Wedding stationery has one typographic convention everybody recognises — the names in a flowing script, everything else in something quieter — and it works. What goes wrong is rarely the choice of script. It is the size the script is printed at, what it is paired with, and asking it to do jobs it was never drawn for.
The script is for names, not for directions
A formal script is at its best on a few words that matter: the couple’s names, perhaps a single line like “together with their families”. The date, the venue, the time and the reply details need to be read quickly by a guest standing at a fridge, and a script slows that down. Put the practical information in a serif or a sans and let the script have the moment it is good at.
Scripts worth considering
Alex Brush is the most readable of the formal scripts here — a steady slant, smooth joins and capitals that sweep without tangling. Great Vibes is more ornate, with larger loops. Pinyon Script has the crisp contrast of copperplate engraving. Mrs Saint Delafield looks like a confident signature and is the most dramatic of the four; it needs space and size.
The full set is on the calligraphy style page, and every script in the handwriting category can be previewed with your own names typed in.
The partner does most of the work
The second typeface carries more words than the script, so it deserves as much thought. A classical serif is the traditional choice: Cormorant Garamond is elegant and light, and DM Serif Display gives a bolder, more modern contrast. For a clean, contemporary card, a thin geometric sans set in spaced-out capitals is the other well-worn route. The general method is in our font pairing guide.
Three mistakes that ruin a good script
- All capitals. Script capitals are drawn to begin a word, with swashes that expect lowercase to follow. A row of them collides and becomes unreadable. Always set a script in upper and lowercase.
- Too small. Hairlines that look fine on a monitor can disappear in print, especially with foil or letterpress. Give a script at least twice the size of the body text, and ask the printer for a proof.
- Letter-spacing. A joining script is designed so each letter meets the next. Adding space breaks the joins and leaves gaps in every word.
Using them for printed stationery
Every font on this site can be used for printed invitations and for designs you sell, with no fee and no credit required. If you are sending files to a printer, embed the fonts in the PDF — the default in every current design program. The details of what the licence allows are in what the Open Font License lets you do.
Sizes and hierarchy on a five-by-seven card
An invitation is a small poster with four levels of information, and the usual mistake is setting three of them at the same size. A structure that works on almost every card: the names largest, the event line next, the practical details in a plain face at reading size, and the reply instruction smallest.
- Names: 28 to 40pt in the script. This is the only line anybody photographs.
- The event line — "invite you to celebrate their marriage" — at 11 to 14pt, in the partner face.
- Date, time and venue at 10 to 12pt. This is the part guests come back to, so it has to survive being read at arm’s length on a fridge.
- Reply details and the website at 9 to 10pt, and no smaller — foil and letterpress both lose fine detail below that.
The printing method changes the font choice
- Letterpress presses the letter into the paper, so hairlines thicken and very fine scripts lose their delicacy. Choose a script with an even stroke, and go a size up.
- Foil needs a minimum stroke width to hold the metal. The thinnest parts of a high-contrast script are exactly where foil fails.
- Digital and inkjet hold fine detail well, which is what makes them forgiving of the more delicate scripts.
- Engraving is the opposite of letterpress and rewards contrast — it is where a copperplate script looks best.
Whichever method, ask the printer for a proof on the real stock before the run. A script that looked elegant on screen and closed up on cotton paper is a lesson best learned on one card rather than a hundred.
Check the letters in the actual names
Decorative scripts are the likeliest faces in any archive to be missing an accent. Before you commit, set the real names — with every ı, İ, ğ, ş, ö, ü, ç, é, ñ or å they contain — in the specimen on the font’s own page. Every font page here lists the alphabets the file really covers, measured from its character table rather than from what the designer claimed, and the character map on each one shows the individual letters.
If a letter is missing, the design program will substitute it from another font and the name will be set in two typefaces — which nobody notices on screen and everybody notices on card.
The suite, not the invitation
An invitation is rarely alone: there is a save-the-date months earlier, then menus, place cards, an order of service and a website. They are read in different conditions — a place card at 30cm, a sign across a room — and using the same two faces throughout is what makes them look like one event rather than six separate jobs.
Write the system down once: the script for names only, the partner face for everything else, three sizes, and one alignment. Then each new piece is a five-minute decision instead of a new design. Both faces should be from this archive or otherwise licensed for commercial printing, because a venue or a printer may well set something for you at the last minute.