7 Things to Put on Your Wedding Website Before the Texts Start

Two weeks before her wedding, a bride we talked to counted the texts. Forty-one of them, from thirty-one different people, and almost all of them were the same four questions: what time should I get there, where do I park, is there a hotel thing, and what do I wear.

She had a wedding website. It was pretty. It had a photo of them on a hike and a countdown timer. It did not have a street address, a parking note, or a dress code sentence that meant anything.

That is the whole problem. Your wedding website is doing a lot of heavy lifting before the invitation even arrives, and most couples build it like a scrapbook instead of an FAQ page. The scrapbook is fine. But the seven things below are what actually stop your phone from buzzing at 11pm the week you are supposed to be packing.

Build the page once, with all seven, and you can send a single link and actually stop answering your phone.

01. Date and venue, with the full address

Not just the venue name. The full street address, exactly as it appears on a mailing envelope, including suite or building numbers if the property has them.

Here is why this matters more than it sounds: gps drops pins differently than you think. Venue names in map apps are user-submitted, inherited from a previous business, or pinned at the center of a 40-acre property instead of at the gate guests are supposed to use. A barn venue might show up at the farmhouse a quarter mile from the actual entrance. A hotel ballroom might route people to the main lobby when the ceremony entrance is around the side.

If your venue has a known routing problem, write one sentence about it. Something like "map apps sometimes route to the service road, use the main entrance on Route 9." Your venue coordinator already knows the exact phrasing because they have heard about it from every wedding they have hosted. Ask them.

Add the date in a format nobody can misread

Write out the full date: Saturday, September 12, 2026. Not 9/12/26. You will have guests traveling, guests booking flights, and guests who confuse Saturday with Sunday because the invitation got stuck to the fridge in March.

02. An RSVP deadline that works backward from your caterer

This is the one couples get wrong most often, and it costs real money.

Set your RSVP deadline three weeks before your caterer needs a headcount, not the week of. Your caterer's cutoff is their deadline, not yours. You need the buffer in between to chase the people who did not respond, because there will always be people who did not respond.

The math looks like this:

1. Find your caterer's final headcount date in your contract (usually 10 to 14 days before the wedding)
2. Count back three weeks from that date
3. That is your RSVP deadline, and it goes on the website in bold
4. Plan to spend the first week after the deadline texting the twelve people who ignored it
5. Submit your final count with a day to spare instead of guessing

Without that buffer, you are estimating. And estimating high is how you pay for plates nobody eats. Most caterers price per head, so every phantom guest is a real line item. If you are tracking your per-person costs across quotes, it is worth seeing how that one number moves your total (more on that in our budgeting posts).

Put the deadline on the website and on the invitation card, and make them match. Guests who see two different dates will assume the later one.

03. Hotel block link and the cutoff date

Include both. The booking link and the date the block expires.

Blocks expire and guests miss them. Hotels typically release unbooked rooms back to the public 30 days out, sometimes 45. Your guests do not know this. They assume the room is held for them indefinitely because you told them there was a block, and then they call in week three and the rate is gone and the hotel is sold out because there is a conference in town.

Write it plainly: "Rooms are held at this rate until August 10. After that, the block releases and rates go up."

If you have more than one hotel

List them in order of distance from the venue, and say the distance. "Hampton, 8 minutes from venue. Holiday Inn, 20 minutes, cheaper." Guests will self-sort by budget and you will not have to field a single comparison question.

Also note whether there is a shuttle, and if so, what time it leaves and from which hotel. If there is no shuttle, say "no shuttle, plan for rideshare" so nobody waits in a lobby.

04. A dress code sentence that actually tells people what to wear

One sentence beats formal/casual every time.

"Cocktail attire" means six different things to six different people. "Semi-formal" means nothing at all. What people actually want to know is: will I be cold, will I sink into grass, do I need a tie, is this a floor-length situation.

