I Didn't Use AI for My Wedding Website

And Why That Was a Wise Choice

I just got married this weekend, and like many couples today, we needed a wedding website. While I ultimately went with a template-based site builder, I seriously considered creating a custom site from scratch. As someone with years of web development experience, I initially thought, "How hard could it be?"

Turns out, wedding websites have a hidden depth and the stakes are surprisingly high. Now that I'm on the other side, I want to share some reflections on wedding websites, the hidden complexities, and why sometimes buying beats building—especially for high-pressure, one-shot events.

A wedding website wireframe

The Unexpected Pressure of Wedding Tech

I've spent years in consulting and have dealt with demanding clients, but I wasn't prepared for how high-stakes a wedding website would feel. Every wedding touchpoint carries emotional weight, and when there are bugs or issues, you'll definitely hear about them—from family, friends, and especially your future spouse.

What makes this particularly challenging is that unlike most software projects where you can iterate and improve, wedding websites are essentially one-shot products. They need to work correctly the first time, with limited opportunity for testing with real users or fixing issues as they arise.

The Anatomy of a Wedding Website

On the surface, wedding websites seem simple. And in many ways, they are! But dig a little deeper, and you'll find several critical features that must work flawlessly:

RSVP Functionality

This is the primary reason most couples create a wedding website. It's not just collecting yes/no responses—you're typically gathering:

• Food selection choices

• Email addresses for automated reminders

• Dietary restrictions and allergies

• Plus-one information

If any part of this system fails—the form doesn't save responses, emails go to spam folders, or data gets lost—you've compromised the main purpose of your site.

Email Management

This is more complex than it appears. You need emails that:

• Are properly validated and omit common typos.

• Come from a "warm" email account that won't trigger spam filters

• Arrive at the right time with the right information (reminders/save the date)

I've experienced firsthand how email validation can go wrong. I have an @hint.services email that many sites reject because they don't recognize .services domains—imagine discovering any of these issues after sending invitations!

Privacy Controls

Many couples want to keep certain wedding details private—like the venue location—until they've confirmed someone is actually invited. This requires:

• Some form of authentication

• Clear user flows for accessing private information

• Proper security to prevent unauthorized access to details

Every additional privacy feature adds complexity and potential points of failure. When a guest returns to the site after RSVPing, will they know how to access the private information? Will the system remember them correctly?

I’m even leaving out a few key features like a registry, but since I didn’t use most of those features I’m leaving them out for now. Just note this can become a more extensive set of features pretty easily!

The AI Building Landscape Has Evolved

When I was initially thinking of building my own wedding site, I was primarily using tools like Cursor. In the months since, we've seen a surge of AI-powered development tools like Bolt.new, Lovable.dev, and Claude Code that make custom site building much more efficient and streamlined.

I've found myself wondering: if I were starting today, could I have easily built a custom wedding site with these new tools? And more importantly, should I have?

The answer, I believe, is still no—and this is why.

The Testing Challenge Remains

While AI coding tools have dramatically reduced the implementation challenge, they haven't solved the testing challenge. You can have all the right pieces built correctly in isolation, but if they don't fit together properly, the entire system fails.

It's like trying to connect Legos with a completely different building system. Lego pieces work together because they have a fixed, well-understood connector. Most software systems don't have such clear connectors—they're adaptable but require careful integration.

AI still struggles with these connections. It can generate impressive components, but ensuring they work together reliably requires human oversight and testing—exactly what you don't have time for when planning a wedding!

Enterprise vs. Startup Approaches

This wedding website experience has interesting parallels to my professional work. I'm currently advising at an enterprise-sized company, and I've noticed how differently I use AI there compared to my previous role at a startup.

At the enterprise level, details matter immensely because solutions scale to many users. The expectations for AI become much more granular. In contrast, startups can build quickly, pivot as needed, and accept some imperfections to get to market faster.

Wedding websites fall firmly in the "details matter" category—you're building something that must work correctly the first time, for a specific group of people, on a non-negotiable timeline.

Buy vs. Build: The One-Shot Factor

For products or services where users will return multiple times, you can iterate and improve. But for one-shot experiences like weddings, you need reliability from day one.

That's why, despite my technical background and the impressive capabilities of today's AI tools, I'm ultimately happy I went with a proven template-based solution. The peace of mind was worth far more than whatever customization I might have achieved.

When the stakes are high and you only get one chance, sometimes the smartest technical decision is to rely on systems that others have already thoroughly tested.

I'd love to hear from others who've faced similar "build vs. buy" decisions for high-stakes personal projects. Did you create your own wedding website? How did it go? Let me know in the comments!

Admittedly… I did build an AI Wedding Info Site.

I did end up creating a small info site for my wedding with AI on Loveable.dev. If you’re a paid subscriber, it’s available to you below!

The site has a few nice features. There’s a tiled background I created in Midjourney that sits behind an animated text intro. Then there’s a visual timeline of the events during the wedding which is helpful for quick reference. And lastly, there was a link to a spot for guests to upload photos of the evening.