Mrs. Toucan, BostonAge and Occupation: 25, Full-time Research Assistant, Part-time Graduate StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 25, ActuaryEngagement Date: February 18, 2007Wedding Date: June 7, 2008Blogging Since: November 07, 2007Venue: St. Catherine of Genoa, Jin Asian Cuisine RestaurantAbout Me: I’m a Gemini to the extreme. On one side, I’m a girly girl. I read countless bridal and fashion magazines, and have an obsession with keeping up with the latest Hollywood gossip. On the other side, I’m a sports fanatic. Despite being a full-time bride-to be, full-time research assistant, and part-time student, I’m also a full-time Red Sox fan from spring training to October, and a full-time Patriots fan from mini-camp to February. I devote almost as much time researching my for fantasy football team as researching for our wedding!
After attempting to make my own monograms in PowerPoint, I decided to ask my cousin for some help. You see, the monograms I had made for myself were fine and all, but I really wanted to use something that reflected a little more personality. I had all these ideas on how to I wanted my ideal monogram to look like, but I didn’t have a clue on how to execute them. My cousin, who is finishing up her college degree in fine arts and computer science, was the perfect person to ask for some help! Check it out:
Mrs. Strawberry, SeattleAge and Occupation: 25, Radio DJ, Advertising Sales, Day of Wedding CoordinatorFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, EngineerEngagement Date: 07/04/2006Wedding Date: September 1, 2007Venue: Lake Union Cafe, SeattleAbout Me: I'm a Navy brat that has lived all over the world. I love reality shows that are in poor taste, going to new restaurants, and trying to be crafty. Emphasis on trying!
I’m a well rounded individual. I have many talents. I can sing, I can dance and can even draw. However, I also have my limitations. Limitations that I am well aware of. I can’t cook. I don’t clean. And I never learned to sew.
As I approach my new life as a married woman, I’m realizing that these too are important talents. Talents that could potentially save me money and heartache in the long run. If I knew how to pick up a needle and thread, I could probably complete many wedding tasks myself. Alas, this is not the case and I must rely on others.
At Filigree Monograms, they understand my pain. Dress labels, table runners and bouquet ribbons are all delightfully embroidered.
Mrs. Snow Pea, New YorkAge and Occupation: 26, Architectural Engineer and studentFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Web DesignerEngagement Date: July 4, 2005Wedding Date: August 18, 2007About Me: I am a DIY gal. From cooking, home improvements to wedding. Mr. Snow Pea and I met in college, and since then we've been like peas and carrots! Love cooking, traveling, and fishing.
I have been collecting magazine clippings since I was a kid. I don’t know why I do it, but I just like it. When we got engaged, I picked up a habit of collecting anything that had our initials in it. Not to mention I love monograms, but it just became a game for me. No one else knows that I do this (until now). *The only rule is that whatever the picture may be, it has to be of our initials only. I can’t cheat and snip off a letter that doesn’t belong.*
Here’s what I have so far. Feel free to send me more if you see something!
from Paper Source
Mrs. Kiwi, Los AngelesAge and Occupation in 06: 27, BookkeeperFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, P.E. Teach/Coach @ private schools in LAEngagement Date: March 31, 2006Wedding Date: November 3, 2007Venue: Radisson HotelAbout Me: I'm a bookkeeper who failed high school algebra. I'm currently living in Los Angeles, literally a street over from where I grew up with Mr. Kiwi, my honey of three years. We have a jumbo mini-dachshund (seriously, he's huuuuge), and we're planning an autumn themed wedding on a shoestring, paid for by ourselves. The wedding date is my late grandma's birthday, I needed her there somehow, and that seemed like the best way for us. I can't believe I'm a Bee! I couldn't be more proud!
I love things with my name on it. Ever since I was a little kid I wanted something to represent me. I coveted those golden labels to stick inside your books, and collected the address labels we got for free from the WWF after donating. The first item of business after moving in together? Make custom labels with our names on them. They were promptly lost, but whatever.
My point is, this wedding is my chance to personalize something perfectly. Nowadays (did I JUST say that?), monograms are a theme to itself, like on a cake:
Mrs. Bee, New YorkAge and Occupation: 29, Weddingbee PublisherFiance's Age and Occupation: 33, InternetEngagement Date: May 7, 2004Wedding Date: March 5, 2005Venue: Westside Loft, New YorkAbout Me: Yes, my name really is Bee! I love my blogging, wikis, and tabasco sauce!
