on registry sites like Thankful make creating the oh-so-trendy honeymoon-trip registry easy and beautiful. With it, you can itemize specific experiences and aspects of your adventure. After all, the thought of buying you a gondola ride in Venice, a wine-tasting tour in the Loire River Valley or scuba-diving lessons in Thailand is much more satisfying than typing $100 and a credit card number into a form.

Travel

There are a ton of upsides to a wedding in Hawai‘i: Gorgeous weather. Gorgeous beaches. Gorgeous everything. The downside? It’s—literally—the most isolated island chain in the world, which means out-of-town guests are going to have to do some serious traveling. Is your venue in one of the many places on O‘ahu with a gnarly parking situation? Tell ’em. Do you have a block of hotel rooms at Turtle Bay reserved? Give ’em the details. Is your venue way out in Hau‘ula, beyond the (reasonable) reaches of Uber and cabs? They want to know! And remember: Google Maps is your friend.

Details (but mostly booze)

Booze is a pretty common first thought, so give your guests the heads up on what your situation is, whether it be a dry wedding, a cash bar or a cocktail-only reception. Furthermore, is there something special they need to know, like the fact that your dress code is strictly formal, or that you’ll be having the ceremony on the grass where stilettos are a no-no? And, while you and I may be hip, Pinterest-searching, blog-reading wedding mavericks, your guests probably aren’t, so if there’s something unconventional going down at your nuptials, it’s nice to keep them in the loop. That includes having boho-style blankets and pillows instead of ceremony chairs, kava instead of cocktails, small-bite food stations instead of a regular dinner, or rapping toasts that require audience participation.