Make a marriage proposal website that's yours alone

Decide how it'll be opened

The page is only half the proposal; the moment they open it is the other half. Think about that first, because it changes what you build. A few ways people do it:

• Handed over on a phone or tablet at a place that matters to you both, with you there when they reach the end.
• A QR code on a card, a puzzle box or a bookmark in a book they're reading.
• On a laptop at home, framed as "look at this thing I made", which works best for someone who'd hate a public proposal.
• As the last step of a treasure hunt, where each clue leads somewhere and the page is the end.

If you'll be there in person, the page can end with "turn around". If not, it should end with the question and something they can do next, like calling you.

The story, in moments

Resist writing your whole relationship. Choose five to eight moments: the first meeting, a trip, something hard you came through, a joke only the two of you get. One photo and two or three sentences each. Write them in your own voice and keep the sentences short; the reader will be emotional and probably on a small screen.

Photos you upload are used when you build it as an app (below): the model sees them and can place them where they fit the story, and a short video can go in too. A designed page can't play video, and shows your own photos only as entries in a CMS collection (moments, say) whose image field holds each one's hosted address. Give each photo alt text, which Anticode asks for anyway; it's also a nice record of what each picture was.

Page or app?

An app runs in a strict sandbox: no network, no tracking, nothing sent anywhere. That suits a private moment. Ask for something like "a proposal page that reveals our story one photo at a time when tapped, ending with 'Will you marry me?' and two buttons". The Valentine's website guide has more on small, playful personal apps.

Keeping it secret until the day

Published Anticode pages have no password protection. An address nobody knows is hard to stumble on, but it isn't private: anyone who has the link can open it. So:

1. Build it and check every screen in the builder's preview; nothing is on the web until you publish.
2. Publish it shortly before the day, to an address that doesn't give it away.
3. Don't share the link with friends "to check", and don't open it on a shared device or a browser they use.
4. Test it once on the phone it'll be opened on, ideally in the place you'll be.

Afterwards

Once they've said yes (or you've talked), decide together what to do with it. You can unpublish it, which takes it off the web while keeping the project in your account. You can export it as a single HTML file to keep forever, offline. Or you can turn it into the start of a wedding website by asking for the change in a sentence.

Limits

• No password or private link. Rely on not sharing the address.
• No scheduled publishing. Publish it yourself when you're ready.
• No notification when it's opened. Analytics show daily page views, not who looked or when.
• Music won't autoplay in most phone browsers whatever builds the page; don't build the moment around a soundtrack.

Questions people ask

How long does it take to make a proposal website?

Gathering the photos and writing the moments takes longest. The build itself streams while you watch, and you can change any part afterwards.

Can I use our own domain name?

Yes, on a paid plan. A domain with both your names makes a nice keepsake, but registering it can tip them off if you share accounts.

Will it work on their phone?

Pages are built for phone widths and checked for a phone viewport before publishing. Test it on their kind of phone if you can.