How to write your "our story" section

Write it as three short moments: how you met, the moment it turned, and the decision to marry, with one concrete detail in each. Two hundred words, first person, one narrator. The reason most of these sections go unread is length, not subject matter.

The "our story" page is the one part of a wedding website that is genuinely yours to write, which is exactly why it tends to come out sounding like everyone else's. The fix is structural, not stylistic.

Three moments, not a timeline

A chronology is a list of dates and it reads like one. Three moments gives the reader a shape they can hold:

• The meeting. Where you were, and what was actually happening. Not "we met through friends" — "we met at Dana's birthday, where I spent forty minutes arguing about a film neither of us had finished."
• The turn. The moment it stopped being casual. This is the paragraph people remember, and it is usually small: a drive, an illness, a delayed flight, a kitchen.
• The decision. The proposal, or the quieter conversation that preceded it. Either works. Skip it if you would rather.

One detail per paragraph

A single specific detail does more than three sentences of feeling. The name of the restaurant. The wrong train. The dog. Specificity is what separates a story from a caption, and it is the part a guest repeats back to you at the reception.

Conversely, cut anything that could appear on any other couple's page. "We knew right away." "Our love has only grown." Those sentences are true and weightless. If a line would survive a copy-paste onto a stranger's website, it is not doing any work.

Write it out loud

Tell the story to someone who has not heard it, and write down the version you actually said. The spoken version is shorter, funnier, and better paced than anything you will produce staring at a form field. Then trim it by a third.

A template that holds up

We met at [place], in [year], where [what was happening]. Neither of us thought much of it at the time.

It changed on [occasion]: [the small concrete thing]. That was the week I stopped introducing him as a friend.

[He asked / we decided] in [month], [where], [the detail nobody would guess]. We are getting married in [city], in front of the people who got us here, which, if you are reading this, includes you.

Two hundred words, no clichés, and the last line does something useful: it turns a story about two people into an address to the reader.

Where it goes

On its own page, linked from the navigation. Never stacked above the schedule or the RSVP. A guest who opens the site to check the shuttle time on the morning of the wedding should not have to scroll past your first date, and a guest who wants to read it will happily click once.

For the sections that do belong up front, see what to put on your wedding website, or work through the twelve-item checklist in order.

Common questions

How do you write the 'our story' section of a wedding website?

Pick three moments (how you met, the moment it turned, and the proposal) and give each two or three sentences with one concrete detail. Roughly 200 words total. Length is what makes these sections go unread, not subject matter.

How long should the 'our story' section be?

Between 150 and 250 words. Long enough to hold a real detail, short enough that a guest finishes it standing up.

Should we write it in first person or third person?

First person, and pick one narrator. Alternating voices reads as a gimmick by the second paragraph. If you both want a voice, write one paragraph each and label them.

Do we have to include the proposal story?

No. If the proposal was private or you would rather not retell it, end on the moment you decided instead. Guests are not auditing the section for completeness.

Where should the 'our story' section go on the website?

On its own page, linked from the navigation, never above the schedule or the RSVP. Guests who want it will find it; guests who came for the shuttle time should not have to scroll past it.