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While attaching a “Just Married” sign to the bumper of the bride and groom’s car is a classic wedding decoration (the DIY placard has been featured in countless films over the years), you might want to stray from the typical on your big day! If you want to surprise the newlyweds or your guests, you’re going to have to come up with something original and customized. Here are 5 unique wedding banner ideas to consider:

1. Photo booth

If you want to set up some type of photo or video booth for guests, add a custom banner as the background. Whether it’s a romantic quote or silly scenery, the photos will create amazing keepsakes.

2. Add a Quote

Add a photo of the newlyweds, an inspirational quote, or a romantic line from a classic film to the wedding banner. From “Casablanca” to “As Good As It Gets,” there are numerous romantic movies to choose from. Find a quote that best suits the couple in question.

3. Entrance/At the Table

Make the bridal party table stand out by hanging a congratulatory banner as they arrive to the reception. Wait to hang it until they arrive and the bride and groom will be surprised and honored!

4. Making your Exit

As the bride and groom exit their wedding, consider ordering a wedding banner to bid them farewell. You could design the banner with their honeymoon destination, well wishes from family and friends or a simple Mr.  & Mrs. photo. Then, place the banner on the back of their getaway car to let everyone know.

5. Direction Banner

If you’re having a large wedding, your guests might need some direction. Consider creating a banner that directs them to each different locations including: parking, ceremony, cocktail hour and reception hall.

To find more unique wedding ideas and order banners, visit PaperDirect Wedding.

Making the most of your special day is a top priority, and you want every detail to be perfect. It’s likely that many hours of contemplation have been invested in selecting the ideal color scheme for your spring wedding, and your invitations and reception cards should complement those hues and also your own personal style.

Couples planning to hold their reception at a separate time and location other than the marriage site should include reception cards with their wedding invitations. These cards include all of the event’s details that will help your guests make the transition from one festivity to the next with ease.

Reception Card Color Ideas for Spring Weddings

It’s all about pastel colors for springtime weddings with a dominance of soft colors reminiscent of Easter and grass. If you want your reception cards to stand out from the invitations, you can opt for a border or custom printing in hues that complement your primary wedding colors. Many brides and grooms like to “think green.” Green is a highly versatile and compatible hue, and when utilized as a natural element like vines or ivy on cardstock, it can truly create a beautiful look, regardless of the ceremony or reception colors.

Popular Springtime Wedding Reception Card Combinations

Brides and grooms working with two colors should consider these combinations:

• Pink with any Green
• Lavender or Periwinkle and Yellows
• Light Blue with Mocha, Ivory, or Green
• Orange and Sage or Ivory
• Metallic Gold or Silver with Any Color

Three-Color Combinations:

• Lavender, Pastel Green, and Ivory
• Ivory, Pink, and Sage
• White, Mocha, and Pink
• Pink, Lavender, and Pastel Green
• Sage, Lavender, and Ivory
• Yellow, Periwinkle and White

If you want to stay true to your original invitation colors, choose lettering or a border design a shade or two above or below them on the color wheel. For truly remarkable wedding reception cards, consider including all of the colors of your event and then some. Wildflower themes are popular in the springtime, and a multicolored invitation can help foster a whimsical, outdoorsy feeling true to the essence of spring weddings.

You’ll discover a wealth of spring wedding ideas and a vast selection of invitations and reception cards at PaperDirect.com, your one-stop source for all your wedding stationery needs! Check out their high quality and affordable products that are fully customizable, or take a look at PaperDirect’s DIY invitations and reception cards.

You’ve set the date, picked out your colors, ordered your flowers, and managed to talk your fiance out of reuniting his old Twisted-Sister-meets-the-Backstreet-Boys cover band from high school to play the reception. Crisis averted! Now comes the real challenge: Creating a wedding reception seating plan that works… for everybody.

Family dynamics can be — shall we say – a bit complicated. Maybe you can’t seat Aunt Nancy within dirty-look range of her ex-husband Bob and his brand-new wife, or maybe your fiance’s sisters — who haven’t spoken since 1992 — need to be seated on opposite sides of the room. Or perhaps you just want your wedding reception to run as smoothly and enjoyably as humanly possible.

Either way, a bit of planning combined with the right tools will make all the difference. For a stress-free wedding reception, consider these simple tips.

Keepin’ it Real… Formal

We know, we know, you’re a free spirit who doesn’t like rules and hates being micromanaged. But unless you want the next episode of “As the World Turns” taking place at your reception, you’re going to need a formal seating chart.

It’s really not as difficult as it sounds, either. Simply create a spreadsheet of all the yes-RSVP invitees and then organize them by relationship: bride’s friend, groom’s family, bride’s family, and so on. Highlight your more “sensitive” guests by color. For instance, if Nancy can’t sit by Bob, highlight their names in the same shade. That’ll make them stand out — so you’ll be sure to seat them far, far apart.

Draw it Out

Draw a map of the room – tables included — and assign each table a number. Use your spreadsheet to create groups of guests for each table. Mix it up by grouping those who know each other together, placing singles with other singles, and quieter guests with more gregarious invitees.

Traditionally, the bride and groom sit at the front or most central table, surrounded by their wedding party. However, if you’ve got guests who’ll feel like they’ve been banished to Siberia if they’re not at a central table, make every table more special by spreading the wedding party out across around the room.

When you have a rough outline, write each guest’s name on a post-it note. Stick the notes, organized by table, onto the room map. You’ll probably have some tweaking to do as late RSVPs trickle in, so keep your chart handy.

