Your wedding portfolio deserves
Cormorant italic, not Squarespace serif.
VeloCMS is an independent wedding portfolio and inquiry-capture platform for wedding planners, boutique event coordinators, bridal-shop owners, florists, venue managers, and wedding photographers — real-wedding portfolio posts with 30+ photo galleries, a vendor-directory page for your preferred suppliers, detailed inquiry forms that capture wedding date, budget, vibe, and guest count, and BYOK Stripe paid mastermind tiers at 0% platform fee — with the Ribbon Florist theme free on every plan.
Why wedding planners are paying too much to rent visibility they don't own
Monthly listing fees that rent you a position you lose the moment you stop paying, a generic template that looks like every other wedding website, and inquiry leads scattered across platforms none of which are yours.
The Knot premium listing is $300–1,500/month — and your competition pays for the slot above yours
You don't own the lead — you rent the position. When you stop paying, you vanish from The Knot's search results entirely. The couples who found your profile found it through The Knot's algorithm, not your domain. Your reviews, your portfolio photos, your inquiry history — they live on The Knot's servers, not yours. Stop paying and it's gone. Meanwhile, the planner in the top slot isn't necessarily better than you; they just outbid you on the monthly listing fee. A $1,500/month premium listing is $18,000/year. That's enough to build your own domain authority that compounds forever rather than disappearing the moment you cancel.
Squarespace wedding template looks like every other Squarespace wedding template
You're charged $14–23/mo for the privilege of looking like 5,000 other wedding planners using the same Squarespace template. Your portfolio's visual differentiation is critical for $50–150k weddings — couples are hiring you partly on aesthetic trust, and a generic serif-on-white layout communicates nothing distinctive about your style or taste level. The Squarespace editor doesn't support masonry photo galleries natively. You can't do a 30-photo real-wedding showcase the way the big editorial wedding blogs do. You end up linking to an external gallery service, which breaks your SEO continuity and adds another monthly subscription.
"Warm leads" from Instagram DMs and Google Forms get lost before you can respond
Your inquiry form is a Google Form. Your Instagram DMs hold half your inquiries. Honeybook has the rest — at $39/month, where you're essentially paying a CRM to hold contact data you should own. The couples 6–18 months before their wedding date — your most valuable leads — submit an inquiry and then land in three different inboxes you're checking at different frequencies. There's no canonical inquiry surface with their wedding date, budget range, guest count, venue type, and vibe all in one place. You're running a funnel built on fragmented platforms none of which are yours.
What a wedding-first publishing platform actually gives you
30+ photo portfolio posts, vendor directory, detailed inquiry capture, BYOK Stripe 0% mastermind, Ribbon Florist theme, and seasonal trend blog — one subscription, no listing fee, no lead rental.
Real-wedding portfolio posts with 30+ photo galleries — masonry, lazy-load, lightbox
Create a 'Real Weddings' category and publish each wedding as a portfolio post with a full masonry gallery — 30, 50, even 80 photos in a single post, all lazy-loaded with lightbox zoom. Tag posts by season, venue type, color palette, and vibe — 'garden boho', 'black tie', 'coastal'. Your portfolio archive becomes a browseable visual case-study library, not an Instagram grid that disappears into the algorithm. Each post is a permanent indexed URL that builds domain authority for 'wedding planner {city}' queries. Couples searching for inspiration find your work directly, not through The Knot's filter.
Vendor-directory page — preferred florists, photographers, caterers with affiliate links
Build a '/vendors' page listing your preferred suppliers — your florist partners, photographers you trust, caterers, rental companies, and officiants. Each vendor entry gets a photo, a description, and your personal endorsement. You can add affiliate links or referral links — your reputation is the trust signal. Couples planning on your platform see your curated vendor network as a value-add, and suppliers appreciate the referral visibility. It's a relationship-building page that generates goodwill with your network and signals to couples that you come with a complete, vetted ecosystem.
Detailed inquiry form — wedding date, budget range, guest count, venue type, vibe
Your inquiry form captures the fields that actually matter: wedding date (required), estimated guest count, budget range (dropdown — 'under $30k', '$30–60k', '$60–100k', 'over $100k'), venue type (outdoor garden, ballroom, beach, winery, destination, elopement), and vibe (classic/romantic, boho/rustic, modern/minimalist, maximalist/glam). Every submission goes to your owned VeloCMS member list — not a Google Form spreadsheet, not Honeybook, not an Instagram DM thread. You own the contact data. You can send a follow-up newsletter to all 2026-wedding-date inquiries at once with one click.
