The holiday season is one of the MOST popular times of year to propose to your significant other, so we want to know, how many of you got engaged over the past few weeks??

We hear from our friends in the wedding industry that they are already booking consultation appointments like crazy, which means the 2012 wedding season is already off to a brilliant start. If you got engaged over the holidays, now is the time to start thinking about what you might want your wedding to be like – unless you are one of the people that has been planning your wedding since you were a kid, and already have the details all worked out. One of the first things on a wedding check-list is to pick a date. Once that’s done, its time to send out the save-the-dates – these are the beginnings of the wedding planning process and just getting the wheels started turning.

Check out some of the super cute customizable Save the Date invitations we have up on the site once you have your date picked out – and check back often, since we will have even more options soon!

If you’re one of the newly engaged this season, we wish you all the happiness in the world and an enjoyable time planning your wedding. Be sure to let us know how we can help – we do have experience with these things, after all.

Congrats!

If you love this color scheme as much as we do, check out some inspiration we found and get to planning your next event!

Top to Bottom, Left to Right: Hostess Blog, Project Wedding, Bump Smitten, xoxoBride

We recently developed a major crush on JP Creatibles, an incredible custom cookie studio located in Ashburn, Virginia, where each cookie is hand-decorated by owner and designer Jen Fisher. Every order than Jen creates is one-of-a-kind because each order is completely custom designed and made-to-order. We are so impressed with her work – the cookies we have seen are like tiny little works of art – so detailed and beautiful, we can hardly believe that they are edible!

We love the tiny ladybug cookies – how precious are they?! Jen’s cookie creations would be the perfect addition to any themed party that you may be planning for the future, or think about her cute monogrammed-style cookies for a wedding favor or treat.

Aren’t her creations amazing? We are constantly ooh-ing and ahh-ing over what she comes up with. Very impressive!

The Love Bird theme is huge in wedding trends right now, and there are plenty of fun ways to incorporate it into your event decor and design. Hang birdcages from the ceiling or tree branches, or put them on tables as centerpieces, and fill them with candles or flowers. You can string garlands of paper birds or origami birds around the venue, and top cakes with little birds in a variety of types and looks – the options are endless!

Check out our inspiration board below to get an idea of where to start and see the new custom Save-the-Date invitation we just added!

Top to Bottom, Left to Right: Invitation by Bottle Your Brand, Felt Cupcake Toppers, Teal Birdcages, Flower Topped Birdcage, Love Birds Signs, We Do Love Bird Toppers, Wedding Cake, Birdcage Centerpiece, Origami Bird Garland

After we saw this cute Vegas water bottle label from a customer come in a  few weeks ago, we got inspired. A trip to Vegas for your bachelor or bachelorette party would be amazing, but if you can’t get away, there is no reason you can’t have just as much fun in your hometown. Throwing a Vegas themed bachelor or bachelorette party is a brilliant idea – with plenty of cute ideas to make it totally original and fun. Check out some of the inspirations we found…

Top to Bottom, Left to Right: Welcome to Vegas sign, Playing Card Seating Cards – Martha Stewart, Vegas Cake – Arte di Amore, Playing Card Invitations – Etsy, Cookie Cutters – Amazon, Card Set – Kate Spade, Poker Chip Cookies – L&V Sweets, Dice Candy Pops – Candy Favorites, via Hostess Blog

The dice candy pops and the super-creative poker chip cookies are our favorites. Would you throw a Vegas Casino themed bachelorette party for your wedding?

What do you think? You can make the stripes any color combination you want to match your wedding day look and style. Check out some more chevron-inspired details for parties, weddings and more, below!

Dress up the tables at your wedding or party with napkins, place-mats and table runners that tie into your wine label or invitations.

Top to Bottom, Left to Right: Inspired Bride, Green Wedding Shoes, Squirrel and Starling, Kelly Oshiro Events, Design Sponge and Sitting in a Tree Events

You can even order a custom chevron-inspired cake – stylish and delicious!

Once Wed, Sweet and Saucy Shop and Vanilla Bake Shop

These fun details can help you complete the look of your wedding or party, if you do decide to go with the ever stylish and popular chevron theme!

Etsy, Leff Style, Sweet Lulu, Etsy, A Few of My Favorites, Horchow

Check out some of our favorite examples of custom beer labels for wedding celebrations, from all around the web…

Sources: Elizabeth Anne Designs, La Belle Bride, Head vs. Heart, Some Stuff I Like, Tumblr, Wylee Designs, Grapevine Paperie

Whimsical and stylish, no? It inspired us – and this gorgeous inspiration board:

Top to Bottom, Left to Right: WeddingArchives.Tumblr.com, TheKnot.com, TheKnot.com, ThePartyDress.net, AmyAtlas.com, Kaboodle.com

Have you planned a bridal shower recently with fun and girly labels? Share with us – we would love to see!

Choose your favorite shade of this electric pink color and get inspired with designs and ideas like these…

Sources: Top - Paper Source, Ribbon - Unknown, Plates and Napkins - Polka Dot Market, Cupcakes - Unknown, Vases - Ikea, Bouquet - Hostess Blog, Swizzle Sticks - Hostess Blog, Cookies - The Natos

The couple that Potter designed these custom labels for, were planning a sophisticated Chicago wedding. So, to bring to life all of their favorite places around the city, Alicia created wine labels with specific Chicago landmarks on them – one for each table at the wedding. She also designed mini wine bottle labels for each guest with their name and table information on them – a great souvenir they could take home with them.

We love the cute cartoon characters she created of her clients and the simple, graphic way she portrayed each of the landmarks.

There is great detail on these labels – Alicia even managed to get the Chicago skyline into the labels for the mini wine bottles that served as seating cards for the guests. Genius!

All images by Jennifer Eileen Photography.

We love the simplicity of this water bottle label that recently came through our offices. The colors are so complimentary and we are big fans of the text done all in lower case. Its such a simple label for bottled water for a wedding, but it completely captured our attention – and naturally, it got our minds going – thinking about what the wedding could look like – especially with such a rich color scheme. The gray is a perfect balance for the two shades of pink in the label – keeps your wedding from looking too girly.

If you love the combination of pink and gray as much as we do, check out our wedding inspiration board for ideas!