Write the sentence that answers the real question:

• "No stilettos, grass ceremony" saves the texts.
• "Cocktail attire, the reception is outdoors and it gets cold after sunset, bring a layer."
• "Suits and dresses, no need for a tux, we are keeping it relaxed."
• "The ceremony is on sand. Flats or barefoot, we are not judging."

One sentence. Specific. It takes thirty seconds to write and it eliminates an entire category of texts, especially from older relatives and from anyone traveling who is packing a week in advance.

If you have a color you are asking guests to avoid or lean into, say it here too, in the same sentence. Do not make it a separate paragraph with a mood board unless you genuinely want that conversation.

05. Parking and transit details your venue will not field

Lot cost, street restrictions, rideshare note. Put all three.

Your venue coordinator will not field this. They are managing your timeline, your vendors, and three other weddings that month. They are not taking calls from your cousin about whether the garage validates.

What to include:

• Is there onsite parking, and does it cost anything? If the lot is $20, say $20.
• Are there street restrictions? Permit zones, two-hour limits, no overnight parking?
• Can cars stay overnight, or do they get towed at 7am?
• Does rideshare actually work at this address? Rural venues often have no coverage, and a guest stranded at midnight is a problem you will hear about.

The overnight question matters more than couples expect. If guests know they can leave the car, they will drink, cab back, and pick it up in the morning. If they do not know, half of them will designate a driver who then leaves at 9pm. One sentence on the website changes the energy of your reception.

Watch for these red flags

A few things that should make you go back to your venue with questions before the website goes live:

• The venue will not give you a written parking answer. If they are vague about lot capacity or cost, your guests will discover the problem in real time, in formal wear.
• The hotel block has an attrition clause. Some contracts make you responsible for unbooked rooms. Read before you sign, and check our contracts coverage if the language is unfamiliar.
• Your caterer's headcount cutoff is buried in a paragraph instead of listed as a date. Pull it out, write it down, build your RSVP deadline from it.
• The venue says "rideshare is fine" without checking. Ask whether other couples have had pickup problems. They will know.

06. Every registry link, in one place

List every store, not just one.

Guests will google it anyway and find the wrong one. Someone will buy off a registry you created in 2021 for a different occasion, or they will find the wrong couple with your same first names, or they will give up and buy a vase.

Put all the links on one page. If you have a cash fund, honeymoon fund, or house fund, list it alongside the stores without apology or a long explanation. One line each is plenty.

If you genuinely do not want gifts, say that in one sentence and then leave a single option anyway, because people will give you something regardless and they would rather it be useful.

07. Doors-open time and ceremony start time, listed separately

Post both. They are not the same number and guests treat them as the same number.

Late arrivals interrupt the processional. If your ceremony starts at 4:00 and you tell people 4:00, a meaningful percentage of your guest list will arrive at 4:05 and walk in behind your partner's grandmother.

Write it like this: "Doors open at 3:30. Ceremony begins promptly at 4:00." The word "promptly" does real work. So does giving people a thirty-minute window to park, find a bathroom, and sit down.

While you are at it, add the end time, or at least a rough one. "Reception ends at 11, afterparty details at the bar" lets guests plan their ride home and lets your parents know when to stop ordering drinks.

The short version

Before you send the link to anyone:

1. Full venue address, not just the name, plus a note if map apps route oddly.
2. RSVP deadline set three weeks before your caterer's headcount cutoff.
3. Hotel block link and its expiration date, with distance from venue.
4. One dress code sentence that names the actual condition (grass, cold, sand, no tux).
5. Parking cost, street restrictions, overnight rules, and a rideshare note.
6. Every registry link in one place, including cash funds.
7. Doors-open time and ceremony start time as two separate numbers.

None of these feel urgent until 40 people are texting you the same question two weeks out. Build it once, send one link, and go back to the parts of planning you actually enjoy.

And while you are in logistics mode: add your vendor quotes free and track every number in one place as you plan.