Bringing Your Wedding Theme to Life | Advice from The Jess Press

If you’re planning your wedding, you may have picked the perfect theme for you and your partner.

Whatever you envision, it’s important to work with vendors who want to bring it to life and weave your theme throughout your wedding. This includes your stationery before, during and after the wedding!

Our friend Jessica Giovine, owner and founder of The Jess Press, is an award-winning hand-lettering artist and graphic designer. Jessica produces beautiful pieces of fine art for weddings, from hand-painted event day signage, to paper goods like invitations and envelope calligraphy. We’ve been lucky enough to work with some of the same couples on their stationery and signage!

Together, we’re sharing some helpful tips about bringing your wedding theme and dreams to life using stationery and signage - and how to achieve a cohesive look and feel using stationery.

Art Paper Scissors / Kelly Sea Images — *Art Paper Scissors /* *Kelly Sea Images*

The Jess Press / Kelly Sea Images — *The Jess Press /* *Kelly Sea Images*

Set the tone and find your favorite elements.

Start your wedding celebrations off right with save-the-dates and invitations that reflect the theme, look and tone of the wedding day itself. A formal, black-tie affair may warrant different design elements than a laid-back, coastal celebration.

Whatever elements you fall in love with, you can include them throughout the rest of the wedding stationery, from seating charts to post-event thank you cards.

“Invitations and save-the-dates set the tone for your wedding, so all design should be cohesive,” adds Jessica.

You can have fun with your designs and try out new concepts to showcase your wedding theme.

“I recently designed a custom logo for a bride who is having a dockside wedding, and wanted to evoke ‘waves’ in her logo” Jessica says. “I did so with using brush strokes, without going the literal route of showcasing actual waves; be abstract!”

You can work with your stationer to utilize color, paper, enclosures, textures, typography, foil and other techniques to bring your theme to life in this way without being literal. For example, a rustic mountain wedding’s stationery can include wooden textures that inspire the feeling of the forest. An international destination wedding invitation can feature the colors of the country to give guests a taste of what’s to come.

“If you want to incorporate a beach theme, you can have your stationery incorporate shades of blues, or a small shell or starfish to tie in the vibe (don't want overkill!),” adds Jessica.

Art Paper Scissors / Jennifer Larsen Photo — *Art Paper Scissors /* *Jennifer Larsen Photo*

The Jess Press / Jennifer Larsen Photo — *The Jess Press* / *Jennifer Larsen Photo*

Be consistent.
“Consistency is key!” says Jessica.

On your wedding day, first think of the stationery and signage that will help direct guests where to go and allow them to interact with the different elements of your wedding day (seating charts, place cards, signs for the gift table, etc.). From there, infuse some of the most-loved elements from your save-the-dates and/or invitations to keep it consistent.

“If you have a custom logo, incorporate it on the invitations, to menu cards, to thank you cards - even wax seals or specialty items,” Jessica says. “It really adds an extra touch and shows guests that every part of your day was well-thought-out.”

Art Paper Scissors / Idalia Photography — *Art Paper Scissors /* *Idalia Photography*

Don’t forget about…
“Menu cards - I feel they are SO necessary,” says Jessica. “Every guest wants to know what they're eating for the night, and a menu card looks so beautiful tucked into a napkin on the perfectly paired china.”

Additionally, if you’re having a larger wedding with multiple events, including a “wedding weekend" timeline that includes touches of your theme and sticks to the same typography is another sometimes overlooked piece of must-have stationery.

The Jess Press / Devin Peppler Photography — *The Jess Press /* *Devin Peppler Photography*

Incorporate hobbies, interests and fur babies.
Personalization is always a nice way to make your guests feel included on your big day, and personal touches can be added throughout your wedding stationery and signage. This can include weaving in hobbies, shared interests - and most importantly, fur babies.

We’ve had couples incorporate elements representing bicycles, mountains, exercise, travel, and more to really personalize their stationery - we’ve even had couples include language and logos from their favorite video games.

Wedding day signage including a couple’s pet is one of Jessica’s most-requested items.

“Signature cocktail signs are the easiest way to do so,” says Jessica. “Not only are signature cocktail signs, in my opinion, 100% necessary, but jazz it up by naming it after your pups.”