Anyone sell wedding websites? at DVinfo.net

Chris Davis · May 3rd, 2006, 10:48 AM

Anyone here offer web sites for wedding couples in conjunction with videography?

I am going to offer that, but haven't actually pitched it to anyone yet. I would create a website about the couple, including info about how they met, lots of pictures, etc. I'd also post their "love story" video on the site if they order one. It would be updated after the wedding with new photos and video. The sites I sell would be flash animated, musical, and very cutting-edge.

I want to charge $500 for this service, which includes a year of hosting.

If you're doing this, how is it selling? How much do you charge?

Travis Cossel · May 3rd, 2006, 11:00 AM

I've thought about this, but the problem I see is that couples can get their own free website at a number of major wedding websites.

Chris Davis · May 3rd, 2006, 11:40 AM

True, but they will look amateurish. I feel the style and price of video most on this board sell kind of weeds out the freebie website types.

If they want a free wedding website, they're probably not spending thousands on a wedding video.

Travis Cossel · May 3rd, 2006, 11:49 AM

Not to argue, but I've seen some that looked pretty good. Granted, the designs aren't custom-tailored toward the couple, but they looked good. I think it's a great idea if your market has people that start planning well in advance. Unfortunately, in my market, most people start planning their wedding around 6 months out or less, and A LOT of them are bargain shoppers.

Dan Shallenberger · May 3rd, 2006, 03:23 PM

I think it's a great idea for the higher-end clients that have the cash and don't want to bother building one of the free ones. When I make a finished DVD for a client, I make their DVD menu and case graphics in the same style as their wedding programs and/or invitations. Some brides spend so much money and time on them that integrating that look and feel into the video comes well appreciated. You could do the same for the web sites.

Speaking of template based wedding sites, I found out from a client the other day about eWeddings.com. It looks very nice, and they have a lot of options for both pre-wedding and post-wedding. Check it out... some good ideas there.

Later,
Dan

Peter Jefferson · May 4th, 2006, 08:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris Davis

Anyone here offer web sites for wedding couples in conjunction with videography?

I am going to offer that, but haven't actually pitched it to anyone yet. I would create a website about the couple, including info about how they met, lots of pictures, etc. I'd also post their "love story" video on the site if they order one. It would be updated after the wedding with new photos and video. The sites I sell would be flash animated, musical, and very cutting-edge.

I want to charge $500 for this service, which includes a year of hosting.

If you're doing this, how is it selling? How much do you charge?

I used to, then i got over it...
there are so many freebie web blog wedding type sites, thats its not worth the effort..

thing with websites and the like, is that you MUST be superfast, else the novelty of it wears off... I still do online invitations and digital photoalbums though (in Flash on the web and on CD), theyre pretty popular..

Jon Elam · May 4th, 2006, 09:10 AM

Chris,
I think that offering a more personalized website would be a good service to offer. I am getting married this year and one of the first things I decided upon after getting engaged was to get a website up for the event. There are many canned packages out there, some even free, but none that I saw offered some of the features that I wanted. Here are some of the things that I am doing with my personal website that I think are definately marketable to couples that are already willing to pay for a high quality video.

1) Have elements that are being used in other parts of the wedding be the foundation for the site design. As mentioned in a previous post you can integrate a theme from stationary/invitations, you can bring in elements from their floral arrangements, reception decorations, centerpieces, etc. I actually took some photos of the floral pattern on my fiance's dress and used that as the background of my site.

2) Use the website as a launchpad for your your photo and video content. If you are able to provide the photography and video services for the event, or if the couple can get full rights to the digital photos, host them on the site in a gallery that is easy to navigate. I use flash for a lot of personal projects and have found several great examples of galleries that others have worked on and shared on the web just like people share info on this forum. A great community for flash (and general web development) is Kirupa.com. Once you see some of the work presented you can easily take and idea and run with it to create your own personalized version. For an easy solution, photoshop has a built in gallery tool that works pretty well. To add icing to the cake, upload all of the photos to an online host/print company like Imagestation, shutterfly, dotphoto, adorama, etc and link the photos on your site to the gallery for purchasing prints (once again requires the couple to own the rights to the files...i know that many of you make money by forcing clients to order prints through the photographer).

3) Offer the ability to have a personalized domain with domain name email accounts. This is the most valuable and underrated feature I've found with my host. Couples probably share their email with hundreds of vendors throughout the planning process. I hate getting spammed in my inbox so I set up different email accounts for the type of service I was requesting. IE video@domain.com or limo@domain.com. I forward these to my real email account and have the ability to turn them off when the wedding is over. You can even setup a catch all email *@domain.com for mistyped addresses. I also have accounts for RSVP@domain.com and guestbook@domain.com leading to my next points.

