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Photoshop and I are pretty close these days. First the Save the Date. Now the official wedding website. Microsoft Word is jea-lous.

Yes, 2E’s has given me two new tasks now that the STD (eek) is complete: (1) design our wedding website and (2) don’t screw it up. Again I feel like this is something I can actually accomplish – as opposed to choosing envelope colors, which rings of torture.

2E’s and I briefly considered a template website – you know, something where they give you a background like this…

…and then you plug in your date, names, faces and all the other places where it reads INSERT HERE. Some will give you a free survey or a free quiz simply for purchasing a year of hosting.

This website is…

(a) better than expected

(b) what you expected

(c) less than you expected

(d) pure dung

I tease, but I’m sure creating a website can be daunting for most couples. Templates offer ease, reliability and (best of all) affordability. For us – being that 2E's and I are both design-oriented people – it felt very unlike us to plug in our personal info and see our smiling faces appear over a winter wonderland or bamboo shoot backdrop.

Some brides and grooms are all about the "template wedding." Look at the roadside Vegas wedding chapels, or the Albertson Wedding Chapel (less than 1,500 feet from our LA apartment), or any one of the myriad of luxury destination hotels all over the world. Give them the date, your ring sizes and two of your favorite colors (that last detail is optional), and they’ll do the rest. You need only show up. They'll provide guests. For an additional X amount, they'll even provide a day-of mother of the bride. There are literally thousands of weddings waiting to be had in every corner of the globe.

Even this blog is a template. It’s true. I gave it a name and a title and it does the rest. Half of the time I don’t even write this stuff. I wake up to a new post. It’s kind of like Christmas.

But despite the ease, despite the affordability, our quirky, do-it-yourself wedding should match our quirky, DIY website. And when the only alternative is deciding between metallic or non-metallic envelopes, you better believe I'm going to drag this out as long as possible.