They offer numerous benefits to both you and your guests, and with countless customization options, the site can reflect your personality and the style of your wedding day. And the best part is that with the presence of online wedding website providers, you don’t have to be a computer geek to have your own site.

Amy Ruocco, founder and CEO of wedding window.com, attributes the increase in use of wedding websites to celebrity Star Jones, who used Wedding Window to create a site for her nuptials in late 2004. “After Star Jones mentioned her website on The View and couples realized how accessible wedding websites can be, the industry just took off,” says Ruocco. “Now there are lots of companies offering custom designs, and it’s become a must-have, time-saving, budget-saving tool for couples.”

Weddingwindow.com, like other website providers, allows couples to build the site themselves through a user-friendly, automated website. Customers start by choosing a template design, then customize the site through various design options. Wedding colors, flowers, location, and theme can even be matched to your site. Uploading pictures is as easy as a few clicks, and certain companies even allow couples to upload videos and music. And if any changes need to be made, the user can alter their site through the automated service instantly, without going through a designer.

One of the most common uses for a website is to provide information for out-of-town guests. Everything from directions, hotel recommendations, the reception location’s website, and other details about the area can be featured on the site. You also can include your biographies and the story of how you met and got engaged. The environmentally conscious can conserve paper by sending out invitation and save-the-date notices via email, and guests can even RSVP by visiting the site.

Jennifer and Bryan Cunningham of Raritan built a website for their summer wedding to accommodate guests traveling from Europe and throughout the United States. “Our site served as ‘wedding headquarters’ where everyone could access basic information about our wedding, and even links to our preferred hotel and the park where we got married,” says Jennifer. “The site also included an album of pictures from our childhood up to our wedding day, which we posted to our website afterward.”

With Bryan working as an information technology manager and freelance web designer, the Cunningham’s built their site from scratch, spending only five dollars to buy the domain name. For couples less computer savvy, automated services like weddingwindow.com, eweddings.com, or nearlywed.com are easy-to-use and affordable. Depending on the type of service, prices can range from free to thousands of dollars, though most automated companies charge a low fee, around $10, every month.