BYOK Stripe paid wedding-planning mastermind tier — 0% platform fee on your curriculum
Create a 'Wedding Planning Masterclass' paid tier at $97–200/month or a one-time $497 course purchase. Gate your advanced planning curriculum — vendor negotiation tactics, timeline templates, budget spreadsheets, day-of coordination checklists, post-wedding client gift guide — behind the paid tier. VeloCMS charges 0% platform fee. Stripe's standard 2.9% + $0.30 is the only processing cost. A 20-member mastermind at $97/month is $1,940/month in recurring revenue — from your expertise, at your price, with no Teachable 5% or Kajabi $199/month overhead on top.
Ribbon Florist theme included free — antique gold, blush, dusty rose, Cormorant italic
The Ribbon Florist theme was designed for the wedding industry specifically — antique gold accents on warm-cream background, blush and dusty rose color palette, Cormorant Garamond italic typography in the headers, delicate botanical line-art ornaments, and a wide reading column that lets your wedding editorial photography breathe. Apply it in Admin → Themes in 10 seconds. It communicates taste and elegance before a couple reads a word — a visual signal that you curate beauty for a living. Compare it to the generic Squarespace 'Brine' template that 40,000 other small businesses also use.
Features wedding planners and coordinators actually need
Masonry portfolio galleries, Ribbon Florist theme, detailed inquiry form, BYOK Stripe paid mastermind, seasonal trend blog, and vendor directory — without a plugin stack.
Masonry photo gallery — 30+ photos per wedding post, lightbox zoom
Multi-image masonry layout with lazy loading and full-screen lightbox. Each real-wedding post can hold an entire photographer's delivery — no separate gallery service, no external link, all indexed on your domain.
Ribbon Florist theme — Cormorant italic, antique gold, blush palette
Purpose-built for the wedding industry. Antique gold accents, blush tones, Cormorant Garamond italic typography, botanical ornaments — communicates elegance before a couple reads a single word.
Detailed inquiry form — date, budget, guest count, venue, vibe
Capture the five fields that tell you whether a couple is a fit: wedding date, budget range, guest count, venue type, and aesthetic vibe. Every submission goes to your owned email list — not a third-party CRM.
BYOK Stripe paid mastermind — 0% platform fee on your curriculum
Create paid planning curriculum tiers via your own Stripe account. Course, monthly subscription, or one-time purchase — VeloCMS takes 0%. Your revenue, your relationship with the subscriber, your Stripe dashboard.
Seasonal trend blog — 2026 palettes, editorial content, SEO
Publish trend posts (2026 wedding color palettes, outdoor venue checklist, dress silhouette forecast) that attract couples in early planning mode — 6–18 months before their date, when they're still searching and evaluating planners.
Vendor directory — your preferred supplier network on your domain
A dedicated '/vendors' page listing your trusted florists, photographers, caterers, and officiants. Your endorsement is the trust signal. Add affiliate or referral links — your network, your revenue, your reputation.
From Squarespace template to your own wedding portfolio home in five steps
No developer, no migration wizard, no The Knot account needed. Your portfolio posts, your inquiry list, your vendor directory — live on your domain today.
Export your Squarespace or Wix wedding portfolio + Honeybook contact list
On Squarespace: Pages → Export → XML archive (includes post content and featured images). On Wix: Blog → Posts → Export CSV. For Honeybook: Contacts → Export CSV to get your lead history and inquiry email list. Save all files — you'll import them. Your existing site stays live throughout, so couples already browsing your portfolio see no downtime.
Upload to VeloCMS with multi-photo gallery format
In Admin → Tools → Import, upload your Squarespace or Wix export. Post titles, body text, publish dates, and featured images import automatically (images re-upload to Cloudflare R2). For each imported wedding post, add your additional photos via the gallery block — the editor supports up to 100 images per post with drag-and-drop ordering. Import your Honeybook CSV via Admin → Members → Import CSV — each contact becomes a member record you can reach directly.
