Programs

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WHY ARE PROGRAMS IMPORTANT AT YOUR WEDDING

A wedding program is often one of the first design elements that your guests see at your wedding ceremony and can help convey the theme, color palette, and level of formality that they should expect throughout the day or night. Many couples like to match or echo their design with invitations or other wedding day-of essentials like place cards, menus, seating charts, and signs.

Aside from setting the aesthetic, a ceremony guideline is important in informing guests about the roadmap for the ceremony and the events of the day. Whether you’re having a civil, religious, or alternative ceremony, there’s a strong likelihood your wedding will be different from what your guests have attended before, so a schedule to orient them will help them follow the important moments. For those couples hosting guests from a different faith or cultural background, it is often helpful to explain the origins or significance of certain traditions so they feel included and, more importantly, can appreciate those moments and celebrate along with you as a couple.

Finally, a wedding program is one of the best keepsakes you and your new husband or wife will take home as a memento of the events of the day. Many guests also like to take a wedding ceremony program home as a souvenir (and, for those with their own nuptials in the future, to reference any readings or music they don’t want to forget)!

WHERE TO START & WHAT TO INCLUDE

Minted makes it easy to design your perfectly chic wedding program. First, start planning what content you would like to include for your guests. There are some essentials that you should include about the ceremony. A standard wedding program example will include:

• Prelude and bride’s entrance music title and composer or artist
• Order of ceremony events
• Details of any poems, songs, or readings, including readers or cantors
• Recessional music title and composer or artist

In addition to these essentials, many couples will include introductory details about the following special guests:

• Names of parents
• Wedding party members
• Officiant name
• In memoriam section
• Thank you to any guests who have traveled long distances

Finally, you can use additional space to provide deeper explanations about:

• Special participation instructions
• Special cultural ceremonies or traditions
• Wedding hashtag and social media usage
• Couple’s story and meaningful moments featured in the wedding

That being said, many couples will mix and match what they include based on what is most important to them. Some couples devote most of the guide to thanking family and friends and listing out bridal party members with only a small portion devoted to the ceremony itself. This often works best if your ceremony is quite straightforward. Others use the space to refresh guests’ memories about how they met and why a certain venue or traditions might be important. Your wedding program is just that, yours, and most couples happily deviate from a strict formula to make sure all guests feel excited and included.

After you’ve drafted your content, it is time to start personalizing your guide. Based on how much content you would like to include, you’ll probably have to narrow down to a specific format offered by Minted. In general, you can fit around 100-150 words on the front and back of a flat program, 75-100 words in a folded presentation, and 200-250 words in a minibook. Before you get too deep into finding a design you like, you may want to try fitting the draft of your program into each of our formats to see what works best. If your content is a bit too wordy, you can get a good understanding of how much non-essential information there may be in case you want to cut some of it. One other consideration for your wedding program is whether you would like to keep costs down by DIY-ing a portion of it. At Minted, we allow you to print custom covers for a folded program that make it easy for you to create something beautiful. All you have to do is print your insert content on plain white paper using this template, cut it down, and then bind it with a ribbon of your choice. Minted has some beautiful ribbon options you may want to review. This is a fun activity for the family and bridal party members in the nights before your ceremony.

Next up, you will want to decide what style of program you would like. Start by thinking through whether you want to match your day-of stationery and signs to your initial wedding invitations or if you want something different to better match your venue. If the latter, you can narrow down your options on Minted by general destination themes, like beach, nautical, or city skyline, or by design elements and styles like botanical, painterly, vintage, and rustic. While you’re looking at wedding program examples, we encourage you to look at our matching seating charts, menus, and placecards to make sure you like the cohesive set. Most couples like to match these elements, even if they aren’t the exact same design, so there is a consistent look for guests throughout the day.

With Minted, personalizing your design is easy. Just click “personalize” on a design you like and you’ll be able to edit text boxes, select your desired colorway, and make any other special requests you may have for our experienced design team. You can choose specific colors to match other design elements of your big day or even get different text elements pressed in foil for an elevated touch.

You will be able to personalize both the front and the back of the program, and can even add a photo to the back to show off some of the beautiful engagement photos that you didn’t use for your save the date.

After your first design is submitted, your personal Minted design associate will send you a proof for review, and you’ll be able to provide unlimited rounds of feedback with your design associate until your program is ready for your wedding day.

We offer multiple shipping options, including rush and super rush print to make sure all your beautiful wedding materials and stationery arrive in time for your wedding day.

If you don’t find a design that you like in our selection on site, Minted also offers custom design services where a dedicated artist can create a design specifically to match your vision. We can design a full end-to-end look based on your guidance. Think of us as your personal graphic designer!

When ordering, you should plan to order one program for each guest that will be in attendance plus 10-15 extras for keepsakes. This can be difficult as final RSVP confirmations and last-minute cancellations trickle in, but a good rule of thumb is that roughly 5-6 additional guests will cancel from the initial round of RSVPs. If you are planning on laying the programs on chairs at the ceremony, make sure you have one for each seat. Minted allows you to order programs in increments of 10 starting at 25.

CHOOSING YOUR DESIGN

We’ve laid out the core styles in our collection below so you can start thinking through what might best suit your wedding and overall theme.

Bold & Typographical: Many brides are gravitating toward wedding ceremony programs that feature large block or hand-lettered words or phrases that nod to the wedding in a fun way, such as the couple’s initials at the top, the phrase “I do” or a large ampersand. This is a great style for modern couples in urban settings or who want to juxtapose their modern sensibility with a rural or botanical environment.

Modern: Modern themes often feature color blocking or other abstract or mosaic-like work reflective of contemporary art. These are a fun option for couples that want to buck tradition and enjoy a punchy and visually interesting contrast to a more formal venue.

Botanical: The most versatile of designs, botanical options generally feature light illustrations of florals or greenery at the top or along the border of the program. However, there is a wide variety of art styles used to depict plant life, ranging from pop art to watercolor illustrations. Botanical designs tend to be best for more traditional weddings or weddings where you are setting aside a reasonable budget for live florals.

Vintage: Vintage programs can still be fresh, and work particularly well with venues that were built or decorated in another era. Minted offers designs that are suitable for art deco, Victorian pre-war, and other eras, all under this style category.

Rustic: Perfect for barn weddings or weddings set in the mountains, these wedding programs reflect the scenery of the ceremony. Many of the designs have beautiful touches like small ribbons up top, which help play to a rustic theme. These make fantastic keepsakes because they tie directly to the venue and will help keep memories fresh for your guests.

Painterly & Illustrative: This is the most versatile style as it is more a “mood” than a design option tied to a specific venue. These designs are marked by watercolor or hand-drawn elements that feel very elevated and art-forward.

All in all, your wedding will be a special day no matter which ceremony program you choose. As always, feel free to reach out to Minted through our online chat or email tools if you need a little extra assistance to get started on your wedding program design.

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