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It’s officially been two months since the best day of my life: my wedding day! I married the man of dreams and everyone we love most was there to celebrate with us. It truly was the most magical night ever, because so much love filled the air, all of our favorite people congregated around us, and there was nothing but smiles the whole night long.
And I gotta admit, seeing the decor I worked so hard on come together was the icing on the cake. :) Because let’s be honest: I’m a designer at heart and when I hear wedding bells, I see a branding opportunity!
So in this post, I’m sharing how I designed the wedding of my dreams: from our personalized logo to our handmade wedding signage, I’m giving you the tips and tricks I learned for really making your special day shine.
1. Choose your color scheme.
This is probably the first and most obvious step when it comes to planning wedding decor. But that’s because it’s so important! It truly affects every decor-decision you’re going to make going forward.
When choosing your palette, here’s my best advice: don’t choose colors simply because they’re your “favorite”, but instead, think about the mood you want to evoke. For example, I chose a family of dusty purples, lilacs, and mauves, because I wanted the room to feel romantic and “french garden”-inspired.
As you can see below, I stuck with a palette of 2-3 colors in the same family, which helped everything flow very harmoniously. Personally, I’m not a huge fan of palettes that have colors from opposite ends of the spectrum (ex. navy and gold), because I think they can look very jarring and tacky. (Lol, don’t hate me if you threw the perfect nautical wedding with this palette… I’m sure you rocked it!)
Moving on… once you lock in your color scheme, always keep it forefront in your mind! You’re going to have to make a ton of choices: from bridesmaids dresses to flowers, save the dates to menu cards, you name it. So always try to make those choices based on the palette you previously selected and don’t stray too far from it. (Trust me, this will keep your special day from looking like a 3-ring circus.)
2. Design your logo.
Now it’s time to get to work. Pull out a pen and paper, your favorite design software, or ask your designer neighbor for a favor. It’s time to tie the knot with your initials!
When I was designing our logo, I liked to think of it as a more “stylized monogram”. But I didn’t want to look like that scripty stamp you see on every soccer mom’s car decal, pajamas, and lunchbox. I wanted it to be more memorable, unique, and most importantly, reflect us as a couple!
Here are few quick tips:
Pull inspiration from great brainstorming sites like Pinterest or Dribbble.
The world is your oyster! This is your logo so there are no rules: have fun with it!
Don’t settle for the first logo you design. In fact, I think I designed about ten different renditions before I went back and chose the sixth one.
You can also think bigger than a logo. For example, in addition to our main logo, I also designed a super fun crest that illustrated several things that make Matt and I who we are. (We didn’t end up using it for the wedding, but Matt’s sweet step mother had napkins made with the crest for the rehearsal dinner.)
3. FIND your motif.
No, that doesn’t mean reflect your reason for gettin’ hitched. 😂 It means hunt down a decorative design or pattern that you really dig. This will be a subtle element that you stamp on your invitation, menu, thank you cards, etc. It’s a way for folks to instantly recognize that a piece is part of your wedding and to make everything look like a whole!
The motif I used for our wedding was vine flowers. I carried them throughout our save-the-date, invitation, menu cards, welcome sign, and website.
4. get down & dirty with a little DIY.
I’m such a Suzy Homemaker: I live for DIY projects. So it came as no surprise to my husband when I decided to take on 95% off our wedding decor, with scissors and glue guns blazing.
In fact, I made all of the framed signs for our wedding using a pack of recycled card stock from Michael’s, my handy at-home printer, and $3 plastic frames I found at Walmart! Our welcome sign was a $10 vintage Goodwill window that I scribbled on with a Sharpie paint pen! And yes, you guessed it, I stapled every single one of those “Mint To Be” tags to Lifesavers mints. :)
Therefore, I urge you to find ways to be resourceful for your wedding, and not only will you save yourself some big bucks, but you will be able to get more bang for your buck when it comes to decorating the venue!
5. Be consistent.
Last but not least, and this probably goes without saying, be consistent. Use the same fonts, borders, and certainly colors, across the board. This will keep your decor looking polished, professional, and like each piece belongs there.
While the decorations, flowers, or even the cake don’t make or break a wedding, I’m a firm believer that the details help contribute to the overall ambience. Well-crafted and thought-out decorations give your guests something to admire and show just how much care you put into your big day.
In fact, I was so touched by everyone at my wedding who took the time to pull me aside and compliment me on all of my hard work: it made it all worth it! And it certainly helped make my big day one that I will never forget.