Set up the detailed inquiry form — date, budget, guest count, venue, vibe
In Admin → Posts → New, create a '/contact' or '/inquire' page. Add a member-signup form block with custom fields: wedding date (date picker), estimated guest count (text field), budget range (select dropdown), venue type (select dropdown), aesthetic vibe (multi-select). Publish it. Every form submission creates a member record in your list with their full inquiry data — searchable, filterable, and email-blastable.
Activate Ribbon Florist theme + BYOK Stripe paid mastermind tier
In Admin → Themes, click Ribbon Florist → Apply. Your wedding portfolio instantly gets the antique gold, blush palette, and Cormorant italic headers. Then in Admin → Settings → Membership, connect your Stripe account (60-second OAuth flow). Create your first paid tier: 'Wedding Planning Masterclass' at $97/month or $497 one-time — gate your planning curriculum behind it. VeloCMS takes 0%. The first subscriber's payment goes directly to your Stripe account.
Migrate seasonal-trend blog posts + first real-couple testimonial
Create a 'Wedding Trends' category and publish your first trend post — 2026 color palettes, top venues in your city, fall outdoor ceremony checklist. These posts attract couples 6–18 months pre-wedding, when they're searching and evaluating planners. Then publish your first real-couple showcase: one full wedding with 30+ photos, vendor credits, couple story, and a closing 'Inquire' CTA. This is the pattern you'll repeat for every wedding going forward — your portfolio compounding on your own domain.
VeloCMS vs The Knot Pro vs Squarespace + Honeybook vs WeddingWire
| Feature | VeloCMS | The Knot Pro | Squarespace + Honeybook | WeddingWire |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Custom domain | Yes | Shared — theknot.com/… | Yes | Shared — weddingwire.com/… |
| Platform fee per lead | 0% | $300–1,500/mo per listing | $14–23/mo + Honeybook $39/mo | $300–1,000/mo per listing |
| Real-wedding portfolio post format | Yes | Limited profile photos | Generic template | Limited profile photos |
| Vendor-directory page | Yes | No | Manual page only | No |
| BYOK Stripe paid mastermind | Yes | No | No | No |
| Time to first portfolio post live (mins) | 15 | 30+ | 30 | 30+ |
| Cost per year ($) | 0–348 | $3,600–18,000 | $636+ | $3,600–12,000 |
Free for 100 portfolio posts, Ribbon Florist theme, inquiry form, and vendor directory. Pro when you need a custom domain and BYOK Stripe paid mastermind.
Free
$0
Forever
- Up to 100 portfolio posts
- Ribbon Florist theme
- Detailed inquiry form
- Vendor directory page
- Real-couple testimonials
- velocms.org subdomain
Pro
$9
per month
- 1,000 posts
- Custom domain + SSL
- BYOK Stripe 0% paid mastermind
- Wedding inquiry newsletter
- All 25+ themes included
- AI writing assistant
Business
$29
per month
- Unlimited posts
- Team + unlimited authors
- White-label branding
- Priority support
- Advanced member analytics
- Team collaboration
Questions wedding planners ask before leaving The Knot and Squarespace
Honest answers — no platform upsell.
Can I migrate my Squarespace wedding portfolio to VeloCMS?
Yes — export your Squarespace site via Pages → Export → XML archive. In VeloCMS Admin → Tools → Import, upload the file and your post titles, body text, publish dates, and featured images import automatically. Images re-upload to Cloudflare R2 (included storage). For additional gallery photos per wedding post, you add them through the editor's multi-image gallery block after import. The migration typically takes 1–2 hours for a full portfolio. Your Squarespace site stays live throughout — no downtime for couples currently browsing your work.
How do real-wedding portfolio posts handle 30+ photo galleries?
The VeloCMS post editor supports a native gallery block — drag-and-drop up to 100 images per post in a masonry layout. Images lazy-load as the reader scrolls (so the page stays fast even with 60 photos) and each photo opens in a full-screen lightbox when clicked. No separate gallery service, no external Pixieset link, no Cloudinary embed — all images live on your domain, indexed by Google, and under your control. Each gallery post is a permanent URL like yourdomain.com/weddings/sarah-and-james-vineyard-estate that builds domain authority for '{city} wedding planner' searches over time.
