Wedding website for a destination wedding: what guests need to know, and when
Editorial teamUpdated October 24, 2026
Short answer
A destination wedding website should answer what guests must know before they book: the date, the town, the nearest airport, where to stay and roughly what the trip will cost them. Put that up when you send the save the date, add the schedule, dress code and RSVP when the invitations go out, and set the reply deadline around the dates your venue and hotel need answers. Write the page in the languages your guests read, and keep the guest list, the budget and private addresses to yourselves.
At home, an invitation and a few messages are often enough. Abroad, guests have to book flights, find a bed, perhaps take several days off and follow a schedule in another time zone. Every question you don't answer up front comes back as a message, often the same one from several people. This guide is about the page where the answers live. For the trip itself, see guest travel and RSVPs for a wedding in Italy; most of its checklist works for other destinations too.
Why a wedding abroad needs its own page
Three things set a wedding abroad apart from one at home, and all three are about information. Guests make decisions with money: flights and rooms are booked long before the day, and the sooner they have the right details, the easier it is to say yes. Details change: a departure moves, a hotel releases rooms, a dinner changes venue. You can't update a printed card, but you can update a page. And guests come from different places, with different languages and habits, and all of them need the same answer.
A page doesn't replace a personal invitation. It is where the invitation, the save the date and every reminder point to, so there is only one version of the truth.
What goes on the page
Order the page by the questions guests ask, in the order they ask them.
Date and place. The wedding day and, if it is a weekend with several events, which days guests should plan to be there.
Travel and the nearest airport. The name of the airport or airports, how to get on from there and how long the last leg usually takes according to the venue or transfer company. If you arrange transfers: when they leave and from where. If the venue is on an island, see getting guests to an island wedding.
Travel documents. A reminder to check passports, ID cards and any visa rules in good time. Which rules apply depends on the guest's nationality and the destination, so link to an official source rather than summarising them yourselves.
Accommodation. Where guests can stay, ideally at several price points, how to book, who pays and the deadline for any room block. Who pays for what is covered in who pays for guest accommodation.
Schedule. Everything that applies to all guests: welcome evening, ceremony, dinner, the day after. Give a time and place for each, in local time.
Dress code. Say what it means in practice at the venue: a ceremony on grass or sand, evenings that turn cool, churches where shoulders should be covered. "Smart casual" means different things in different countries.
Menu and diet. If guests choose a dish in advance, show the options and ask for the choice in the RSVP, together with allergies and dietary needs. Then it is all in one place when the kitchen asks.
Practical things on the day. The currency, whether cash is needed for things like taxis (ask the venue), and who guests contact on the day if something goes wrong. That should be a person with a phone, not the two of you.
RSVP form. Yes or no per guest, which events they are coming to, and diet. One reply per household with every person named is the easiest to count.
When the page should be ready
The page doesn't have to be finished at once. It grows with your planning, but each stage has something that must be in place.
When
What must be on the page
Save the date
Date, place, nearest airport and whether you are arranging accommodation. Guests should be able to start planning before they book flights.
Invitation
Schedule, accommodation with booking instructions, dress code and an open RSVP form with a reply deadline.
Reply deadline
A clear date. Set it before the day your venue or caterer wants final numbers and before the hotel releases unsold rooms in your block. Ask both when those days are.
Final weeks
Transfer times, the contact person on site and any changes, dated so guests can see what is new.
We give no fixed number of months, because it depends on how far guests travel, when flights go on sale and what the venue requires. The rule is the condition, not the number: what guests need in order to book should be on the page before they book. For the full planning order, see the destination wedding planning checklist.
Guests who speak different languages
If your guests come from two or more countries, write the page in the languages they read. That doesn't have to be every language in the family; often your own plus one everyone shares is enough. A few things make the page easier to read in any language:
The same content in every language. If only one version is updated, half the party gets the wrong answer.
Dates with the month written out, so nobody reads day and month the wrong way round.
Times in local time, with a line saying the destination's time applies.
Amounts with their currency, and no conversions that look exact but move with the exchange rate.
Ask a native speaker to read the text. A machine-translated dress code or allergy question is where misunderstandings start.
What does not belong on the page
A wedding website is read by more people than you think: links get forwarded and screenshots get shared. Keep these to yourselves:
The guest list. Who is invited and who has declined is not everyone's business, and a visible list raises questions about who isn't on it.
The budget. What you pay for the venue, the food or the rooms. What guests need to know about their own costs goes on the page as information for them, not as an extract from your budget.
Private addresses and numbers. Guests' home addresses and phone numbers, and door codes or key boxes for a private villa. If guests need them, send them directly to the people concerned.
Anything you haven't decided yet. A "maybe" on the page is read as an answer. Write "more details to follow" and when they will.
Password or open page
An open page is easiest for guests: the link is all they need. A password adds a step, but protects a schedule with times and places from anyone who gets the link second hand. A few rules of thumb:
A password if the page shows exact times and places for private events, or the address of a house where the party is staying.
An open page if it only has general information about the town, the airport and hotels.
Put the password in the invitation, and pick one that is easy to type on a phone, without accented letters that other keyboards lack.
You can build a wedding website with an RSVP form in our planning tool, Our wedding. Guests reply without creating an account and their replies go into your guest list, the page can have a password and come in several languages that you write yourselves, and your guest list, budget and notes are never shown on it. Building the page and previewing it is free.
Frequently asked questions
Sources and reliability
This guide gives no figures on how many guests reply or when, because we have no such data. Timings are written as conditions: ask your venue and hotel for their own dates. What it says about Our wedding describes how the tool works in October 2026.
