by Sahrie Monteclaro-Wenceslao
article originally came out in the Manila Standard
The ultimate techno bride not only plans and organizes her wedding plans using her computer, but creates her own personal website. With all the details a bride has to worry about, the thought of creating a personal wedding website may sound impossible, but it is not as hard as you think. With an increase of people using the Internet, there are many free, user-friendly ways to create a website. Geocities.com, homepage.com, and homestead.com are just a few sites that provide free web space. All you have to do is register on one of them and you are ready to begin.
The first step is to gather the information you want to put on your website. You might want to include things such as how you met, how he proposed, the details of your wedding day, and a list of your vendors. It would also be nice to include scanned pictures of you and your fiancé, the church, and the reception venue. Not only does this make your website more interesting, but it gives your friends and family, especially those abroad, a chance to see what your wedding will be like. Help the people who go to your site by keeping the file size of your pictures small. It will make it faster for people to view them. As you gather information about your vendors, make sure to put their telephone number, address, and email address. This is a nice way to support the business of your suppliers. Once you have gathered all your information, you have completed the most tedious part of making a website.
The next step is to put your information on the web, which is not as hard as most people think. Once you have registered on one of the free-hosting websites, you are just a few clicks away from completing your wedding website. Homepage.com, for example, provides several templates where all you need to do is type the page title, text, and add pictures. The templates also allow you to choose different fonts, font sizes, and font colors. For those brides who do not want to be limited to templates, you can use web design programs such as Microsoft FrontPage or Macromedia’s Dreamweaver. While this is more difficult, you have the freedom to customize each page of your website. When you are finished putting in all your information, you are ready to tell the whole world about your wedding.
Being an Internet-savvy bride is not the only reason to make a wedding website. Having a website will also be helpful to you and your guests. It allows friends and family, especially those who are abroad, to see the wedding plans as it unfolds. With everyone so eager to help with the wedding, a website will help them feel like they are part of the plans. It is a cheap and easy way to keep your guests informed.
A word of advice… keep your wedding website at the bottom of your to-do-list. Compared to the numerous tasks a bride needs to worry about, this should be the least of them. I am no Internet expert, but I will be more than happy to help you create your own wedding website. You can email me at sahriem@yahoo.com.
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About the Author: Sahrie Monteclaro planned her Manila wedding online since she was based in the US. She got married to Monjay Wenceslao on October 20, 2000–that was the day that all of Metro Manila was in complete blackout! Despite that, everything turned out great. She hasbeen an active W@Wie.