Engagement Announcement In Purple, White And Gray – An Illustrator Tutorial
This is part 3 in my series of tutorials for those who just got engaged (Congrat-ulations!).
In the two previous tutorials, we created Engagement Announcements using Microsoft Word, and today, we’re making one in Illustrator. You can obviously adapt this to be a Save the Date card, or even Wedding Invitations by making just a few changes (and perhaps doing a vertical instead of horizontal layout). To zoom in on the screen shots, just click on them and they will open larger in a new window.
If you’re new to Illustrator, you may want to take a look at my posts about the tools, notes and problem solvers and maybe read through another one of my Illustrator tutorials.
Today we’re making this card in two different versions:
and we’re using another vector file by one of my favorite designers, jlwDesign
This is how to do it:
1. Open a new document in Illustrator.
2. Draw a 6.25×4.5 box (which will fit in all standard size A2 envelopes).
3. Fill the box with R195, G160, B178 and make the border black.
4. Lock the layer with the box.
5. Download the Swirly Curls illustration here. (Read the License Agreement).
6. Unzip it and open the ai file. The easiest way to isolate 
the design element we want is to go through and click on everything we don’t want and delete it (don’t save the file after you’ve done that, just leave it open for now). Once you have only the swirly curls left, select all of them, copy and paste them into a new layer in your announcement document. While they’re still all selected, group them and then turn them 180 degrees (by right clicking and going to Transform – Rotate.) Go back and close swirly curls file without saving it.
7. On your card, pull the entire curly design as close to the upper left hand corner of your purple card as you can without too much of it going over the edge of your card.
8. Now, we need to tweak the illustration a bit, and what I did was this:
With your black arrow, click on the design and go to Object – Ungroup.
With your black arrow, click on the part of the illustration that is on the lower right hand side and drag it down into the corner.
We also need to delete a few pieces, so with your white arrow, click on the parts that you don’t want and hit Delete. I deleted these:
Now we want to make sure the design goes all the way out to the edge on the left and also that no parts are “hanging out” over the edges.
First, click with your white arrow on the leaf that’s too long on the bottom, and while it’s selected, switch to the black arrow. That puts a box around just that part of the design, and you want to pull on the handles until the leaf is inside the border.
Next, click on the white part of the design in the upper left hand corner and do the same thing, except this time, you pull the handles outward towards the border until it looks nice. You probably want to zoom in when you’re doing this, it’s pretty hard to get it perfect otherwise.
Next, click on the white part about halfway down and do the same thing.
Now, with your black arrow, drag around the entire design (except for the part in the lower right hand corner) and group it (by going to Object – Group). Make sure the layer with your purple box is locked when you do this, otherwise that’ll be part of the group. The curlies are a little bit too wide, so just grab the middle handle of the box around the design and push it to the left a little bit.
9. Lock this layer and add a new one for the text.
10. Select your text tool and type in your text. I put it in three separate boxes so that I could easily move them around. I used Bernhard Fashion BT 24pt with a 1pt border for the top box, and colored it R137, G53, B88. The middle box is Bernhard Fashion BT 28pt with a 1pt border in white, and the bottom box is Bernhard Fashion BT 21pt with a 1pt border, same color as the top box. Need help with fonts? Read my earlier posts about font ideas and how to add fonts to your computer.
11. Lastly, select your purple box and get rid of the black border (I like to have it there as a guide while I’m designing a card, but not when printing it.)
That’s it, you’re done. I would put two of these on each sheet, print them on heavy, white cardstock and trim them to size. I think rounded corners give them a nice, finished look, and it’s easy to achieve with a rounded corner punch, available at any craft store.
If you want to add a photo to the card, just create a new layer and to go File – Place and select one from your computer. What I did was place the photo on its own layer, created a new layer and drew a transparent circle. I then placed the circle over the part of the photo I wanted to show (but still on a separate layer), selected both and went to Object – Clipping Mask – Make. That turns the shape you drew into a clipping mask and you are left with just that part of the photo visible. I then added a drop shadow to make it stand out from the background a little bit. To do that, select your photo and go to Effect – Stylize – Drop Shadow. Play with the settings a little bit (with Preview checked) until you like it.
More Font Ideas For Your Wedding Stationery
As I mentioned in an earlier post, the fonts you choose for your stationery help set the tone for the entire event. If you have a theme for your wedding, be it the 60s, Arabian nights or a Victorian tea party, you can be sure there is a font out there that works.
