Free Wedding Web Sites

Well, we have our church and reception site booked, and are in the midst of interviewing photographers.  The next thing on our list is setting up a web site for friends and family to read about our plans, view some of our pictures, and find out where we are registered.  The problem is, we don't know which one to use.

As it turns out there are a bunch of different sites that offer free web sites for couples.  They include a variety of design templates, preformatted pages, easy picture upload, background music, and more. For now, we have set up a site on mywedding.com. Unlike others they don't have a scaled down version for free sites, with the real features only available to paid members.  They only have the free version, and it's pretty comprehensive.  Their design templates are better than most, they offer ample capacity for image upload, and the site URL is easy to remember and share (it will be something like www.mywedding.com/brideandgroom).

We have come across two apparent drawbacks.  First, no music.  Unlike other sites, they don't offer preloaded background music or the option to upload your own music.  Second, order of pages.  The pages are in a preset order, and there does not seem to be an option that would allow you to change the order.

Another one that we considered is ewedding.com.  Their free site addresses the two issues that we had with mywedding.com, in that they allow you to change the order of your pages, and you can upload your own background music.  However, we run into other issues.  The free version is only good for 12 months.  Our wedding is just over 12 months away.  Also, the free version is limited.  It does not inlude photo albums, an online guestbook, a registry page, or a wedding party page.  Those are some pretty major features that I would expect.

Online wedding heavyweight, theknot.com, offers a free site, but it's really limited.  The designs are drab and simple.

Others, such as wedshare.com and weddingwindow.com only offer 7 or 14 day free trials.  Otherwise, all of their sites cost money.  And let's be honest here.  We're spending enough money on this wedding to shell out more cash for a website.

So, if you used a free website service that you loved, let us know!

Comments

[Emy]

Just a random comment...I really really hate when I go to a web page and it has music. :P

[HC]

I'm with Emy; pages that don't autoload music are an *improvement*.

I'm glad you found one that you liked. On the etiquette side, are you linking to your registry page or not? (I personally don't have a problem with it, as long as there is other relevant material on the site and your guests can figure things out without having to click on the registry links. But a few guests might squawk: just fyi.)

[HamiHarri]

Hi there! We have an online wedsite with mywedding.com and LOVE IT! It is annoying that you can't reorder the pages :( I suggest sending them an email about this. When we first began our wedsite it only had one custom page - after client feedback it added an additional 3 custom pages! I think they do actually listen to their feedback...I just wonder how they make money on their site?

[Melissa Axel]

We actually wanted to avoid the typical wedding website schtick and instead created a private group on our photosharing site www.flickr.com - the pros:

* able to share all pictures we'd like in a pool we compile from all of our life's photos which we've already got uploaded and organized into albums (with tags) on our account

* able to have others share their photos from their flickr accounts and/or start new ones free to share their wedding and other photos with us (by using their accounts and also adding to our photo pool for the group)

* discussion posts and comment capability much like a blog, with basic needs HTML editing including photo/link embedding with links appearing in new windows (not taking you away from the page you're on)

* via our flickr, we get email when somebody comments, add photos, etc.

* complete privacy - if they're not signed in and looking at the group, it is unfindable by public eyes

The cons:

* rather than "pages" it functions differently visually - not the typical thing your average not-so-computer-savvy surfer is used to navigating

* the invite/sign-up procedure is extremely challenging for the utterly non-computer-savvy - we've had to help some people sign in and accept their invite to the private group

Both pro and con: it's not a "wedding website" at all. The pro - no cheesyness unless you put it there yourself. The con - I can't bring myself to link to our registry since it's not an obvious thing you "fill in" where everyone's expecting it. Maybe I'll find a creative way to add it... it's a travel registry, so it's pretty important to find ways to get the link to people since we're a. not having a shower (destination wedding near where we live now) and 2. we're not findable on the knot or other department store registry searches, this one is it.

On the topic of registries, we debated about the "honeymoon registry" concept... we knew our love was travel and we had what we needed at home and didn't feel comfortable asking for material things because that would be like saying everyone should bankroll us just getting new stuff. But we also didn't feel comfortable asking people to bankroll the honeymoon. After looking around, we chose the Traveler's Joy site because it best explained our position, is beautiful and somewhat customizable, and frames the gift choices as actual items, such as shore tours for a cruise, swim with the dolphins, dinner by the beach, etc. You write your own item descriptions, choose from a batch of cute photo icons to represent each one, set the price and number of gifts requested, and include your photos/video, a description of your honeymoon and your story.

I mention this in detail here because this page too functions much like a wedding website for us. It is public, and to be honest I'd prefer that it just have our first names, but it hasn't come up high on the list in google searches for me, so I worry less (I'm a singer/songwriter so I'm pretty google-able). Anyway, the drawback to using this page as your exclusive website is that unless you want to include your wedding schedule and other guest info on the main page there, there isn't really another place to put it. I wouldn't want anyone to be able to access that info anyway, but for some it's helpful to find a way to put it online somewhere they think only invited guests will be looking.

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