Wedding Save-The-Date and Invitation Trend: Custom Monogram and Wedding Branding

Branding is a term mostly identified with business logo design and corporate branding guidelines, but it has quickly become a trend for weddings!

Create a foundation by establishing a brand

If you, like most couples, want your wedding to be unique, personal, and a memorable experience for your guests then you need to create the brand foundation that will be used throughout your wedding stationery. You want to be sure to set the tone, theme, and overall feel of your wedding from the moment your guests open their mailbox to when they are seated for dinner at your reception.  The first glimpse of your wedding are your wedding save-the-dates, and this is the perfect time to introduce your custom wedding monogram and wedding colors. Creating the branding for your wedding stationery is easier than you may think!

Create a custom monogram

The first step is to work with your stationer/graphic designer to create a custom monogram that incorporates your initials or first names in a font that is a direct reflection of the style of your wedding.  For example, a clean sans serif font for a modern wedding or script lettering for a traditional wedding may be used.  Your monogram is your unique “stamp” that will appear on everything from your save-the-dates, invitations to programs, menu cards, cocktail napkins, dance floor and more!  Due to it appearing in multiple places make sure you love it and get the design just right.  But remember not to overdo it and put it on everything!

Coordinate fonts, colors and paper

Your next steps are to create your system of fonts, colors and papers that will be used cohesively throughout all of your stationery designs.  This can be decided while working with your stationer and going with their recommendation on what colors will look best on each paper color along with making sure everything is legible and easy to read once printed.  Using multiple fonts on your stationery is totally fine and creates a fresh visual interest, as long as everything is professionally designed and “feels” like the wedding style that you are planning.

Incorporate your brand details

Once you establish these carefully selected details you can use everything interchangeably however you’d like as long as you stay within them.  For example, if your wedding colors are navy blue, blush, ivory and gold you may have invitations that are ivory paper with gold printing, menu cards that are navy blue with gold foil and cocktail napkins that are blush with gold foil.  Everything will be cohesive and guests will notice how you tied everything together from beginning to end.  When done this way your stationery will be a compliment to your wedding decor, florals, linens, rentals etc.  Your wedding monogram, graphics and color palette should be provided to the vendor team so that it can be incorporated into your wedding cake, floor wraps or gobo lights, custom printed pillows or patterns etc.

Utilizing a wedding planner

The most important thing to remember is that all of your details should work together and not compete with the wedding day so just make sure all of your vendors are on the same page.  Your wedding planner is an essential piece to ensure your wedding brand details are incorporated throughout your wedding so be sure to hire them first and your stationer not to far down the line after!  Putting these extra details and thoughts in place in the beginning may require a bit of additional work, but in the end you will not regret it and you’ll be all smiles looking back on your wedding photos years later.

Le’Trice Penn, Owner + Lead Designer
The Greek Penn Sophisticated Stationery + Specialty Gifts, President of ILEA Detroit
248-342-9971
lepenndesigns.com

Photos courtesy Juliana Mary