Top to Bottom, Left to Right: The Bakers Confections, Style Me Pretty, The Garter Girl, Southern Weddings, Flickr, Unknown, Hostess Blog

When we stumbled on this collection of wines from Swanson Vineyards, we instantly fell in love with their label design and packaging. This vineyard has been making wines for the past 25 years, and recently started producing special bottles just made for those extra special occasions in life – from bar mitzvahs and weddings to birth announcements and engagement parties. You could serve guests with these charming little bottles, or give a few as gifts.

We especially love the black label and simplicity of their design and font.

These labels are proof that it doesn’t always have to be fancy to catch your eye and make you want to get a bottle of your very own!

If you’re planning a destination wedding, this cute travel themed design would be perfect!

If you’ve got a favorite photo from your engagement session, you can make this label quick and easy for your Save the Date.

Schedule a cute vintage themed engagement photo session and then use the photograph with this simple and chic Save the Date.

There are so many cute photo Save the Date’s these days – we love this one that you can customize with your wedding colors.

On this dreary and gray day here in Seattle, we’re feeling the need for something bright, colorful, fun and reminiscent of the spring and summer months that are hopefully on their way soon! This wine label is one of our favorites for its color combination that feels light-hearted and cheerful. This would make a great wine label on bottles of wine at your tropical themed or destination wedding, don’t you think? Check out our inspiration board below, and start planning your cheery, tropical wedding – complete with this label – personalized to your own tastes, and accents like the ones below!

Top to Bottom, Left to Right: Divine Twine, Wedding Cake from Gator Bride, Macarons from blonde+blue, antique bottles from Etsy, teal and orange tablescape design from Object Splendor, Boutonniere from Wedding Chicks.

We’re printing them on heavy paper stock with photo quality resolution, and you can decorate your invitations with photos, fonts, colors and more details – with no extra charge. Check it out…

Head over to the site and check out the new additions now – and check back often, because we’ll be adding new designs by the bucketful in the next few weeks!

These Corkscrew Lamps would look so beautiful all lit up – hanging in a kitchen, dining room – or even on a porch or patio, outdoors. Made to hold tea candles, each bottle is hand cut and polished, a elegant combination of form and function!

How awesomely brilliant are these Lip to Lip Wine Sip Candlesticks? Here, artist Gavid Guilfoose has handcrafted candlesticks from two separate cut and polished wine bottles that he’s connected together at the lips. Wouldn’t these look great on your tabletop at your next dinner party?

These recycled wine bottle vases have to be our absolute favorite. The Pod Vase and the Cut Vase are hand finished from recycled wine bottles and look so natural and organic. They would also make great centerpieces for bouquets of flowers at a wedding!

These labels would be a great option for a gift, wedding shower or even a wedding itself!

Staci did these labels all by herself – talented lady! But, if you are less DIY experienced, like we are, you can always ask us here at Bottle Your Brand to create something similar for you!

Such a great idea – thanks for sharing Staci!

Image Courtesy of SimplyTwo Photography - http://www.blog.simplytwo.com

Adding “Love Nutrition Facts” to your water label is a cute and sweet way to give your label a little something “extra”.

We love the originality of this bright and colorful wine label. What a great shot!

This adorable couple chose two pictures and two labels for their wine.

Cheers and congrats to all of these couples on their impending nuptials!

xoxo

If you are trying to settle on wine to serve at your wedding, why not make a night out of it and have some fun? Host a wine tasting party, add some custom labels to the mix, and voila! A great pre-wedding day activity!

Invite some friends and family over for a wine tasting before the wedding, and provide them with the selection of wines that you are trying to choose from. Then, cover or replace the wine labels with custom ones, showing only a number to identify which wine is which, and have guests leave their comments and choices on each wine on the rest of the label. Hopefully their comments and votes will make choosing the wine for your wedding a little easier and a lot more fun.

One of our customers, Andee, recently ordered a home brewery kit for her husband as a Christmas gift, and bought these labels for his first batch of beer. Her husband loved the labels so much that he just ordered more labels today – for the packages of meat that he smokes. Those are labeled “Big Sexy BBQ”. Great ideas and labels you guys – can’t wait to see what else you come up with in the future!

While browsing one of our favorite wedding blogs, The Wedding Chicks, we found this little piece of eye-candy. The bride and groom from this real wedding had a wine made specially for their big day, with a customized label complete with the names of every one of the guests at their celebration. We love how the guest’s names make up the background of the label, and the personalized silhouettes of the bride and groom. Plus, its done in a great vintage style! This is a wonderful way to make your wedding one of a kind and also provide everyone with an incredibly special memento of the big day.

The second wedding wine idea today comes from the incomparable Martha Stewart. Make your wedding wine do double-duty as a part of the wedding decor. Have wine bottles labeled with stylish numbers to let guests know what their table number is. Place a few at each table as centerpieces and table markers, and let the guests serve themselves from your favorite blend.

Feeling inspired? We have plenty more where that came from…Happy Tuesday!

If you don’t know what your family crest is, let us design it for you with these new labels we just added to our repertoire. Insert your name here and start personalizing those wine and beer bottles!

Thanks for the great idea Steve! Cheers!

One of the great things about using personalized and custom labels is the ability to really get creative and come up with unique ideas not everyone would think of. This can be especially helpful when planning a wedding and making it all your own. We recently came across this brilliant idea for a wedding guest book, and we are truly smitten.

Instead of the traditional guest book, why not use wine bottles with custom labels? Simply choose four bottles of your favorite wine (one that will age well) and have custom labels created – one for your 1st, 5th, 10th and 20th anniversary. Personalize the labels with your names, wedding colors, and anniversary dates in the future, and then provide guests with a paint pen in silver or gold, and have them sign the bottles! You can even add graphics or a picture of the two of you.

It’s a sweet way to keep track of everyone who attended your big day and reminisce years down the road, when you uncork the special, personalized bottles on each milestone anniversary.

There are times, however, when it really doesn’t make sense to do things yourself.  Certain tasks can turn Do It Yourself projects into Definitely Irritate Yourself projects.

For example, if you don’t know how to sew it’s probably a disastrous idea to try to sew your own wedding dress.  Likewise, if you’re a kitchen disaster waiting to happen, baking an elaborate cake is probably a recipe for failure.

