Why we chose to build a website instead of picking an off-the-shelf solution.
A wedding website is something that is quite frankly the norm in this day and age. If someone is getting married you best believe they have a wedding website. They allow you to digitally RSVP, get directions and purchase wedding gifts for the Bride and Groom. They form an extension of the wedding invitations that you receive. Quite simply, they complement the physical wedding stationery.
Unfortunately, in a lot of cases, they are also sites that wedding guests seldom visit after the initial dop in. I myself have been guilty of this too. Clicking on the website that I see printed on the Invitation and then, that’s it. Never to be visited again
If this is the case then why oh why did I decide to spend a lot of effort into building a custom website that I will be required to manage, update, and fortify from hackers (I feel like I have painted a target on-site by simply typing this word), design, maintain and test across multiple devices and platforms.
I don’t want peace,
– The Interwebs
I want problems always.
As you can imagine, Fiona probably rolled her eyes when I mentioned that I will be doing the wedding website myself. But in actuality, she didn’t. Fiona was supportive of the idea. Its means one less thing to pay for (I already pay for my web hosting and domain, with which I can host almost an unlimited amount of websites). She also was confident of my capability to do so after all, I am a UX designer and Graphic designer by trade.
So the reasons are threefold.
- Lower Cost
- A way to display a part of ourselves in the wedding experience
- tackling the problem of a lack of repeat visits
I will go into how each of the aforementioned reasons come into play, especially how I humorously obliterate the 1st and important goal, in a future post. I will stop here as I can hear the kids creating a huge mess behind me!
