This past May, I was participated in a styled shoot put at the gorgeous California Ranch Company wedding venue in Temecula, CA. California Ranch Company is a wedding venue in the heart of Southern California wine country and is the perfect spot for a spectacular countryside wedding.

I was asked to create table numbers, place cards, and a dessert sign, and was given the style board on the right to work off of. While these may seem like small details, your guests need to know where to sit and what to eat! Calligraphy day-of signage is a fabulous yet functional way to keep your guests informed during every step of your wedding day.

Knowing this would be an outdoor ranch wedding, I wanted to bring in plenty of color into what I was creating. That teal in the color palette was my inspiration and the basis of all my designs!

Now, time to create calligraphy signs fit for an outdoor wedding at California Ranch Company.

FIRST THINGS FIRST

Wax seal place cards are one of my favorite things to create, so I decided to start my design process there. There was a lot of terracotta and brown tones in the style board, so I knew I wanted teal place cards to serve as a little pop of color on the table. Instead of a traditional 2” x 4” tented place cards, I decided on square 3” x 3” (think post-it note size) place cards instead for a more modern look. I paired these teal beauties with white ink and terracotta wax.

Next, the table number and dessert sign. I struggled to figure out the best material to make these signs on. Framed paper felt too fancy for this rustic ranch vibe, acrylic felt out of place, and I was worried wood would blend in too much. I was honestly just staring at all my calligraphy supplies one day when I noticed a pack of small square canvases I bought on a whim during a recent sale at Michael’s. The canvas felt like the perfect…canvas for both the table number and dessert sign, while also tying to the macrame elements from the style board.

Once I decided on the canvas material, I got really excited about painting them! I went for what I call a boho desert design with the wavy shapes and used a combination of teal, light yellow, and terracotta.

CREATION PROCESS

Time to create! Using heavy teal colored cardstock, I hand cut each place card to the right size and wrote all the names in calligraphy with white ink. Next, I melted and poured the terracotta wax directly on the place cards and stamped it with an outdoorsy-Spanish tile style wax stamp. For some reason, the tile design made me think of outdoor tile at a winery!

Once the place cards were done, it was time to make the table number and dessert sign. I didn’t have the exact colors from the color palette I wanted, so I mixed different paints to get the perfect shade of teal and pale yellow – and thankfully found terracotta paint at the art store. Next, I drew some random lines on the canvas in order to make different sections and started painting them in alternating colors.

For the dessert sign, I used a mixture of block letters and calligraphy. Block letters are as important to calligraphy signs as the calligraphy itself. If the entire sign is written in calligraphy, it can be hard to read and defeat the purpose of providing important information. We calligraphers like to highlight the key words in calligraphy (here it was “love and dessert”) and use block letters for supporting text.

CALIFORNIA RANCH COMPANY WEDDING DAY

While I wasn’t present at California Ranch Company on the day of the shoot, the photos I received are gorgeous and capture the beauty of the venue, the countryside, and the talent of all the vendors involved. I was blown away by the table décor from Kesaia Bush Designs and the bouquets from The Sweetest Blooms was the perfect mixture of desert succulents and colorful blooms. I especially loved the surprise guest – a horse from the ranch itself!

 California Ranch Company is full of natural Southern California beauty, with lush greenery and rolling hillsides. This Temecula wedding venue is large – 53 acres – and is a gem within Temecula’s wine country.

 As always, the best part of any styled shoot is collaborating with incredible wedding vendors that I haven’t met before! Temecula is a short jaunt from San Diego, so it was great to expand my network of amazing wedding vendors.

If you are interested in how AC Letters Calligraphy can help you create the perfect calligraphy signage – or any other calligraphy goods – click the buttons below to learn more about my services or inquire for a quote! 

Participating Vendors
Planning & Design: Rayanne Rose Weddings
Venue: California Ranch Company Weddings
Photographer: Easton studios
Videographer: My Real Media
Florist: The Sweetest Blooms
Rentals: Rustic Urban Events
Table Decor: Kesaia Bush Designs
Calligraphy: AC Letters Calligraphy
Desserts: Twin Treats
Hair and Make Up Artist: Jodi Snowden & Co
Dress: Raw Golden Rentals
Tux: Friar Tux
Models: Kaley Robinson, Taylor Cordero