The short version
- One link carries the invitation, the RSVP form and the wedding website: the schedule, the menu, the music, the gift list, a Q&A, places to stay, directions, the photos and a guest book.
- Designing it is free with the four wedding themes (40 across ten event types); publishing it for your guests is Premium, €7.99 a month or €39.99 a year, with a 14-day trial.
- Guests open it in any browser, in their own language, with no app and no account.
- The page is kept out of search engines, and new events start with a PIN that keeps the details to the people you gave it to.
- After a wedding you paid for, the photo gallery and the guest book stay open to guests for a year.
What a wedding website is for
It is the answer written down once. Your cousin wants to know whether to go straight to the reception or to the church first, it is twenty past ten on a Tuesday, and she would rather not ring you. If there is a page, she looks. If there is not, you get the message, and then the same question from eleven other people, the week your venue wants final numbers.
It is also the one thing that stays true. Move the ceremony half an hour and a printed card is wrong for good, while a page is one edit: the invitation is a live link, so a guest who opens it in July sees the July version, not the one you sent in March.
In Vowly Event the website and the invitation are the same page: a wedding invitation website rather than two things to keep in step. The guest who taps the link sees the invitation first, replies on it, and finds everything else one tap further down: no second address, no second design, no second list of replies to reconcile. How to make a wedding website walks through building one in the order that works.
What is free, and what is Premium
Designing and planning are free for as long as you need them, and you can preview the real page before anyone else sees it. Everything your guests can open is the paid side, because the free plan has no shareable invitation link: Premium is €7.99 a month or €39.99 a year, and every new account can try it for 14 days. The QR code download, a custom link address, team invites and the data export are not part of the trial.
If you stop paying, nothing is deleted: the page stays open to guests for three more days and then closes, and subscribing again reopens the same link. Most “free wedding website” offers draw the line somewhere else, and usually later; are free wedding websites really free? compares where.
| What you do | Plan |
|---|---|
| Design the invitation with one of the four wedding themes, or upload your own design | Free, no time limit |
| Plan the wedding: guest list, seating plan, budget and checklist | Free, no time limit |
| Publish the invitation link and email the invitations | Premium, in the 14-day trial |
| Replies with their details: party size, companions, dietary needs, menu choices | Premium, in the 14-day trial |
| Guest pages: schedule, menu, music, gift list, Q&A, places to stay, directions | Premium, in the 14-day trial |
| Guest photo gallery and guest book | Premium, in the 14-day trial |
| QR code download, custom link address, team invites, data export | Premium, not in the trial |
What goes on it
Behind the invitation, the website is a set of guest pages, and you choose for each one whether every guest sees it, only guests who have replied, or nobody yet. Guests read them on a phone, so each one answers a question rather than telling a story; what to put on a wedding website takes them one by one, with the wording.
- The schedule: the day as guests will live it, each part with a time and a place, plus a link for anyone watching online.
- Your story, with up to six photos and a countdown to the day, for the guests who do want to read it.
- The dress code, picked from a list or written yourself, with up to four colours and a photo.
- The menu, and the menu choices guests make when they reply.
- The music: a playlist, with song requests from your guests.
- The gift list: a wish list, a fund several guests can put towards, your bank details or a payment link.
- A Q&A for the questions every wedding gets: children, parking, the weather plan, what happens between the ceremony and the meal.
- Places to stay near the venue, with a booking link and any discount code, and shuttles, trains or parking.
- Directions: the venue’s address opens in the guest’s own maps app.
- The photo gallery and the guest book, during the day and after it.
What British guests ask, and where the answer goes
Every wedding gets the same handful of questions, and most of them have a natural home on the page. Answer them before anyone asks, and the messages that do arrive are the ones that genuinely need you.
- “Lounge suits or morning dress? Are hats expected?” The dress code section, in plain words; our wedding dress code guide has the terms and what they mean.
- “Is there a gap between the ceremony and the wedding breakfast?” The schedule, with what guests can do in it: drinks on the lawn, the hotel, a pub nearby.
- “What time do evening guests arrive?” Their own part of the programme, so they see the evening and not the day.
- “Are children invited?” The adults-only note, which sits kindly under the reply button.
- “Is it a cash bar? Can we pay by card?” The Q&A, one line, so nobody is caught short at ten o’clock.
- “When are carriages, and will there be taxis?” The Q&A or the travel section, with a local taxi number if the venue is out of town.
- “Can we leave the car overnight?” The travel section, next to the parking details.
- “Is confetti allowed?” The Q&A, because many venues have rules about it.
The gift list, without a middleman
The gift list does two jobs. On the wish list, a guest who is buying something reserves it, so nobody else buys it too, and other guests only see how many are left, never who reserved what. Each gift can link to any shop, so a department store list, a local homeware shop and a single title such as “our honeymoon” can sit side by side, and a gift can be turned into a fund that several guests contribute to.
