Guides Guests
What to put on your wedding website, in the order guests look
Guests open your wedding website three times: when the save-the-date arrives, when the invitation arrives, and the week of the wedding. Write it for those three visits and it answers almost every question before anyone texts you.
The short answer
Put on the first screen what a guest needs to arrive on time: your names, the date, the town, the venue's name and address, and the start time. Below it: where to stay and how to get there, the schedule of events every guest is invited to, answers to the questions guests ask (what to wear, children, plus-ones, parking), and your registry, kept low on the page. Leave off anything you would not want a stranger to read, because links get forwarded. Put it live with the save-the-dates and update it twice more.
Most lists of what to put on a wedding website are a long menu of sections. The trouble with a menu is that every section looks equally important, and the page grows until the start time is three taps deep. A better way to decide is to follow your guests. They come to the page at three moments, each with its own questions, and the page only has to answer those.
The three visits
| When a guest opens it | What they want to know |
|---|---|
| The save-the-date arrives | Where is it, can I make it, where would I stay, how do I get there |
| The invitation arrives | What to wear, who is invited, when to reply, where the registry is |
| The week of the wedding | What time to be there, where to park, what happens when |
Everything on the page should answer one of those questions. If a section answers none of them, it is decoration, which is fine in small amounts and a problem when it pushes the start time down.
Section by section, with an example
Here is one wedding written out, so you can see the length each part needs. Maya and Daniel marry on Saturday 12 June 2027 at 4:30pm, in a garden venue outside Asheville, with about 120 guests.
1. The first screen
Names, date, town, the venue with its full address, and the time the ceremony starts. Nothing else needs to be above the fold.
Maya and Daniel. Saturday 12 June 2027, Asheville, North Carolina. The ceremony begins at 4:30pm at Ridge Garden, 140 Orchard Lane. Please arrive by 4:10.
Give the time guests should arrive, not only the time you walk in. Twenty minutes earlier is a common choice, and it saves the late arrivals during the vows.
2. Travel and stay
Write this for the guest who has never been to your town. The closest airport and how long the drive is, two or three places to stay at different prices, and parking at the venue. If you hold a block of rooms, put the booking link and the date the block releases here, in bold. Our guide to wedding hotel blocks explains how many rooms to hold and why that date matters.
The closest airport is a 25 minute drive from the venue. We have rooms at the Laurel Inn until 12 May; after that date the hotel releases them. The venue has free parking for 80 cars, and taxis can be scarce after 10pm, so share a ride if you can.
3. The schedule
List only the events every guest on the list is invited to. The Emily Post Institute warns that posting a rehearsal dinner on the site when not all guests are invited confuses people. If you have a welcome drink open to everyone, list it. If the rehearsal dinner is for family and the wedding party, tell those guests directly. Our rehearsal dinner guide covers who usually comes.
Keep the schedule to the moments a guest acts on: arrive, ceremony, drinks, dinner, last dance, transport back. Your own timings for photos and hair stay off the page. For building the day itself, our wedding day timeline works through it hour by hour.
4. Questions guests ask
This section saves the most messages. Write each answer as a direct sentence, in your own voice. These are the questions almost every couple gets:
- What should I wear? Name the dress code and add one practical line: "Garden party. The ceremony is on grass, so leave the stilettos at home."
- Can I bring my children? If the answer is no, say it kindly here as well as on the envelope. Our guide to an adults-only wedding has wording.
- Can I bring a guest? "We have kept the list to the names on your invitation." Our plus-one guide covers who usually gets one.
- When do I need to reply? The reply-by date, and how to reply.
- I have a food allergy. Who do I tell? Ask for it with the reply, and pass it to your caterer. Our guide to dietary restrictions covers what to ask.
- Is the venue accessible? Steps, distances and seating, as plainly as you can.
Add a question each time two guests ask you the same thing.
5. The registry
The Emily Post Institute's advice is to share registry details by word of mouth and on your wedding website, never on the invitation or its enclosures. Its rules for the website: keep the links off the front of the page, remember that a registry is a request rather than a demand, add a line of thanks, and keep to three registries at most.
Your company is the gift. If you would like to give something more, our registry is here, and we are grateful for anything you choose.
6. Your story
Optional, and shorter than you think. Three or four sentences on how you met is enough for the guests who do not know you both well, which at a wedding of 120 is a good share of the room. The Emily Post Institute notes that some templates prompt you for intimate details, such as your first kiss, and suggests keeping postings tasteful. A useful test: would you read it aloud to your grandmother and your partner's manager in the same room?
