Free Wedding Planning: Best Websites For Your Big Day

Wedding planning can be a challenging and time-consuming process. Thankfully, there are many free online tools that can help you plan your dream wedding. From budgeting and guest list management to venue selection and design customisation, these websites can streamline the entire process. In this article, we will explore the best free wedding planning websites and their unique features, helping you to choose the perfect one for your special day.

Wedding website builders

There are many website builders that offer free wedding website creation. Wix, for example, offers a free plan that includes Wix branding and advertising. However, to remove this branding, you need to sign up for a premium plan. Squarespace is another website builder that offers a free trial, but you will need a paid personal plan to access certain features. Both Wix and Squarespace are nonspecific website builders, so their templates are not specifically designed for weddings.

If you are looking for a website builder with templates designed specifically for weddings, WedSites is a good option. WedSites offers a variety of personalizable templates that match the style and theme of any wedding. They also have useful features such as a wedding planning dashboard, custom questions, guest list management, and live video streaming.

Zola is another website builder that offers free wedding website creation. They provide solutions for various aspects of your wedding, such as setting up a gift registry, looking for venues and vendors, customising invitations, and tracking RSVPs.

Other notable mentions include Hitched, which offers stylish themes and customisable pages, and Joy, which offers hundreds of website templates that can be easily customised to match your wedding style.

Budgeting tools

Wedding Wire

Wedding Wire offers a budgeting tool that allows you to track your spending goals against your actual expenses. It also provides a detailed payment plan schedule to help you avoid late fees or missed deposits. You can create your own categories to suit your unique wedding expenses, and the tool will automatically adjust the budget calculations when you add or remove categories.

Mint

Mint is a popular personal finance app that can be used to create a custom wedding budget. It syncs with your bank account and credit cards, allowing you to monitor your spending. You can create multiple categories to suit the wide variety of wedding expenses and receive notifications when you're close to exceeding your budget. Mint also provides weekly email summaries and text reminders for due payments.

Google Drive

Google Drive is a great tool for staying organized while planning your wedding. You can upload and share various types of files, such as Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PDFs, and photos, with anyone who has a Gmail account. The Google Drive mobile app ensures that important information, such as your guest list, budget, vendor contacts, and décor inspiration, is always at your fingertips.

Trello

Trello is a work management tool that can be adapted for wedding planning. It uses boards and cards to help you visualize what tasks are being completed and what still needs to be done. You can create columns for different categories, such as "Venue" or "Photography," and then drag and drop tasks as they are completed or rescheduled.

Wedding Planning Websites

Some wedding planning websites, such as Planning.Wedding and Your Wedding Co., offer built-in budgeting tools. These tools help you manage vendor costs and stay within your budget. They often include pre-filled calculators with average itemized wedding costs, which you can adjust to suit your needs and budget.

WedSites and Zola

While not exclusively budgeting tools, WedSites and Zola are worth mentioning as they offer free wedding website building with customizable templates. They include features such as RSVP tracking, guest list management, and gift registries, which can help you stay organized and manage your budget.

Planning tools

One of the most important planning tools is a wedding website. It serves as a central hub for all your wedding information and can be easily shared with your loved ones. Wedding website builders like Wix, Squarespace, and WedSites offer a variety of customizable templates, RSVP management features, and guest book options. Some websites, like Hitched, also allow you to create surveys and gather guest information, such as song recommendations and accommodation preferences.

Budgeting tools are another crucial aspect of wedding planning. Websites like Loverly and Mint offer budgeting features that help you create and stick to your wedding budget. Loverly provides a comprehensive wedding budget tracker, while Mint allows you to sync your bank account and credit cards to monitor your spending.

Additionally, planning tools can include guest list management, vendor lists and connections, and inspiration galleries. Some websites, like planning.wedding, offer a wedding itinerary template, a curated list of vendors, and a budget planner. Others, like WeddingHappy, provide a timeline feature to help you stay on track with payments and tasks.

These planning tools aim to make your wedding planning experience stress-free and enjoyable, ensuring that you have easy access to all the information and resources you need for your big day.

RSVP management

Wedding planning can be a stressful process, but thankfully there are many online tools that can help you manage your guest list and RSVPs. Many of these tools are free to use and can help you create a beautiful, functional, and personalised wedding website.

One of the major stresses couples experience before their wedding day is worrying about whether guests will RSVP on time. A wedding website with an RSVP form can help improve the response rate by making it easier for guests to reply. These online RSVP trackers allow you to collect responses in real-time, keeping your event organised. Many platforms offer free RSVP trackers that help you send digital invites and receive instant updates, eliminating the need for paper invitations. For example, RSVPify is a market leader in private events and RSVPs, offering custom tags, email audiences, and powerful security options to keep unwanted guests out. You can also preview your event website and emails on desktop and mobile. Other options include Google RSVP tracker, Wix, Squarespace, and WedSites.

Some websites, such as WedSites, offer a variety of personalisable templates that match the style and theme of your wedding. You can also include a wedding planning dashboard, custom questions, guest list management, and virtual guest books with photo support. Squarespace also offers flexible website templates and RSVP auto-send features, although it is more business-oriented and may be challenging to find wedding-specific features. Wix offers a free plan but includes Wix branding and advertising, which can be distracting.

Other websites, such as Joy, offer hundreds of website templates that can be easily customised to match the style and theme of your wedding. You can also include customised schedules for related events, like rehearsal dinners and bachelorette parties. Travel guest tools, like booking flights and hotels, can also be integrated into the free wedding site.

In addition to RSVP management, some websites offer budgeting tools to help you plan your wedding. For example, the popular personal finance app Mint lets you create a custom budget for your wedding and keep track of your spending. WeddingHappy is another free app that includes a timeline to help you stay on track with payments to vendors.

Wedding vendors and venues

Planning.wedding is a free online wedding planner that offers a comprehensive toolkit to guide you through the process of creating your wedding website. It provides step-by-step instructions, a variety of free templates, and tips for crafting welcome messages and telling your unique love story. It also offers tools such as a wedding checklist, a budget calculator, and a wedding day itinerary template. Additionally, they provide a curated list of the best wedding vendors and venues near you, including wedding planners, hair stylists, and florists.

Loverly is another free online wedding planner that acts as your virtual wedding assistant. It offers budgeting tools, checklists, inspiration, and connections to wedding vendors. You can browse curated lists of the best wedding vendors and companies and gain exclusive access to expert wedding planning advice from top industry professionals.

For those looking for an unusual wedding venue, such as a barn, warehouse, or chateau in southern France, The Venue Report offers access to extraordinary destinations worldwide. This directory includes the hottest hotels and unique locales, and you can filter results by region, price, and capacity.

If you're feeling overwhelmed by the number of vendors and services available, WeddingWire is a great search engine that helps you find local vendors and wedding professionals with reviews and pricing. With over 500,000 vendors and 5 million reviews, it's a one-stop shop for finding what you need.

Other websites like WedSites, Squarespace, and Wix offer free plans to create wedding websites, with customizable templates and useful features like RSVP management and guest list management.

Lastly, don't underestimate the power of Google Drive and its familiar interface for staying organized during your wedding planning process. You can easily upload, store, and share documents, spreadsheets, PDFs, and photos with anyone who has a Gmail account.

Frequently asked questions