jotting jennifer

Quick! What logos are these?

Just a tease from a logo guessing game. // Source: Calvin’s Hub

Immediately, most people will recognize the B of Barbie, the K of Kmart, the I of IBM and the Kl of Kleenex. The others may be a little more obscure but the four I just mentioned are definitely known by the majority of people.

That, my friends, is good branding. People see a simple image or part of a logo and immediately know what its relating to. Maybe it’s because of my communication background, but I wanted to make sure our wedding was branded. I’ve already talked about our wedding theme but that’s just a part of the overall branding of the wedding.

The American Marketing Association defines a brand as “A name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers.”

Two keys to branding are consistency and repetition. Make sure that the brand is the same and present throughout all of the items for the wedding, from the Save the Dates and wedding website to invitations and printed items at the reception. This can be done using colors, logos, clipart, fonts, design, pictures and many other items.

My tips to creating a wedding brand:

- Pick something personal. On our wedding day, Mr. K and I will be dancing to ”our” song, “Better Together” by Jack Johnson. This became our song shortly after we started dating and has stuck ever since. This was the starting point for our brand. The song fit perfectly with my love for ampersands. Maybe your personal item is your pet, a shared hobby or a nod to you or your groom’s heritage. (I’m looking at you, Mrs. Sword!)
- Incorporate your theme/palette. I’ve previously touched on what colors will be prevalent in our wedding and what I’ve coined to be our theme. It’s important that your brand include these items. Just imagine if McDonalds used lime green and fuchsia wrappers, cups and bags, yet their logo stayed red and yellow. Your theme and palette should be an integral part of your brand. (Mrs. Palm Tree killed it when it comes to sticking with her wedding colors, which were also a nod to the birthstones of her and Mr. Palm Tree. Incorporating the theme AND a personal touch – boom!)
- Create a logo. This doesn’t have to be something a graphic designer spent hundreds of hours on. The Barbie logo is just a word in a script font and colored pink. Your logo could be your names in a certain font or your date written a specific way or maybe even a cameo style silhouette of you and your groom. (a la Mrs. Camel)
- Make sure it’s something you love. If you are going to be using this throughout your engagement and on plenty of printed items, it has got to be something you won’t be sick of in a week, a year or even a decade. Don’t be afraid to come up with an idea, get opinions, go through multiple versions. Love it and rock the brand.

So what’s the brand for my wedding? I thought you’d never ask

Everything from the printed materials to the website will reflect this brand by including the colors, the fonts, the roses or, what I consider our logo, the j&k. I had mentioned my admiration for Kim Kardashian’s dedication to theme and branding in a previous post and this is my attempt to go along those lines.

Let’s be real - do you think I am crazy for taking the wedding planning to this level? Anyone else out there think of branding their wedding?

I knew it was only a matter of time before we got our engagement photos back from Mitch, so I needed to finalize the guest list. I had to make a few decisions before the guest list would be finalized.

Plus Ones
Many blogs and websites have weighed in on the plus one debate (Huffington Post, Bridal Guide, The Knot and Emily Post) and they all boil down to the same answer: guests who are married, engaged or living together should be invited as a couple. That’s what Mr. PB and I are sticking to for all of our guests, including our bridal party. We are going to be clear when we address our envelopes and we will be putting a “___ seats have been reserved in your honor” line on the RSVP card to help make this clear.

Children
Similar to the plus-one debate, there are plenty of voices out there (Emily Post, The Knot, Wedding Etiquette for Dummies, Martha Stewart) and unlike plus ones, it’s a bit more gray. Some say to take an all or nothing approach, others say just the children in the bridal party and immediate family (if there are any) and others say it’s dependent on the time of the events. The approach that Mr. PB and I are taking for this one is only children in the bridal party or children of bridal party members. Similar to the plus ones, we are going to be using the envelopes and RSVP cards to communicate this.

Coworkers
This is another topic with many opinions (Bridal Guide, Huffington Post, The Knot and Glamour) and the consensus appears to be a few coworkers are best; if you get close to the majority, go for the whole department and invite your boss if you are inviting the whole department. I had a tough time with this one. Mr. PB only had one person from work he wanted to invite and I used to work with her as well so that was easy.

My work was a bit more difficult. Coworker M will serve as DOC on our wedding day, so she’s in along with her husband. From there is where it got a bit more sticky. I work in a department with six other women plus my boss and his secretary. I flip flopped for a while between an all or nothing approach. But I really wanted four of my coworkers to be there – they’re good company, we’ve connected on a personal level and we’ve chatted about the wedding before. The other two, one probably doesn’t even know Mr. PB’s name and the other is extremely new to our department. And I felt it would be awkward to have my boss or his secretary at my wedding. So in the end, I just went with my gut and decided to invite who I would want there, who I would want to share my day with. I don’t want to hurt people’s feelings so when I contacted the four ladies for their addresses, I let them know that I wasn’t planning on inviting the entire department and to keep it on the hush hush.

Are you inviting coworkers to your family? Did you follow etiquette rules for building your guest list or did you go with your gut?