Trouble with general design for wedding website

[gmoniey]

I promised my fiancee that I would build up a wedding website, and like any good developer, I have waited to the last minute to get it done. I'm a developer by day, so I don't have much of a problem coding something up, but I have never been good at overall design (something I'm not afraid to admit).

You can find the website here: http://arashandedie.com/. Its flash based, with a small amount of dynamic content (powered by a rails app).

To be honest, I'm just not happy with the design, so I could really use your feedback. The colors don't seem to mesh (you'll notice some purple, blue, pink, etc), I feel like there should be some borders in certain places, and even the sizing feels off. Maybe different fonts. The whole thing just feels sub par.

The more critical you are the better, I could really use all the suggestions and feedback I can get.

[Chipzzz]

There is a great deal that I liked very much about the site and you look like a wonderful couple. I wish you all the best that life has to offer in your marriage.

The flash part of the site is excellent and I wouldn't change a thing. The borders looked alright but might benefit from an interesting graphic. Perhaps something lacey or maybe drapes...

There isn't much you can do about the sizing because it will be presented in browsers of varying dimensions and the flash can't be scaled. It looks perfect in a 1280x1024 window but at 1400x1050, the borders are a bit large. You'll have to rely on a graphic to compensate for the difference.

Anyway, best wishes and good work so far!

Chipzzz

[J2NYC]

I like your site, but I would go for a lighter background. I think one of the problems is that the purple is so dark and the blue is so dark. Also, I do think you need a graphical border of some sort, or some subtle graphics in the background.

Of course the text would look better with some padding.

Other than that, great Job. I voted for Fiji, by the way.

[Jarrod1937]

Your background is the main issue for me. I'd used a brighter, solid, mildly desaturated color.
And, while i like all of your other photos, the main featured photo on the home page bothers me. The photo looks like its hue was altered more toward the purple side. If you change the background and put a correctly colored image as the main photo, it will look quite a bit better i think.

[iwpg]

I agree with everyone else about the blue and purple. Wedding themes make me think of only white, or possibly yellow. So, white with maybe a background of flowers or doves? I think changing the background will get you going.

[criterion9]

will be presented in browsers of varying dimensions and the flash can't be scaled

Flash can be scaled though if you want to keep aspect ratios you'll need to make those adjustments in actionscript and put a listener on stage resize events.