Why is Ribbon Florist the recommended theme for wedding planners?
Ribbon Florist was designed specifically for the wedding industry aesthetic — not a repurposed general-purpose theme. It uses Cormorant Garamond italic in headers (the same typeface used by high-end bridal editorial magazines), antique gold and blush CSS color tokens, a warm-cream background that makes wedding photography feel rich rather than clinical, botanical line-art ornaments in the header and section dividers, and a wide reading column that lets full-bleed wedding photography fill the viewport. Compare this to Squarespace's Brine or Mojave templates — perfectly fine websites, but unmistakably the same template as the dental practice and the yoga studio on the same street. Ribbon Florist signals to couples that you care about visual presentation, which is exactly the signal that converts for a luxury service.
How do paid wedding-planning mastermind tiers work via BYOK Stripe?
In Admin → Settings → Membership, connect your own Stripe account using the OAuth flow — it takes about 60 seconds. Then create a tier (e.g. 'Wedding Planning Masterclass' at $97/month or $497 one-time). Gate your planning curriculum content — video lessons, downloadable templates, budget spreadsheets, vendor negotiation scripts, day-of timeline guides — behind that tier. Couples or fellow planners who want your curriculum subscribe via your VeloCMS checkout page, Stripe processes the payment directly to your bank account, and VeloCMS charges 0% platform fee. The only cost is Stripe's standard 2.9% + $0.30. A 20-member mastermind at $97/month is $1,940/month recurring — entirely separate from your planning fees.
Can the inquiry form capture wedding date, budget, and vibe?
Yes — the member-signup form in VeloCMS supports custom fields: date pickers (wedding date, engagement date), select dropdowns (budget range, venue type, guest count tier), multi-select checkboxes (aesthetic vibe — classic, boho, modern, maximalist), and free-text fields (anything else). Every submission creates a member record with their full inquiry data attached. You can filter your member list by wedding date ('show me all 2026 October inquiries'), by budget tier ('show me all $100k+ inquiries'), or by venue type ('show me all outdoor ceremony inquiries') and email them directly from Admin → Newsletter. Your inquiry data is yours — not locked in a Honeybook CRM you pay $39/month to access.
Does VeloCMS take a cut of my wedding-planning fees?
No. VeloCMS charges a flat plan subscription (Free $0 / Pro $9/month / Business $29/month) and 0% platform fee on any BYOK Stripe revenue you generate through the membership system. The only payment processing cost is Stripe's standard 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction, which goes to Stripe's infrastructure — not to VeloCMS. Compare this to Teachable (5% transaction fee on their free plan), Kajabi ($199/month base before your first customer), or The Knot ($300–1,500/month listing fee regardless of how many inquiries convert). Your planning fees and mastermind revenue are between you and Stripe.
Can I run a vendor-affiliate program for preferred florists and photographers?
Yes — VeloCMS's vendor-directory page is a standard post or page you design, with no platform restrictions on what links you include. Add affiliate tracking links to your preferred florists, photographers, caterers, rental companies, and officiants — any affiliate URL works. You can also run informal referral relationships: 'This photographer gave my couples 20% off — here's their inquiry link.' VeloCMS doesn't take a cut of affiliate revenue, doesn't require disclosure integration, and doesn't restrict which affiliate networks you use. Your vendor directory is just HTML on your domain with whatever links you decide to include.
Should I leave The Knot premium listing entirely, or run both?
Run both at first — build your VeloCMS portfolio site and let it compound search authority while you maintain your Knot listing. Once your domain is ranking for '{city} wedding planner' queries (typically 6–12 months of consistent portfolio posts and seasonal trend content), evaluate your inquiry sources. If 60%+ of inquiries are coming from your site rather than The Knot, that's when cancelling the listing makes economic sense. The goal isn't to abandon the Knot on day one — it's to build the owned asset that removes your dependency on the listing fee. The planners who built strong domain authority in 2022–2024 are the ones who could confidently cancel their $1,500/month listings in 2026.
Your wedding portfolio deserves elegance. Start free with Ribbon Florist.
30+ photo portfolio posts, detailed inquiry capture, vendor directory, and the Ribbon Florist theme — free on VeloCMS. Custom domain and BYOK Stripe paid mastermind on Pro at $9/month.