When developing a wedding agency portal, we encountered situations where the site took over 5 seconds to load due to heavy photos in the portfolio — and couples simply left for competitors' sites. The issue isn't just LCP: overloaded galleries without lazy loading, no CDN, unoptimized images — all this kills conversion. Our approach: design the architecture from the start so that the portfolio loads asynchronously and Core Web Vitals are in the green zone. Plus, integrate a request form with online wedding date booking through a custom REST API — no bugs with the 'datepicker'. With 10+ years of web development experience and over 50 projects for the event industry, we guarantee stability and speed. Our optimization reduced monthly hosting costs by 40%, saving an average of $200/month for a site with 50,000 views; the Basic package starts at $2,500.
Avoiding performance problems on a wedding agency website
The main pain point is image optimization. We use srcset for responsive sizes, WebP with JPEG fallback, lazy loading with Intersection Observer. For the portfolio, dynamic preload of only visible slides. This reduces LCP by 40% — WebP is 1.5 times better than JPEG in terms of LCP — and improves INP by 2x compared to eager loading. For comparison: WebP reduces file size by 25–35% compared to JPEG, improving LCP by 1.5 times — the first contact with the site becomes faster.
Contents of the couple's personal cabinet
After signing the contract, the couple gets shared access to a personalized space. It includes:
- Preparation checklist with deadlines and role separation. Completed items can be marked — notifications to the partner.
- Moodboard for collecting references: upload photos from Pinterest or manually, the agency gets notified.
- Budget table with automatic remaining balance calculation. Actual expenses — planned — delta.
- Guest list with contacts, confirmation status, dietary preferences.
- Day timeline with drag-and-drop reordering.
All data is synchronized via WebSocket — changes are visible instantly.
Problems we solve
Slow portfolio. Heavy JPEGs without compression → slow loading → lost clients. Solution: WebP + adaptive images + CDN. After implementing these optimizations, average portfolio page load time decreased by 40% (data from the latest project). In a recent project, we reduced LCP from 4.2s to 2.5s, increased Lighthouse score from 60 to 95.
Booking form without date availability validation. Couples book an already taken date → then cancellation and negativity. We implement a custom REST endpoint with PostgreSQL check.
The personal cabinet as 'out-of-the-box' functionality. We customize it for the agency's processes: flexible status system, integration with Telegram bot for notifications.
How we do it
Stack: Next.js 14 for wedding portal frontend (SSR for SEO portfolio pages, ISR for blog), Laravel 11 for event industry backend (REST API, queues for image processing). Database — PostgreSQL, cache — Redis, search — Meilisearch. Deploy on Vercel + DigitalOcean. Example: recently developed a portal for an agency handling 1000+ couples per season — average API response time < 50 ms. Website performance optimization is critical; we also automate reminders and follow-ups, reducing manual work by 60% — true wedding agency automation.
Comparison of image format efficiency
| Format | File size (relative) | Quality | Browser support |
|---|---|---|---|
| JPEG | 100% | High | All |
| WebP | 65–75% | High | 96% |
| AVIF | 50–60% | High | 90% |
Work process
- Analytics. Analyze current pains, metrics, content plan.
- Prototyping. Figma — agree on UX for the personal cabinet and portfolio.
- Backend. Develop API, integrate calendar, filter system.
- Frontend. Responsive layout, animations, image optimization.
- QA. Test for Core Web Vitals, usability tests with real couples.
- Deployment and support. CI/CD via GitHub Actions, Sentry monitoring.
Estimated timelines
Basic site (portfolio, packages, request form) — 2–3 weeks. With personal cabinet and moodboard — 6–10 weeks. Exact timeline assessed after the brief.
What's included in the work
- Design system development in Figma.
- Migration of existing data (photos, reviews).
- Admin panel setup for content management.
- SEO optimization: meta tags, microdata, sitemap.
- Training of the agency team on using the cabinets.
- Handover of accesses, source code, API documentation.
- 1 month of post-launch support.
Typical mistakes when creating a wedding website
- Ignoring the mobile version: 80% of couples view the portfolio from a smartphone.
- No filtering by style/location — clients waste time searching.
- Personal cabinet without deadlines — couples forget to mark stages.
Package comparison
| Package | Portfolio + form | Personal cabinet | Moodboard + budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | + | - | - |
| Extended | + | + | - |
| Premium | + | + | + |
Check how your current site handles the load — request a free Core Web Vitals audit. Get a consultation by phone or Telegram. Write to us to discuss details.