Simplicity + Planning = Reception Serenity

Now that you’ve created your seating chart, make it easy for guests – and wait staff, if you have them – to find their seats. Individual place cards add a sophisticated, personal touch at each place setting, while customized table tents feature a list of each table’s guests. Both can be customized to complement your wedding colors and theme.

Be ready for the unexpected; some guests may no-show, while others might arrive without bothering to RSVP at all. Keep some space open just in case.

Most importantly, don’t wait until the last minute to create your wedding reception seating plan. Just a bit of planning leads to a smooth, stress-free event that all will enjoy.

For more fun, simple ideas to make your wedding even more amazing, check out our Paper Direct Blog. From beautiful DIY wedding invitations to thoughtfully worded thank you cards, we’ll help make that special day unforgettable.

Mark your special day with a Wedding banner or Anniversary Banner.  Vinyl Banners add an extra quality to your event, use banners to announce your wedding, anniversary, or engagement.

If you have asked your winter wedding guests to brave the cold temperatures and possible snowy conditions to attend your blessed event, then you better feed them well.  While it may feel safer to go with the obvious choices of steak, fish and chicken, you have to think more out-of-the-box for your winter wedding menu. Since winter is all about comfort food, you can treat your wedding guests to the meal of the season with these winter wedding food ideas.

Soups

You can start your meal off with a hearty soup with ingredients of the season. Pumpkin soup and butternut squash soup are two delicious ways to kick off any winter wedding meal. Italian wedding soup is not only a classic, but it’s hearty, also, and will leave your guests feeling satisfied.

Entrees

If you want something hearty, delicious and comforting, then pasta is a safe bet. Lasagna makes a great choice, and there are many creative pasta dishes your caterer may suggest as appropriate winter wedding choices.

Potpies: How about a luscious lobster pot pie or even a chicken pot pie to warm your guests to the bones? Because potpies tend to be heavy, you may want to reduce portion size, or you may find your guests snoozing in the coat room instead of busting a move on the dance floor.

A crepe station is an excellent idea as crepes are elegant and filling and can be prepared and made to order using a variety of ingredients.

Desserts and Drinks

With dessert, you can infuse the flavors of the season into your sweet treats. Pumpkin and spice-flavored cake are delicious and perfect for winter. Candy canes sprinkled over pudding or mousse is a popular winter wedding treat.

Hot chocolate and other warm drinks and eggnog are excellent beverage choices for your winter wedding menu. Spiced wine is a great choice for a festive alcoholic beverage.

For all your winter invitation needs, please visit Paper Direct online today.

Any wedding where there will be a meal served, whether at the rehearsal or at the reception, having meal options for the guests is a good thing. Some will prefer salads, some chicken, some beef and some may even have dietary restrictions that need to be compensated for. This means having menu card designs that not only match the overall theme of the wedding but offers those choices adds another level of sophistication to the entire wedding process.

While it is easy to get carried away with menu cards, keeping them relatively simple makes for a much more impactful approach. Instead of carrying through with graphics from the wedding theme, simply keeping the colors will be effective enough. This isn’t like the wedding program or invitation packs where you want the theme of the wedding to really come across, menu cards and place cards need to effectively present the menu information.

Keeping the fonts from the invitations is usually fine unless it is a very scripty font. If the font is difficult to read, there may be some guests that will not be able to read it properly. If this is the case them making the font larger or switching to a font that is easier to read, or even using the script font as the headers and a block font for the selections may be more reasonable.

Menu card designs that keep the overall wedding process intact are the key to having great menu cards. They’re not the biggest part of the process, nor are they the most important, but they are definitely a key part of weddings that have meals involved. You’ll appreciate a simple menu card design as its one less difficult decision that has to be made and your guests will appreciate them too. By the time the end of the wedding is reached, they don’t want to have to think very hard either. Enjoy all parts of the wedding and simple menu card design ensures you’ll enjoy that part too.

Far back in history, kings sealed envelopes with wax and an imprint of their ring to show that the envelope and the message inside were from royalty and shouldn’t be tampered with. Since the seal was wax, if it was tampered with, the recipient would immediately know it, and whoever did the tampering would feel the wrath of the king. While seals today are purely ornamental, using them takes your invitation takes it to the next level, especially when you’re using them as wedding envelope seals on your wedding invitation.

Historically, seals signified royalty and importance. Today, although the royalty factor isn’t there, one could argue that on a wedding day, the bride and groom are royalty for a day, so using a seal on wedding invitations can still have that historical relevance. While a simple seal doesn’t mean nearly as much as it did, it still adds a definite touch of class to the invitation.

The invitation is perhaps the most important part of the wedding as many times, it is the first notice someone gets that a couple is getting married. Having an RSVP card inside ensures the couple knows who is going to be in attendance. The bride and groom are anticipating the wedding being a very happy occasion, and by sending out invitations, they are expressing a desire to have the recipients in attendance, and sealing the envelope with a wedding envelope seal shows everyone just how important the couple feels about the occasion.

Weddings are perhaps the most important moments in the lives in the bride and groom, so being as formal as possible, covering every detail like wedding envelope seals is essential. During the planning process, every other detail like place cards, menus, wedding programs and the RSVP in the invitations is touched on, and wedding seals, for lack of a better way to put it, seals the deal. Check out all the great wedding seals available and see which ones will fit the theme of your wedding. You’ll be amazed at how nice they are and your guests will be impressed with the added level of class they add to your invitations.