Wedding Ceremony Calligraphy: Certificate of Marriage

Custom Wedding Ceremony Calligraphy Document

 In the throes of wedding calligraphy season, I took a chance on a custom project and am SO glad that I did! A couple approached me in July of this year to commission a custom Commitment to Marriage document in calligraphy. There were a few elements that they were looking for in their document, and I've included a few images of the finished product: (Visit the Ash Tree Calligraphy Facebook Page to see more images!)

1) Lines for Guests' Signatures. The purpose of the wedding document was not only to write down vows that the couple promised each other, but for guests to participate in the ceremony by signing as witnesses and promising to support the couple in their marriage.

For this couple, it required about 117 lines - one for each guest. Though they initially wanted 3 columns of lines, we were actually able to fit the right amount of space with exactly 4 columns instead.

2) Color Palette. After consulting with the groom, we discussed that brown ink with tones of green would best match their wedding colors - and I recommended using a light cream color paper, as the colors would look best.

I was able to incorporate all of these colors in different areas of the wedding document  - including "illuminating" the first letter of a few lines with the green accent over the brown.

3) Illustrations. After a previous illustration of the California coastline I did last season for a destination save-the-date, this was another request to place a design element in addition to calligraphy on the document - and as an artist, I'm always up for that challenge!

Involve guests in your ceremony with their signatures!

We looked at three stock images of trees that the couple liked, and I used those as inspiration to create my own - tying in all of the document colors of brown and shades of green. The tree was meant to be a simple accent, while also representing the strength and sturdiness of their marriage. They opted for two identical, mirrored trees on each side of the top of their document.

There was also a slight flourish to graphically separate the signatures of the couple to the promises of the guests - I used the darker green tone to tie into the document and added leaf elements.

4) Size. Lastly, this document was also the largest I've created to-date! The final finished project was about 15" x 22" in size - I provided the paper to make sure it was archival and could withstand the test of time. I also recommended that once it is framed and matted, placing documents such as this in areas of little natural sunlight to decrease the chances of fading.

Looking for your own custom calligraphy project? Shoot me an email about what's on your mind for design, and let's get to work!