
Show HN: Open-sourcing my wedding website on my first anniversary - rampatra
https://github.com/rampatra/wedding-website
======
bmsleight_
Ok feel old.

20.5 years ago I sent out a link to a party celebrating our engagement. I
spent more time explaining how to get to the website, than people finding
website helpful.

Still married - so get off my lawn :)

~~~
tyingq
They probably liked that better than you breaking out the slide projector when
they came over for dinner though.

------
yoongfook
I’ve got a different format - timeline style:

[https://www.09092018.com](https://www.09092018.com)

Let me know if anyone wants me to open source this :)

~~~
turnerniles
It would be awesome if you could open source this!

~~~
mrhimanshupal
It's already, IMO you hadn't paid attention to the Title of Post.

------
pokstad
I just went to my old wedding domain name to see if it was still up
(www.paulandtessa.com) and it turns out another couple bought it for their
wedding next February. Amazingly, they are from the same city as us (Long
Beach). I'm not sure what the chances of that happening considering anyone in
the world could have bought it. It's a good thing I didn't renew the domain
name so that someone else could enjoy it for their guests. Keep that it mind
when you are gobbling up domain names for important life events ;)

~~~
winningcontinue
great story. highly unlikely coincidence. same names and wedding at the same
city. domain names can have different easy to remember permutations and there
are different top level domains so it's likely the couple would've registered
something similar. overall good advice on not keeping it permanent, although I
could understand some people turning it into a family business or something.

~~~
giancarlostoro
Heh, rent our domain for $5 a month! Or, buy the homepage, just send us
pictures and captions, and pick one of our templates... Would probably work
best for highly common name combinations.

------
Walkman
I still find the idea of a digital wedding invitation pretty strange, because
here in Hungary the bride and the fiancé invite everybody in person together.
Maybe distant relatives are invited by mail or something.

Is digital invitation a common thing nowadays? Or was it more common even
years ago in other countries?

~~~
bronco21016
As others have said, in the US the formal paper invite is considered official.
When my wife and I married we still did this but we encouraged people to RSVP
via the website or email. No sense in sending more paper.

It’s sad to me that we felt so pressured to do the paper invites. They’re
ridiculously overpriced and all of that paper and emissions for delivery for
something that can easily be delivered electronically and instantly for near
zero cost.

The entire wedding industry thrives on norms like these and it’s amazing to me
that technology doesn’t displace more aspects.

~~~
dylan604
How do you let people know about the website? Social media posts? How do you
contact people not on social media about the website? A mailer? A phone
call/text? These are just questions I would ask to understand why paper
invitations are still a thing. Rather than providing a self addressed stamped
envelope for the RSVP, just put the website into it.

Also, people love to hang things like invitations on their fridge as a
constant reminder of an event that's somewhat far into the future. Rarely is
that something printed off of a website, but a card received in the mail will
pretty much get placed there straight away (or maybe after sitting on the
counter for a period of time).

~~~
davidcbc
> How do you let people know about the website? Social media posts? How do you
> contact people not on social media about the website? A mailer? A phone
> call/text?

Someone should invent some kind of electronic mail for these things!

> Also, people love to hang things like invitations on their fridge as a
> constant reminder of an event that's somewhat far into the future. Rarely is
> that something printed off of a website, but a card received in the mail
> will pretty much get placed there straight away (or maybe after sitting on
> the counter for a period of time).

My wife and I did email invitations because we didn't consider it worth $500
for someone to have something to stick on their fridge. We were able to
automatically send an email reminder a week or two ahead of time instead.

------
rbyrne
Thanks for sharing. I just got married and did my own site - I forgot how time
consuming even a regular HTML / CSS static site could be when you have a
million other things going on - I would have loved to have used this.

~~~
giancarlostoro
I got married last month and thought about doing a site for a while (I just
may still make one just for her sake with all the wedding pictures) but being
a full-time web developer I knew it wouldn't just be slap on some pictures and
HTML/CSS. I cannot tell you how many times I've struggled with CSS or JS and I
use both daily! They're painful lessons, sometimes too easy to forget when you
leave the front-end.

~~~
rbyrne
I did that as well; I threw all the images afterwards up on a S3 bucket and
set up Cloudfront in front and it's relatively easy / cheap to host.

------
Sander_Marechal
Oh nice, me too!

