Twelve sections. That's what makes a wedding website useful instead of decorative. The essentials at the very top so nobody has to search, an RSVP that asks the questions your caterer actually needs, the practical stuff (parking, hotels, dress code) written by people who've stood in wet grass in the wrong shoes, and the human stuff (your story, what to expect if you've never been to a chuppah) that makes guests feel invited, not just informed. This is the guest-scan order we use when we build a custom wedding website for a couple: not a template, not a marketplace grid, but a page written to how your day actually unfolds.
The essentials block: names, date, city
The essentials block is the first thing every guest looks for, so put it at the very top and make it unmissable. This is what people screenshot to text a partner, what grandparents show their friends over coffee, and what your cousin abroad needs before she books a flight. Keep it to three lines. Your two names, in a warm display font. The date, written out in words so nobody misreads a "6" as an "8." The city, not the venue address; the specifics belong in the ceremony and reception sections so they don't drift around the internet. If you have a two-word theme or a hashtag, this is the only place it earns its keep. Everything else on the site is important, but this block is the anchor guests keep returning to.
Your story
Your story belongs on the wedding website, but keep it short: two paragraphs, in your voices, saying how you met and one moment that made it real. Guests love reading it, but they love reading a short version. Anything longer starts to feel like a school essay written to impress the both of you at once. Include the where and the when, one detail only the two of you would notice, and the moment you both knew. Skip the timeline of every apartment and job change; save that for the toast.
Read it aloud together before you paste it in. If either of you cringes on a sentence, rewrite it. If you both laugh at the same line, it's ready. And if writing in one voice feels impossible, write two short paragraphs, one from each of you, and label them. Guests love that even more.
"We met at a rooftop birthday in Lisbon that neither of us wanted to attend. Sam was arguing with the DJ about tempo; Alex was hiding on the fire escape with a glass of wine. Three hours later, we were still on the fire escape. Six years on, here we are."
Ceremony details
Ceremony details tell first-time guests what to expect, in the order the day unfolds. State the ceremony type in one line: chuppah, civil, interfaith, humanist, or whatever you've built together. Give the arrival window (usually thirty minutes before the start), the actual start time, the venue address with a live map, and a plain sentence about what happens: readings, blessings, an exchange of vows, a glass broken under the chuppah, applause. If your ceremony is bilingual, say so, and mention that programs will be handed at the door. Name the total length so guests know whether to expect twenty minutes or ninety. And describe what happens in the gap between ceremony and reception, so nobody wanders off to a bar and loses track of time.
Reception details
Reception details cover the venue, the timing, the meal, the dancing, and the moment the party officially ends. Give the address again, with a fresh map link so guests don't have to scroll back up the page. Then hand them a mini timeline: cocktails at seven, dinner at eight, first dance at ten, cake at eleven, curfew at two. Say what kind of meal to expect (seated three-course, family-style, buffet), because a hungry guest at four in the afternoon needs to plan. Mention the drinks setup in one line; your uncle wants to know if there's an open bar. If there's a surprise performance or a set your partner has been secretly rehearsing, keep it a secret on the site, but note the timing anyway. And say when the couple will slip out, because guests want to send you off but need to know it's coming.
Dress code
Dress code deserves a full sentence, not a single word, because "cocktail" means one thing in New York and something else in Paris. Say it in your voices. "Black tie, jacket and long dress, but wear the shoes you can dance in." Or: "Garden party pastels, hats welcome, heels optional." A dress code line should do two jobs: tell guests what you'd love them to wear, and tell them what you don't want them to worry about. If the ceremony and the reception have different vibes (a church at eleven, a beach at seven), spell out both, and mention whether there's time to change. Add one warm note about the weather. Wet grass is why heels sink into the lawn, and nobody wants to be that guest.
"Garden party dress code. Think pastels, linen, whatever makes you feel like the best version of yourself in July light. Please skip white. Grass is soft, so heels are optional."
RSVP
RSVP is the single most useful section on your wedding website, so give it its own page and its own big button on the home page. Split it by event if your day has more than one. Ceremony, reception, next-day brunch: three separate yes-or-no questions, each with a meal choice and an allergy field. Ask about song requests, because thirty-two guests asking for the same nineties banger tells you something. Set a deadline six weeks out, with automatic reminders for the stragglers, because there will be stragglers. And ask the questions that actually help your seating chart: kid or adult, plus-one name, dietary needs, mobility notes. For the full list, our guide to wedding RSVP questions to ask walks through every field with adaptable wording.
Getting there
Getting there is where you save your parents thirty phone calls about parking. Include a live map for every venue. Mention the nearest train or metro station, the walking time from it, and whether taxis are reliable in your area. If parking is limited or non-obvious, say so. If there's a shuttle, name the pickup point, the exact time, and the length of the ride, and note whether it runs both ways. For destination weddings, list the local taxi apps by name (Uber, Bolt, Free Now, Careem, Ola, Grab) since your guests won't know which app is used where you are. If ceremony and reception are in different places, add point-to-point directions between them, not just individual maps. Small touches like these are what separate a friendly site from a scavenger hunt.
