Journal
A day-of sign list that matches the invitation
Day-of signs are the paper guests read while they are walking. They are also the easiest place to lose the suite. The invitation was chosen with care. The welcome sign was bought the week before, from a shop that had a photograph of eucalyptus. They will not look related, and they will be in the same photograph. Make the list before you buy the sign.
Welcome sign. One, at the entrance guests actually use. Names, or a short line, in the same type as the invitation. This is the wedding welcome sign template worth caring about. It is large. It will be behind you in at least one picture. It should be the suite, printed bigger, not a new design with a new script. Every Ivory & After suite includes it. It is also sold alone if that is the piece you are missing.
Seating chart, if you have assigned tables. Add it when the replies are in, not on the day you order invitations. It is not in the core kit. Plan the wall for it anyway if your room needs a map. A chart in a third typeface, taped up the morning of the wedding, is the one guests stand in front of. Give it the invitation’s ink.
Table numbers. Small, repeated, same ink as the place cards. If the place cards are quiet, the numbers should be quiet. Editable place cards from the suite already set the size of the type. The numbers should look like they came from that file, even if you add them later. They are a day-of extra, not a second brand.
Bar sign. What you are pouring, in the same voice as the menu. Skip it if the bar does not need a card. A sign that repeats the obvious is clutter. If you do print one, it should be able to sit next to the menu without a guest noticing two designers. The menu is in the core suite. The bar sign is not. That is a reason to match them, not a reason to invent a new look for the drinks.
A few other cards show up on the table and are easy to forget: the menu, the place cards, and sometimes a ceremony program. The menu and the place cards are in the core suite. The program is a day-of extra. Order it only if guests will want the order of service in their hands. Many ceremonies do not need one. A program nobody reads is paper you paid to match.
Place the signs in the order a guest meets them. Welcome, then seating if you have it, then a table number, then the menu and the place card, then the bar if the bar is a destination. If you design them in that order, you will notice when one of them is in a different color. You will also notice if you are about to buy a sign the suite already includes.
Paper size changes. The rules do not. A welcome sign wants a heavier sheet or a board the print shop mounts. Do not print it on invitation card stock and hope it stands. Menus and place cards want card stock. We do not print any of it. You choose the shop, and you export a PDF so the shop does not substitute a font.
If you want the welcome sign and the place cards from the same files, do not assemble them from two listings unless those listings were cut from one suite. The Late Light suite is the modern dinner version: porcelain, ink, and a welcome sign that belongs to the invitation. The sign is also sold alone, if the rest of your paper is already Late Light. Day-of paper is not a separate brand. It is the suite, standing up.