What did you include on your website?

Jewels02

My wedding is coming up fast and I want to update my wedding website for guests.  I know there are a million websites on Vegas out there (i've looked at them all it seems!), but does anyone have recomendations/links that would actually be helpful to guests?  Maps, event calendar, top rated restaurants/bars to visit, etc.??

For most of my guests it will be their first visit, so I want to give them a starting point on the endless possibilites of what to see/do!
Thanks!

j_jaye

We did an events page (with all of the wedding events etc), an accommodations page with links to the hotel we are staying at and accommodation websites like priceline, expedia etc, a list of free things to do in vegas, a list of the popular paid things to do in vegas, a strip map, information on transport, and extra information (which was about visa's and tipping).

HTH

Gribbles

My bio (below) doubles up as our guest website. It has a Strip Map, tipping guide, free and paid things to do with up to date prices, a list of wedding events, etc.

aegrish

We did not include any information on our website about 'what to do'.  As OP said there are endless possibilities and it's not like guests will have a hard time finding something to do when they get there.  We did put our emails on the webstie in case they have any booking or travel questions, as well as a link to our group reservation page at the Vdara (the hotel we're staying at) and the city center complex.  We also have pages on there for the ceremony and reception- where, what time, etc ( a few more details than were on the invites) PM me if you want to see the link.  Also, we are sending out a separate wedding agende to our family and wedding party about the rehersal dinner, photography tour, etc.

FYI, guests may go to the website once and then not go back on.  We've found that most of our guests have only gone on once and then lost the address (and asked us for it again).

wiwicaty

I put detailed info about our venue, useful travel and promo codes websites, links to theatre shows, visa info for the guests coming from overseas, maps of the strip and of the Wynn and everything I could possibly think of.

ljhires

I haven't put anything up yet since we still have over a year but I've found alot of things on Vegas.com. There are lists of things todo, list of underage things todo (my brother will only be 18!) and details about shows and how to get 2 for 1 prices and such.

Has anyone bought the book that Vegas.com offers that has 2 for 1 offers for shows/buffets? I though about buying 1 per couple for the welcome bags.

aegrish

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_nevada-las-vegas_did-include-website?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local Wedding BoardsForum:91Discussion:c84f74bf-86a8-4e80-ac67-54f1b5602259Post:c83e032d-227d-40fe-aed7-430f9be42979">Re: What did you include on your website?</a>:
[QUOTE]I haven't put anything up yet since we still have over a year but I've found alot of things on Vegas.com. There are lists of things todo, list of underage things todo (my brother will only be 18!) and details about shows and how to get 2 for 1 prices and such. Has anyone bought the book that Vegas.com offers that has 2 for 1 offers for shows/buffets? I though about buying 1 per couple for the welcome bags.
Posted by ljhires[/QUOTE]

I think that's nice of you to consider buying them for your guests, but there's so much to do in Vegas I'd be worried that they may not get around to using it or they will feel obligated to do so.  I'm sure most would appreciate, but you never know if there's the guest that just prefers to lay by the pool or sit in the casino and not go to shows, or isn't a fan of buffets.

ljhires

Ah. Very good point! Would there be some way of asking if they are interested in doing anything while in town? But I can't buy one for one couple and not another.... I'm only having 20 ppl come out (so far) and that's a total of 7 couples including all sets of parents so maybe if they don't use it, it wouldn't be that much of a waste. Hmmmmm...... I'll ask my parents opionion for sure!!

aegrish

Yeah I would definitley gauge interest before buying them, and keep in mind even if people say they would probably be interested in going, there's just so much to do on the strip alone it's hard to say how they'll feel when we get there.  We have a 'must see and do' list everytime we go, and we always end up not being able to do most of our list because we get caught up at the pool, casino, walking around, etc.

aerinpegadrak

Welcome

Guest Book

Our Story

Bride & Groom

Photo Album

Calendar of Events

Reception Music Request

Accommodations

Getting Around

Entertainment

Restaurants

Bride's Vegas Reviews

Registry

FAQ

RSVP

Contact Us Sorry for the formatting, I C&Ped directly from the site.  The Entertainment and Restuarants pages were widgets that Wedding Wire provided that embedded information from Yelp. ETA: Huh, guess the formatting is only weird in the edit window.  Odd.

vegasgroom

We have an about us page so people who only know one of us can find out some info on the other.

Photo gallery

About the wedding party page

A page about how we met and the proposal

We've been putting so much effort into planning, and discovering all the things you don't know before you start planning that we put up a bunch of the things we've encountered along the way in hopes that our yet to be engaged friends find it useful later.

Guest information page which includes:
-Best ways to get to Vegas for least amount of money, i.e. southwest, expedia, travelocity, kayak.
-The room block code and phone for mandalay along with all the coupon codes we currently know about and a note to try those first since they get you a better rate than the block (currently).
-Hotel options other than Mandalay and their average rates
-Schedule of events on the wedding day
-Floor map of mandalay related to the above
-Huge list of things to do in veags covering eating, gambling, golf, clubs, shopping, shows, site seeing
-Vegas map
-What time the sun will set on wedding weekend days
-Link and login info for the photo sharing site
-Wedding registry
-Dress code for reception

Our site of course has some measures in place so that it will never be indexed by search engines, etc.

nycheryl

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_nevada-las-vegas_did-include-website?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:91Discussion:c84f74bf-86a8-4e80-ac67-54f1b5602259Post:50003012-5dfe-484e-87eb-14d7abdc5038">Re: What did you include on your website?</a>:
[QUOTE] Our site of course has some measures in place so that it will never be indexed by search engines, etc.
Posted by vegasgroom[/QUOTE]


Are you willing to share that information?  LOL :)

I have pretty much all those details posted above.  I also included the monorail map, since a lot of my family haven't been and will want to see sites all over.  (I don't want them to think they can walk from MB to the Wynn.) 

vegasgroom

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_nevada-las-vegas_did-include-website?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:91Discussion:c84f74bf-86a8-4e80-ac67-54f1b5602259Post:49e2cad4-6eb2-4c2c-a157-c7ab94b4d376">Re: What did you include on your website?</a>:
[QUOTE]In Response to Re: What did you include on your website? : Are you willing to share that information?  LOL :) I have pretty much all those details posted above.  I also included the monorail map, since a lot of my family haven't been and will want to see sites all over.  (I don't want them to think they can walk from MB to the Wynn.) 
Posted by nycheryl[/QUOTE]


I can tell you the easy way of keeping the site from being indexed; you place a file called robots.txt in the root folder of the website and in the file you need just two lines:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /

Create the file using something like notepad, NOT word or any other word processor since it will add extra crap to the file that should not be there.  This will typically only be possible on sites where you're managing your own content, not sites like theknot or other wedding web page sites where you just have some web interface that limits what you can do.  So anyway, that file tells search engines that nothing on the site is to be indexed.  Nearly all search engines honor that, but some can be stupid so just in case I took some additional precautions on the website server to block search engine traffic but that would require some very computer geek stuff lol, and probably isn't entirely necessary.

As far as Mandalay maps, on our site I linked to the official map:

<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.mandalaybay.com/footer/maps.aspx">http://www.mandalaybay.com/footer/maps.aspx</a>

But I also have an edited version where I stirpped out most of everything, highlighted what will be important for our guests (check in, tram, elevators to Mix) and that's it.


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Jewels02

Thank you ladies!  This helps a lot, as I was feeling overwhelmed while searching through countless websites and information...
I have our hotel info, ceremony & reception info, ect., but it was looking a bit bare, so I will definitley be updating it tonight:)