Summer is coming up quickly, which means wedding season is upon us. And the creation of weddings has become a booming industry, with thousands of artists and vendors dependent on those brides and grooms rolling in for clothing, food, décor, music – and design. What a better use of your design skills than to help someone create their vision for the arguably most important day of their lives?
Here are some of the 2015 wedding design trends that we’ve seen coming up this year in graphic design, from wedding websites to paper-based invitations and menus.
1. Architectural textures
via Bliss and Bone
Weddings definitely have the reputation of a sort of gauzy softness, flowers and shades of pink, and lace dresses. But more and more often couples are finding a way of elegantly adding a bit of edge to their wedding designs by incorporating unexpected architectural textures, like stone, wood or metals.
2. Watercolor
via Julie Song Ink
Another way to go is the complete opposite — the watercolor. Known for it’s tendency toward the pale and a natural variation in shades, using a watercolor on the paper products or the fabrics involved in a ceremony is a way to keep things looking fresh and feminine.
3. Quirky calligraphy
via Brooklyn Bride
Calligraphy is a staple of the wedding industry, there are people who can make their living simply by hand-writing invitations, envelopes, menus, etc. A lot of calligraphic fonts have come up as a less expensive option, and lately have been straying from the perfectly swirled classic style to a more edgy hand-written feel.
4. Greenery
If you’re going to have your wedding outside, then summer’s probably the time for it. But regardless of season and whether their location is in the city or country, brides and grooms have been bringing a forest vibe into their decor with the use of green color schemes, organic materials and leafed design motifs.
5. Gold embossing
Letterpress printing is another staple of the wedding world, sort of an indicator of high class with its high price per card. It shows through with polished fonts creating subtle texturing on the thick paper, what the genre’s famous for. But add a shiny gold foil accent to that texture, and you’ve got something that really shows sumptuousness and luxury.
6. Tropical
via Riley and Grey
Weddings are becoming more and more customizable in their connecting to what the bride and groom have a personal connection to. So destination weddings are no longer the only place you can show off, say, your flare for the tropical. These events have been incorporating the color scheme and imagery from white-sand beaches in their local variations.
7. Lasercut
Similar to the gold embossing, using laser-cut printing is another way to help make an invitation stand out. When a bride and groom are ready to try a modern take on a classic and an often expensive technique, designers are taking something that mimics the old-fashioned lace – which can be a little stuffy – and updating it with shape and color to be much more fun.
8. Ombre
Ombre isn’t just for hair, it’s for basically anything you can think of to do with color. From the fabric of the gowns and the table linens, to the flowers, to the website and the invitations, people are using the graduations of saturation and tone to infuse a color scheme with more life.
9. Chinoiserie
via Wed Luxe
Wedding traditions differ all around the world, and people have been bringing different ones together for years on years. But one of the trends lately is to bring in the traditions of a place you feel a connection to, not necessarily one that you come from. And chinoiserie has been borrowed by Western culture for years, from intricately detailed vases to those big flowery dresses you see in period pieces — now it’s making a bridal comeback.
