For this week's wedding post, I'm revealing
the website! My brother and I worked really hard on this puppy and it was one of my favorite parts of the wedding planning process. Because as you can see, it ties everything together.
Our colors, our
engagement photos/art, the vintage nostalgia theme from
our save-the-dates and the movie theme from
our invitations, now all make better sense.
I definitely could have made things simpler by using one of the many pre-designed wedding websites available. What, Shannon takes the easy road? Never!
Christopher built his own wedding website many moons ago, so I was thrilled when he agreed to help with mine. I shared my design ideas and with his expert coding skills, he manifested a playful and interactive website for me and Hal to enjoy for life. Yay for big brothers who happen to be photographers AND web programmers!
The coolest thing he did was the randomization code for the main photo on the homepage. I asked him to animate our head-shots so that one of us was always looking at the other at the wrong time. (This is something silly Hal and I do together for a laugh). But Christopher thought, and I now agree, that we should eventually look AT each other. He made it so we catch each other's eyes... sometimes! You have to watch for awhile to even realize our heads are turning back and forth.
For the PLOT header, we told
our story. How we met, fell in love, broke up, got back together, broke up again, and reconnected for good. I don't think I've ever shared with you our full history before. So if you'd like to read up.. pour yourself a cup of tea and kick back. It's a long one!
The CAST & CREW part was extra fun. Since I already knew we'd be premiering
our Amelie-inspired movie at the wedding (the video was added to the site later), I dug out our toddler photos and came up with a few more likes and dislikes that didn't make it into the movie.
We asked our bridesmaids and groomsmen to do the same. The result is a hilarious and quirky mix of cutie pie childhood photos and personality tidbits of our friends.
Christopher made a nice horizontally scrolling gallery of
our engagement photos/art. This was the first time they were revealed, so I'm sure our guests were somewhat bewildered!
Hal had been collecting songs for our wedding soundtrack since before we got engaged. Combined with my own list of tunes that remind us our relationship, the list was 50 songs deep! We only wanted to give out one reasonably lengthed album as wedding favors, so we majorly cut it down to 20, plus a hidden track. It's an awesome sentimental-to-us mix of old soul, classic jazz, 90's rock and hip hop.
To save some stamps, we asked our guests to RSVP online. Christopher installed a clever form box that pulls down from the top.
As you click on each header, the body scrolls down to a new section of the site. At the very bottom of the GIFTS page, we put in a secret photo of us dangling from monkey bars. Some of our guests told us later they never knew it was there. Surprise!
So that's everything. What do you think? Are we nuts or what? To fully experience the entire website, visit: www.shannonandhal.com
SEE THE REST OF MY WEEKLY WEDDING SERIES HERE.
{Images by Christopher Bachmann}