Here's the site (hosted on my home server, so may be slow under heavy
traffic): [https://www.astrid-en-sander.nl/](https://www.astrid-en-sander.nl/)

It's not nearly as pretty as all the others here, but I am a backend
developer, not a designer. You cat get the source code at
[https://github.com/sandermarechal/wedding](https://github.com/sandermarechal/wedding)

------
briandear
> This event is no way close to ethnic. The bride & groom would like to have
> some "shots before the knot". With booze flowing down the floor and the
> western attire on, everyone would be busy showing off their new moves on the
> stage which they have finely honed. Lastly, expect some beer pong matches &
> karaoke for sure.

The money quote. I would have loved to have gone to this wedding!

~~~
Gruselbauer
Indeed. The whole site exudes a nonchalance and cultural pluralism that just
makes me think I'd have had heaps of fun attending, despite being from the
other end of the globe and another background entirely.

------
osrec
Happy Anniversary!

For those looking to use this, the following may help a little:

    
    
      find /path/to/folder -type f -print0 | xargs -0 sed -i 's/Ram/YourName/g'
      find /path/to/folder -type f -print0 | xargs -0 sed -i 's/Antara/OtherHalfsName/g'
    

Edit: FianceeName -> OtherHalfsName (some people are easily offended) :P

~~~
Y7ZCQtNo39
I always found the concept of a whole website, domain name, etc dedicated to a
wedding to feel a little... heavy. I understand it's a big occasion. It just
feels like a lot for a single event and domain that will become irrelevant
after the event is over.

~~~
black-tea
Yeah but men basically go insane when trying to impress women. The entire
concept of a wedding is insane. That much time, effort and money for something
that essentially amounts to a few photographs, most of which are fake and
posed. A man wouldn't buy this for himself.

~~~
tugberkk
I don't think we do it "to impress", but rather to "not disappoint".

~~~
black-tea
That's even worse. I was giving them more credit but maybe you're right. The
wedding industry thrives by sowing the idea of a perfect and unique wedding
into the minds of little girls and later some man will come along and fulfil
that dream.

~~~
bastijn
I wouldn't buy dolls, and after, their clothing either. Yet my daugthers love
them and I love my daugthers. I wouldn't buy expensive jewelry, yet my wife
loves it everyday still.

There is so much you wouldn't do for yourself but do for the ones you love.
That doesn't make it insane or just to not disappoint. You do it because it
makes you happy to see them happy. If you would do the same if you were alone
is not the thing that matters here.

------
potench
My wedding website from 6 years ago is also open sourced
[https://github.com/potench/shum-harden/](https://github.com/potench/shum-
harden/) It is not mobile optimized, whoops [http://shum-
harden.com](http://shum-harden.com)

~~~
xiconfjs
quite crazy...I like it.

------
czue
Nice, this is great! I did the same thing with mine a couple years back:

Demo: [http://coryandro.com/](http://coryandro.com/) Code:
[https://github.com/czue/django-wedding-
website](https://github.com/czue/django-wedding-website) Writeup:
[https://buildwithdjango.com/blog/post/wedding-
website/](https://buildwithdjango.com/blog/post/wedding-website/)

------
laurynas-s
Nice!

Had an idea to make a website for my wedding too (married one year ago), but
in the end, decided to go with traditional paper invitations as would be
difficult to explain to older people how to RSVP and paper invitations would
be more cost-efficient (By comparing the time needed to build the website with
my hourly rate).

For big Indian weddings with hundreds of people, I do see that the website can
benefit by not needing to contact each person about RSVP status.

~~~
tathougies
At a traditional indian wedding, you don't invite people. You tell your aunts
and uncles and friends, and they tell their aunts and uncles and friends, and
they tell theirs, etc, until you end up with 800 people at your wedding.

~~~
sizzle
At $25-50+ a head for food and alcohol at reception alone, that is a huge
number unless you come from wealth... However I think I read somewhere the
average cost of South Asian wedding is $100-150k in California. Ouch.

~~~
tathougies
Buffet

~~~
kkarakk
buffet's prices are calculated per plate too

------
julius559
Putting the placeholder for the +1(s) as "Wife or kids", Yikes... Are women
allowed to use the form?

~~~
system2
Nice catch. I believe it is cultural.

