We are so excited to have Whitney Blake share these incredible tips for branding your wedding. Read on as she shares the special details that help her plan the perfect wedding true to her and husband-to-be!
As a graphic designer, planning out and designing my own wedding has been the most fun and challenging project I’ve ever had! With my specialty in branding, creating a cohesive and meaningful look for our big day is top priority. Before designing, purchasing, or renting anything, I highly suggest establishing your wedding brand. It’s extremely helpful for your vendors to see what you’re envisioning in terms of specific colors, fonts, and the overall aesthetic of your big day.
I created a wedding branding checklist to guide you as you start your wedding planning journey! Download it here, and then follow along with my tips to create a meaningful brand for your wedding and translate that in to your paper goods.
When and where? Before deciding on anything else, you’ve gotta figure out when and where you’ll be saying ‘I Do’! This is critical in determining your other vendor’s availability and seasonal themes, plus it will set the tone for all of your design choices. We decided on late May at a very southern historic venue in North Carolina.
Start with colors. Figuring out your wedding colors can seem really overwhelming at first with pretty much infinite possibilities. I suggest picking one or two colors that y’all adore, then accenting those colors. We decided on a palette of four colors:
- Blush pink – I fell in love with an antique chaise lounge in our venue and decided to pull inspiration straight from our venue! This shade of pink is muted with gray tones and will be easy to mimic in flowers that are in season (check out this chart for seasonal blooms).
- Dusty navy – I love how the color adds depth to our color palette (not all pastels) but mimics the color of my finance’s suit and gorgeous vintage velvet.
- Sage green – While my style is distinctly feminine (and minimalistic), I wanted to pull in my fiancé’s aesthetic and incorporate more lush color. I found myself drawn to weddings with lots of greenery, so we set the tone for the decor by adding sage as a main color in our palette.
- Soft gray – the walls in our venue are a gorgeous shade of light gray and I wanted to pull this in to our palette as a neutral.
Define your aesthetic. Are you rustic? Modern? Nautical? Preppy? Pick three or four words that pinpoint the vibe you’re looking to achieve. We chose: organic, modern, and romantic.
From those words, build your visuals! What shapes, patterns and textures fit the words you just chose? When designing your paper goods, it’s important to keep everything cohesive and use three or four elements that really convey to your guests the type of event it will be. For instance, you wouldn’t create a black tie wedding invitation with a bubbly and young fuchsia font. We are using clean lines, watercolor organic patterns, and modern fonts. I addressed each envelope with watercolor block lettering to pull together the return address stamp (best time saver of all time!) and watercolor design on the back of our save the date cards.
Design with purpose. When designing your paper goods, make sure that every detail has a purpose. Keep things simple so as not to overwhelm your guests, and include relevant information. For our save the dates, we included the essentials on the front: our names, wedding date, call to “save the date!”, location, and a note that the formal invitation will follow. On the back we added a link to our wedding website where we have linked all of the extras that guests need: registry link, hotel blocks, timeline, venue info, a silly story about our relationship and engagement.
I had so much fun designing my stationery, and I am so grateful for the Wedding Paper Divas custom printing service . The print and paper quality is exceptional and gives us brides-to-be the freedom to design our hearts out!
Now I’m off to start designing our invitation suite! Cheers y’all!
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