4) Offer the ability to submit RSVP on the website. I built a relatively simple form in flash that requires a codeword (provided on invitation) to access. It saves the form fields as variables and sends them to a PHP script that emails me, auto-responds to the person leaving the RSVP, and also saves the response to a secure mySQL database. It didn't take too long to get it all running with zero previous experience with PHP and it makes the whole invitation process much easier. Not to mention, once you create the scripts its only a matter of changing the database info and email addresses to apply it to a new site.

5) Offer a simple guestbook that allows guests to make comments on the site. Similar to above I also have these saved in a database and emailed to me. When you do the edit for your video, you could probably take some of the better comments from the guestbook and integrate them.

6) I even got a little ambitious and setup a PHPBB forum with the intention to allow my guests to help out with some elements of planning and to provide a place to share travel info discussion etc. Probably over the top for most people, but pretty easy to get up and running. I'm pretty sure that I wont be using my forum as I intended, but could be an option for clients that like to plan way in advance.

There are many other things you can offer, but I think it is this content management that will set your product apart from the cheap packages and make it marketable. The layout of my site is very simple, but it does the content management part that I desired. Most of the packaged sites out there are great for sharing static info about the wedding, but can not offer the type of content management that a custom site could do. Try to market it and let me know how it works...maybe I'll do the same once my wedding is over.
- JON

P.S. I hope to have my site finished this weekend and will post a link. I know this is a video forum, but I dont mind posting my scripts if that helps anyone. Check out Kirupa.com or do a web search and you'll be amazed at all the stuff that is already written and ready to go.

Michael McGruder · May 4th, 2006, 09:41 AM

Ironically, we were contemplating this as an option about a month ago..

I think our excitement on the idea cooled down after we considered how often the bride, bride's mother, groom, etc would be wanting updates completed on their website. Furthermore, considering how most folks don't have programming knowledge, it would be catastrophic to consider letting them adjust the content as they see fit.

It just seemed like very little reward for the effort going in for the work that would be needing to upkeep the site.

I'm curious if anyone has applied this into a business model with any success. I those that offer the cookie-cutter, free-sites have an advantage because most bride and grooms are usually constrained in a budget.

Just my two cents,
-Michael

K. Forman · May 4th, 2006, 09:56 AM

Jon- you have some very good points about a wedding site. You might want to get in tight with the local wedding planners, so that the new couples will know what is available before they wed. You might also want to go with links to gift registries, so that guests and family will be able to choose the gifts a little easier.

Michael- You also have a very valid point. But, if you have ever done websites, you will find the client always expects to be able to change any feature, at any time. It always starts with "Could you just...". This is why I moved towards video over web design.

I still have nightmares about the couple who asked me to do their Real Estate site. I sat in their office one night for like 5 hours, just going over the "Could you just..." list. And in between every change, the wife would print out the webpage, just to see how it looked on paper I guess. I charged them an hourly rate, but it was still annoying.

Patrick Moreau · May 4th, 2006, 10:44 AM

Chris,

A nice tough with the wedding website is to use an online printing service such as www.vistaprint.com to make 250-500 business cards for the couple. One side has your info with one of their photos and you can put their wedding website on the back. The turnaround time, quality and price are very good with vistaprint (in the $20-$30 range for 250-500 cards) and it gets your name out there well and helps sell their website to and to others.

Jon Elam · May 4th, 2006, 11:11 AM

Keith,
Definately agree with having links to registries on the site. Allows guests a central place to check them out without having to ask. It also takes the pressure off of us in telling people where we registered. We don't need a lot and don't like to even mention the gifts because honestly we care more about people showing up than us cleaning up.

The business card idea is good and we actually did something similar. Instead of a business card, I made a bunch of magnets the size of a business card that we stuffed in our invitations and had the web address and buzzwords like RSVP, Guestbook, Our Story, Registry, etc around the border. We printed them on staples cheap picture paper which was a slightly heavier weight than business card stock plus it has a nice gloss finish. The magnet stock came from walmart and was self adhesive and pretty easy to make. For something a little less labor intensive, Staples also sels full sheets of magnetic stock that I think you can print on directly.

A.J. Briones · May 4th, 2006, 02:14 PM

i do. but only for engagements, as a bit of an engagement trailer.

samples:

http://www.infinite-studios.com/rogerandsheena
http://www.infinite-studios.com/scottandangie

these designs are custom tailored to the couple. i don't usually upsell it so i don't do them a lot. i only do them if the couples ask, and if they are willing to pay.

Brandon Wood · May 6th, 2006, 10:41 AM

Good Stuff A.J.!

Can you tell me the font you're using for the "movie poster/trailer"?

A.J. Briones · May 12th, 2006, 02:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brandon Wood

Good Stuff A.J.!

Can you tell me the font you're using for the "movie poster/trailer"?

thanks! if you are talking about the credits, that font is univers thin condensed.

sorry for the delay, it's wedding season. ;-P

Brandon Wood · May 12th, 2006, 08:24 PM

Thanks A.J.

