3 Wedding Tips from a Designer
Organising a wedding is, let’s face it, stressful. From wedding websites to welcome signs and menus, it can be overwhelming to think about how your wedding will look.
After recently getting married, I sat down to think about what advice I would have for other brides who may or may not have an eye for creative. From choosing a photographer to understanding what really matters, here’s my top 3 tips to help you with your own design decisions.
1. Ask the photographer to see a full day album
Like all designers, photographers will have a portfolio showcasing their most stunning wedding shots - incredible sunsets, quirky artistic poses and even making rain look appealing! However, be mindful these are all their highlights - the best of the best - and for your wedding day, what you want to look for is consistency. While most photographers may have a couple of stand-outs, couples are often confused and disappointed when receiving their final photos when the rest of the album looks kind of…average.
Asking to see a full day album will showcase how your photographer captures each part of the day, from getting ready in the morning to after-ceremony group shots and the concluding at night on the darkly-lit dancefloor. A good photographer will work with light and perspective to get the right shots, so seeing the complete picture of their past jobs will give you the confidence you will be truly happy with the photos you receive after the day has ended.
A stunning shot at our late-night sparkler exit from our photographers at de lumiere photography
2. If in doubt, make it personal
Coming up with a ‘theme’ for your wedding can be incredibly difficult, especially if you’re a designer! Rustic or quirky? Deep burgundy or a blush palette? Floral illustrations or clean lines? Like creating your own personal branding, the possibilities are endless and it can be too difficult to choose which way to go.
If you can’t decide on a direction, the best suggestion I have is to make it personal. It’s harder for comparison to be a thief of joy when you make the decisions based on a reason meaningful to you both, rather than only the aesthetic of the design.
For example, our invitation included an illustration that I drew of our ceremony location. Objectively, is it the most beautiful designed invitation ever? Absolutely not. But we love it because it’s unique and personal to us. Bridesmaid dresses? Emerald green because green is my favourite colour. Flowers? Australian natives with lush red flowers because we’re Australian, outdoorsy and red is a lucky colour in Chinese culture. Like all things in design, there is no right and wrong so use yourselves as the inspiration, and I’ll guarantee you’ll love it!
3. AGREE ON THE PRIORITIES TOGETHER
Not entirely design-related but probably the most important tip in organising a wedding is to agree on the priorities as a couple BEFORE you start planning. This means deciding what you care more about as a couple (and thus consequently spend more money on!) versus which areas aren’t as important. I’d suggest taking it one step further and writing it down!
‘Wedding creep’ is what I call the progressive rise in expenses from the temptation to level up - an additional cake tier, a live band versus a soloist, a more premium drinks package, or adding florals for your signs. When you’re in the midst of planning, emotions run high and returning to the priority list helps with reigning in the costs and avoiding wanting more, more and more.
For us, our venue had to feel right and we had to have good food. We wanted everyone to have a good time so we pulled back on florals, videography and the wedding dress (things that weren’t about bringing people together). But even though we had talked about it earlier on, without our formalised list of priorities we still got caught out disagreeing on what would be most important to spend on. Have the conversations early, write it down and let it guide you into navigating those finicky wedding decisions together!
Food? Very important. A personalised touch of luggage tags with handwritten thank you notes for our guests? Also very important. Photo by: de lumiere photography
