Detroit Area Wedding Guide
Wedding Websites
Personal Wedding Sites
Organizing, planning and realizing a wedding is like a beautifully choreographed ballet. Many months of practice, dress rehearsals and then the finale, the long awaited recital. The difference between a wedding and the ballet recital, however, is the ballet company hires professionals to attend to every function - the marketing, the advertising, the costumes, the music, the venue and the ticket sales. The engaged couple, on the other hand, must carry out every function on their own. Indeed, the bride and groom can benefit from an organized way to control the events and processes leading up to the wedding day.
Personal Wedding Websites are a perfect way to manage the social aspect of the wedding planning process. Websites provide a central area where people can add information to aid both the couple and the participants. Although, some websites can be as simple as the bride and groom's picture with their wedding date, others are elaborate with many features making the website the central headquarters of the wedding.
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The benefits of building and maintaining a personal wedding site are numerous:
Frees up the bride and groom from the repetition of providing the same information over and over again to different people.
Disseminates large amounts of information quickly and easily.
Allows the users to obtain information on their own schedules in different time zones.
Allows all family members far and wide to keep abreast of the happenings so that they do not feel left out of the activities.
Saves the costs of postage and paper by providing the information centrally and not having to write and mail everyone involved.
Saves the time from writing emails, handwritten letters and typewritten letters.
Allows the couple to provide more information than normally possible with regular letters and phone calls. Because the couple can add photographs, favorite quotes and interesting stories, the site allows an inside look into the day-to-day wedding planning.
Allows the bride and groom to update guests after the wedding and the honeymoon. Once the married couple has returned to normal life, they can publish stories of the wedding day.
Permits the bride and groom to thank everyone after the wedding. BUT please remember that the site is NOT a substitute for proper thank you cards. Each guest should still receive his or her thank you card in the mail. They have, afterall, gone to some expense by attending the wedding and/or sending a gift. The bride and groom must acknowledge these individual acts personally with thank you notes.
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Nowadays, it is common for a personal wedding site to be feature rich. Most couples have some knowledge of the internet and welcome the idea of facilitating the huge task ahead of them. Some of the more helpful features to be included in a wedding site are:
An introduction page with a picture of the couple and maybe how they were engaged.
A wedding date page with the time, date and location of the wedding and reception. Tactfully convey that attendance at the reception is by invitation only.
Maps and directions to the church and reception. Be sure to provide directions from many major roads.
A Gift Registry is helpful for those who need some help choosing a gift. The bride and groom may list the stores where they have registries and also they may post the patterns of their china, silverware and crystal.
Providing information about the couple's chosen Color Schemes is very helpful to the wedding guests and also the bridal shower guests. This is a little different than the registry in that it does not request a specific item but rather indicates the desired colors of the room and furnishings making it easier to choose complimentary accessories.
A Photo Gallery is a wonderful way to make the site fun and leave everyone feeling like they are part of the wedding experience.
Well-wishers may leave their comments and ask questions.
There are so many stories both sad and funny when planning a wedding that posting them online as they happen makes for an exciting journal for the guests and also a wonderful keepsake for the bride and groom after the wedding.
RSVPs can be collected online.
Etiquette previously dictated that the bride publish information about her bridal showers in the local newspaper social section. With a wedding website, the bride can easily post who gave the shower, what type of shower was given and when it was given.
Once the decision has been made to use the internet, there are several ways to get started. Choosing a service will depend on the couple's level of knowledge on the internet and developing a website.
1.Many companies now offer services specifically for personal wedding sites. All of the features are already built-in. It is just a matter of adding one's own information. Some of the companies charge a monthly fee to host the site and support it, while others charge a small one-time fee for a certain period of time, usually one year or two years. These types of services are generally geared toward those persons who have no "html" experience or little spare time. They can build their site using the pre-programmed website. These sites may or may not come with a personalized domain name.
2.For those persons who know html, they can use their own hosting account and buy a suitable domain name, then easily build their own web pages. There are many free scripts and content management systems available to make it easier for more than one person to enter information and regularly maintain the site.
3.Lastly, there are free web services available such as Word Press or Blogger where one can start writing immediately. There are some custom colors available and one can set up the necessary categories and information. These types of sites are comparable to keeping a journal but are robust enough to provide many features for a personal wedding website.
Whatever the reason for putting wedding information online and whatever method chosen to provide that information, there is no doubt, that creating and maintaining a Personal Wedding Site will be beneficial not only to the bride and the groom but also anyone involved in the special wedding day.
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