Many, many things have changed since my glory days as mother of the bride. Specifically, there are several wedding trends that have emerged in the past few years – such as the increasing popularity of personalized weddings, non-traditional weddings, theme weddings, mismatched bridesmaid dresses, and more. But one trend that has nearly trumped them all is the emergence of the so-called “wedsite,” or wedding website. According to recent statistics, a whopping 75% of soon-to-be-married couples have their own website, the URL of which is typically included on their save the date cards. But the question is – what is driving this trend?
3 Reasons Why Wedding Websites are Popular
Well, the obvious answer is that the technology behind wedsites helps harried couples be more efficient when it comes to coordinating their wedding. They typically have all the key dates and specifics laid out in writing – such as the event time(s), hotel details, directions to the venue, registry location, etc. – the provision of which definitely helps to minimize the possibility for wedding guest confusion down the road. Plus, if anything changes, or if the happy couple just wants to blog about their day-to-day experiences leading up to the big day, the new information can be disseminated quickly.
Another reason for this growing trend is that wedding websites help improve the overall level of interactivity between the happy couple and the guests. For example, the happy couple’s site might have polls or surveys designed to gather feedback from the guests on things like the theme, music selection, food, first dance, and more. Many of these websites also link directly to Pinterest boards which allow guests to vote on and/or suggest dresses, shoes, flowers, etc. As the old saying goes, two heads are better than one, and as such wedsites are great to get the creative juices flowing.
The other less obvious reason I can think of for the growing popularity of these websites is that sometimes there is a financial benefit. For example, one person I know actually included a PayPal donation button on her site to allow guests to contribute financially. Similarly, this concept could also be used as a piggyback technique to maximize your wedding registry bounty!
The Downsides of Wedsites
As far as I can tell, there are only a few downsides to having a website for your wedding. One is that the grandmother of the bride or groom (or any elderly wedding guest for that matter) might not be equipped to use a website. Another downside is that if your site gets indexed and ranked in the search engines, you could potentially have hundreds or thousands of strangers access your personal wedding details. Another potential downside is that the URL of choice is likely not available these days, so you’ll need to go with a more obscure and/or longer URL, which raises the slight risk that one of your guests might get confused and land on the wrong site!
The Bottom Line
All in all, I am all for this hot new trend. Wedding websites are dirt cheap to create, and they make life easier for the happy couple as well as the guests. Thus, they provide tremendous value for everyone. Two of the more popular wedding website companies are eWedding.com and MyWedding.com. Just make sure to hold grandma’s hand throughout the process, and mark your wedsite as ‘private’ to block it from the search engines. Follow these simple tips, and all the downsides essentially disappear. Good luck!
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