Of course, even if you don’t have a theme for your wedding, you still need fonts, and fortunately, there are tons of free fonts available online. Below are some examples of cool fonts that I really like. Read my “How To Add Fonts To Your Computer” post if you need help finding and downloading them. For layout ideas, check out my word and Illustrator tutorials.
Handwriting Fonts
For a more informal look, fonts simulating handwriting are great, and give the whole affair a more laid back, casual look.
Bernhard Fashion BT
Bettys Hand
Brush Script
Brush Flash
Dali
Daniela
Handscript
Joe Hand 2
LizzieLongstocking
Mistral
Stylograph
Tekton Bold
Classic Sans Serif Fonts
Some classic fonts that always are in style are the sans serif Helvetica, Optima, Gill Sans and Arial. It’s hard to go wrong with either of them. For a similar look with a tad more pizzazz, check out Champagne & Limousines. It’s a bit more rounded with thin, elegant lines.
Arial
Avian
Aubrey
Berlin Sans FB
Champagne & Limousines
Gill Sans
Helvetica
Optima
Tyro Sans
Script Fonts
These fonts give the invitation a nice formal look. If you don’t want to use them for the entire text, they are great for making the bride and groom’s names stand out.
Adine Kirnberg Script
Champignon
English Script
Kunstler Script
Linotype Zapfino
Nuptial Script
Park Avenue
Ribbon 131 Bold BT
Small Caps
Small caps are very popular and add a sophisticated feel. And they are easy to read.
Atlantic Inline-Normal
Bank Gothic Light BT
Biondi
Carleton
Copperplate Gothic Light
Encino
Farfel ICG
Graverplate
Kismet-Normal
LitographLight
Perpetua titling
Socrates
Miscellaneous Favorites
These are a few other of my favorite fonts that don’t really fit into any of the other categories:
Aerofoil
Arcane Wide
Architecture
Colonna MT
Croix Regular
Elisia Openface Regular
Papyrus
Stylus BT
University
What about fonts for the aforementioned 60s, Arabian nights or a Victorian tea party themes? I think any one of these would work nicely:
1960s
Alba
BellBottomLaser
Dreamland
LMS Hippy Chick
Arabian Nights
Arabian
Arabolical
XXII Arabian Onenightstand
Kara Ben Nemsi
Victorian Tea Party
Armenian Circus
Belshaw
Trinigan
Happy font hunting! 
Make Your Own Save The Date Cards Using Microsoft Word
In today’s tutorial, we’re using Microsoft Word to create a Save The Date card. While you can’t do as much with the illustrations in Word as you can in Illustrator, I do realize that not everyone has access to graphics programs, or have time to learn them for just one project.
For those of you who are interested in continuing to design your own cards and other items though, I think Adobe Illustrator is a very worthwhile investment. And if you’re a student (or faculty), you can get it for a really good price ($199 as opposed to $599 for Illustrator CS4). Sometimes you can get a lower price even if you’re just taking an evening course, so definitely check that out.
I’m calling today’s Save The Date card “China Dream” because that’s what the illustration we’re basing it on is called, and here how it all comes together:
1. Download China Dream by Mariannasm here. Read the License & Usage.
2. Unzip the file
3. Open a word document. Go to Insert – Picture – From File and click on the jpg of the unzipped file.
4. Right click on the illustration and go to Format Picture. In the Size tab, uncheck “Lock Aspect Ratio” and put in the dimensions you want (I made mine 4×6). In the Layout tab, select “Behind Text” in the Wrapping Styles. Click OK.
5. Go to Insert – Text Box and drag a text box anywhere on the page (it’s a little bit easier to work with if it’s not right on top of the illustration for right now). Right click on the text box and go to Format Text Box. In the Colors and Lines Tab, select No Fill and No Line.
6. Type in your text. I used Papyrus 14 pt for the text part and Adine Kirnberg Script 32pt for the bridge and groom, all aligned right. If you don’t have either of those fonts, pick others that you like, or download them for free here (they don’t have Papyrus, but they have a very similar one called Parchment).
A word on fonts: If you don’t like the fonts I used or the ones you have on your computer, look on the internet – there are tons available for free online. You just need to download the ones you want and add them to your font library. See my “How To Add Fonts To Your Computer” post if you need help with that.
7. Move your textbox over the illustration and position it where you want it. You may have to tweak the size of the type and paragraph spacing a little bit, since we can’t change the illustration in Word. Once you like what you see, you’re done!
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