How to Design a Wedding Brand

Want to know what the number one color palette I’ve seen for weddings in 2024 and 2025 as a professional stationery designer? Green and white.

Basically every couple I’ve talked to this past week about invitations has told me some variation of a green and white color palette for their wedding.

It’s a beautiful combo which makes it popular for a reason! But it doesn’t have to feel like everyone else’s. Here’s how we transformed the same assignment (green and white) three different ways for three unique love stories.

Examples of Wedding Mood Boards

1 – Love By The Sea

For this charming New England beach concept, we paired natural sea and grass greens with creams and neutrals inspired by sand and linen. These colors and textures will inspire the eventual design. For example, a custom venue illustration featuring the beach where the ceremony will take place can pull in our soft greens and sand-colored neutrals. Perhaps we use linen signage and green ribbon for the day of signage? Or we could add gold seashell charms to the invites. The motifs, colors, and textures from the mood board serve as our jumping off point! 

2 – Secret Garden

For this private estate wedding, we are envisioning a fairy-tale dinner in the grass. The vintage wall paper pattern could inspire an envelope liner pattern that extends to linens and bar signage the day of the wedding. A lace welcome sign or seating chart blowing in the wind is begging to be made based on the bride’s plans for an airy and whimsical embroidered veil. And the door’s lattice pattern into the garden could inspire the shape of the gate fold wrap around the invitations or a border motif.

3 – Tuscan Escape

I’ve designed many Italian destination weddings so reinventing fresh for a new couple is always such a treat.

For this wedding invitation inspiration, we leaned into the yellow-greens of the humble olive that mimics the natural countryside landscape. These colors could inspire our envelope colors, artwork palette, or even our ribbon and wax seal choices. And pops of yellow would feel so refreshing mixed in with the greens and white neutrals.

Once you’ve defined your wedding mood board, you’re ready to check off the exact design motifs or elements that will bring your wedding to life. Aka, let’s create your wedding brand!

What is a wedding brand?

A wedding brand is the overall aesthetic, theme, and identity that ties together all aspects of your wedding. It includes visual elements, typography, colors, and design choices that create a cohesive look and feel throughout the event. A strong wedding brand ensures that everything—from the invitations to the signage, décor, and even attire—feels intentional and harmonious.

What are the core elements of a wedding brand?

Every wedding brand needs the following elements:

1. Vibe Check – what does your wedding stand for? Is it an epic celebration of your Happy Ever After? A light and fun gathering of your closest friends? A timeless, elegant event for your VIP friends and family? Choose some words that describe your wedding and use them as a filter against all of the elements to make sure they align.
2. Color Palette – A consistent set of colors used throughout the invitations, florals, linens, and more. Color palettes can evoke different feelings – light and airy, dark and moody, chic and timeless, vintage and romantic. Play around and see what emotions your colors evoke. If you adjust them to be warmer or cooler, does that change things? 
3. Typography – Specific fonts used for wedding invitations, signage, and menus. Usually we choose a script calligraphy font and a serif or sans serif font. The fonts are equally important to align with your vibe. Some fonts are playful, others are classic and serious. Carefully choose a font that fits the aesthetic.
4. Monogram or Logo – A personalized design with initials, a crest, or a motif that represents the couple. You might create several variations of the monogram for different purposes.
5. Stand alone illustrations –  Custom artwork, watercolor florals, or graphic elements that we can use through the wedding to represent the event.
6. Patterns – Custom artwork, watercolor florals, or graphic elements that repeat throughout the wedding for added texture and variation. These might use the same elements from the stand alone illustrations or complementary icons.

Where do use wedding branding elements?

Once you’ve created the elements (or identified that you might need some professional guidance!) now is the time to apply the elements to design the different pieces that make up your wedding for your friends and family.

1. Stationery Suite – Save the dates, invitations, details, RSVP cards, and thank you cards that all have a consistent look.
2. Wedding Website – A digital extension of the wedding brand, should reinforce the style and color scheme.
3. Décor & Details – From place cards, menus, and signage, all elements should align with the wedding brand’s aesthetic.
4. Attire – Your brand will even extend to your attire. This can be in color palette and vibe only. Or perhaps the other elements are inspired by your attire choices (or vice versa!) 

Why do you need a wedding brand?

Without a wedding brand, it can be hard to cobble together all of the different elements in a way that makes visual sense. You might find yourself with different fonts on your signage, different art styles that don’t match and look like clip art, your dress clashing with the linens and florals. Or you lean too far in the other direction and everything matches exactly to the point that it looks like a copy-paste job. More kid’s birthday party vibes than once-in-a-lifetime wedding.

Example Wedding Branding for a Secret Garden Wedding

Next, we created the elements we need for their wedding brand. We took the original mood board and used it as inspiration for the feelings we’d like our wedding decor and stationery to evoke – elusive, romantic, intimate. We also created a simple striped pattern, based on the gate rods and color palette, chose a font combination that matches our vibe, a simple monogram, and some winding vine illustrations which mimic the ones on the veil. I’ll use these to create more logo variations, motifs, and patterns throughout the event pieces.