DIY water bottle labels is another one of those projects that you can find endless tutorials and customizable templates for online.  Tips for doing so range from buying waterproof paper to print on to printing the labels on your home printer and then adhering them to the bottles using packing tape.

What they fail to mention, however, is the sacrifice of quality you get when you try to print your own water bottle labels.  There’s just no way that anyone’s home printer can compare to the printing capabilities of a commercial grade digital printer.

Additionally, printing your own labels and then adhering them with packing tape is a huge pain.  Packing tape sticks to everything (including itself!) and getting it on straight so that it looks nice up-close is a very ambitious goal indeed.

DIY is lovely, when you can truly express yourself and take joy in creating something one-of-a-kind.  Save yourself the heartbreak and hassle of printing your own labels, though, and let us handle that for you.  You can still design a completely custom label, and stick the labels on yourself.

We’ll just take care of the printing, so you get all the creativity and none of the hassle!

Wedding Wine Label - Pop of Color

Using multiple designs in your wedding reception decor is a great idea!  Not only does it eliminate the need to pick just one awesome design, it gives your guests a variety of labels to look at.

The picture above features the custom wine labels of a couple whose brother and sister-in-law went with two different designs for the wine they’d made for their wedding.  The designs were in complimentary colors (black and white), but each label celebrates something different.  The bold monogram of one (the design is called “Script Monogram“, if you’re curious) proclaims the couple’s new last initial, and the photo on the other (“Scroll Frame“) shows off one of their cute engagement pictures.

To make this look work for you, find as many designs that you like and then share different information on each.  Here are some ideas for bits of info to share on custom wedding labels:

• Your engagement story.  This makes a great label for the back of the wine bottle, and will give guests something fun to read while they’re at the table.
• Trivia about the couple.  Put a different fact on each label design, and choose five or six different designs.  Guests will have fun tracking down all the different facts.
• Engagement pictures.  If you have more than one favorite engagement picture, share them on your custom labels.

No one ever said you couldn’t pick more than one design.  Spice things up with multiple designs!  Your decor will be varied and fun to look at as a result, and you’ll have a blast designing all the different designs!

You can use custom wedding labels throughout your wedding.  A candy buffet is a fun, colorful way to thank your guests for coming to your wedding.  Why not supply them with custom wedding stickers to seal up their bags of candy?

Wedding invitations are beautiful on the inside, but you can make them beautiful on the outside as well by using custom labels to seal the envelopes.  Imagine how impressed your guests will be when they see the same monogram on their invitations all over your wedding!

Small takeout boxes are ideal for wedding favors.  You can fill them with anything you like!  By applying a custom wedding label to the outside of the favor boxes, you have an easy and custom way to add your stylish touch to your favors.  You can even write a brief thank you message on the labels so your guests know how much you appreciate them!

We have so many custom wedding label designs, including “Scalloped Square“, shown above.  Feel free to browse all our custom label design categories until you find the design that’s right for your wedding, or design one yourself!

“Amelia” is a custom wine label that can be used for weddings, bridal or baby showers, birthday parties, or gifts.  Combining modern colors with vintage styling, this wine label design is a tour de force of chic style!

You can use the large central area to add a monogram to this wine label, or you can put something like a photo or date there.  The aqua blue border provides ample room for event details, but the color is bold enough that it stands well on its own.

As always, our wine labels are completely waterproof and print picture-perfect with bright, vibrant colors.  If you’re planning a stylish, modern event with a hint of vintage charm, “Amelia” just might be the label design for you!

This design was originally designed for a water bottle label, but can easily be changed to fit onto custom stickers, wine labels, or bumper stickers.  If you’re completely wild about the design, you could order it as a suite of products so that you have a theme tying the different aspects of your wedding together.

If your wedding vision is trés chic, this label design may just give you the inspiration you need to infuse French glamour into all aspects of your fête!

Sound nice?  Then a beach wedding might be right for you!

Beach weddings can run the gamut from formal to casual.  If you’re thinking of juxtaposing the casual, laid-back setting of the beach with formal table settings, you’ll definitely want to consider using custom wine labels to add to your décor.  We have a few beach-themed designs to choose from, like “Lucky Sand Dollar” (shown above).

If you like “Lucky Sand Dollar”, you’ll probably also enjoy “Shells” as well.  Both label designs feature a clean blue background and a lovely collection of shells.  We also have a design called “Tropical“, that showcases the bold, rich tones of the sunset.  All our designs are, of course, completely customizable.  You can add your name, the date of your wedding, the location, anything you like!

Of course, if you want a truly custom label, you can always create your own!  Upload your engagement photos to your label, or even just snap a picture of the beach you’re saying your vows on.  You can have a lot of fun creating custom labels for beach weddings!

Once you have your custom wine labels, it’s easy to apply them to the bottles of wine you’ll be serving at your wedding.  Place the bottles on the tables, arrange some shells across the tablecloth, add some candles, and voila!  A tasteful, beach-themed tablescape that will look fabulous in photos!

Every once in awhile a new design comes around that captures our imagination.  Swirl Frenzy, designed by Lacy Labels, is just such a design.  Swirl Frenzy is classy, dramatic, and full of possibilities.

Imagine this gorgeous water bottle label design adorning bottled water at a glamorous fundraising gala.  The swirls keep the design from getting stuffy, and the generous black area on this label provides ample room for event details.  Using this label design would be an easy way to make bottled water sophisticated enough to look appropriate at a black tie event.

This design would also look right at home at a classy 50th birthday party.  The black and gold color scheme are rich and easy to coordinate with, and there’s plenty of room in the black portion to include a picture of the birthday girl if desired.

Of course, this design would also look beautiful at a wedding reception.  If swirls are a part of your wedding’s design scheme, this design would fit right into your reception decor.  Provide your guests with beautiful custom label bottled water, and enjoy admiring how lovely these bottles look on your reception tables!

That’s the beauty of custom labels.  One design can spark your imagination!

Here in the Pacific Northwest, we know spring is on the way by the gorgeous daffodils that pop up all over the place!  With spring so close, summer’s soon to follow, and that means wedding season!

Summer weddings are such fun.  Good weather, great outdoor venues, fantastic lighting for photos!  Planning an outdoor wedding can present additional logistical challenges, but they’re nothing you can’t solve with a little creativity.

