How to Display a Wedding Welcome Sign

People spend weeks choosing a welcome sign and about four seconds deciding how to stand it up. Then it arrives, and it turns out the venue easel is black wrought iron and the sign is ivory and gold, or the sign is A1 and the easel tops out at A2.

Here is how to work it out before the week of the wedding.

Ask your venue first

Start here, because it costs nothing. Most venues keep easels and most will lend you one. Ask two questions: do you have an easel, and what does it look like.

The second question matters more than people expect. A black metal easel under a modern sign is invisible. The same easel under a soft ivory and gold sign reads as borrowed. If the venue easel does not suit your styling, you have time to hire or buy one instead of discovering it on the day.

Match the easel to the sign size

An easel needs to be taller than the sign and rated to hold its weight. A1 acrylic is heavier than it looks, and a lightweight display easel meant for foamboard will bow or tip.

• A3 signs sit well on a table easel, a small stand, a plinth or a stack of books
• A2 signs work on a sturdy table easel or a full floor easel
• A1 signs want a proper floor easel, ideally timber or a solid metal frame
• Anything larger is usually freestanding or wall mounted rather than propped, and should be installed rather than leaned

If you are hiring an easel, tell the hire company the sign dimensions and the material. Acrylic and timber are not the same weight.

The other ways to display it

Freestanding

Larger pieces are built to stand on their own with a weighted base or a brace. This is the sturdiest option and the only sensible one outdoors or anywhere with foot traffic. It is also the option that has to be designed in from the start, so mention it when you order.

Wall mounted

Standoff fixings hold the sign slightly off the wall and give a shadow gap that suits layered acrylic particularly well. Adhesive mounting works for lighter pieces on smooth surfaces. Check with your venue before putting anything on their walls, because plenty do not allow it.

Hung from an arbour or frame

Suspended signs look beautiful and move in wind, which is either lovely or a problem depending on where you are. If you want a sign hung, tell us at the design stage so we can place the fixing points properly rather than you drilling into it later.

On a plinth or table

Smaller signs propped on a plinth alongside florals work well at an entrance where floor space is tight. Worth checking the sign will not be knocked by people reaching past it.

Outdoors is a different problem

Wind is the thing that ruins outdoor signage, and an easel is the least stable option there is. A large flat panel is essentially a sail.

If your sign is going outside, weight the base, choose freestanding over propped, and have a plan for where it moves if the weather turns. Direct sun for a full day can also be hard on some materials, so mention it when you order and we will steer you accordingly.

Where to put it

The welcome sign belongs where guests arrive and pause, not where they walk past at speed. Just inside an entrance, beside a door, or at the top of a path.

Two practical things people forget. Leave enough room for someone to photograph it without standing in a garden bed. And check what is directly behind it, because a clear or frosted sign against a busy background becomes unreadable, and a mirror sign will reflect whatever is opposite it including your photographer.

On the day

Leave the protective film on the sign until it is in position. Acrylic, and mirror especially, scratches easily in transit and during setup. Peel it once the sign is standing where it belongs.

Decide in advance who is placing it. A sign ends up in the corner of the wrong room when nobody has been asked to place it.

We install across Adelaide if you would rather it was not on a friend's list of jobs.

Before you order

Tell us where the sign is going and how you plan to stand it up. It changes what we recommend, sometimes the size and occasionally the material. It is a much easier conversation before the sign is cut.

See our welcome signs, or the signage guide for sizes and finishes.