The Complete Wedding Website Checklist (What to Include)

Most wedding website checklists you’ll find online were written by someone trying to sell you a template. They list thirty sections “every wedding website needs”, because more sections means more product to buy.

Here’s the version we use ourselves when a couple asks us to look at a draft that isn’t working. Twelve essentials, three nice-to-haves, four things to actively leave off. Cover the twelve and your site is doing its job.

The essential twelve

1. Both your names

Sounds obvious. It’s surprising how many drafts hide them in tiny text under a photograph. Names belong at the top of the hero, large, in the font you love most.

2. The wedding date

Day, date, year — written out, not just numerals, so nobody has to decode whether 05/06 is May or June. Add a countdown if it suits the tone. Skip the countdown on solemn or religious-led designs, where it cheapens the mood.

3. The venue

Name, full address, and a map link. If events are at different venues, list each one against its event. A common mistake is writing only the venue name and assuming guests can work out the rest; half of them can’t, and the ones who can will still text you to check.

4. The ceremony schedule

Times for each ritual or event. Be specific:

• 10:30 — Baraat arrives
• 11:00 — Ceremony begins
• 13:00 — Lunch
• 19:00 — Reception

Add arrival hints where they matter. “Please be seated by 10:45” prevents a lot of “where is everyone?” calls on the morning.

5. RSVP form

Name, attendance, number of guests, and an optional message. Ask about dietary preferences only if you are genuinely going to act on the answers — a meal dropdown the kitchen ignores is clutter that costs you replies.

Set a deadline: two to three weeks before the wedding is the sweet spot. If your family is doing RSVPs entirely by phone, turn the form off rather than leaving a section nobody uses. There’s a full system in how to collect wedding RSVPs online.

6. Contact information

At least one WhatsApp number or email. Many couples nominate a sibling or a friend as the contact, so they aren’t woken at 6 AM by a guest asking about parking. Put that person’s name next to the number so guests know who they’re calling.

7. Dress code

Even one line prevents a lot of awkwardness. “Traditional formal for the ceremony, cocktail for the reception” is enough. For a destination wedding, mention the climate — guests packing for the wrong weather is a real and avoidable problem.

8. Hotel block or accommodation

If you’ve booked rooms or negotiated a guest rate, list the hotel name, the booking link or phone number, and the date by which guests must claim the rate. Negotiated rates usually expire well before the wedding, so say when.

9. Travel notes

Nearest airport and station, and a sentence on getting from there to the venue. “Cabs from the airport take about 45 minutes in evening traffic” is worth more to an out-of-town guest than a paragraph of prose about the venue’s history.

10. Photo gallery

Six to twelve photos. Engagement, pre-wedding shoot, candid moments. Avoid hundred-photo dumps — people don’t scroll — along with low-light selfies that fall apart at full width, and anything blurry.

11. Your story

Two paragraphs. How you met, when you knew, and one specific detail that makes it yours. Skip the day-by-day saga. Guests want to feel the story, not read a memoir.

12. Gifts, registry, or blessings

Many Indian weddings skip a registry entirely — gifts arrive in envelopes or as physical items on the day. Whatever your family does, state it plainly in one line: “Your presence is the best gift; if you’d like to do more, our registry is here” works, and so does saying nothing at all. What doesn’t work is a paragraph of apologetic hedging.

Nice-to-haves (include if relevant)

• Livestream link. For guests who can’t travel — especially common for diaspora families. Add it a week or two before the wedding, once the stream actually exists.
• FAQ. Worth adding once you notice the same question arriving three times on WhatsApp. Typical entries: are kids invited, is there parking, what’s the weather like that weekend.
• Wedding party introductions. A grid of close friends and family with names and relationships. Lovely when your guests are two circles meeting for the first time.

Things to leave off

• Anything sensitive about other family members. A public wedding website is a public document, and it will be forwarded further than you expect. Keep the family history off it.
• Budget numbers. “Rooms start at ₹4,500” is useful information for a guest. What you spent on flowers is not.
• Music that ambushes people. Background music can be lovely, but it should start on the guest’s own tap and always show a visible mute control — never blast at someone who opened the link in a meeting.
• A long manifesto. A blessing or a sacred invocation belongs at the top of the page and carries real weight. A two-page essay does not.

Tone tips

• Write like you’re telling a friend. “We’re so glad you’re coming” beats “We cordially invite you to the holy matrimony” — unless the formal register is genuinely your family’s, in which case use it properly. There are worked examples in how to word a wedding invitation.
• Use both your voices. If one of you is funnier, let some of that show. Wedding websites that read like a press release age badly.
• Rename the headings. Most builders, ours included, let you replace the default section titles with your own words — “Our Story” can become “How this happened”. It costs nothing and makes the page sound like you.
• Keep it short. Every section should be readable in one breath. Long blocks get skipped.

Photo tips

• Hero photo: high contrast, both faces visible, ideally outdoors and bright enough for text to sit over it.
• Use landscape photos for the hero. Portrait crops awkwardly at desktop widths.
• Compress before uploading. A few hundred kilobytes per image is plenty, and a fast page keeps guests on it.
• If the shoot isn’t done yet, use a neutral cover — a venue exterior, a texture from your template — and swap it in later.

Final pass before sharing

• Submit the RSVP form as yourself. Confirm the reply lands in your dashboard.
• Tap every link — map, hotel, livestream, registry. Broken links look careless.
• Read the copy aloud once. If it sounds wrong out loud, rewrite it.
• Paste the link into a WhatsApp chat with yourself and check the preview card looks right.
• Ask one friend who isn’t tech-savvy to open it while you watch. Note where they hesitate.

Then share it

That’s the whole checklist. If you haven’t started yet, browse the templates, check what a plan costs, or read how to make a wedding website for the ten-minute version. If you want the link to be your own name rather than ours, the custom-domain guide covers that too.