FAQ: Fonts

It is no secret that I am a font lover.  In fact, since I started this business about two years ago now, I now notice fonts everywhere - in movie posters, flyers, church bulletins, and signs at my doctor's office. So when others are like, "hey, doc, thanks for the information on the hours your practice is open," I'm like, "why would you use papyrus font to tell me this? what a horrible choice. i'm changing doctors."

There is also a chance that I've become a font snob.

Last week, I started a series of posts called "FAQs." These are questions I get asked regularly by brides. This week, I thought I'd focus on some fonts. 

As far as fonts go, typically brides like to have a script font for their names and a block font for the rest of the invitation wording. 

Like this.

Images by Stevie B. Photography

Or less formally, like this. 

Image by Amy Sayre Photography

Or you might be a little more modern and decide that you want to use all block lettering. That can look great, too. 

Image by Bella Pictures

Image by Capturing Subtleties

No matter what you personal style is, there are a ton of fonts out there to help create your perfect invitation. I've narrowed down some fantastic fonts right here and I'll break them into script fonts and block fonts for you. 

I want to give a little extra attention to the first two script fonts because they are by far my favorites right now. But you might not realize how great they are just at a glance. 

SCRIPT FONTS

First up, Samantha Script. 

Now, when I show you Samantha Script with any ordinary names, it might not necessarily catch your eye.

But here's a little secret. Samantha Script (and most other fonts that you will pay a little bit of $$ for) comes with something called glyphs. They are those super fancy swirly things that you can add to the font to give it a little extra flair.

Check these out.

So those same names above can look like this with these fancy glyphs.

So much better, yes?

And (wait, there's more!) Samantha Script also comes with a whole bunch of catchwords that you can use. 

So then these names can look like this. 

Consider this an official advertisement for Samantha Script. Let's just go ahead and call it my favorite font of 2013.

But let's look at another one that I am loving these days.

Another favorite for 2013 is Melany Lane.

Melany Lane comes with a ton of glyphs as well. Check out the transformation of these words. 

And while it's not quite as noticeable as Samantha Script was, here's the change using just a few of the glyphs.

Here are some more script fonts that I think are great. If you click on the link, you can put your own names in there to see how they'll look.

Hiatus.

Albermarle Swatch.

Baroque Antique Script.

Mardian.

Dear Joe.

Allura.

Lavanderia.

Halo Handletter.

 Black Jack.

 Gelato.

I'd recommend figuring out which script font you'd like to use first. Once that decision is made, here are some block fonts to look at.  If you click on the links, most of these will let you type in your names to see how they would look in each font.

BLOCK FONTS

Trajan Pro.

Optimus Princeps.

Birmingham.

Big Caslon Medium.

Sanford.

Bentham.

Here are some that are a little more modern. 

Copperplate. 

Estilo.

Hero.

Novecento Wide.

Of course, there are a massive amount of fonts out there, but a lot of brides appreciate when I narrow things down for them (considering they have about a billion other decisions to make during this bus time in their lives). But, if you are wanting to browse a little more, here are some great places to do it. 

Free fonts:

dafont.com

1001freefonts.com

fontspace.com

fontsquirrel.com

Not-so-free (but fabulous) fonts:

veer.com

myfonts.com

Next week's FAQ post is going to be on the important dates you need to know as far as when to send our your wedding invitations. See you then!

More FAQs:

Want to find out how to address your envelopes? Go here. 

Want to find out how to word your invitations? Go here. 

Want to hear more about the value of custom invitations? Check out this post.