Take, for example, keeping your guests hydrated and cool during your outdoor festivities.  The last thing you want is for the one thing everyone remembers from your wedding to be your aunt fainting at the reception!

Have you thought about serving beer at your wedding?  It’s an easy refreshment to offer, as it’s already in serving containers (no need for extra glassware), and doesn’t have enough alcohol content that you have to worry about certain family members imbibing too much (every family has them!).

If you’re worried about the somewhat down-market image of beer, try classing the bottles up with custom beer labels.  You can coordinate the colors, text, and images on the beer labels with the rest of your decorative touches, ensuring that you won’t have to worry about beer labels clashing with your table settings.

We have several wedding beer label designs to choose from, or you can design your own.  Our Design Online tool makes it easy to upload your images and text to your beer labels.  Have fun designing your custom beer labels, then enjoy watching guests relaxing and enjoying themselves at your wedding!

Personalized wedding stickers are so much fun.  Not only can you use them in a variety of places at your wedding, you can have a ton of fun designing them!

You can match the colors on these labels to your wedding colors, upload your custom monogram so that your customized wedding stickers match your wedding stationery, or go in a completely different direction and introduce a bold new design into your wedding suite.  With our Design Online tool, you have complete freedom to make your wedding stickers look exactly how you imagined them.

Obviously the sky’s the limit when it comes to how you use these custom labels at your wedding, but here are some ideas we’ve seen other brides and grooms use beautifully:

• Upload your monogram, and then use our custom stickers to seal the invitations for your wedding.  Give your guests a great first impression by making the outside of the envelopes beautiful too!
• Use personalized wedding stickers as bridal shower favor bag seals.  Send your guests home from your wedding shower with a little cellophane bag filled with the bride’s favorite treats, and then seal the bag with a custom sticker that thanks your guests for coming.
• If you’re constructing wedding programs with overlapping pieces of paper, use custom wedding stickers to adhere your programs together.  Custom and practical!
• Candy buffets are extremely popular, so why not put your own personal spin on the concept by providing guests with custom stickers to seal their sweet treats with?  Provide cellophane bags, have your guests fill them up with a selection of you and your beloved’s favorite candies, and then display your custom stickers at the end of the line for guests to use to seal their bags.
• Children love stickers, so put together little kid care packages for the wee ones at your reception.  Provide bags of activities, small toys, crayons, coloring books, and custom wedding stickers at each child’s place setting and then just wait for their parents to thank you!

We’d love to hear from you: How can you imagine using custom wedding stickers in your wedding?

Bride Pop recently published their analysis of the true cost of the average wedding, and the breakdown is extremely illuminating.  Click on the image at the top of this post to enlarge it, or visit the chart over at Bride Pop’s website.

As you can see, the average cost of a wedding ends up with a total akin to something you’d expect to pay for a college degree.  With all the financial frugality we’ve all had to adopt recently, this number can seem daunting and make it feel like you’ll never be able to afford the wedding of your dreams.

Fear not!  This is only a breakdown of the average cost, which means there’s lots of opportunity to cut costs down here and there.  Notice the bottom right part of the pie chart, where it breaks down the cost for favors and gifts.  This is a great place to save some money.

You could use custom water bottle labels to jazz up bottles of water, and then tie ribbons around the necks of the bottles with little tags thanking your guests for coming to your wedding.  Place these on tables near the exits and encourage guests to take them to make the ride home pleasant.  This is an inexpensive and stylish way to cut costs on your favors, and you know your guests will put them to good use!

If you look at the costs for the reception, you’ll notice that you can probably cut down the cost for beverages and bartender by putting open bottles of wine on the reception tables.  Top the bottles off with custom wine labels and you’ve got pretty table decor and beverages all rolled up in one pretty custom package!

If you’d like some more ideas for saving money on your nuptials without sacrificing style, we highly recommend that you start with this article on planning a budget wedding, and then check out The Broke Ass Bride.  The happiest day of your life doesn’t necessarily have to be the most expensive!

Winter is a fabulous time to get married.  Even if you’re tying the knot smack dab in the middle of California (where the winters are really more like suggestions than reality) it’s still a fantastic season to plan your nuptials for.

You can have so much fun with rich fabrics and colors with a winter wedding.  The season naturally lends itself to rich hues and sumptuous accents.  Icicles and snowflakes are a lot of fun to use in decorating, or you can go the opposite way and make good use of cinnamon sticks and candles.

Either way, when you’re planning your wedding don’t forget to put some thought into your wedding favors!  Winter wedding favors are a lot of fun to give away, because you can go in so many different directions.

We’ve seen brides give away bottles of homemade apple cider, with custom wine labels and sticks of cinnamon tied to them.  We’ve also enjoyed weddings where the couple gave away personalized bottles of wine to each couple at their wedding (If you decide to do this, it’s a lot of fun to put a wish on the label that your guests go home and toast the bride and groom).

You could make up packets of mulling spices and hand them out in little packets with custom labels on them, or you could give your guests mini boxes of chocolates with personalized labels thanking them for making your wedding day so special.

The options are limitless.  If you’re planning a winter wedding, congratulations!  If we can help add a custom touch to your wedding please let us know and we’ll be happy to help any way we can.

What they did was to write short bits of trivia about them as a couple on each label design, and I’d be willing to bet guests had a great time looking for all the facts at the reception!  The thing I love about this idea is that it’s so personalized and fun.  What better way to help everyone who comes to your wedding feel included than by giving them little tidbits about your life as a couple?

They ultimately did six designs in all, check out our favorites below! (Click on the image to make it larger)

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Ways you can use this idea in your own wedding:

• Order the same label design but include a different tidbit on each sheet of labels.  Share bits of trivia about how you met, hobbies and interests, how you got engaged, honeymoon plans, etc.
• Use trivia answers to build a wedding crossword guests can fill out before the ceremony starts or during the reception.
• Place one bottle at each place setting at your reception, and give each place setting a bottle with a different trivia fact on it.  What a fun way to get a conversation going at each table!

If you have any questions about designing labels like this for your own event, just let us know.  We’re happy to listen to what you have in mind and help you bring it to life!  Thanks so much to Brett and Abby for letting us feature their labels!

