Your wedding is an incredibly special day in your life. Building a beautiful website around the day is a great way to keep guests informed and it can help commemorate the magic.
With a wedding website you can communicate the details about your wedding like: location, directions, accommodations and gifts. All the needed information will be in one place, there is no need to spend hours on the phone speaking to each guest.
Beyond highlighting certain wedding details, you can use your site to showcase beautiful pictures, videos and more, so you can remember your big day anytime you’d like.
If you’re utilizing WordPress for your wedding site, then there are all kinds of plugins you can use to extend the functionality of your website and make it do whatever you wish. Below you’ll find five plugins that are invaluable additions to any wedding website.
1. WeddingPress
WeddingPress is the perfect all-in-one wedding plugin for your WordPress site. This plugin is great in that you’ll really only need this single plugin to make your wedding site more functional and useful.
Whether you’re looking for a way to add a gift list, create a way for guests to RSVP, or even create meal lists, then this plugin is a good choice.
Some of the most useful features of this plugin include:
- Creating an online gift list that syncs with PayPal for easy payment
- Social media and email list integration
- Easily create an online guest list for quick RSVP
- Let guests choose their preferred menu options
WeddingPress will run you $30, but is a great way to provide a seamless registrations experience for your guests.
2. Events Planner
Events Planner is a free plugin that’ll help you manage any kind of event. Although technically an event management plugin, it’s perfectly suited to the wedding environment where you have things like a reception, rehearsal dinners, the actual wedding, and the after party all occurring in close proximity.
Events Planner can help you plan and manage your wedding guest list, while keeping them in the loop about the latest details related to your wedding.
Some of the main features of this plugin include:
- Easy event registration
- A built-in form manager
- PayPal integration (if payments are necessary)
- Confirmation emails for all registrants
There is also a pro edition of this plugin, which will unlock features like: availability of an unlimited number of dates, prices and times, the ability for both individual and group registrations, a visible attendee list, and ability to send emails.
3. WP Google Maps
Your visitors need to be able to easily locate your venue, especially if you’re expecting guests to travel for your wedding. What better way to do this than to utilize the power of Google Maps?
WP Google Maps is a great plugin that will help you provide exact wedding location details via Google Maps. This is an incredibly easy plugin to use, but is still quite rich on features.
The free version of this plugin has features like:
- Classic Google Maps and Street-view support
- Widgetized for easy placement
- Re-sizable to fit your site
- Can add map markers, animations, and images
If you upgrade to the paid version of the plugin you’ll access additional features, like the ability to create more than one map, show the locations of your visitors and icon upgrades.
4. Bean Registry
Wedding gift registries are an important part of any wedding. But, instead of sending your guests a random assortment of links to different websites, why not host them all in one place?
With Bean Registry you can use their list of shortcodes to easily add your registry links to their supported stores to anywhere on your site.
Some features of this plugin include:
- An easy process to add items to registry and link to existing stores
- Large number of stores to choose from
- Easily add your URL through a shortcode
This plugin connects you to over 15 current stores, and is a great way to create a registry for your wedding site without a lot of hassle.
Wedding websites are becoming more and more popular; with the plugins above you’ll be able to transform your existing wedding site into something useful and beautiful.
Any plugins we missed that are a must-have for your wedding site? Please share in the comments below.
Kevin Wood writes about technology and human potential. You can find him at his virtual homes Wooden Writing and Counter Culturist.