Introduction:

The Wedding Venues Croatia project aimed to deliver a fully functional, responsive, and SEO-optimized platform where couples could easily find and book wedding venues across Croatia. Using Figma designs as a starting point, I worked with the client to build the site, choosing to leverage WordPress as a headless CMS and Next.js for the frontend. This approach allowed for flexibility in managing content and optimizing performance while delivering a seamless user experience.

Technology Stack:

• WordPress as a Headless CMS: WordPress was used to manage the content and expose a REST API, allowing the frontend to fetch venue data dynamically.
• Next.js: Chosen for its SEO capabilities, server-side rendering, and fast page loads. Next.js was used to build the frontend, which allowed for smooth integration with WordPress and efficient routing.
• Hosting: SiteGround was used for hosting the WordPress backend, providing reliable performance and scalability.
• PostHog: Integrated for user behavior tracking and analytics. This allowed us to gain insights into how users interacted with the platform, helping us improve the user experience.
• Vercel: Deployed the Next.js frontend on Vercel, which provided optimal performance, scalability, and continuous deployment capabilities.
• Versioning in Git: Managed version control and collaboration through Git, ensuring smooth workflows and code management.
• Image Optimization: Implemented image optimization strategies to ensure fast loading times, leveraging Next.js’s built-in image optimization features to automatically optimize images as they were loaded.

Features:

• Venue Listings: A dynamic, filterable list of wedding venues across Croatia, with detailed profiles including capacity, price range, photos, and location.
• Search and Filters: A robust search system that allows users to filter venues by various criteria such as location, venue type, price range, and capacity.
• Booking/Inquiries: Contact forms for couples to inquire about venue availability or request more information.
• User Reviews: A review system where users can leave feedback and rate venues, helping future couples make informed decisions.
• Media Galleries: High-quality images and videos of each venue, showcasing its potential for weddings.

Challenges and Solutions:

• Headless CMS Integration: One of the main challenges was integrating WordPress as a headless CMS with Next.js. To address this, I used the WordPress REST API to fetch venue data dynamically, ensuring seamless communication between the frontend and backend.
• Tracking and Analytics: Implementing tracking for user behavior was crucial for understanding engagement. I integrated PostHog to monitor how users interacted with the platform, which helped identify areas for improvement in terms of user flow and functionality.
• Image Optimization: With a large number of high-quality images on the platform, page load speed was a priority. I used Next.js’s image optimization features to automatically serve optimized images in modern formats (e.g., WebP) and applied lazy loading to ensure faster load times.

Outcome/Result:

The Wedding Venues Croatia platform was successfully delivered as a fully functional, deployed website. The key outcomes include:

• Enhanced User Engagement: Users now have an intuitive and efficient way to search for venues, with filters that help narrow down their choices. This resulted in longer time spent on the site and more inquiries.
• Improved Performance: By leveraging Next.js for the frontend and optimizing images, the site offers fast load times, even with media-rich content.
• Tracking Insights: PostHog provided valuable data on user interactions, which will guide future improvements to the platform.
• Successful Deployment: The site is hosted on SiteGround for the WordPress backend and deployed on Vercel for the frontend, ensuring reliability, scalability, and seamless updates.

The project was a great success, providing a clean, functional platform that meets the needs of couples looking for wedding venues in Croatia. Future enhancements may include additional features such as a venue booking system, expanded venue details, and integrations with local wedding vendors.