[singlepic id=153 w=240 h=240 float=center]

We’re tickled to participate in the contest and we’re offering one of her lucky readers 15 sheets of free custom labels.  That means any label design you want, 15 sheets, customized and delivered to your door.  Easy peasy.

The contest has not officially started yet, this is more of a heads-up for thing to come.  The contest kicks off September 28, so keep checking in with The Broke Ass Bride to find out what you need to do to win custom labels from Bottle Your Brand!

A wonderful way to go the extra mile in making your guests comfortable is the out of town bag or basket (a.k.a. The OOT Bag).  These bags, or baskets, are placed in each out of town guest’s room and supplies them with a few personal touches they may need or want throughout your wedding festivities.  Here are some suggestions to help get you started on creating OOT Bag for your own guests:

• Pain relievers.  Advil, aspirin, ibuprofen, any of these will be welcomed by any guest that suffers a headache or muscle sprain.  You can buy single serving packets of these from Target or any drug store and you can bet your guests will appreciate them!
• Shout Wipes.  There’s nothing like an untimely stain to ruin the perfect wedding outfit!  If you throw some single serving Shout Wipes into your OOT Bags, you could potentially save someone’s favorite outfit!
• Snacks. You can really get creative with this one.  Choose snacks that are special to your area or particular favorites of the bride and groom.  Guests will love this custom touch and yummy food!
• Welcome letter/schedule.  Take some time to personally thank your guests for taking such a long trip to come see you.  This is a wonderful way to start the festivities out in a custom, grateful way.  Include a schedule of festivities, along with a map, to insure your guests know where to be and when.
• Personalized bottled water.  Coordinate the label with your wedding colors and theme.  Not only will this help set the tone of your celebration for your guests, it’ll also provide the added benefit of giving them something to drink that isn’t ridiculously expensive hotel bottled water!

You can buy inexpensive baskets from Michael’s and customize them with a ribbon or fabric that matches your wedding decorations, or buy color-coordinated totes from any wedding favor retailer.  With a few minutes of effort, you’ll make a huge impression on your out of town guests and make them feel truly welcomed.

Will you or have you used OOT Bags?  How did you add your own personal flair?

If you can, we highly recommend hiring a professional calligrapher to help set the right tone for your celebration.  A professional calligrapher can do a variety of things that will help unify and coordinate the many aspects of your wedding.  He or she can write your invitations, design a custom monogram, craft a wedding logo, and even beautify your wedding menu.  There’s literally no limit to the services a calligrapher can provide.

When selecting a calligrapher, it’s important to do your homework.  Look at his or her portfolio, verify that he or she has done work for weddings before, and try to find out how respected the calligrapher is.  Do other vendors speak highly of that person?  Have other brides shared positive or negative experiences?  Investigating prospective calligraphers beforehand will save you a ton of frustration later.

In our opinion, one of the most talented and respected professional calligraphers is Laura Hooper.  She has done work for more weddings than we can list, and has such a talent for creating beautiful things.   She is well-respected in the wedding industry and has the portfolio to prove it.  She’s also a genuinely nice person, so working with her is a pleasure.  If you’re interested in doing calligraphy for your wedding, her website is a treasure-trove of information and inspiration and it would be well worth your while to spend some time there.

We recently turned some of Laura’s gorgeous work into custom labels and the results are lovely:

[singlepic id=110 w=240 h=240 float=center]This custom save the date map is one of Laura’s specialties.  She draws a map of the city your wedding will be in, and highlights points of interest with adorable illustrations.  These are as custom as it gets, and they look great on custom beer labels.  The shape is perfect, and even though we call them beer labels they would look perfect on wine or soda bottles as well.  These save the date beer labels would be adorable additions to bridal showers or engagement parties!

[singlepic id=111 w=240 h=160 float=center]We love custom monograms.  You can insert them throughout your wedding to tie everything together.  We’ve seen monograms set into ballroom floors, carved into ice sculptures, printed on favor tags, on menus, wedding programs, and wedding cakes.  Laura has an incredible ability to turn letters into art, so if you commission your monogram from her, you can count on it looking stunning.  Monograms are a natural for water labels, and are a classy and unobtrusive way to include your monogram at the reception.

[singlepic id=112 w=160 h=240 float=center]Wedding logos might sound unfamiliar but are actually a really neat way to tie all the elements of your wedding together with a single design.  Much like with a monogram, you can include your wedding logo throughout your wedding.  This logo looks incredible on a wine label.

It’s not difficult to imagine how custom calligraphy and labels can add a lot of style to your wedding.  We’re happy to work with artwork from other vendors, and will happily turn your custom calligraphy into labels.  Planning a wedding is stressful enough.  This is why we work hard to ensure that ordering labels is as easy as possible.  If you have any questions about using custom calligraphy on your labels just let us know and we’ll be happy to help!

We put this fun favor together using easy-to-find materials and it was recently featured on the Style Me Pretty Blog!  Here’s how to make it:

The materials:

• 1 small glass jar with cork (purchased from Michael’s for $.99)
• 1 3 litre container of extra virgin olive oil (purchased from Cost Plus World Market for $24.99)
• 1 2.25 oz packet of Italian Seasoning (purchased from Cost Plus World Market for $1.99)
• 80 foot spool of raffia (purchased from Cost Plus World Market for $1.99)
• 30 custom labels (1 sheet of large water bottle labels purchased from Bottle Your Brand for $9.99)

The instructions:

1. We adapted a wine label design from Bottle Your Brand to fit onto a large water bottle label.  We were able to fit three small labels (measuring 2.125” W by 2.062” H) onto one large water bottle label (measuring 2.125” H by 8.062” W) by turning the design sideways and stacking them.  After the labels were printed, we used a paper-cutter to trim the large water bottle label down to the three small labels.  We were able to get three small labels out of one large water bottle label.
2. Put 1 ¼ tsp of Italian Seasoning into the empty bottle.  Using a small funnel, fill the rest of the bottle with extra virgin olive oil.  The small bottle we bought from Michael’s used about three ounces of olive oil to fill.  Insert the cork.
3. Peel the protective backing off the small custom label, and apply to the bottle.  If the bottle gets olive oil on it, we found that using Windex is a great way to clean the bottle off so that the label will stay on!  We picked a three-sided bottle so that the label would have a nice flat surface to sit on.
4. Measure out 12 inches of raffia and loop twice around the neck of the bottle.  Tie a simple double knot, then trim the edges so that they are even at a length you think looks nice.