Where to stay
Where to stay matters most for guests traveling in, so list two or three hotels with distances from the venue and any courtesy blocks you've arranged. For each hotel, give the name, the walking or driving time to the ceremony, a rough price band (budget, mid, splurge), and a direct booking link. If you've held a room block, add the code and the deadline in bold. Don't list every hotel in town; two well-chosen options beat twelve. If you've booked a friends-and-family Airbnb, mention it too, and say who to ask for the code. And if the wedding is a destination, add a short paragraph about the town: what to do the day before, where to eat, the one thing worth walking to. Guests planning three days off need more than a room number.
Registry
Registry belongs on your wedding website, but say what you actually want, in your own voice. If you're doing a traditional store registry, link to it directly, and pick two or three stores at most: one big and general, one small and local, one for the joyful splurge. If you'd prefer a honeymoon fund, name it, and break it out where you can ("a sunset dinner in Kyoto, a cooking class in Oaxaca, a night in a ryokan") so guests feel connected to what they're giving. If you're asking for donations to a cause, name the charity and add the link. And if you truly want no gifts, say so warmly: "your presence is the present, and if you must, please pick a bottle of wine we'll open together on our first anniversary." Vague causes vague behavior. Be specific.
What to expect for first-time guests
What to expect for first-time guests is a small, warm section that turns nervous attendees into confident ones. If your day includes any tradition some guests won't know, from a chuppah to a henna to a tea ceremony to a bilingual civil rite, add two paragraphs explaining what happens and why it matters to you. Not preachy, not long. Say what to expect at the moment itself, what guests should do (stand, sit, respond, nothing), and add a one-line invitation to ask you or the person you name if they want to know more. For weddings with two languages or two cultures at play, our guide to multilingual wedding websites covers how to hold both without one feeling secondary. Add a short "what to bring, what to skip" note if it helps: shawls for cold synagogues, flat shoes for grass, phones on silent for the ceremony.
The photo policy and social media guidance
The photo policy tells guests what to do with their phones during the day, and what to do (or not do) online afterward. For the ceremony, most couples ask for phones fully away. Say so kindly: "we've hired a photographer we love, and we'd rather see your eyes than the back of your phone." For the reception, mention whether you want photos shared and where. If you want a public hashtag, name it. If you'd rather no social sharing at all, especially if children of divorced parents or public-facing family are attending, say so gently. Our guide to wedding website privacy covers this and the wider question of who sees your site itself. A short line saves an awkward conversation, and it protects the people you love.
Contacts
Contacts is a small section listing the people guests should call instead of you, on the day of and in the weeks leading up. The best man, the maid of honor, one parent, one wedding planner if you have one: name two or three humans with their phone numbers, and be explicit about who answers what. "Sam's dad for shuttle questions. Maya, the maid of honor, for anything ceremony-related on the day. Our planner, Nadia, for hotel and transport." Guests will still text you, but many will use the numbers, and every text they send someone else is one less on your wedding week. If a WhatsApp group is set up for out-of-town family, link it here so the right people join. This section might be the one your mother thanks you for.
What NOT to put on a wedding website
What not to put on a wedding website is as important as what to include, because a public misstep is embarrassing at best and unsafe at worst. Don't put your home address, ever. Guests don't need it, and strangers passing through a search result definitely don't. Don't list registry dollar amounts; ranges or category-level nudges are fine, specific numbers read cold. Don't turn the site into a public audit of the guest list ("no plus-ones under thirty, no children after eight, no exes"). If there are boundaries, communicate them privately and warmly, not in a bullet list on the internet. Skip wedding-party inside jokes; a lovely guest reads them as a club they're not in. No mentions of ex-partners, even in the story, even for laughs. No politics or hot-button opinions on a page meant to gather people. And no dietary shaming, even the affectionate kind. Your site sets the tone for the day. Guests read it before they meet a soul in your family; give them a warm, generous, well-run introduction. Our custom wedding sites are private and hidden from search engines by default, but even so, restraint reads as class.
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Questions couples ask
What are the most important sections on a wedding website?+
The essentials block (names, date, city), the RSVP, the dress code, and where to stay. Everything else is important but discoverable elsewhere by phone or WhatsApp. Those four save your parents thirty text messages a day for six months.
How much detail should we put in the ceremony section?+
Enough for a first-time guest to know what to expect. If your ceremony is a chuppah followed by cocktails, say so in one line. If it's a bilingual civil ceremony followed by a religious blessing, say that. Two friendly paragraphs, not two long ones, work best.
Should we put our love story on the wedding website?+
Yes, briefly. Two short paragraphs, in your voices, saying how you met and one moment that captured it. Any longer starts to feel like a school essay. Read it aloud; if it makes one of you cringe, it needs a rewrite.
Do we need to explain the traditions on our wedding website?+
If any part of your day is unfamiliar to a significant portion of your guests, yes. A short 'what to expect at a chuppah' or 'about the henna' section (adapted from a link to our dedicated guide) turns first-time guests from spectators into participants. Warm, not preachy.
We design bespoke event websites for couples and families across the world: weddings, engagements, brits and bar mitzvahs. Multilingual, private, built for the day itself. Updated July 2026.