How to: Brand Your Wedding

As my wedding draws nearer, I am kept busy with all sorts of last minute crap that makes me really, really glad I kept on top of things. The one project I completed a little later than I’d hoped was designing my program, placecards, placemats and thank you cards.

When my fiance and I started talking about marriage two years ago, I started paying more attention to the DIY wedding posts that showed up on my favorite blogs every spring and summer. One particular blog post from Craftzine was really the starting point for me as far as developing my wedding vision. It was a tutorial on how to Make Your Own Wedding Emblem. Branding one of the most important events in one’s life might sound strange, but hear me out.

The tutorial from Craftzine outlines how to make a single color emblem using graphic design software. It’s such a great idea – you can use it on a ton of things to make your wedding feel really cohesive. I made an attempt at making an emblem all on my own, but failed. I’m not super skilled in the graphic design arena and made something that looked like a cheap diner logo (exhibit A). Luckily, I have an excellent designer friend who was willing to help design me an awesome emblem based on my crappy attempt (exhibit B).

Once I had the emblem and raw copies of the art used to create it, I went to town customizing my wedding website and designing placemats and placecards, programs, tattoos, and thank-you cards for the wedding. Since I had a very strong emblem as the foundation for my wedding look and feel, everything from the items I designed to the crafts I made for the big day feel like they all go together.

Basically, I recommend you think about what you want your wedding theme to be and talk to a graphic designer about developing your initial emblem  if you aren’t comfortable with or capable of creating it  yourself. If your wedding is more than 8 days away, you could download free design software and start teaching yourself how to use it. Since I designed most of the items for my wedding myself, I ended up saving a lot of money. I realize I’m lucky to have a friend who was willing to help me design our emblem as well as help me when it came time to choose a local printer and get all of my print pieces made. If you find a designer you trust and are up front about what you will need help with (in my case, laying a conceptual foundation and helping with printers), they will be honest with you about their willingness to take you on as a client.

Any designers out there think this is too much to ask? Let me know in the comments. :)