If you were to make 50 favors (one per couple) you would end up spending less than $2.30/favor for a completely custom, adorable DIY favor!

If you have any questions about adapting any of our designs to fit other sizes please don’t hesitate to contact us.  We’ve seen customers do some amazingly creative things with our designs and label sizes and we’re always happy to help!

It doesn’t matter whether you’re planning to serve your fiance’s favorite lager or someone is planning on homebrewing a special batch of ale just for your wedding, beer and weddings can and do go beautifully together.  With this hot new trend in mind, we’ve designed a whole host of new designs that will make sure your signature panache is displayed throughout your wedding.

Here’s a sneak peek at our newest wedding beer label designs!

[singlepic id=32 w=240 h=160 float=center]“Nuptial Ale” is a bright, vibrant design that will make a big impact at your reception.  The understated swirls lend the label subtle class while the off-center lettering makes sure the design doesn’t get too stuffy.

[singlepic id=33 w=240 h=160 float=center]“Modern Vines” is a modern take on a classic beer label design.  Clean lines and contemporary colors are a perfect contrast for the whimsical vines that frame this design.  The background colors for this design can be changed.

[singlepic id=35 w=240 h=160 float=center]“Deconstructed Roses” is a beautiful design, with graceful roses silhouetted against an abstract background.  This design is edgy with a touch of sentimentality.  The background colors for this design can be changed.

[singlepic id=36 w=240 h=160 float=center]“Til Death” is an off-beat design with a literal take on the traditional wedding vows.  We accessorized this template with two lines from the popular Dead Milkmen song “Punk Rock Girl” but you’re welcome to change those lines to whatever means most to you.  The background colors for this design can be changed.

[singlepic id=34 w=240 h=160 float=center]“Matrimony Brew” is the perfect addition to any wedding with a skull theme.  These skulls are adorable, and will look perfect at your reception.  The background colors for this design can be changed.

[singlepic id=28 w=240 h=160 float=center]“Ace of Hearts” leans heavily on a tattoo aesthetic.  If you or your betrothed proudly sports some ink, this label design might be a fun nod to that love.  The background colors for this design can be changed.

[singlepic id=37 w=240 h=160 float=center]“Shot Through the Heart” is a non-traditional approach to a wedding design.  If your wedding design is off the beaten path, this label design might just catch your eye.  The background colors for this design can be changed.

[singlepic id=27 w=240 h=160 float=center]Our “Script Monogram” personalized wine label is a study in dramatic contrasts.  The perfect way to show off you and your beloved’s new shared last name, this label will look particularly nice at a black tie, formal reception.  The colors on this design can be changed to suit your color scheme.

[singlepic id=22 w=240 h=160 float=center]The new “Preppy Polka Dots” label is guaranteed to make every last girl at your wedding swoon with envy.  Soft white polka dots in a sea of soft green are the perfect compliment to the soft pink that lies at the heart of this label.  This label design is ideal for a spring or summer fete, and will add brightness and warmth to your reception tables.

[singlepic id=23 w=240 h=160 float=center]Dramatic and replete with old Hollywood glamour, our “Magnolia” label mixes the luxurious tones of cocoa and cream and the result is exquisite.  Southern belles will appreciate the gorgeous magnolia flower that graces the corner of the label, and anyone channeling a vintage feel for their wedding will note the deep tones and understated elegance.   This design is ideal for anyone planning a vintage or southern wedding.   The colors on this design can be changed to suit your color scheme.

[singlepic id=16 w=240 h=160 float=center]The bride who’s drawn to dramatic color combinations and vibrant class will enjoy our “Dreamy Damask” wedding water label design.   A rich damask pattern carpets the background of this label, which makes the rich red of the names in the center stand out.  This design was created with a variety of wedding styles in mind.  A versatile design, it’s perfect for an afternoon brunch reception or an evening black tie soiree.  The colors on this design can be changed to suit your color scheme.

[singlepic id=17 w=240 h=160 float=center]The clean lines and tasteful monogram on our “Classic Monogram” label design are perfect for the classy bride who wants to show off her new monogram.  This label is highly versatile and would look perfect at any reception.  The colors on this design can be changed to suit your color scheme.

Our graphic designers are passionate about staying on top of wedding trends and we’re continually debuting new designs.   If you have a specific design in mind that we haven’t done yet, send us your ideas and we’d be happy to add your design to our collection!

We’re also happy to work with you to design a completely custom label.  If you have a custom-designed monogram, or have a design theme you’re working with, our graphic designers will work with you to ensure your labels match the rest of your details perfectly.

Now that the New Year is upon us, and with it the spring and summer wedding seasons, brides everywhere are trying to figure out how to stay afloat financially without sacrificing their style or vision.

Here are the top five tips for getting the most bang for your buck when planning a wedding:

1. Get your friends and family involved in the planning process. Chances are excellent that if you need something for your wedding, someone you know can either do it or knows someone who can do it.  This is a great opportunity to help your friends and family feel involved by having them print the invitations or programs, help you make decorations, or bake and cook food for the reception.  Many brides say their favorite memory is of working with loved ones to create things for the wedding!
2. Go local and seasonal for your flowers and food. Local flowers grown in-season are much less expensive and have the added benefit of being eco-friendly.  Same thing with locally grown fruit and vegetables.   If you’re choosing a caterer, make sure the caterer will design the menu around the foods that are available at that time of year.  Imported flowers, fruits, and vegetables are much more expensive.
3. Hit two birds with one stone. If something in your wedding can serve two purposes for the cost of one, take advantage!  Personalized water bottles are one of our favorite ways to save money at weddings.  Customized water bottles serve two purposes (refreshment and wedding favors) for the cost of one!  Our “Spring Lily” design, shown above, is brand new and perfect for a spring wedding favor or summer wedding favor.  Another great idea is to choose a single venue for your ceremony and reception.  This will cut down on decoration, transportation, and rental fees.  Even though it seems more expensive up-front, it’s often more cost-effective to use a hotel ballroom because they supply many of the things you would have to rent anyway (like chairs, tables, table cloths) and often have decorations you can use for free.
4. Schedule your wedding and reception to occur between meal times. This way, your guests won’t come expecting to be fed a huge meal.  Many weddings are scheduled to wrap up around 5 or 6 at night, leaving guests plenty of time to go seek nourishment elsewhere.
5. Appoint a trusted, and obsessively organized, friend or family member to serve as your wedding coordinator. Provide him or her with vendor phone numbers, wedding ceremony details, family flight and accommodation information, and other useful details and let him or her make all the day-of details smooth for you.  This will save you the cost of hiring a wedding coordinator without forcing you to the sacrifice the benefits.