What to leave off
Your website link will be forwarded, screenshotted and opened by people you did not invite. Decide each item by one question: would you be comfortable if a stranger read this?
| Leave off | Why |
|---|---|
| Your home address | Guests who need it already have it |
| The dates you are away on honeymoon | It tells anyone reading when your home is empty |
| Events not every guest is invited to | It confuses and can hurt |
| Guests' names, phone numbers or photos | They did not agree to be on a public page |
| Family tension, ex-partners, private jokes | Fine in a speech for the room, not on a page anyone can find |
If your website builder offers a password, it is a sensible extra for a larger wedding. Many guests will still find the link easier without one, so a page that simply holds nothing private is the better first line of defence.
Free toolWedding RSVP deadline calculatorWork back from your caterer's deadline to the date to print on your invitations.Find my RSVP dateWhen to put it live, and when to update it
Put the website live with the save-the-dates, with the first screen, travel and stay finished. The Emily Post Institute suggests having it ready before the save-the-dates go out. For a wedding on 12 June 2027, save-the-dates six to eight months ahead go out between October and December 2026.
Then update it twice:
- With the invitations, eight to ten weeks before: add the dress code, the reply-by date, the questions section and the registry. For Maya and Daniel that is between 3 and 17 April 2027.
- The week of the wedding: confirm the schedule, parking, transport back and a wet-weather plan for anything outdoors.
Our guide to when to send wedding invitations has the dates for each step, worked back from your caterer's deadline.
Not every guest goes online. The Emily Post Institute suggests sending a paper copy of the details to guests who do not, which often means a grandparent. Print the first screen and travel section and post them with the invitation.
Who writes what
The website is easy to split between two people. One of you writes the first screen, travel and schedule, which are facts from contracts and bookings. The other writes the welcome, the story and the answers, which are voice. Then swap and read each other's part aloud, which catches the wrong date or the joke that only one family will understand. Our guide to planning a wedding together has more on dividing the work.
Your website in Yes, I Do
In Yes, I Do, the wedding website is written from the plan you already have. Your names, date and place come from your wedding, and the schedule comes from The day, with the moments and times only: your notes stay private. You add a welcome note, the venue (guests get a map link from it), travel and stay, your story, up to ten registry links and up to twenty questions guests ask, and any part you leave empty stays off the page.
You choose one of eight designs and how the page opens for guests: with an envelope, with curtains, or straight to the page. It lives at getyesido.com/w/ followed by the address you choose, and the page asks search engines not to list it, so guests reach it through your link. There is no reply form on the page: replies go on your guest list, where you and your partner both mark them as they arrive.
Yes, I Do
From yes to I do.
The wedding planner for the two of you. Budget, guests, seating and a checklist built around your date, on both your phones.
Questions
What should be on a wedding website?
Your names, the date, the venue's name and address, and the start time, all on the first screen. Then travel and places to stay, the schedule of events every guest is invited to, answers to common questions (dress code, children, plus-ones, parking, how to reply), and your registry, placed low on the page.
When should a wedding website go live?
With the save-the-dates, six to eight months before the wedding, or eight to twelve for a destination wedding. It does not need to be finished then. The first screen and travel section are enough, and you add the dress code, questions and registry when the invitations go out.
Should you put your registry on your wedding website?
Yes. The Emily Post Institute says the website and word of mouth are the right places for registry details, and that they should not go on the invitation or its enclosures. Keep the links off the front of the page and add a line of thanks.
Should you put your wedding website on the invitation?
The Emily Post Institute's advice is not to list it on the invitation itself. Many couples put the link on the save-the-date and on a separate details card in the invitation envelope instead, which keeps the invitation formal and still gets guests to the page.
What should you not put on a wedding website?
Anything you would not want a stranger to read, because the link gets forwarded. That means your home address, the dates you are away on honeymoon, events only some guests are invited to, and guests' names or contact details.
Do you need a password on a wedding website?
Not necessarily. A password keeps the page from casual readers but makes it harder for some guests to open. If the page holds nothing private, it is safe without one. If you share anything sensitive, such as a home address for an at-home reception, use one.
Sources
- Emily Post Institute: wedding website tips, for having the website ready before the save-the-dates, not posting events only some guests are invited to, intimate details prompted by templates, paper copies for guests who are not online, registry links kept off the front of the page and a message of thanks. The page carries affiliate links to a website builder.
- Emily Post Institute: wedding registry etiquette, for sharing registry details by word of mouth and on the website, never on the invitation or its enclosures, and drawing the line at three registries.