Guys…. I’m getting MARRIED!

At the time this is being published, I’ll be in Tulum, Mexico either working on my tan for the wedding, or freaking out about some last minute to dos, or most likely, some combination of both of those things. The festivities kick off on Thursday, the wedding day is Friday, and we have a 100 person catamaran setting sail on Saturday afternoon to wrap up what’s sure to be a magical weekend. 

That said, I figured now would be a good time to show off none other but the custom wedding website we made for our guests to help them prepare for our wedding (& the way I see it, a forced February vacation).

I approached this project similarly to how I approach all my web design projects with my clients:

1. First we figured out the “vision” 

AKA the creative direction / moodboard phase 

All that work we had to do first and foremost to start planning our wedding — choosing a location, finding a local wedding planner, booking the venue, and looking for inspiration on Insta + Pinterest — reminds me a lot of the creative direction + moodboard process I take my own clients through when we’re kicking off their branding + web design projects. 

2. Based on our vision, I created our branding

Between the location we chose (Tulum, Mexico), our venue, and the overall moodboard, I knew we needed branding that would look great with the boho vibes of the venue, and feel like a combination of the Tulum jungle and beach.

I saw the color palette as a variety of greens (to nod at both the teal of the ocean and the tropical plants surrounding us), with lots of whites and neutrals and pops of blush. I also knew that while script hand lettered touches could be explored down the road on our wedding signage (like menus and name cards), it can feel overdone and traditional in the wedding world, so I stayed away from that in our logo. Here’s where we net out:

3. Finally, the website was ready for creation! 

Ryan & I mapped out what pages we needed and what needed to go on each page to ensure that our guests could easily find out everything they needed to know not only about our wedding, but also about traveling to Mexico. Since many of our guests have never been to Tulum, and don’t necessarily travel frequently, this was more important than ever. 

We ended up deciding on 5 main pages:

• Our story 
• Travel + planning your trip 
• Wedding weekend schedule
• Things to do in Tulum
• FAQs

Once we decided on that, I created wireframes (basically rough sketches) of the site while Ryan wrote the copy. Similar to how I approach web design projects with my clients, we did this in close collaboration, because design and copy work hand in hand. 

Finally, I took the website from wireframe to fully designed by incorporating the logos, colors, fonts, photos, and other graphic elements, and then developed it in Showit (my favorite website platform for service-based businesses… or wedding websites, apparently!).

You can check out the website here — then head over to Insta @craftedbycarly & let me know what you think!

Now time to go get married! 💃