Playing in Publisher!

I LOVE monograms. I think they add a little something extra to the wedding details.  Plus, I have fun making them!  I've gone overboard with the amount of monograms that I have made and wanted to share a bit of the tips and tricks to making them yourself!


I use Microsoft Publisher and my skill level on there is pretty basic. I use it for work stuff sometimes and have pretty much taught myself how to use it. 


How I started:
Look for your go to fonts.  You'll notice in my versions that I pretty much use the same fonts in each. I searched for scripts that I liked for major characters: S, &, D.  You can download fonts, but I have a pretty decent stash on my work laptop from one of the other publishing programs I use for work stuff and I am afraid to download any more.  I have an obsession with Monterey for script.  I used a basic block for the print D.


Get Inspiration. I Google Imaged to get styles that I liked.  Some are very font/letter specific--for example, date in the swirls of a big S--but that gave me ideas on what I could do with ours.


Tips:
 - It's all about the layering. If you are doing text boxes, an easy way to bypass the frustration people have with Publisher is they don't get how to layer. If everything is based on the big D in the back, set that as you base and add to it. If something isn't working, right click and go to Order.  You can pay with bring to front, or Send Backward to get the correct set up.


 - Save as picture!  A lot of little boxes and look confusing while you're working on it.  All you have to do to see the final project is collect all the boxes click over and drag until you have all the boxes enclosed, when you let go you should see everything selected.  Carefully right click, without losing all the boxes, and click Save as Picture.  Make sure to save as a .jpeg and you can use your creation anywhere!


 - If you have trouble with the layers, save the base as a picture and work from there. I did that with the big "&" since it was just not working for me!


 - Have a little bit of patience. You will get the hang of it! Worse comes to worst, gather your inspiration monograms and head to etsy! Buying a monogram would be the cheapest expense of your wedding!


I still want to learn:
 - How to weave some of the boxes into eachother. There has to be a way. I love monograms that look interwoven.


 - Embelishments. So far I've only done plain letters and one with lines.  I love the type with scrolls and such, but I have not ventured there yet!


Some of my creations:

(last name taken out for internet security)

Giving it up...

It’s Lent! While I’m not very religious (note the non-church ceremony), I was raised Catholic. I normally do not observe Lent, I usually eat meat on Friday’s without realizing and I never give something up. However, this year I am attempting to. Not for God, but a cause bigger than myself—my wedding!

I will be attempting to go 40 days, 40 nights without using credit cards. Now, I am not a credit card fiend, but I do have the occasional charge here and there—and those babies add up! I have slowly weaned myself off the 4 regular cards that I used constantly and only charge on 2 for emergencies. One, the card with the lowest balance ironically, doesn’t even travel with me. This could also be because I have no idea where it is.

Anyway, wish me luck! I will keep everyone updated with my progress.

p.s. I apologize if this post offends anyone’s religious beliefs. It’s meant in a light hearted nature. Happy Ash Wednesday.

Color Decisions!

I will start this off by saying that I LOVE pink! However, I do not want to have pink as my main color because pink will always be a sloppy second to the color grey.  I must wear grey every other day. It's just about my favorite neutral.  

Picking my accent color was very hard for me!  While I do have a love for pink, I think FI would kill me.  Plus, my MOH has just held an absolutely gorgeous pale pink wedding and as much as I loved it, I need my own color :) I knew right off the bat that I wanted my girls in a charcoal grey dress, but here were my accent color choices:

PURPLE!
This is currently my front runner. 

I would also be able to incorporate some pink in the flowers as well:

TEAL

The problem with Teal is there are a million different versions of teal and I would drive myself crazy trying to coordinate the colors.  The thing I like about teal, is it's a little more gender neutral (compared to purple at least) and since we are getting married on the Hudson, it has that water feel to it.

Sort of like this, with a deeper teal

NAVY

The Navy/Grey combo is very classic and would go very well with our love of the Yankees and FI's profession (cop).  I like it, but I don't want to miss out on the POP of color. Navy is still considered a neutral.  On the plus side, I could possible incorporate the pink! ha

We'll see as we get closer as to which color choice will win out!