diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e3c244f80
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+# Dockerfile
+FROM python:3.12
+
+RUN apt-get update && apt-get install nginx --yes
+
+COPY requirements.txt requirements.txt
+RUN pip install --no-cache-dir -r requirements.txt
+
+COPY deploy/prod-requirements.txt prod-requirements.txt
+RUN pip install --no-cache-dir -r prod-requirements.txt
+
+COPY deploy/nginx.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default
+
+# Mounts the application code to the image
+COPY . app
+WORKDIR /app
+
+EXPOSE 8080
+
+# runs the production server
+CMD ["/app/deploy/entrypoint.sh"]
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 3514b897d..0fdd0c2c5 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -115,6 +115,32 @@ You can now visit your site at `http://localhost:8000/`.
 The dashboard and admin interface are available at `http://localhost:8000/dashboard/` and `http://localhost:8000/admin/`. 
 Use the superuser created in step three of the commands above.
 
+
+### Database
+The default setup of this project uses a SQLite database, which is persisted on the file system. If you want to use another
+database you can change the `DATABASES` config option in the `settings.py` file. This file already contains an example
+configuration on how to use the [Postgres](https://www.postgresql.org/) database specified in the docker-compose file.
+
+### Docker
+You can also run the project using [Docker](https://www.docker.com/). To build the image and run the container you can run:
+```bash
+docker build -t django-wedding-website .
+docker run -it -p 8080:8080 \
+      -e DJANGO_SUPERUSER_PASSWORD=changeme \
+      -e DJANGO_SUPERUSER_USERNAME=admin \
+      -e DJANGO_SUPERUSER_EMAIL=admin@example.com \
+      django-wedding-website
+```
+You can now visit your site at `http://localhost:8080`
+
+#### Docker Compose
+To run the project with a Postgres database, you can
+- Change the `DATABASES` configuration in `settings.py` to use the Postgres database
+- Start the Postgres Database and the project container with `docker-compose up --build`
+- You can now visit your site at `http://localhost:8080`
+
+> Note that if you want to make a production deployment with Docker you need to backup the SQLite or Postgres database!
+
 ## Customization
 
 I recommend forking this project and just manually modifying it by hand to replace everything with what you want.
diff --git a/bigday/settings.py b/bigday/settings.py
index 23794e2f5..1a05678b7 100644
--- a/bigday/settings.py
+++ b/bigday/settings.py
@@ -12,9 +12,14 @@
 
 import os
 
+import environ
+
 # Build paths inside the project like this: os.path.join(BASE_DIR, ...)
 BASE_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)))
 
+# Initialise environment variables
+env = environ.Env()
+environ.Env.read_env(os.path.join(BASE_DIR, '.env'))
 
 # Quick-start development settings - unsuitable for production
 # See https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.1/howto/deployment/checklist/
@@ -23,7 +28,7 @@
 # This is a default value and must be changed!
 # Rename "localsettings.py.template" to 'localsettings.py' and edit your settings.
 # To protect your credentials from leaking to your Git server we added 'localsettings.py' to the gitignore
-SECRET_KEY = 'u7!-y4k1c6b44q507nr_l+c^12o7ur++cpzyn!$65w^!gum@h%'
+SECRET_KEY = env('SECRET_KEY', default='u7!-y4k1c6b44q507nr_l+c^12o7ur++cpzyn!$65w^!gum@h%')
 
 # SECURITY WARNING: don't run with debug turned on in production!
 DEBUG = True
@@ -92,7 +97,16 @@
     'default': {
         'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.sqlite3',
         'NAME': os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'db.sqlite3'),
-    }
+    },
+    # if you want to use the postgres database just uncomment the following lines and comment out the sqlite3 lines
+    # 'default': {
+    #     'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.postgresql',
+    #     'NAME': env('POSTGRES_DB'),
+    #     'USER': env('POSTGRES_USER'),
+    #     'PASSWORD': env('POSTGRES_PASSWORD'),
+    #     'HOST': env('POSTGRES_SERVER'),
+    #     'PORT': env('POSTGRES_PORT'),
+    # }
 }
 
 
diff --git a/deploy/entrypoint.sh b/deploy/entrypoint.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..9e81735ea
--- /dev/null
+++ b/deploy/entrypoint.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+python manage.py collectstatic --noinput
+
+# i commit my migration files to git so i dont need to run it on server
+# ./manage.py makemigrations app_name
+python manage.py migrate
+
+# Create the superuser
+
+python manage.py createsuperuser --noinput
+
+/usr/sbin/nginx -g 'daemon off;' &
+
+gunicorn bigday.wsgi --bind 0.0.0.0:8000
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/deploy/nginx.conf b/deploy/nginx.conf
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..c77f3b20f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/deploy/nginx.conf
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+upstream app_server_djangoapp {
+    server localhost:8000 fail_timeout=0;
+}
+
+server {
+    listen 8080;
+    server_name localhost;
+
+    access_log  /var/log/nginx/wedding-access.log;
+    error_log  /var/log/nginx/wedding-error.log info;
+
+    keepalive_timeout 5;
+
+    root /app;
+
+    location /static {
+        autoindex on;
+        alias /app/static_root;
+    }
+
+    location / {
+        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
+        proxy_set_header Host $http_host;
+        proxy_redirect off;
+
+        if (!-f $request_filename) {
+            proxy_pass http://app_server_djangoapp;
+            break;
+        }
+    }
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/docker-compose.yml b/docker-compose.yml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..ff55f91ed
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docker-compose.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+version: "3"
+services:
+  # WARNING: If you want to use this docker-compose file in production, you need to backup your database!
+  postgres:
+    container_name: postgres-wedding
+    image: postgres
+    environment:
+      - POSTGRES_USER=postgres
+      - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=password
+      - POSTGRES_DB=wedding
+    ports:
+      - 5432:5432
+  wedding:
+    container_name: wedding
+    build: .
+    environment:
+      - DEBUG=False
+      - SECRET_KEY=changeme
+      - POSTGRES_SERVER=postgres-wedding
+      - POSTGRES_USER=postgres
+      - POSTGRES_DB=wedding
+      - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=password
+      - POSTGRES_PORT=5432
+      - DJANGO_SUPERUSER_PASSWORD=changeme
+      - DJANGO_SUPERUSER_USERNAME=admin
+      - DJANGO_SUPERUSER_EMAIL=admin@example.com
+    ports:
+      - 8080:8080
+    depends_on:
+      - postgres
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 2d6e84caf..c3040efaa 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
 django==4.2.*
 Fabric==1.10.2
 psycopg2-binary==2.9.3
+django-environ==0.11.2