How to choose a wedding website designer: 12 questions to ask

Choosing a wedding website designer comes down to a few checks before you pay a deposit: websites you can open on your phone, a written list of what's included, how many rounds of changes you get, what it costs to keep the site online after the first year, and who looks after your guests' details. If the designer is in another country, add one more: which currency you pay in, and how. Ask them all, get the answers in writing, and compare them side by side.

So you know where we stand: WedlySite is a bespoke done-for-you wedding website and digital invitation studio. Based in South Africa, working with couples everywhere. Below are the questions we'd ask if we were hiring a designer ourselves, what a good answer sounds like, and, at the end, our own answers to every one of them.

Start with work you can open

Search for a wedding website designer for hire and a lot of what comes up is for a different client: designers who build websites for venues, photographers, and planners. It's honest work, but it's a different job. A business website sells a service. Yours has to get every guest to the right place at the right time, collect their replies, and still feel like the two of you.

So ask for two or three wedding websites they've built for couples. Live ones, not screenshots, mood boards, or a sample PDF. Open them on your phone, because that's where your guests will, and check three things:

• Does each one look like a different wedding, or the same layout with new names?
• Does it load quickly on mobile data, not only on Wi-Fi?
• Can you find the date, the venue, and the RSVP without hunting?

Every example in our work opens on a phone, envelope and all.

Custom, or a template with your names in it?

Designers tend to work in one of two ways. A custom wedding website designer starts every wedding on a blank page. Others reuse a layout they've built before and swap in your names, photos, and colours. Either can be a fair offer at the right price. The trouble starts when you pay for the first and get the second.

Words we've heard from our clients:

It's exactly the right question. Ask it just like that, then open two of their websites side by side. If the layouts match, you have your answer. If you're still weighing a free builder against a designer, our guide to free vs custom wedding websites helps you settle that first.

Get what's included in writing

A price tells you very little until you know what it buys. Ask for the list in writing before you pay anything, and make sure it answers these:

• Who writes the words? Your story, the FAQs, the directions. If you'd rather not write them yourself, ask whether writing is in the price.
• How many photos? And can they help if your best ones all come from a single engagement shoot?
• Is RSVP included? Does it collect dietary needs and guest questions, or only a yes and a no?
• Can they design matching invitations? When the invitation and the website share one look, it feels like one wedding.
• Are the domain and hosting included? If not, what do they cost, and for how long?
• Is that the whole amount? Ask what gets added on top, and which currency the price is in.

The last two are where quotes that look alike stop being alike. For the sections a wedding website needs in the first place, see our checklist of what to include on a wedding website.

What drives the price

Two quotes for "a wedding website" can describe very different work. These are the things that move the number:

• Who writes it. A designer who writes your story and your FAQs is doing a second job alongside the design.
• Blank page or template. A new design takes longer than a familiar layout with new names.
• How much the website does. RSVP with meal choices, a travel page, a gallery: each section is more work.
• Matching stationery. Ask whether invitations and save the dates are part of the price or a separate line.
• Hosting and the domain. How long the website stays online, and whether your own address is included.
• Changes. How many rounds come with the price before extra time is charged.

As a rough guide, having someone fill in a ready-made template for you usually costs under $300. A design built for your wedding tends to sit around $300 to $1,200, and studio work at the top end can run to a few thousand dollars. Our wedding website cost guide goes through each level in more detail. Whatever the number, ask what it leaves out, and get the answer in writing.

At WedlySite, here is what you pay for.

Anything else has its own price in our price calculator, so you see the total before you enquire.

What a fair process looks like

Wherever your designer is, a fair process has the same shape:

1. A call or a questionnaire, so they learn about the two of you before they design anything
2. A written quote: what's included, the price, and the currency
3. Terms you can read before you pay
4. A deposit, with the clock starting once your content is in
5. A first draft, then your rounds of changes, in writing
6. The balance, then the link goes live

Ours runs the same way. Four parts of it are worth a closer look.

Rounds of changes

Ask how many rounds of changes are included, and then ask what one round means. The definition matters more than the number.

At WedlySite, a review round is one list of changes, sent in writing in one message. Two rounds come with every website and every invitation. One clear list is easier to get right than edits scattered across a week of messages.

Then ask what happens once the included rounds are used. Ours are charged by the hour, and we tell you before any of that work starts. Whatever a designer's answer, you want it before you need it.

Who gets a say

This one catches couples out. Your parents have opinions. Your planner has a checklist. Your maid of honour has a font she can't stand. So who is actually allowed to ask for changes?

A good designer takes instructions from the two of you, and from anyone else only when you say so in writing. That protects you from surprise changes, and it protects your rounds. At WedlySite, anyone you name in writing can send feedback, and it counts towards your two rounds.