...again...good work!

May 3rd, 2006, 10:48 AM	#1
Chris Davis Trustee Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Willmar, MN Posts: 1,400	Anyone sell wedding websites? Anyone here offer web sites for wedding couples in conjunction with videography? I am going to offer that, but haven't actually pitched it to anyone yet. I would create a website about the couple, including info about how they met, lots of pictures, etc. I'd also post their "love story" video on the site if they order one. It would be updated after the wedding with new photos and video. The sites I sell would be flash animated, musical, and very cutting-edge. I want to charge $500 for this service, which includes a year of hosting. If you're doing this, how is it selling? How much do you charge?

May 3rd, 2006, 11:00 AM	#2
Travis Cossel Inner Circle Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Miami, FL Posts: 2,933	I've thought about this, but the problem I see is that couples can get their own free website at a number of major wedding websites. __________________ Black Label Films www.blacklabelweddingfilms.com

May 3rd, 2006, 11:49 AM	#4
Travis Cossel Inner Circle Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Miami, FL Posts: 2,933	Not to argue, but I've seen some that looked pretty good. Granted, the designs aren't custom-tailored toward the couple, but they looked good. I think it's a great idea if your market has people that start planning well in advance. Unfortunately, in my market, most people start planning their wedding around 6 months out or less, and A LOT of them are bargain shoppers. __________________ Black Label Films www.blacklabelweddingfilms.com

May 4th, 2006, 09:56 AM	#9
K. Forman Capt. Quirk Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Middle of the woods in Georgia Posts: 3,596	Jon- you have some very good points about a wedding site. You might want to get in tight with the local wedding planners, so that the new couples will know what is available before they wed. You might also want to go with links to gift registries, so that guests and family will be able to choose the gifts a little easier. Michael- You also have a very valid point. But, if you have ever done websites, you will find the client always expects to be able to change any feature, at any time. It always starts with "Could you just...". This is why I moved towards video over web design. I still have nightmares about the couple who asked me to do their Real Estate site. I sat in their office one night for like 5 hours, just going over the "Could you just..." list. And in between every change, the wife would print out the webpage, just to see how it looked on paper I guess. I charged them an hourly rate, but it was still annoying. __________________ www.SmokeWagonLeather.us

May 3rd, 2006, 11:40 AM	#3
Chris Davis Trustee Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Willmar, MN Posts: 1,400	True, but they will look amateurish. I feel the style and price of video most on this board sell kind of weeds out the freebie website types. If they want a free wedding website, they're probably not spending thousands on a wedding video.

May 3rd, 2006, 03:23 PM	#5
Dan Shallenberger Major Player Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Cincinnati, OH Posts: 253	I think it's a great idea for the higher-end clients that have the cash and don't want to bother building one of the free ones. When I make a finished DVD for a client, I make their DVD menu and case graphics in the same style as their wedding programs and/or invitations. Some brides spend so much money and time on them that integrating that look and feel into the video comes well appreciated. You could do the same for the web sites. Speaking of template based wedding sites, I found out from a client the other day about eWeddings.com. It looks very nice, and they have a lot of options for both pre-wedding and post-wedding. Check it out... some good ideas there. Later, Dan