If you would rather receive money, the page can show your bank details, which you can keep to guests who have replied, or open a payment link of your own. A short message above them, up to a few sentences, says it better than a poem: thank them for coming, and say what the money will go towards.
Either way the money goes from the guest to you. It never passes through Vowly Event, nothing is deducted from it, and there is no account for anyone to open to give you a present. After the wedding the gift list is no longer shown, and a private gift view on your guest list lets you note who gave what and whether you have thanked them.
Photos and the guest book
Guests take a great many photographs between them, and every one of them stays on somebody’s phone unless there is one place to put them. The gallery on the wedding website is that place: guests upload from the browser, with nothing to install, and each new photo waits until you add it to the gallery, so nothing appears that you have not seen. A separate QR code on the tables can open the upload straight away. Sharing wedding photos with guests covers when to ask, and how.
The digital guest book sits on the same page. It can be open, where you add each entry to the book before other guests read it, or private, read only by the two of you and the people planning with you. After the wedding you can have it emailed to you as a print-ready PDF at no extra charge.
Once a wedding you paid for has taken place, the gallery and the guest book stay open to guests for a year, so the photos that arrive the week after the honeymoon still have somewhere to go.
Private by default, in every guest’s language
A wedding website does not need to be found by strangers, and this one is not: the page asks search engines not to list it, so it opens for the people holding the link and does not appear when someone types your names into a search box. New events also start with a PIN. Someone with the shared link sees your names and the design, and the date, the place and the details only after entering it; a guest’s personal link and the QR code never ask for it.
What no setting protects is what you publish. Leave off the page your home address, other people’s phone numbers and anything you would not want a stranger to read, and answer those questions privately.
The page greets each guest in their own language, across nine of them, and the reply form works the same way: a guest replies in the browser, with nothing to download and nothing to sign up for. The reply lands in your guest list straight away; online RSVP shows what the form collects.
One link, from the save the date to the thank-you
The same link goes everywhere: into a WhatsApp message, into an email, and as a QR code on anything you print, the invitation card, the order of service, a card on the table. Every guest ends up on the same page and in the same list, whichever way they came in; how the invitation itself is designed and sent is on the digital wedding invitations page.
Publish it when the essentials are fixed, because a published page takes replies from the day it goes live. If you want to hold the date before that, the save-the-date email (part of Premium, and in the trial) sends the date, the place and a calendar file to every guest with an email address, and the invitation that follows updates the same calendar entry rather than adding a second; our save the date guide has the timing. After that, edits show straight away: change the date, the time or the dress code, and guests you have already invited get a short note about it.
After the day, the page becomes a memories page with the photos and the guest book, and with a paid subscription you can send one thank-you message to every guest who came. It is the last thing your guests open from the wedding, and the first place they look for the pictures.
Questions people ask
- Is the wedding website free?
- Designing it is free with the four wedding themes (40 across ten event types), together with the planning around it. Publishing it for your guests (the link, the replies and the guest pages) is Premium, €7.99 a month or €39.99 a year, with a 14-day trial. The QR code download, team invites, data export and a custom link address are not part of the trial.
- Do guests need an app or an account?
- No. A guest taps the link or scans the QR code, reads the page and replies on it in any browser, in their own language. There is nothing to install and nothing to sign up for.
- Can people find our wedding website on Google?
- No. The page asks search engines not to list it, so it does not appear when someone searches your names. New events also start with a PIN: the shared link shows the date, the place and the details only after it is entered, while personal links and the QR code open straight away.
- Can guests give us money through the gift list?
- Yes. The gift list can show your bank details, which you can keep to guests who have replied, or open a payment link of your own, next to a wish list where guests reserve what they are buying or put money towards a fund. The money goes from the guest to you; it never passes through Vowly Event.
- What happens to the website after the wedding?
- It becomes a memories page. Once a wedding you paid for has taken place, the photo gallery and the guest book stay open to guests for a year, and you can have the guest book emailed to you as a print-ready PDF at no extra charge.
- Can we change the details after sending the link?
- Yes. The invitation is a live page, so when you change the schedule, the hotels or the Q&A, every guest sees the current version the next time they open it. A change of date, time or dress code also sends a short update to guests you have already invited; there is nothing to send again.
- Can our evening guests see different details from our day guests?
- Yes. With programme parts, the ceremony and wedding breakfast can be one part and the evening reception another. Set the day part to invited guests only and tick who belongs in it: those guests see both parts through their personal link, and everyone else sees only the evening. Programme parts are Premium and included in the trial.
- When should we send the wedding website link?
- With the invitation, which for a wedding close to home usually goes out six to eight weeks before the day, and three to four months ahead if guests are travelling. A save the date can go first, eight to twelve months ahead. Our guide to when to send wedding invitations works the dates back from your caterer’s deadline.
- Do we still need printed invitations?
- Only if you want them. Many couples post a printed card to older relatives and put the QR code on it, so the paper is the keepsake and the page carries the details and the reply. Downloading the QR code is part of Premium and is not included in the trial.