------
pjc50
How does the "RSVP to google sheets" work? That's an extremely useful feature
to have on a static site with no backend. It looks like it's related to this
line:

$.post('[https://script.google.com/macros/s/AKfycbzUqz44wOat0DiGjRV1g...](https://script.google.com/macros/s/AKfycbzUqz44wOat0DiGjRV1gUnRf4HRqlRARWggjvHKWvqniP7eVDG-/exec'),
data)

... how does the security work on that, or can I RSVP to your wedding too?

~~~
rampatra
Yes, I found it extremely helpful too. You can only RSVP if you have the
invite code. If you don't then you can't RSVP.

You can store the code in a particular box in the sheet and then your google
script can validate the code entered by the guest.

~~~
seedie
You are checking the invite code in the browser side js. That doesn't keep any
tech-savvy user from registering even without code. Is this correct?

~~~
rampatra
Yes, that's correct for my site currently. But what I had in mind is to have
the invite code in the sheet itself and then when one submits, I check the
entered code with the code in the sheet and then add/not add the rsvp.

However, due to timing constraints, I couldn't do this and instead used a
simple encryption algorithm to have the hacker at least put in some effort to
know the invite code :)

I will raise an issue on github for this.

------
dustinmoris
Wow, all these wedding websites here look amazing. Ours was a really simple
static webpage which I hacked together in a single day. At least our guests
loved it :) [http://hetalsaidyes.com](http://hetalsaidyes.com)

However, I shall say that we made the website for convenience, we still sent
out letters with a formal invitation. The website was more like a place for
people to quickly check details and later to distribute photos by guests.

------
th3iedkid
Wow! Great timing...Getting married in a couple of days and here 's our
website

[https://mamamami.wedding](https://mamamami.wedding)

~~~
jyriand
FYI, after clicking RSVP link, all the navigation links stop working. I'm
using Firefox.

~~~
th3iedkid
Hey thanks! Fixing it :D

------
PascLeRasc
Cool project! Was this collaboratory between the two of you?

I especially love this photo [1], I wish that style of formal wear was more
common in America.

[1]
[https://wedding.rampatra.com/img/eng_pics/NGP_4089-lg.jpg](https://wedding.rampatra.com/img/eng_pics/NGP_4089-lg.jpg)

~~~
rampatra
Yes, I coded and she tested it. She also helped me with the color themes.
Lastly, she was the final "go/no go", after all, she is the boss.

~~~
rampatra
*was=gave

------
nthitz
Nice! One thing about the RSVP, it has a section where you can specify the
number of "Wife or kids" you are bringing. Probably could be reworded to
something more neutral.

Congrats on your anniversary!

~~~
rampatra
Yes, I agree. Appreciate the constructive feedback.

------
reacharavindh
I used a service called withjoy.com about 279 days ago :-)

I primarily went to the service instead of a storied page because I needed a
system to collect RSVPs. I could have hacked one up together, but this service
offered everything I wanted, in a easy way, so I made the choice.

All our guests liked the website.

[https://withjoy.com/evelynandaravindh/](https://withjoy.com/evelynandaravindh/)

------
stevetodd
We did one quick and easy with squarespace. We had people RSVP with a form we
set up there. Took about an hour. Worked awesome!

------
ranpr0
[Off-topic] I feel there is a need of many more open source projects. Most
open source projects these days are backed by big cos. There are hardly any
large open source projects nowadays which are not by big cos. Why is there no
credible alternative to Uber which is open source ? How about open source
stack for security software ?

~~~
Double_a_92
Because it's not so easy to make a stable big software without lots of money
and people. And only big corporations have that sort of money to spend on such
things.

------
intenscia
It’s not as polished as the poster but I’ve open sourced our wedding website
should it help serve as inspiration for you
[https://github.com/intenscia/Wedding](https://github.com/intenscia/Wedding)

------
kirubakaran
Related idea: Prediction market for how long a relationship / marriage is
going to last.

If most of your friends are betting against the marriage, perhaps you should
call it off, and the betters get their money back.

Not sure how to solve the moral hazard problem though.

------
deepaksurti
@rampatra Your Pull Request was approved and merged by Antara. Happy
anniversary!

~~~
rampatra
The most creative anniversary wish till now :D

------
freedomben
Hey I'm trying to RSVP but it's rejecting my invite code :-(

Dude, excellent work on that site by the way. It's incredible, really.

~~~
rampatra
Did you try 271117 as the invite code?

------
hit8run
Wow. Someone deleted my comment without any notice or whatever. What kind of
practice is this here on HN?

I was not offending the author or someone else.

I was just criticising the size of the repo and the number of tools that are
required to develop this single static website in contrast to a simple html
file. People started to upvote and agree with me and the reaction is to simply
delete?

If this is the new practice here I'll have to ask myself if it makes sense to
keep participating in this community.

