{Wedding Wednesday} Calligraphy for your Wedding

Today we have a {Guest Post} from Claire at http://www.wedding-calligrapher.com/ telling us all about Calligraphy and its place in Weddings. Whether its DIY or Professional, here she has some tips that are definately worth reading.

Wedding calligraphy is a beautiful ‘optional extra’ to include in your wedding. It’s most commonly found on wedding invitations and place cards, but if you’re crafty or rich you can have calligraphy-addressed envelopes, handwritten menus and even a calligraphy seating plan. But which is best: being crafty or rich?

Learning calligraphy or hiring a professional?


Investing time to learn calligraphy for your wedding

I honestly believe that anyone can learn calligraphy to a standard to impress wedding guests. It all comes down to time and patience: if you’re prepared to invest your time into learning a new skill then you should go for it. Calligraphy is a great skill to have and once you’ve learned a little you’ll always use your beautiful writing.

To learn to write italic calligraphy for your wedding (the style which comes most naturally to most people), you should plan to spend three or four weekends learning. Yes, it’s a long time. But it’s worth it. Get a calligraphy book from your local library and follow their lessons – a good one will have you writing out pages and pages of lines, loops and squiggles until you can make every pen stroke identical.

The tools to buy are a dip pen and a couple of italic nibs with reservoirs, a tube of gouache paint and a medium sized paintbrush. Photocopier paper is fine for practising, in fact it’s great because it’s smooth and thin enough to see guidelines through it. You’ll only need to spend about £10 in total on all of the above – for the calligraphy bits try Blots Pens at http://www.blotspens.co.uk/

Saving time and hiring a professional calligrapher

If you don’t want to spend four of your precious pre-wedding weekends learning calligraphy, then you can hire a professional to write your wedding calligraphy for you. Prices will vary but do remember you’ll get what you pay for! The average is around £1 for a wedding place card and £2 for an invitation.

Always ask for a sample before you commit to a calligrapher. We’re very happy to write out a place card or two to show you what we can do.

If you’re hiring a calligrapher for your wedding it saves you lots of time, but please don’t leave it until the last minute to make your enquiry. We get surprisingly busy, especially in the summer season. Get in touch a month or two before you’ll need us – and I’m writing on behalf of every calligraphy business here – it’s nice to be able to book in advance so we can make everything run smoothly for you with no last minute panics.

Once you’ve chosen your calligrapher all you’ll need to do is post your stationery and guest list to them. Double check your spellings as it’s really easy to miss a typing error. And remember to include yourselves: every year I have clients who forget to add their own names to the list!

Wedding calligraphy etiquette

I’m often asked how to write guest names: should you use first names and surnames, or titles?

My answer is always to do what feels right for your wedding. If it’s a very formal day then using titles like Miss Jane Smith is very appropriate. For smaller weddings or more relaxed celebrations, just ‘Jane’ is fine! And for the bridal party it’s entirely up to you whether you have ‘Mother of the Bride’ or just ‘Caroline Smith’ on the place card. I’ve even written nicknames, some of them rude, on wedding place cards, as well as Lords and Ladies – every wedding is different.

Wedding place card design

Whether you’re writing your own place cards or hiring a professional calligrapher, do consider the design of the cards. Some place cards have a large printed image or are compact in size – many contemporary printers assume modern brides will be writing first names only on their cards. If you buy cards designed to fit ‘Kate’ on, you or I will struggle when we get to ‘Miss Catherine Binckley-Smythe’ on the guest list!

View calligraphy examples to inspire your creative side at http://www.wedding-calligrapher.com/ or give Claire a call on 0161 477 0279 if you’re interested in seeing a professional calligraphy sample.