Create Your Own Wedding Monogram On A Budget
Posted on May 23, 2006 by Her and tagged afford, art, money, wedding
It's easy and inexpensive to brand your wedding with a classy wedding monogram. You can purchase a ready-made design for $50 at Bliss Wedding Market, or you can pocket the cash and design your own. If you're uninspired, you can check out their selection to get ideas. To make your own is really easy though.
Step 1 - Get Fonts
For a designer touch, you'll want better fonts than your computer came with. Google terms such as "script font" and "wedding font" to find free font download sites. When you find a font you like, download it. Usually you'll have to extract the font. You'll end up with a file name that has a .TTF extension. Now you have to install the font. Browse to My Computer/Local Disk/Windows/Fonts. Drag the file into the fonts folder. An installation screen will appear briefly, then your font is ready. You can install as many as you like.
Step 2 - Get Inspired
Browse through the monogram collection at Bliss, or look at other wedding sites for inspiration. Pick a few styles to experiment with, keeping in mind the limitations of your software and what shape your wedding initials are (wide? tall? long? short?). You might want to print out copies of your favorite monogram styles for reference.
Step 3 - Create!
A good, basic software program to use is Powerpoint. Set up a blank slide and add a text box with your initials in it. Experiment with fonts and sizes until you like how it looks. You can also add basic shapes (rectangles, circles, ovals, lines, etc) in Powerpoint. If you wedding has a theme, try adding a stylized graphic to the monogram (you can download tons of free graphics online too).
Step 4 - Brand Your Wedding
Once you have your monogram, incorporate it throughout your wedding to create an "expenisve" designer look. Some places to consider: Invitations and other stationary, save-the-date magnets, menus, place cards, paper napkins, balloons, painted on the aisle runner, added to your dessert plates with a sugar stencil, etc. If you are printing your own items at home, it's easy to copy and paste your monogram into most other software packages. If you're having your items professionally printed, you can submit the monogram on a CD.
I sat down the other day and created a selection of eighteen monograms for our own wedding. It took about 3 hours. Now we just have to choose which one we like best. We might use three: One (with the Chicago skyline at the top) for our save-the-dates, a second one (more formal) for the day of the reception, and a third (with our combined initials) for after the wedding. Doing it all myself was fun and easy, and saved us $150.
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somegirl | May 24, 2006
hahhaha @ bd. that won't help their trying to stay anonymous. i'd have loved to see it too. maybe her can use false initials on the web display. then we'll just hunt down some other unsuspecting couple.
mariah | May 23, 2006
FYI - You can also have one made for a lot less than $50. I paid $10 and had 10 to choose from. Email me if you want the information. I used the monogram everywhere and it really tied things together!
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