In this Design Dump, we’re going back in time to take a look at a project near and dear to my heart: stationery for my wedding!
Although I used a professional design service for the wedding invitations, I took it upon myself to create my own Save the Dates, Night Before invites, and day-of signage (both for cost-saving and creative expression purposes). Shout out to Canva for its user-friendly platform and amazing print services to help make this possible!
Being the bookworm I am, I had to make Save the Date bookmarks. Not only are they a unique concept, but you can hold onto them as memorabilia for years. Ultimately, I went with a two-sided bookmark design, leaving room for a hole punch at the top where I could tie a color-matching tassel.
Because of the size constraints that come with designing a bookmark, I had to be strategic about how much information to include without making things too cluttered or sparse. Of course, Save the Dates are meant to be a “Hey, heads up! There’s a wedding happening on this date at this location. Plan accordingly.” That said, I kept things to a minimum, limiting info to the date and location.
Text
I didn’t want to use the generic elegant cursive font typically used for wedding stationery. I’ve always been a fan of “handwriting” fonts because they seem more natural, so Playlist Script was the way to go for the headers/titles. For readability, I kept the rest of the text in a standard serif font.
Design
When it comes to date formats on Save the Dates, I’ve always liked the idea of a mini calendar. It’s also easy to work with within the constraints of a bookmark. After adding key information, I realized there was a lot of white space left, so I added the rose graphic as a play on the “rose gold” concept. (Fun fact: It’s very difficult to nail the exact color of rose gold in a matte design, so we had to settle for a blush pink as an alternative.) The other side of the bookmark was a full image of one of our engagement portraits.
Finally, my husband is a pun person, so naturally, a requirement for this bookmark was to include a book-related pun somewhere… “Consider yourself booked!” worked perfectly.
I also designed a complementary digital Save the Date to send to guests that we didn’t have mailing addresses for, but we ended up sending it out to our full guest list via email/text to account for any mail mishaps.
The right half contained the same information as the bookmark, with slight tweaks to the text, while the left utilized the same engagement portrait.
Because the full bridal party planned to be at the venue all day leading up to the ceremony, our “rehearsal” happened that same morning. So, we labeled the dinner for the night before… well, “The Night Before.”
Like the Save the Dates, I wanted to keep this simple with only key information: the date, time, and location (and, of course, the subtle hints that there would be appetizers and drinks available). The font and colors were purposely matched to the theme of the Save the Dates, as you’ll also see with the signage below. (Consistency is key!)
This invitation was only extended to the bridal party and immediate family, so we went with the digital-only route.
Finally, we have our day-of signage! These were all sized to fit 8.5 x 11″ frames, which were placed on stands throughout the interior of the venue to help direct guests accordingly.
Aries Payne 