Wonderful Graffiti has just released a new Black Tie collection of products inspired by formal attire. They’re offering traditional stationery items like programs, hang tags, napkins, but I think their monogrammed products are the most interesting… some you may even endeavor to diy!
Mrs. Emerald, ChicagoAge and Occupation: 26, Hospitality AdministrationFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, ParalegalEngagement Date: October 8, 2006Wedding Date: September 2007Blogging Since: November 29, 2006Venue: Hyatt Lodge, Oak Brook ILAbout Me: I have been dreaming about my wedding forever, and flipping through bridal magazines since high school, so I am in my element! I am calling our theme "Vintage Inspired French/Asian Fusion." Mr. Emerald is very involved in the planning process, but of course he generally defers to me cuz I have a strong opinion of how I want everything to be :-).
I asked my invitation designer, Sarah of Truly Smitten, to come up with a monogram that we can use throughout our wedding. She came up with this, which I absolutely love, love, love! (The image quality is rather low)
The same flourish is also used in our actual invitation design, so I was happy to see it incorporated into our monogram. Then I asked her to add in the first letter of Mr. E’s last name, since most of the monograms I see are 3 letter ones.
Mrs. Lime, Los AngelesAge and Occupation in 06: 25, DesignFiance's Age and Occupation: 25, ITEngagement Date: July 7, 2006Wedding Date: August 5, 2007Venue: An historic estateAbout Me: Between work and wedding planning, I try to squeeze in napping, drawing, random spurts of craftiness, tennis, and eating lots of Sprinkles cupcakes, dark chocolate, and noodles of all kinds. Mr. Lime and I have spent our adult lives growing up together, and we're very excited to finally be getting married!
It turned out to be a monogram rather than logo after all. A bit anticlimactic, I know. Ignore the square and dashed lines. I may or may not carry that through. This is just a quickie I made for use as a placeholder on our wedding website.
Mrs. Raspberry, DC/New YorkAge and Occupation in 07: 24, Owner/Chief Creative DirectorFiance's Age in 07: 24, Special Investigator for the governmentEngagement Date: August 5, 2006Wedding Date: July 2007Venue: The Roycroft Inn, East Aurora NYAbout Me: I love wedding and event planning. I am having a great time with all of my DIY projects and can't wait to share them with all of the WeddingBee Readers (some have to wait until after our wedding)! Other favorites include: cooking, running, tennis, knitting and making crafts. Mr. Raspberry and I also have two dogs - Gewurz, a 2 year old
yellow lab and Stella, a 1 year old old cock-a poo.
I hung all of these monograms, plus a couple of others on the door in our apartment. We have been looking at them for a couple of days, and still can’t seem to decide on which one we want to use.
I thought that we would use it on the programs, favors, menus, out-of-town baskets, maybe the invites… It is all up for debate.
My only concern with the long, skinny ones is that they will be hard to use on things, yet I like them so much better. And I really want to use gold, but since it will be coming out of a regular printer, I don’t want it to look brown - I tried it and it looked ok.
Mrs. Emerald, ChicagoAge and Occupation: 26, Hospitality AdministrationFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, ParalegalEngagement Date: October 8, 2006Wedding Date: September 2007Blogging Since: November 29, 2006Venue: Hyatt Lodge, Oak Brook ILAbout Me: I have been dreaming about my wedding forever, and flipping through bridal magazines since high school, so I am in my element! I am calling our theme "Vintage Inspired French/Asian Fusion." Mr. Emerald is very involved in the planning process, but of course he generally defers to me cuz I have a strong opinion of how I want everything to be :-).
I am looking for inexpensive initial pins like this:
I have been scouring ebay and google for like a month now, but can’t find anything under $20 (the one pictured above is close to $30). I need 5 of them in different letters. I remember these monogram brooches used to be all the rage a few years ago, and you could find them in any department store like Sears, but not so much anymore. I would even be willing to DIY the crystals if someone could tell me where to get the backing. Has anyone seen them recently?
Mrs. Bee, New YorkAge and Occupation: 29, Weddingbee PublisherFiance's Age and Occupation: 33, InternetEngagement Date: May 7, 2004Wedding Date: March 5, 2005Venue: Westside Loft, New YorkAbout Me: Yes, my name really is Bee! I love my blogging, wikis, and tabasco sauce!
Each kit comes with two sizes of interchangeable letters and four border designs. You can create a one, two, three, even four letter monogram with or without a border. Use your imagination and stamp away on all your wedding stationery. And at $29.95, it’s quite the deal!