Wedding monograms have become a lot more popular in recent years and it’s one of our favorite ways to infuse a personal touch into your wedding. There are a lot of ways to go about creating and choosing one so we thought we would cover some of those options.

First, some basics

The standard way to order the letters in the monogram are Bride’s first initial, married last initial, Groom’s first initial. Now of course traditions are changing and so the monogram must be flexible as well (plus if the combination spells something weird, you might want to reconsider your options). For example, many couples won’t share a last name, so just using the first initials with an ampersand is a great option.

Monograms can be more than just three letters

Integrate a simple drawing of something that fits with the theme of your wedding, the location or something you both enjoy.
If you are going to share a last name, then you could just use that initial with added embellishments.
Add the date or ceremony location.
Write out your first names and use the last initial, or do the inverse and use the last name with just your first initials.

Consider having more than one

If you end up having too much fun creating monograms, you can have one that you use before the wedding (invites) and one that you use after (reception). It’s probably a good idea to have a common theme that ties the two together, but this could especially make sense if you will be changing to share a last name.

Go crazy with fonts

Maybe the most fun part is scrolling through all the fun free fonts there are and downloading as many as you want. If you’re not familiar with the process here is a quick explanation. There are also many more that cost just a little bit for personal use, but be aware than if you plan to use any fonts for a business you need to check the license agreement.

Use some color

The most straightforward way to add dimension after choosing a font (or two) is to use color and likely you will want to bring in the wedding colors you’ve chosen. Consider creating both color and black & white options at this point so when you start thinking about how you’ll use it, you have some flexibility. Which brings us to…

Think about how you want to use it

After you have created a bunch that you like, it’s important to consider what you plan to do with your monogram. If you’re going to have it projected somewhere, cut out as a cake topper or for a window decal… the versatility of the design is important to consider. If the letters overlap a lot and rely on color to distinguish between them or the font is so delicate it doesn’t hold up as a 3D object, then it might not be a good choice if you want to do anything other than have it printed. Also make sure to test out how it looks printed very large or very small, if the design is too intricate it might be hard to see if you want to use it on small tags and not just as a large poster. But again, you could have a complicated and a simple version that serve different purposes.

Getting technical

For many purposes (and for most of what we have done), these designs can easily be made and used in PowerPoint. However, if you want to send it to a company to have it printed you might need a higher resolution image and therefore need to create it in something like Adobe Illustrator (which we now use and love). It’s not always the case, but something to be aware of.