~~~
outime
I still can see your comment:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18557415](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18557415)
(think you meant this one).

I believe comments aren't removed here at all. There are some comments which
are objectively useless/offending in many threads and they're just flagged but
never deleted, so I doubt they'd remove yours when it's a valid technical
critique (if perhaps it can be expressed less harshly).

------
dvtrn
Nothing to add but congrats on year one of marriage, and here's to many more.
Thanks for sharing this with us :)

~~~
rampatra
You're welcome. Hope it helps!

------
onwardly
When buying a wedding domain, you can buy domains like .party and .dance,
which adds a nice touch I think.

~~~
Technetium_Hat
Unfortunately, those are much more expensive than .com domains.

------
evancharles
Thanks for sharing! I was just searching github for something like this for my
own wedding.

~~~
rampatra
Glad you liked it!

------
artemonster
never knew up until now that this was a thing. _insert "but why?" GIF_

~~~
Spivak
Paper invites being expensive for large weddings is a pretty big motivator
outside it being neat.

------
andrestc
How hard would it be to set up a backend payment service to receive $$ for
gifts?

~~~
rampatra
It's not that complex. You can have a paypal.me address or set up a stripe
account with buymeacoffee.com. There would be many more but these two are at
the top of my mind now.

------
utam0k
Congrats! Thanks to this I made happy mood from morning.

~~~
rampatra
That's really sweet of you :)

------
ai_ia
Nice to see a fellow Odiya trending on HN. :)

~~~
rampatra
Haha, how did you conclude I am Odia? By my last name?

~~~
ai_ia
I had a hunch and I snooped around in your website. :)

------
dwheeler
Adorable. My best to you both.

~~~
rampatra
thanks a million :)

------
maticaputti
I want an invitation code!

~~~
rampatra
it's mentioned on the github repo :) It is 271117.

------
davmar
i gave you my email address. what have i done? haha

~~~
rampatra
I won't spam you, don't worry :D

------
iMuzz
This is cute :)

~~~
rampatra
Thanks!

------
snissn
Congrats!

------
Applethief
Congrats!

------
hit8run
Looking at the bloated and checked in node_modules folder makes me wanna cry.
Yah it's probably all just dev dependencies but building a static website
shouldn’t feel like rocket science. People were creating wedding websites in
the 90s with just one html file and that’s it. Welcome to the age of total
bloat.

~~~
andrewguenther
The package.json declares 4 build dependencies and 3 runtime.

Most of that bloat probably comes from Gulp, which is one of the most
ridiculously bloated tools I've ever seen.

~~~
ptd
What is the alternative to tools like Gulp or Gatsby for those of us who want
to make (fairly)simple websites?

In my case, I’m a Data Scientist looking to make a portfolio website. Nothing
too crazy but more than hello world.

Should we just work with HTML? Materialize CSS? GitHub pages w/ Jekyll?
Nextjs? Bootstrap?

Should we just head back to Wordpress and Wix? Wixcode? Is Gulp the best
option?

Is it worth paying a professional to create the site for me?

I’m very intereted in developer opinions. Any feedback is much appreciated.
Thank you.

~~~
andrewguenther
> What is the alternative to tools like Gulp or Gatsby for those of us who
> want to make (fairly)simple websites?

Gulp has nothing directly to do with building a website, it is a compilation
tool of sorts that allows you to transform your source files into something
you'll end up deploying via various plugins. For example, you can use gulp to
collapse all your JS source files into one or to transpile it into something
more cross browser compatible.

The reason I dislike Gulp is that it has a massive number of dependencies and
really is just an overcomplicated reimplementation of pipes. Personally, I
prefer Webpack. It is also a fairly large tool, but at the very least it
actually does something useful out of the box. When I migrated our projects
from Gulp to Webpack, I replaced a over 500 lines of gulp code with about 50
lines of config and a small bash script.

------
zahreeley
Holding phone on engagement

------
kygyufyufuf
Badly expressed, sorry. Deleted.

~~~
EpicEng
Even if I chose to ignore the fact that you're being a downer for no good
reason, that's not true for all demographics.

------
brian_herman__
Cool!

