Monthly Archives: March 2021

Everyone loves a zany photo booth opportunity at wedding receptions. In an era where everyone has grown used to posing for selfies and cosplay is common, guests throng for the chance to play act, dress up and use props.

Standard fare includes Elton John goofy glasses, day-glo wigs, mad hats, fake mustaches, overblown lips, Groucho eyebrows, and of course the boa feather wrap.

Depending on the couple’s sense of humor and venue, hand-held props can also include word art signs like “Dodged this Bullet,” and even personalized landmark photos, symbols and motifs pertaining to the couple.

Say the venue is held at the Bronx Zoo (it’s a thing!) then plastic animals, caged bar photos and lion tamer gear is a fun nod. Getting married in New York City? Empire State, King Kong, Brooklyn Bridge and Statue of Liberty props are on point. A beachy outdoor ceremony? Bring on the mermaid crowns, shells and Neptune’s Trident!

If the couple have unusual or unique back stories—they met in Africa, for instance—then of course the typical safari gear like pith helmets and safari jackets appear, or maybe even some throwbacks to Tarzan and Jane?

Whatever the props decided, every booth needs a personalized backdrop, too. Many print-on-demand sites offer a feature to customize the background. You can select the size needed up to extra-large which covers an area 88” x 104” and cost less than lunch to order. Some brides elect to recreate a copy of the wedding invitation itself with the same themed colors and font used. Others take the actual theme and tailor the design to that idea—nautical and burgee flags if the wedding is held at a boathouse or lakeside, for example. Photos of the couple are not uncommon, especially if the couple wishes to appear to be “photo-bombing” their guests!

More often than not in these quarantine times, weddings, when held, are taking place at unusual venues.

In an era of lockdowns and closed-out events, weddings are sometimes held in wide open spaces, with not a habitable building or landmark in sight to mark its spot.

Even more reason to provide excellent but hand-crafted signage to that waterfall in the forest, or the high tide water line at the beach where ceremonies are safely conducted.

Many brides favor the established trend of hand-painted calligraphy, made by bold brush strokes in prominent fonts like Bombshell or Carolina Pro, with their uneven base lines and sweeping glyphs. Done in black or white paint on raw reclaimed timber these signs look both elegant and rustic at the same time.

If modern and fresh is the theme of the wedding, then signs bordered with Art Deco motifs like strong geometrics in black and gold metallic paint fit the bill nicely.

Others prefer floral patterns that mimic the reception and venue arrangements and centerpieces.

Still others repeat the design of the wedding invitation itself, using the same graphics and colors as a visual repeat.

You can craft your own signs on a variety of foundations—timber, glass, mirror, chalkboard, heavy card, cork, plastic or plexiglass sheets—whatever surface you can find to paint.

Or you can use the design services of a print on demand site and make your own background in a photo-effect finish or texture, adding text as you go.

Wedding signs can announce the ceremony, ask guests to sit in designated places, park their cellphones on silent, or use their cameras to add to the group photography effort, tell guests where to drink, eat and dance, and generally enjoy the merriment of the day.

While “putting a ring on it” may be a well-known retort in matrimonial circles, putting a label on it, when it comes to wedding planning, is even more pressing.

Label the table place settings, the gift bags, the reception favors, the buffet food items, the dessert, candy, cupcake or doughnut bars; label the signature drinks, the regular bar and the non-alcoholic offerings; label the children’s menu; the cheese board, the canapes, and the antipasti; label the guest book, the wedding couple’s baby photos, their missing loved ones and even the family pet. Label the take-home slices of cake and the home-baked leaving cookies. In fact, label just about everything!

Now thanks to affordable cutting machines like Cricut and Silhouette, crafty brides can self-label in any number of shapes and sizes and finishes, including metallic foils and glittered card stock.  Labels now come in every style conceivable, with scalloped edges, double borders and embossed or cut-out punched eyelet trims.

For those brides who want to leave the designing and crafting to others, there are print-on-demand sites that allow this same range of variety in label-making.

Brides can choose their own type fonts, accent colors, wording and graphic flourishes to match their wedding schemes, and tailor each label for its intended purpose. Card stock labels can be ordered to match the wedding suite of invitations and day of papers.

Not only can labels mirror the wedding scheme colors and style, but brides can also be witty and playful, too, with clever label wording, such as labels for the signature cocktails stating, “let’s make pour decisions” or “we’re getting hitched in a prosecco.”

Table favor labels can add a dash of humor as well.  Home-harvested honey pots collected by the wedding couple can be labelled “love is sweet” or send-off bottles of bubbles labelled “love is in the air.”

Return Addresss Labels – Stickers – Wine Labels – Water Bottle Labels

In 2020, weddings, as well as people, took to hiding behind a mask—literally.

Now, a year later, face masks are de rigeur just about everywhere, but particularly at any non-family gathering of more than 6 people.

With bride and groom and officiant masked, it makes a logical and sensible idea to gift the wedding face masks as a reception favor or in a welcome gift bag, especially if there is more than one event, say, over a weekend of dinners, barbeques, brunches and the like before the actual ceremony.

Brides are cleverly weaving in their wedding color scheme as well as the design theme and even adding a personalized monogram of the soon-to-be married couple.

Print-on-demand sites effortlessly allow creative brides to craft their own design or use other designer’s artwork that aligns with their sensibilities, picking out any variety of colors, textures and graphic designs to have printed on the fabric covering of the mask.

If the wedding theme is rustic and the ceremony is to be held in a barn or in a meadow, there is even scope to mimic roughly woven fabrics like natural burlap, but in a photo-effect finish, so it achieves the appearance but not the scratchiness of a feed sack!

If a more glam look is desired there are even fake glitter and rhinestone effects in every color of the real sparkles, without the grit or heft involved of metal on the skin. Velvety finishes and smoother satin textures can also be printed onto the face covering fabrics. Ombre shades and even faux metallic foil effects can also provide sheen and shine as a photo finish to fabrics.

For an understated and classic theme, a beautifully scripted calligraphic monogram of the wedding couple’s intertwined initials against the chosen accent colors of the wedding party is elegant on face masks as it gives another uniform look to the already polished wedding party attire.