You’re getting married and you want your friends and family to know about your journey from the engagement to the wedding, and perhaps, the honeymoon.

Facebook and Instagram may be great for short bursts of information but if you’re looking to share more than a one-liner, a wedding website is the perfect way to keep everyone updated, and to some extent, involved in the planning and details of your nuptials.

Making and updating your own website is easy, all you need to do to get started is to decide which website builder to use.

But if you aren’t familiar with how websites are created and don’t speak a coding language you may find choosing the right fit a little daunting.

Fear not because I, editor Samantha Keogh, went digging to find the easiest website builders on the web.

Most of the free website builders I looked at have great templates to get you started but what I was looking for was the “website for dummies” sites which allowed me to create a stunning website with the minimum fuss or understanding of how my vision is coded into a functioning site.

So, with apologies to Julia Roberts, “I was just a girl, sitting in front of her computer, asking the internet to know my mind and create a perfect, pretty website for me.”

What to consider

With so many choices, deciding on the perfect builder will be easier if you have an idea of exactly what you want to include.

I started by making a list of the pages you might want to include in a wedding website and came up with these:

• Our story – the story of how and where you met and how you went from strangers to life partners.
• Photo journey – photos of you and your partner throughout your courtship, and of course of the engagement.
• Wedding planning – a diary of your road to the isle from interviewing photographers to listening to band or DJaudition tapes.
• An RSVP page for invited guests to make contact with you.

Once you have these in mind, gather all the photos and videos you want to include in one folder on your computer and then start looking at builders which will allow you to highlight the elements you have gathered together.

Which builder? 

With my list in mind a quick google search offered me numerous options which all claim to offer stunning results with the most basic of website construction knowledge or experience.

I tried a few out to see what each offered and how hard it was to change colours, texts, fonts and photos to alter the template into a personal masterpiece.

Although I tried nine out, the following three were the ones I loved both for their siomplicity and the professional look of the final product.

Each of these offers an array of pre-designed, wedding-specific themes and allows you to have your site hosted free of charge.

1. Wix

A quick google for “making a wedding website” or “creating your own website” both see Wix at the top of the list.

There’s a reason for this… it is one of the easiest builders to use if you have no web design skills or knowledge.

The Wix site also offers bang for your (time) buck with some beautiful templates which have been custom designed to make every bride or groom happy.

In a matter of minutes you can transform one of their generic templates and transform it into a personalised work of art in a matter of minutes.

I completed a rudimentary site in under 30 minutes and although there were still a couple of things I might have changed, the site looked stunning when I checked the preview and I would have been happy to show my friends this site.

To get started visit Wix

2. Webnode

Another popular choice is webnode which also allows you to choose from a selection of wedding-specific designs.

In looking around this site, I found that webnode was by far the easiest of the sites I tried and also gave me the best looking site.

By this I mean that I could take their template and make it fit my needs – in both function and design – with least amount of effort or know-how.

If you have mastered ‘copy and paste’ and ‘drag and drop’ you can’t wrong with Wednode, especially if you have all your photos and copy ready to go before you start.

I loved this builder and would definitely use this as a first port of call.

Start creating with Webnode today.

3. Wordpress

Wordpress is another of the popular builders with many businesses using it to create their websites.

It offers very professional looking sites but be warned, it’s a little harder to get exactly what you want.

Of those featured here, this one requires the most knowledge and understanding of website design and creation to get a really great looking site.

But don’t lose hope, you may need to spend a little more time finding all the features but your time will be rewarded with great results.

If you have the time, I found that Wordpress does offer more features and editing tools than the other two – you just need patience to find them all.

Start your Wordpress site here.

**Disclaimer: In writing this piece, I approached each builder as an amateur with no experience working on a website backend. I sought to see how easy it would be for non-techies to create their own fabulous sites.  This article is based purely on my opinion and experience of using each.