Regardless of whether you serve hamburgers or steak at your reception, the most important thing to remember is that at the end of the day, you will be married to the person you love.  Everything else is gravy.

Sure, you can try to jazz those up a bit by engraving them with your groomsmen’s initials, but essentially these always boil down to the same gift.  In fact, chances are good that if your friends have been in more than one wedding they’ve already been given one or more of these gifts.

For your wedding, why not break the mold and go for a personalized gift they’ll actually enjoy and, better yet, that you can enjoy with them?  Personalized beer is a refreshing take on the ages-old custom of giving a groomsman gift.

All you have to do is buy a few cases of your favorite beer, customize the bottles with personalized beer labels, and you’re all set.  The best part is that you can even enjoy the beer with your groomsmen before the ceremony (this actually makes for a great photo opportunity!).

Personalized beer is an economical way to thank your groomsmen for being an important part of your wedding day, so if you’re stuck and looking for groomsman gift ideas this is a great option to explore.  Our labels are high-quality, waterproof, and come with a large variety of designs that will suit your taste.

If you and your friends are known for your hijinks, you might enjoy some of our funny beer labels.  If your wedding is black tie and classy, however, perhaps one of our classic beer labels might be more to your liking.  Either way, personalized beer is a unique way to spend some quality time with your friends and family before the festivities begin.

Our turnaround and production time is very fast (our production time for personalized beer labels is three days, and we offer the full range of FedEx shipping options), so even if you’ve procrastinated this task to the last minute you probably still have time to make this work.

As always, if you have any questions or would like to see samples of our labels, all you have to do is let us know!

[singlepic id=26 w=240 h=160 float=center]Custom bottled water is one of the most versatile products in the world.  You can use personalized bottled water for weddings, birthday parties, baby showers, promotions, marketing, and fundraisers.  Customized water bottles are portable, practical, and a great way to add a personal touch to any event.

One of the biggest challenges that comes with using custom label bottled water is its weight: water is very heavy!  Heavy things cost more to ship, so this can raise challenges for anyone planning an event at a specific location at a set time.

Many people are intimidated by the prospect of paying to ship water to their home or office, and then paying to have them re-located to their venue at the right time.  This trepidation makes sense, because moving water can be a pain, especially if you already have other things to take care of that day.

An easy to way to work around this issue is to have us ship directly to your venue.  We use the most reliable shipping services in the world, FedEx and UPS, who guarantee that your shipments will arrive on time.  If you have an event at a hotel, or a convention center, we’re happy to ship your custom label bottled water directly to the venue.

We can even ship your water internationally.   If you’re planning a destination wedding or foreign conference, we’re happy to ship your purified spring water directly to your hotel or resort.

Just let us know when you place your order that it needs to be delivered on a specific date and we’ll work with FedEx and UPS to make sure it arrives on time!  It’s always important to check with your venue to find out how far in advance of an event they’ll hold your shipments, though, in order to avoid any last-minute problems.

Planning any kind of event can be stressful and full of last-minute challenges, let us help take shipping worries off your mind.  Our shipping team is extremely thorough and knowledgeable about shipping, so if you ever have any questions about shipping charges or options we’re happy to help.

If you and your betrothed do decide to get married in an exotic place, make sure you plan ahead for your wedding favors. Destination weddings can make planning ahead for favors a bit tricky, especially now that airlines are charging for extra luggage, but a little forethought will save you headaches later on.

One of the easiest, and most memorable, destination wedding favors is personalized beverage labels. Our labels are small, light, and easy to pack into a suitcase. You can order wine, beer, or water labels ahead of time, take them with you, and then purchase local beverages to serve to your guests with your personalized labels on them.

These labels are a beautiful memento of your special day and will remind you of the unique location of your wedding for years to come. We offer a wide range of templates to choose from, many of which are tropical-themed, and you can change all the wording on these labels to commemorate your names, wedding date, and wedding location.

If you have time before your wedding, please feel free to request a sample of the template you’re interested in. We are happy to supply samples of our products so that you can see for yourself our completely self-adhesive, high-quality labels and photo-quality digital printing.

As always, if you have any questions please contact us and we’ll be happy to answer your questions.

An important part of any wedding, regardless of season, is wedding favors. Winter wedding favors are a personal favorite of ours because there are so many unique options available during this time of year. Whether you give your guests candy canes or peppermint hot chocolate kits, your guests are sure to appreciate how thoughtfully you blended the season with your wedding celebration.

A great way to thank your guests for celebrating with you and your brand-new spouse is to provide bottles of wine, cider, or champagne with personalized wine labels that include details of your special day. We have a wide selection of beautiful wedding wine labels, many of which are perfect for winter weddings.

Personalized wedding wine labels have the amazing ability to turn simple beverages into beautiful decorations and can even serve as winter wedding centerpieces. Simply arrange three bottles of different beverages (e.g. red wine, non-alcoholic cider, champagne) in the middle of the table with some color-coordinated ribbon to tie them all together and voila! A beautiful wedding centerpiece!

If you have custom label ideas, we are happy to help you design a completely custom label. For a $50 fee, we will design your label from scratch and keep working with you to make sure it’s exactly how you’ve always imagined it. If you would like to see a sample of our products, feel free to submit a request using our website and we’ll have a sample label to you within a week.

