In many ways, your wedding is the first chance you have to give an impression of who you are as a couple. It should come as no surprise, then, that you want that first impression to be a positive one. It may surprise you, however, that I use many of the branding principles I learned in my corporate design career to create beautiful, polished brands for my wedding clients. In the same way the best brands use consistency, smart design and custom-tailored messaging to reach their customers, the bride and groom seek to portray a smart, polished and classy impression to their guests. 

I’m always working with my clients to create their own wedding “brand.” I love the idea of  visual statement beginning with your invitations or save the dates and carrying the look all the way through to your thank you notes and all the moments in between. This may start with the invitation set, place cards and menus –  but often evolves into many more pieces – anything from accessories, pillows, napkins, furniture or even fashion. 

Since invitations set the tone and make a big first impression to your guests, more and more of you are opting to go the couture route and have one-of-a-kind invitations designed just for you, why not take that personalized design a step further and brand your event? And what happens when you love your designs so much you wish you could have them integrated not only into your wedding day but into your daily life? You have them made into pillows for your home or a chic table runner for your event. Or one of my personal favorites: ties for your groomsmen or the catering staff. Talk about details! You can even tie your invitation’s design into your wedding cake. Repeating the same pattern creates a sense of familiarity and uniformity that will not only impress your guests but create these memorable moments throughout your event experience. To inspire you, below are some examples of past client projects where we did just that. Have fun with it but make sure you don’t overdo it. Balance is key.

Ceci Johnson, Founder and Creative Director of Ceci New York and Editor of CeciStyle Magazine.

{Above} For this hip African inspired wedding, I took design cues from the African Kitenge fabrics that are abundant in the culture and created a specialized print just for our couple. They loved the prints so much we had custom fabrics made for their table runners and even made the groomsmen’s bow ties too! 

{Above} For a Balinese inspired backyard wedding we designed handkerchiefs, coasters and pillows to match the invitations. For fun, we imagined what our Bali print would look like on a custom chair for the party decor. Your custom designed pattern could work in so many places!

For more information on their custom wedding invitations and products, check out Ceci New York;

or, for tons of fabulous wedding inspiration, visit CeciStyle.