As you can see, we took the original mood board and used it as inspiration for the feelings we’d like our wedding decor and stationery to evoke – elusive, romantic, intimate. We also created a simple striped pattern, based on the gate rods and color palette, chose a font combination that matches our vibe, a simple monogram, and some winding vine illustrations which mimic the ones on the veil. I’ll use these to create more logo variations, motifs, and patterns throughout the event pieces.

Once we have all of the wedding brand essentials together (Vibe, Color Palette, Typography, Monogram or Logo, Stand alone illustrations, Patterns), we can get started on creating our pieces – like the website or stationery items.

Step 3 – Create!

Using the results from steps 1 and 2, here’s an invitation example! 

As you can see we used the fonts, color palette, and vine imagery from the branding elements to create this stunning invite. The handmade paper was inspired by our earlier moodboard of rustic, organic materials and textures. 

Additional things we could build on for this – an envelope liner using a custom watercolor of a scene from the garden, a details card with the green stripe pattern, the logo on the mailing envelope return address. And on the day of, what if the stripe pattern is reused on the bar or escort card display? What if the vines and monogram combo find their way on to cocktail napkins or the wedding favors? There are so many possibilities to mix and match these elements now to create something memorable and specific for the couple. 

I loved this example so much that I added it to the semi-custom collection that’s launching on Monday, March 17th. So if you loved this and want a variation for your wedding, take a look at the new collections when they launch and keep reading for an exclusive experience I’m offering to the first five couples who sign on before the end of the month. 

Now, that you’ve seen me go step-by-step through the process, you can try it out for yourself! Or you can tap into a design professional. If you need more help, keep reading. I’m going to talk about my best tips and trick for avoiding overwhelm, stress, and wasted time and money. 

Ditch the DIY overwhelm 

Let’s be honest about the invitation process—it’s overwhelming. You’ve already spent hours scrolling through countless designs, and nothing feels quite right. One design has the perfect typography but the wrong layout. Another captures your aesthetic but can’t be customized with your venue illustration. 

Then come the materials and limitations of different DIY companies: “What’s the difference between signature and premium paper?” “Is letterpress worth the investment?” “Can I add gold foil to a Canva template?” These aren’t questions you should have to muddle through alone, especially when you’re juggling venue tours, catering tastings, and everything else on your wedding planning checklist.

And don’t get me started on wedding etiquette, wording, and addressing questions that you Google and find five different answers to.

Working with a human. Not a robot.

This is exactly why semi-custom invitations exist. They solve the fundamental problem couples face: custom designs can be expensive (often starting at $5,000+), but template invitations look like everyone else’s wedding. (Did I tell you about the year I received two different wedding invites that used the exact SAME trending Minted design?)

Semi-custom gives you the best of both worlds—professionally designed suites that can be personalized to reflect your unique vision, without the custom price tag or three-month design timeline. You get meaningful customization options for colors, fonts, wording, and accessories, plus the guidance of a seasoned stationery designer who can help you navigate decisions with confidence rather than Google and TikTok confusion.

Timing it right.

Wedding planning timelines are already tight enough without adding invitation stress. Most couples don’t realize when they should be finalizing invitation designs and mailing before the big day. When you’re trying to create something from scratch, this timeline gets even tighter.

With a semi-custom approach, we’ve already solved the hardest part—creating a distinctive, cohesive design that stands out—allowing you to focus on personalization rather than starting from a blank canvas. This means no more late-night Pinterest rabbit holes or panic about missing important deadlines like receiving RSVPs too late to order your seating chart. Just a straightforward process, designed by an expert who has worked with hundreds of couples. 

What a concept – a real human guiding you through every step! 😉

I want to get started!

After guiding hundreds of couples through this journey, I’ve identified the best materials, most essential upgrades, and key areas of customization for a curated collection that offers the perfect balance: personalized design with efficient delivery. 

Monday, I’ll be unveiling my new semi-custom collection that combines truly elevated design with a streamlined, confidence-building process. To celebrate this launch, I’m extending a special Elevated Invitation Experience to just five founding collection members.

The first five couples to secure their place before March 31st in the collection will receive:

• Complimentary signature vellum belly bands or vellum wrap that elegantly unite your suite components, creating that moment of unboxing a gift that will delight your friends and family ($200 value)
• Complimentary professional envelope addressing, ensuring a flawless first impression from the moment your invitation arrives ($250 value)
• Priority production timeline, moving you to the front of the design queue (priceless when wedding planning timelines are tight) ($300 value)
• Personal 20-minute design consultation to ensure your selections perfectly align with your wedding aesthetic 
• Access to matching branding elements for your day of items – patterns, monograms, stand alone artwork, fonts and materials that match your invitations for a seamless, cohesive design

The Elevated Invitation Experience is valued at over $750, but more importantly, it removes two significant stressors from your planning process while elevating your wedding branding from the beginning.

I’ll be sending collection access details to my email list promptly at 10 AM EST on Monday. The five founding member spots will be filled in order of booking, and I anticipate they’ll be claimed quickly based on the interest I’ve already received.