Look, I’ve written thousands of blog posts over the years. Wedding content? That used to scare me. Not because I dont understand weddings (been to plenty, trust me) but because writing about them felt… fake. Like trying to squeeze emotion into a template.
Then I shot a wedding video project at Potters Reception Melbourne last month. Watching couples navigate their big day taught me something crucial about readability that applies to way more than just wedding content.
See, weddings are communication overload. Invitations, vows, speeches, thank you cards, vendor emails, timeline docs. And most of it? Completely unreadable. Dense paragraphs of flowery language that nobody actually processes.
The couples who had smooth weddings? They kept their communication simple. Direct. Human.
Why Wedding Content Fails (And How to Fix It)
Most wedding content reads like a Victorian novel had a baby with a legal document. We think fancy equals meaningful. Wrong.
Here’s what I learned watching successful wedding planning unfold:
1. Short beats long every time
The best wedding vows I heard? Under 2 minutes. The worst? 10 minute monologues that lost everyone including the partner standing there.
Same goes for your writing. That 2000 word vendor email explaining every possible scenario? Nobody’s reading it. The 3 paragraph version hitting the key points? Gold.
2. Specifics trump generics
“I promise to love you forever” vs “I promise to make you coffee every morning even when you’re grumpy”
Which one sticks? Which one makes you smile?
Your wedding content needs those concrete details. Not “beautiful venue with stunning views” but “wraparound timber deck overlooking native Australian gardens where kookaburras actually show up for photos”
3. Write like you talk
The most memorable wedding speech I witnessed started with “So Jim once tried to cook me dinner and almost burned down my apartment”
Not “Dearest friends and family, we gather here today to celebrate the union of…”
Your readers are humans. Talk to them like humans.
The Readability Test That Never Fails
Before you publish any wedding content ask yourself: Would I read this out loud at an actual wedding?
If the answer’s no, rewrite it.
Wedding blogs that try to sound “wedding-y” fail. The ones that sound like actual people talking about actual experiences? Those get shared. Those get remembered.
I’ve seen couples print out blog posts to show vendors. You know which ones they print? The ones that sound like a friend giving advice, not a textbook explaining protocol.
Making Complex Simple
Planning a wedding involves approximately 7 billion decisions. Your content’s job isn’t to make it more complicated.
Break things down:
- Use bullet points (like this)
- Add subheadings every few paragraphs
- Include real examples
- Skip the jargon
Remember that couple at Potters? They sent guests a one-page FAQ instead of a novel. Covered everything important. People actually read it.
The Bottom Line
Wedding content doesn’t need to be precious. It needs to be useful. It needs to be readable. It needs to sound like it was written by an actual human who’s been to actual weddings.
Stop trying to impress people with your vocabulary. Start trying to help them.
Your readers aren’t looking for poetry. They’re looking for answers. Give them those answers in words they’d actually use.
That’s how you write wedding content that gets read. That’s how you write any content that gets read.
Keep it simple. Keep it real. Keep it human.
Because at the end of the day, whether you’re writing wedding vows or wedding vendor emails, you’re just one person trying to communicate with another person.
Lynn Martelli is an editor at Readability. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University and has worked as an editor for over 10 years. Lynn has edited a wide variety of books, including fiction, non-fiction, memoirs, and more. In her free time, Lynn enjoys reading, writing, and spending time with her family and friends.
