Making It Personal
MAKING YOUR STATIONERY PERSONAL: A few things to think about when preparing your guest list.
color
One of the easiest and most traditional way to personalize your wedding stationery is through the use of your wedding colors. Keep your theme alive from start to finish, or in stationery terms, from the first save-the-date to the final thank you note. Even using a range of colors in your hue - pale blue, sky blue, royal blue, navy blue - keeps the overall tone and feeling consistent.
create a custom wedding logo
"Brand" your wedding with a custom wedding logo that can be used with your wedding stationery, but also on an aisle runner, as wall art, detailed on the wedding cake, or etched into ice at the bar. Be it a traditional monogram treatment or your names joined in an interesting way - the formality or informality of your event is easily reflected.
share yourselves
Weddings are one of the few opportunities you’ll have in your life-time to truly share who you are, as individuals and as a couple with your family and friends. Reflect what you both are all about - if your heritage is important, carry this over to your stationery through pattern and detail, if you’re nature-lovers, demonstrate this by "going green" and using recycled papers or soy-based inks, if you share a favorite season or holiday, go all out and incorporate the theme, if you’re bilingual or marrying two cultures together you could print your invitation in both languages - the list goes on.
family
If your family, their love and support has inspired your very own relationship - share this with your guests. Including your families on the invitation, as formally or as informally as you prefer, is a great start. You can also display photos of your families, maybe on their own wedding days, at your guest table, name your reception tables for family members, honor the absence of a deceased loved one in your program or at the reception, include "quotes" about marriage or love from your relatives on your favors or on thank you notes, etc.
get creative
Continue the "share yourself" idea and make every little detail count. If he proposed under the pines on a mountain hike, incorporate the location throughout your wedding stationery suite - from pine boughs to mountain tops.
Go a step further and name your reception tables after specific wildflowers or your favorite peaks, give little pine trees to your guests as wedding favors, or consider setting up a live evergreen photo backdrop for some fun "party-pics" of your wedding guests.
work with, not against your location
You’ve obviously given your ceremony and reception locations some careful consideration. Now use them to your advantage and reflect their look and styling through your wedding stationery. If planning a classic, traditional church wedding and formal reception, you can demonstrate this through your invitation wording and typestyles. If planning a casual, outdoor wedding and fun and funky reception, go with a simple "nature-inspired" detail or bright and cheery papers and envelopes.