I was recently commissioned to design a special seating plan and table name cards for a couple who married this August. They tentatively contacted me about 6 weeks previously following recommendations of my work from happy brides on a wedding forum. Their brief was rough and fairly open to combine their love of music festivals, gigs they've shared together and to include photos and lyric quotes if possible.
I went away with a few immediate ideas based on a special festival style poster seating plan which were tested for viability. There were so many elements to try to combine I was starting to worry the result may become too busy and actually detract from the function of the seating plan. So I then had the idea to combine their facing silhouettes with the heading to create a unique logo. I chose a decorative, slightly grungy font for the band names for design consistency and to avoid using actual band logos for copyright reasons. The couple kindly supplied me with personal photos and I set to work drawing it up. The result was fine but still not quite what I'd envisaged. Then amongst the personal photos they emailed I found a lovely candid shot of them together taken at one of the gigs - it was natural, happy and encapsulated the whole spirit of their original request. It worked perfectly.
The table cards became mini versions with the 'logo' on the reverse and an appropriate song quotation of the couple's choice along with the band table name and the date & venue they saw them perform.
My first set of design proposals shown to Yvette & David was met with "We can't find the words to say how much we LOVE this! Thank you so, so much - it has surpassed our wildest expectations - we actually got quite emotional looking at your designs, they are perfect and we are so happy!"
Final artwork was approved and colours requested to fit with their other venue styling. The poster was printed on A1 satin paper and mounted in a slim silver edged frame and the photos above emailed to clients prior to sending the parcel. Their response...?
"Aaagggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh the photos are AMAZING!! Thank you so, so much! I have been going through a bit of an 'in shock' phase this week so far that the wedding is almost upon us. This has just completely broke me out of that and I could scream with excitement! When we first thought of it we didn't know if anyone would 'get it' but you have totally brought it to life. I can't wait for our friends to see it - we have kept the idea top secret, and I think our friends and fellow gig buddies will really love it!"
