Design Work Life: Cataloging Inspiration Daily

Hello, every­one! For my sec­ond post of the day, I’m going to share a few of my favorite Day Of details that I’ve spied across the blo­gos­phere. From my point of view, graphic design is an impor­tant part of the atmos­phere of a wed­ding as the flow­ers and décor are.

Escort Cards:

These paper pieces don’t just have cal­ligraphed names any­more. Some of the best wed­ding design cre­ativ­ity comes through on these once over­looked event ele­ments. Here are a few of my favorites.

My tal­ented friend Amy Hardy helped bring my vision for these escort cards to life when we shot my Graphic and Glitz shoot a cou­ple years ago. The eclec­tic type and the table-coded rib­bons make for an impec­ca­bly designed and orig­i­nal escort card concept.

In a sim­i­lar vein, these escort cards are rem­i­nis­cent of vin­tage indus­trial tags but have a softer look when paired with fab­ric flow­ers and Scrabble tiles that spell var­i­ous roman­tic words. They’re quite a stun­ning site en masse!

Joni Lay of Chocolate Butterbean is enor­mously tal­ented and pulls off the mixed vin­tage type look off per­fectly. When she designed all of the col­lat­eral for her sister’s wed­ding, she did a phe­nom­e­nal job with it all — but I’m par­tic­u­larly in love with the escort cards. The sig­nage, the peg­board dis­play, and the tag-style escort cards them­selves are all beau­ti­ful. I wish I could have seen them in person!

Ribbon motifs may be a lit­tle over­done in graphic design right now, but I can’t get enough of these rib­bon shaped escort cards! They look great as a fam­ily from a dis­tance, and when up close, you can appre­ci­ate all of the fine details, includ­ing the table-coded pat­terned paper, the typog­ra­phy and the sil­hou­et­ted illustrations.

These vin­tage car­ni­val themed “ticket” escort cards have great graph­ics on their own, but when paired with fab­ric flow­ers and pin­wheels, they become real stars. The addi­tions not only make these escort cards truly unique, but they also tie back to the theme in a whim­si­cal, unex­pected way.

Favors and Other Details:

There are a lot of other ways to express cre­ativ­ity through great design at a wed­ding. Here are a few great ideas:

This Who’s Who chart from Melangerie helps your guests get to know other peo­ple at the wed­ding (sav­ing your rev­el­ers from those awk­ward “So how do you know the cou­ple?” ques­tions), but it’s also a great tool for your out of town guests who may not know the area so well and need to find out where the dif­fer­ent wed­ding events are being held. Who doesn’t love some well designed information?

I’ve always loved Eunice from Hello!Lucky’s wed­ding. All of the details were impec­ca­bly designed, as is to be expected from the direc­tor of a pow­er­house invi­ta­tion com­pany. But for those who can appre­ci­ate great design but aren’t as tech­ni­cally savvy, Hello!Lucky has made some of the print­a­bles avail­able for use on their website.

Another gor­geous detail from Joni of Chocolate Butterbean, this sign is beau­ti­fully designed and the per­fect way to invite your guests into the party.

PHOTO CREDITS (from top to bottom):

01: Amy Hardy and Maddy Hague; photo by Paper Antler
02: Photo by Jeff Wallace via Green Wedding Shoes
03: Chocolate Butterbean; photo by Simply Bloom Photography via Green Wedding Shoes
04: Photo by Jose Villa via Snippet and Ink
05: Jen Simpson Design; Photo by Alfred & Emma Photography via Ruffled
06: Melangerie
07: Hello!Lucky
08: Chocolate Butterbean; photo by Jesse Leake Photography