For your enjoyment, here are some fun trivia facts that we’ve collected over the years:

• One of the earliest examples we have of an engagement ring was given to Princess Mary, daughter of Henry VIII. She was two years old at the time.
• Ancient Spartan soldiers are credited with starting the tradition of throwing “stag parties” (AKA bachelor parties) in order to send their friends off into matrimony with rowdy parties.
• Around 70% of brides wear a traditional diamond ring on the fourth finger of their left hands.
• A sapphire wedding ring is said to mean marital happiness in the symbolic language of jewels. A pearl is said to be bad luck because its shape looks like a tear.
• 80% of brides plan formal weddings.
• The average number of bridesmaids in a wedding party is four.
• The number of guests at the average American wedding is 189.
• The most popular month to get married is August (10.2% of weddings) with June coming in close behind (9.9% of weddings.)
• The “something blue” portion of the wedding ensemble is said to symbolize purity, fidelity, and love.
• In Christian ceremonies, the bride stands to the left of the groom because, during the time in which the tradition started, the groom needed to keep his right arm free in order to fend off other suitors.

Do you know of other wedding traditions? Feel free to share in the comments section!

1. Turn your water bottle labels into adorable personalized wedding favors by sending each guest home with a bottle that thanks them for coming to your wedding.

2. Use a few bottles in guest baskets to help out-of-town guests feel welcome and right at home.

3. Arrange some water bottles artfully in a tub of ice to keep the wedding party refreshed during pictures.

4. Make sure the bride and groom’s dressing rooms are stocked with snacks and bottles of water.

5. Bring water bottles to the bachelor and bachelorette parties to make sure everyone stays hydrated while they’re partying.

6. Provide the bottles of water to the kids at your wedding, so they’ll have something special to drink as well. Our 8 oz. size is perfect for little hands, and their parents will appreciate the caps on the bottles for preventing spills!

7. Provide a bottle of water next to each place setting at your wedding rehearsal or reception dinner and keep extras on hand next to the dance floor to keep the dancers going strong.

8. Offer personalized water bottles at the bridal shower.

9. Use personalized water labels to create custom centerpieces. Apply labels to flower vases and give your floral centerpieces a custom flair.

10. Stock the getaway car with bottled water so that the bride and groom can get refreshed on their way to happily ever after.

If you’ve used any of these ideas or have any others, feel free to share in the comments section!

We’ve consulted countless books and websites to find the most romantic, sentimental, and classy wedding verses. Some of these are already incorporated in our large selection of wedding wine labels and wedding water labels. Here are some other wedding verses that you can use in your personalized wedding favors:

• “Then happy I that love and am beloved, where I may not remove nor be removed.” -William Shakespeare
• “Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be.” -Robert Browning
• “Two souls with but a single thought, two hearts that beat as one.” -Friedrich Halm
• “There is no more lovely, friendly or charming relationship, communion or company than a good marriage.” -Martin Luther
• “There is only one happiness in life, to love and be loved.” -George Sand
• “Came but for friendship, and took away love.” -Thomas Moore
• “A happy marriage is a long conversation which always seems too short.” -Andre Maurois
• May you never thirst for love!
• Two hearts, two lives, one love
• Our happily ever after begins today
• Two friends, two hearts. Joined together in friendship, united forever in love.
• We thank you, each and every one, for joining us this day. You’ve added to our happiness in a very special way.
• On our wedding day, as we tie the knot, thanks for being here to celebrate, it really means a lot.

We’re always looking for new wedding verses to build labels around so if you’ve used one that you loved or can think of any others, please feel free to share in the comments section!

Some of these verses courtesy of Botanical PaperWorks and All Great Quotes.

An important thing to keep in mind when planning a beach wedding is the heat. Beaches can get pretty hot, especially on a cloudless day, and the last thing you want is for your guests to be distracted from the festivities by a terrible sense of thirst.

An easy way to turn the solution to this problem into an adorable wedding favor is to use customized bottled water. You can personalize any of our labels with yours and your betrothed’s name, your wedding date, or your wedding venue and then arrange them artfully in a bucket of ice to keep your guests refreshed.

We have an amazing selection of templates to choose from, many of which are perfect for beach favors. If you have a different design idea in mind, we also have a team of graphic designers who can help you turn your ideas into a one-of-a-kind wedding favor.

If you’re having a destination wedding, don’t give up on the idea of custom bottled water for your guests quite yet. An easy option available for brides who are looking for destination wedding favors is to buy personalized labels prior to the wedding and then bring the labels to the wedding destination. Our labels are small and easy to pack away in a suitcase or carry-on. Many brides use our labels-only option and then buy water at the wedding location so they don’t have to worry about shipping costs. Our labels are completely self-adhesive, so it’s easy to apply them wherever you are.

If you have any questions about personalized wedding water bottle labels, feel free to give us a call or request a sample. We’re happy to discuss options with you and help you find the perfect wedding favor.

One of the first places most brides get stuck is in picking out wedding colors. There are countless colors to choose from and it can be bewildering to narrow them all down to just two or three.

It doesn’t have to be excruciating, however, and can in fact be an exciting way to start planning your wedding. Here are some tips to help you get started:

• Consider the season. Each season carries its own connotation, so this can often be an easy place to start. Winter is usually associated with bold, vibrant colors such as scarlet, black, and silver. Spring often goes along with soft pastels, in hues like pink, lavender, and butter yellow. Summer is known for bright lively colors and is a good season to experiment with vivacious shades such as purple, bright yellow, and green. Fall is often accompanied by more subdued colors, so think harvest colors such as orange, brown, and deep red.
• Highlight your favorite color. A great way to help your favorite color stand out is to highlight it among neutrals. For example, you could have your bridesmaids wear dresses in neutral colors accentuated with a sash in your favorite color.
• Be complementary. Colors that sit opposite each other on the color wheel usually make terrific pairings.
• Pick three colors at most. One to two colors is ideal, but pick no more than three colors or you could risk having your wedding look uncoordinated. If you crave a little more variation, you can try using multiple shades of the same color family. For instance, if blue is one of your wedding colors, we can have your bridesmaids wear light blue and have dark blue tablecloths.

Once you’ve selected your wedding colors, it’s easy to customize your personalized water bottle labels and wine labels to match. Our graphic designers are happy to work with you match the tones and themes you’re going for. We have over forty wedding water bottle label and wine label templates to choose from in a wide range of styles and colors.

If you’re interested in a truly customized look, we can even work with you to create a label that matches your wedding invitations. Our team of designers is happy to help you create an incredible wedding favor that expresses your taste and style.