Awesome Tips to Completely Personalize Your Wedding
March 31, 2016
Let me introduce myself since this is my first post. My name is Stephanie and I am the founder of La Belle Papeterie. For the past 10 years I have been a professional graphic designer and website designer. I have a fascination with typography, and am fully immersed in the details. Over the years I have been creating invitations and designs for weddings. I have found that brides love details as much as I do, and making their day as perfect as possible has made my days quite awesome. I began my wedding design journey by working on flip book covers and customized backdrops for photo booth companies. I loved hearing how happy the brides were with my designs and to bring their visions to life. I have been working on custom designs for brides all over New Jersey since then. Aside from design, I have two pugs that are my world as well as a husband who makes robots (which is super cool). I love to travel the world, meet new people and try new things.
Back in 2010, I got married to my robot guy. Being a designer and marketing professional, I got REALLY into branding my wedding. I had everything branded down to the cake and beer menus I presented at the bar with little stories on why we selected the beers we selected. Because after all once you start designing, the possibilities are endless on what you can brand.
What is Wedding Branding?
Wedding branding is the overall look and feel that you have chosen. Everything to do and present should fit a common theme. Whether it be a seaside romance, country love, old Hollywood theme; every detail should support it. Wedding branding is not just the colors and fonts, but what you want others to remember about your special day.- Everything is Based off the Dress
Before you begin searching for invitations, favors and colors, find the dress. I have known brides to go in looking for ballroom gowns and walk out with a vintage mermaid dress look. Once you pick the dress, everything to do revolves around that dress.
- Research Your Color Scheme
Find colors that complement the feel you are going for. Blues tend to represent peacefulness, while yellows are warm and welcoming. When I got married, I wanted a sense of modern with some traditional flair. I went with black and white. One thing you realize when you are planning a black wedding, is that there are thousands of shades of black. Some are blueish in color, others pinkish. It is not a huge deal when they are not next to each other but matching the colors is very important. Do the research. You may love the color peony, but maybe the bridesmaids dress you love is a softer pink, or the invitation you found online only comes in blue and orange. I realized quickly on that a lot of things I loved that were out of the box online, did not come in the perfect shade I wanted. My belief in this company is to give you flexibility. I offer over 200 different shades and styles of paper as well as inks. Being a perfectionist, I never wanted to settle so I ended up designing most things myself (even favors).
- Coordinate with your Florist, Invitation Designer, Bakery Always get swatches. When you meat your florist, designer, cake baker, bring along the colors. Most things can be customized these days. Your florist may have a perfect flower to go with your color scheme and feel. Your designer can match the paper and inks closely to the scheme you choose. When I got married, I even provided my baker with the swirls I designed on my invitation. They were able to replicate it on my cake. It never hurts to ask. Some places are willing to go the extra mile to further emphasize your brand.
- Always Ask for an EPS of Your Logo
I can not stress this enough. If you are going through the trouble of having a custom monogram or logo created always ask for the EPS file. If the designer does not know what an EPS file is, that should throw a red flag. An EPS file is a vector based logo. This basically means that you can make this graphic as large or as small as you would like without it losing quality or becoming blurry. I've done flip book cover designs in the past and I can not explain how many times brides did not have the EPS file of the logo. As a result I would need to re-create the logo, and sometimes fonts were difficult to match. Having a copy of this EPS file will ensure that anywhere you need to place your emblem it will appear properly. Places that may need your logo are your DJ (for slide shows, monogram light effects on the floor), your reception hall, your invitation designer, your website designer, your baker, flip book company, photo booth company, etc.
- Suggestions on Coordinating Items
You can pretty much brand anything. Here are some suggestions of coordinating items to look for. Favors engraved with your logo, slide shows, menus, invitations, programs, signs, thank you cards, cakes, wedding albums, websites, bridal shower invitations, bachelorette invitations, guest books.
- Keep Your Fonts Consistent
Sometimes people think, the more the better! Just because 3 different fonts are script, does not make them the same. Every font has purpose, and just like color a feeling behind it. Some fonts convey modern luxe, while other script fonts can convey a whimsical feeling. When you have something designed that you love, get the font names and let your vendors know about your theme. You should keep these fonts consistent across everything you do. It sounds like something picky, but there is such beauty in consistency. You will end up appreciating it in the end.