Signage for weddings and events

Signage is a big thing for weddings and events at the moment.

A quick search on Pinterest will generate hundreds, if not thousands, of results.

And they come in all shapes and sizes and are made from all sorts of materials.

I’ve had two requests for signage recently, which definitely took me out of my comfort zone.

I’m delighted with how they both turned out though and most importantly, so are the clients!

I got chatting to Barbara Compton, from Centrepiece in South Shields, after calling into her wonderful shop for a post-coffee browse with a couple of friends.

I’d met her previously, at a wedding fair, and was delighted to see her set up in Harton Village (conveniently situated next to a florist and a cake maker).

Centrepiece offers an event dressing and prop hire service, but from the shop they also sell seasonal goods from the likes of East of India.

She had a gorgeous mirror on display that was just begging to be turned into something more and we started to discuss what could be done with it.

I’ve written mirrored table plans before, but Barbara opted to go for some welcome signage along with an order of the day.

I set about designing a simple layout and then transferred it on to the mirror with Uniball Posca pens in gold and ivory.

Obviously you can’t rule pencil lines on a mirror, so I used lengths of thread stuck to the frame as guidelines. (I really need to invest in one of those line laser levels!)

I used a good old-fashioned spirit level and chalk to mark out the lettering on my second signage project – A-boards for a vintage ice-cream van.

Angela Crampsie, from Scoops n Smiles in County Durham, contacted me via the Inspire Network to see if I could add some words to the hand-made boards.

I was fortunate to be able to call upon Jesi Machete, from Cabin Calligraphy in Ontario, Canada, for some advice as we are #calligrafriends on Instagram.

Angela made sure the boards were prepped correctly, while I sketched out designs.

One of the boards was a general menu, incorporating the Scoops n Smiles logo, whose lettering I mimicked throughout, while the other was for wedding use.

Once I had Angela’s approval, I chalked them out on the boards and then applied the acrylic paint, rubbing out any remaining chalk once it had dried.

There was also quite a bit of masking tape involved in making sure the lines of the arrows and the block capital letters were straight!

I also raided the kids’ stencils for a circle for the dot details.

I absolutely loved the colours that Angela chose to complement her vehicles and branding – turquoise, pink and white.

Once everything was given the a-ok, I sprayed the boards with a clear varnish to help them withstand the elements.

I can’t wait to see how they look next to Mabel (the 1950s-style ice-cream van) and Huey (the Bedford trailer) when Angela hits the road with them later this month.