A wedding is one of the most exciting and memorable experiences of a person’s life. So much effort, work and time goes into planning this special event. Family, friends and loved ones share the couple’s joy, standing by their side as they exchange vows to spend the rest of their lives together. A few weeks before my own wedding, I spoke with a good friend, Raj Kamal, who also happens to be one of the world’s best information designers. We discussed the upcoming wedding and I complained about how complex it is to plan such a big event (we had more than 300 guests!): from picking the right location and choosing the best food, flowers and DJ, to arranging the seating chart, and so on. What did Raj say? “You forgot the infographic!” “What infographic?” I asked. “Come on man,” Raj said. “You’re a founding member of Visually, and there is so much data related to you and your wife-to-be… are you not going to visualize it?” He was, of course, absolutely right. Raj and I started to throw around ideas for what would be one of my own unique contributions to my wedding day. We wanted to figure out how to tell the story of two people who fell in love and how their relationship came to be, but in a minimalistic manner, where visuals took the place of words. This was no easy feat, and even working at Visually and having seen a graphic or two – including those made for weddings – nothing really stood out, style-wise, for what I had in mind. One rule we set in stone from the get go was that this project must be done right. We must try to create the best approach to tell a couple’s story in a minimal and efficient way, with a clear story narrative. The goals of the project were pretty simple:
- Allow the guests to get to know the bride and groom better, since guests were coming from around the world and how well they knew us varied widely.
- Have a souvenir for life: something we can hang on our wall, hopefully for our kids to see one day — and learn our story in a simple, visual way, maybe even before learning to read.
Once we found the story we wanted to tell, we were finally ready to run with it and create the wedding infographic.
Chances are, this is by far the largest wedding infographic created, literally: at 6 feet 9 inches tall, it was crucial that every graphic detail was executed perfectly.
The final product, finished in time for the wedding day (and printed courtesy of Kol Misrad), was displayed at the entrance to the venue, where each guest was introduced to our story and how we arrived at this special day in our lives.
Folks walking into the venue caught sight of our infographic before anything else. Some stood there for several long minutes, picking out details and pointing to tidbits that struck a chord—either laughing at some silly moment or getting a little misty. It turned out to be this immediate conversation starter, a weirdly effective ice breaker, at least compared to the awkward attempts at mingling you usually get at massive wedding gatherings. Guests who’d never even met us before that night could latch onto a piece of the infographic and—just like that—share a few words with a stranger beside them. Honestly, it made it feel like everyone was just that little bit closer, which you never really expect with a guest list that size.
And not to oversell it, but the reactions from the older relatives were priceless. I remember my aunt, usually not a fan of “those Internet things,” practically grilling us over which icons meant what and why we picked certain milestones to highlight. She kept joking that we needed a little infographic legend just for her. Even my mom, who gets hives just thinking about anything remotely technical, said it made her feel like she’d captured a whole chapter of our story without wading through speeches and toasts. There’s a kind of magic in that simple visual storytelling—people connect the dots in their own way, and sometimes they catch meanings you didn’t even notice while making it.
As a bonus, we threw in a few ‘Easter eggs’ for those who know us best. Easter eggs included a nod to the Visually office in San Francisco, reference to my constant questioning if the door was locked (as my friends know I always do), and a few others that only various circles of family and friends will spot. 
You can click on the graphic below to see it in detail. We have changed the data a bit, so it is more suitable for public viewing.
Want to create an infographic for your wedding or as a gift to your favorite couple? One of the reasons we created the Visually Marketplace was to allow brands, companies and individuals to tell their stories and make an impact with them. Telling the story of a newlywed couple wasn’t any different, and heading to the Marketplace for the project was a natural step in the process for us. So it can be for you, too: contact us and let us know what we can do for you! Tal Siach is the CMO and co-founder of Visual.ly. To see more of his favorite infographics, visualizations and other cool stuff from around the web, follow him on Twitter.
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