May 4th, 2006, 09:10 AM	#7
Jon Elam Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Baltimore, MD Posts: 32	Chris, I think that offering a more personalized website would be a good service to offer. I am getting married this year and one of the first things I decided upon after getting engaged was to get a website up for the event. There are many canned packages out there, some even free, but none that I saw offered some of the features that I wanted. Here are some of the things that I am doing with my personal website that I think are definately marketable to couples that are already willing to pay for a high quality video. 1) Have elements that are being used in other parts of the wedding be the foundation for the site design. As mentioned in a previous post you can integrate a theme from stationary/invitations, you can bring in elements from their floral arrangements, reception decorations, centerpieces, etc. I actually took some photos of the floral pattern on my fiance's dress and used that as the background of my site. 2) Use the website as a launchpad for your your photo and video content. If you are able to provide the photography and video services for the event, or if the couple can get full rights to the digital photos, host them on the site in a gallery that is easy to navigate. I use flash for a lot of personal projects and have found several great examples of galleries that others have worked on and shared on the web just like people share info on this forum. A great community for flash (and general web development) is Kirupa.com. Once you see some of the work presented you can easily take and idea and run with it to create your own personalized version. For an easy solution, photoshop has a built in gallery tool that works pretty well. To add icing to the cake, upload all of the photos to an online host/print company like Imagestation, shutterfly, dotphoto, adorama, etc and link the photos on your site to the gallery for purchasing prints (once again requires the couple to own the rights to the files...i know that many of you make money by forcing clients to order prints through the photographer). 3) Offer the ability to have a personalized domain with domain name email accounts. This is the most valuable and underrated feature I've found with my host. Couples probably share their email with hundreds of vendors throughout the planning process. I hate getting spammed in my inbox so I set up different email accounts for the type of service I was requesting. IE video@domain.com or limo@domain.com. I forward these to my real email account and have the ability to turn them off when the wedding is over. You can even setup a catch all email *@domain.com for mistyped addresses. I also have accounts for RSVP@domain.com and guestbook@domain.com leading to my next points. 4) Offer the ability to submit RSVP on the website. I built a relatively simple form in flash that requires a codeword (provided on invitation) to access. It saves the form fields as variables and sends them to a PHP script that emails me, auto-responds to the person leaving the RSVP, and also saves the response to a secure mySQL database. It didn't take too long to get it all running with zero previous experience with PHP and it makes the whole invitation process much easier. Not to mention, once you create the scripts its only a matter of changing the database info and email addresses to apply it to a new site. 5) Offer a simple guestbook that allows guests to make comments on the site. Similar to above I also have these saved in a database and emailed to me. When you do the edit for your video, you could probably take some of the better comments from the guestbook and integrate them. 6) I even got a little ambitious and setup a PHPBB forum with the intention to allow my guests to help out with some elements of planning and to provide a place to share travel info discussion etc. Probably over the top for most people, but pretty easy to get up and running. I'm pretty sure that I wont be using my forum as I intended, but could be an option for clients that like to plan way in advance. There are many other things you can offer, but I think it is this content management that will set your product apart from the cheap packages and make it marketable. The layout of my site is very simple, but it does the content management part that I desired. Most of the packaged sites out there are great for sharing static info about the wedding, but can not offer the type of content management that a custom site could do. Try to market it and let me know how it works...maybe I'll do the same once my wedding is over. - JON P.S. I hope to have my site finished this weekend and will post a link. I know this is a video forum, but I dont mind posting my scripts if that helps anyone. Check out Kirupa.com or do a web search and you'll be amazed at all the stuff that is already written and ready to go.

May 4th, 2006, 09:41 AM	#8
Michael McGruder Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Grand Junction, CO Posts: 61	Ironically, we were contemplating this as an option about a month ago.. I think our excitement on the idea cooled down after we considered how often the bride, bride's mother, groom, etc would be wanting updates completed on their website. Furthermore, considering how most folks don't have programming knowledge, it would be catastrophic to consider letting them adjust the content as they see fit. It just seemed like very little reward for the effort going in for the work that would be needing to upkeep the site. I'm curious if anyone has applied this into a business model with any success. I those that offer the cookie-cutter, free-sites have an advantage because most bride and grooms are usually constrained in a budget. Just my two cents, -Michael

May 4th, 2006, 10:44 AM	#10
Patrick Moreau Still Motion Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 1,186	Chris, A nice tough with the wedding website is to use an online printing service such as www.vistaprint.com to make 250-500 business cards for the couple. One side has your info with one of their photos and you can put their wedding website on the back. The turnaround time, quality and price are very good with vistaprint (in the $20-$30 range for 250-500 cards) and it gets your name out there well and helps sell their website to and to others.

May 4th, 2006, 11:11 AM	#11
Jon Elam Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Baltimore, MD Posts: 32	Keith, Definately agree with having links to registries on the site. Allows guests a central place to check them out without having to ask. It also takes the pressure off of us in telling people where we registered. We don't need a lot and don't like to even mention the gifts because honestly we care more about people showing up than us cleaning up. The business card idea is good and we actually did something similar. Instead of a business card, I made a bunch of magnets the size of a business card that we stuffed in our invitations and had the web address and buzzwords like RSVP, Guestbook, Our Story, Registry, etc around the border. We printed them on staples cheap picture paper which was a slightly heavier weight than business card stock plus it has a nice gloss finish. The magnet stock came from walmart and was self adhesive and pretty easy to make. For something a little less labor intensive, Staples also sels full sheets of magnetic stock that I think you can print on directly.

May 4th, 2006, 02:14 PM	#12
A.J. Briones Major Player Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: San Diego, CA Posts: 275	i do. but only for engagements, as a bit of an engagement trailer. samples: http://www.infinite-studios.com/rogerandsheena http://www.infinite-studios.com/scottandangie these designs are custom tailored to the couple. i don't usually upsell it so i don't do them a lot. i only do them if the couples ask, and if they are willing to pay.

May 6th, 2006, 10:41 AM	#13
Brandon Wood Regular Crew Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Mauriceville, TX Posts: 146	Good Stuff A.J.! Can you tell me the font you're using for the "movie poster/trailer"?

May 12th, 2006, 08:24 PM	#15
Brandon Wood Regular Crew Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Mauriceville, TX Posts: 146	Thanks A.J. ...again...good work!