Set up inside a rustic New England barn, an escort card tree made with branches, mirrors, and moss held hand-lettered kraft paper envelopes, secured with tiny clothespins.
Photo: Carla Ten Eyck/Courtesy of The White Dress in Color
A shoot at a modern oceanside venue featured escort cards displayed under a deer head sculpture growing out of a wall of roses. “Escort cards are the perfect place for some playfulness," writes Dowling Coppola. "We cut out the shape of antlers into a few of our escort cards—an homage to the enormous installation of rose petals surrounding our faux deer head—which was the centerpiece to our escort card display. A simple backdrop can elevate your design to an entirely different level of art.”
Photo: Carla Ten Eyck/Courtesy of The White Dress in Color
The authors encourage readers to look at their surroundings and integrate unexpected elements into the event's design. Case in point: Escort cards were attached with varying shades of ribbon to hurricane shutters for a shoot in the French Quarter of New Orleans.
Photo: Carla Ten Eyck/Courtesy of The White Dress in Color
To complement a dramatic branch centerpiece dotted with oranges, wooden napkin rings printed with guests’ names were placed atop mini oranges and topped with fringed white tulip petals.
Photo: Carla Ten Eyck/Courtesy of The White Dress in Color
For a shoot staged in a Costa Rican rainforest, black pieces of paper backed with newsprint were decorated with guests' names in white calligraphy and hung from plant leaves. "Newsprint became a huge source of inspiration for us. The simplicity of black and white, mixed with clean typography, found its way into almost every design element," writes Coppola. "Introduce unique and unexpected elements into your design. Be creative. Take the ordinary and make it extraordinary."
Photo: Carla Ten Eyck/Courtesy of The White Dress in Color