When the clock starts

A fair timeline starts when the designer has everything they need, not on the day you pay. That means your details, your photos, your wording, and your inspiration. Ask when the clock starts, and what happens if your part runs late.

Then count back from the day you want to send your invitations. The invitation sends guests to the website, so the website has to be ready first. Our guide to digital wedding invitations covers when to send them. At WedlySite the build takes about 21 business days from the day we have all your content, and we always work around your wedding date.

Deposits, payment, and cancellation

A deposit before work starts is normal for anything made to order. Before you pay one, get three things in writing: how much it is, when the balance is due, and what happens if you cancel.

If your designer is in another country, ask two more: which currency the price is in, and how you'll pay. Exchange rates and transfer fees can change what leaves your account, so it helps to know before the invoice arrives.

At WedlySite it's 50% to start and the balance before your website goes live. Our prices are in US dollars, and you pay by Wise transfer. How cancellation works is set out in our terms, written in plain language on purpose.

After the wedding: hosting, domain, and ownership

The flowers are gone. The cake is gone. The website stays, for the photos, the thank-yous, and the guests who want to look again. Ask three questions:

• How long is hosting included, and what happens when it ends?
• What does it cost to keep the website online after that, and does it renew automatically?
• If you have your own address, like yournames.com, whose name is it in, and who renews it?

Our answers: the first 12 months of hosting are included. After that, it's $57 a year to keep your website online, only if you choose it. Nothing renews automatically. If you'd like your own address, we buy and connect one for $47, or connect a domain you already own for free.

Ownership deserves its own question. Your photos and your words should always stay yours. The design is a separate matter, so ask about it. At WedlySite the design stays our work, and you get a personal licence to use it for your wedding. Whatever the answer, get it in writing before you pay.

Your guests' details

Your RSVP form collects names, contact details, dietary needs, and sometimes who's bringing the children. That's personal information about people who never signed up for anything, so ask three questions:

• Where are our guests' replies stored?
• Who can see them?
• When are they deleted?

Our answer: in a private spreadsheet shared only with the two of you, deleted or handed over within three months after the wedding. For the rest of the RSVP side, see our guide to collecting RSVPs by website, WhatsApp, or text.

Guests who travel, and a second language

If guests are flying in, your website has more to do. It has to cover flights, where to stay, and the plan for the whole weekend, not just the ceremony. Some guests will open it on hotel Wi-Fi or roaming data, so it has to load fast and stay simple. Ask whether the designer has built for travelling guests before, and whether it changes the price.

At WedlySite, Guest Travel, Stay & Things To Do is a $57 add-on. Our page on destination wedding websites goes into more detail. And if your wedding is in South Africa, you'd be working with a studio that's based there.

If your guests speak more than one language, ask early whether the website can carry both, and whether a second language changes the price. A WedlySite website in two languages is quoted separately.

Red flags

• No live websites to open, only screenshots
• Websites for businesses, but none built for couples
• No written list of what's included
• "Excludes domain and hosting", with no amount next to it
• A quote that doesn't say which currency it's in
• No answer when you ask what happens after the first year
• Terms you only see after you've paid
• Slow replies before you've paid. They rarely speed up afterwards

One of these on its own can have a fair explanation. Two together is a pattern.

The 12 questions, in one list

These are the questions to ask a wedding website designer before you pay anything. Screenshot the list and send it to everyone on your shortlist.

1. Can I open two or three wedding websites you've built for couples, on my phone?
2. Is my design made from scratch, or from a template you've used before?
3. What exactly is included, in writing, and what costs extra?
4. Who writes the words: our story, the FAQs, the details?
5. Are the domain and hosting included? If not, what do they cost?
6. How many rounds of changes do we get, and what does a change cost after that?
7. Who can ask for changes: only the two of us, or family and our planner too?
8. When does the timeline start, and how long does the build take?
9. What deposit do you need, which currency do we pay in and how, and what happens if we cancel?
10. What happens to the website after the first year, and what does it cost to keep it online?
11. Where are our guests' RSVPs stored, who can see them, and when are they deleted?
12. Can the website cover guests travelling from abroad, or work in two languages?

How we answer them

Here are our own answers, so you can hold us to the same standard.

So how do you choose?

Send the 12 questions to everyone on your shortlist and put the answers side by side. By then the right designer is usually clear: the one whose work you want to open twice, whose answers came back plain and in writing, and who replied like a person.

We're Emma and Juan, and we built WedlySite while planning our own wedding. Emma designs the stationery, and Juan builds the websites. See our work, check every price on one page, or start your story.