What to actually put on your wedding website

A wedding website is not a scrapbook. Almost everyone who opens it is looking for one specific fact, usually on a phone, usually while doing something else. If they find it in ten seconds the page has done its job.

The way to write one is to answer the questions in the order people ask them, and leave out the rest.

1. When and where, exactly

The date, the start time and the full address of each event. Not the venue name on its own, because a name is not something you can put into a maps app at eight in the morning. If there is more than one event, each one needs its own time and its own address, even when two of them are in the same building.

If your guests are spread across countries, show each start time in the reader's own clock. The alternative is forty people doing time-zone arithmetic and two of them getting it wrong.

2. What to wear

Be specific enough to be useful. Black tie means something; smart means nothing. If there are colours to avoid, say so. If there is aso-ebi, say which event it is for and how to get it. If one event is formal and another is not, put the dress code on each event rather than once at the top.

3. How to reply

One obvious button, per event, that works on a phone without an account. Ask for the things you genuinely need: who is coming, how many, and anything the caterer has to know. Every extra question is another person who starts the form and does not finish it.

4. Where to stay and how to get there

If people are travelling, this is the section they will open most. Two or three places to stay at different prices, the nearest airport or station, and honest directions. A paragraph about getting from the airport is worth more than a photograph of the venue.

5. Gifts, said once and said plainly

Put it somewhere findable and leave it at that. If you would rather have cash, say so. If family abroad will want to give in their own currency, make that possible rather than making them work it out. Nobody has ever been offended by a gift list being easy to find.

What to leave off

The long version of how you met, a countdown that is the biggest thing on the page, background music, and anything that has to load before the address does. Your story is lovely and a few people will read it. Put it below the things everyone needs.

• Keep the gallery to a dozen strong photographs rather than fifty average ones.
• Write the FAQ from the questions you are actually being asked, not the ones you imagine.
• Check the whole thing on a phone before you send it, because that is where it will be read.

The test

Send the link to somebody who is not involved in the wedding and ask them to tell you, without scrolling twice, what time to arrive and where. If they can, it is finished.