A tutorial for creating wedding vow art by filling your initials with your wedding vows. This is a great anniversary or wedding gift.
One of the most special parts of a wedding ceremony is when the couple exchanges their vows. Jesse and I wrote our vows together a few days before our wedding because we wanted them to be unique to us, but similar in structure. For our first married Valentine’s Day, I created some wedding vow art by filling our first initials with our wedding vows. I had them framed and they hang in our bedroom as a reminder of our wedding day and the promises that we made to each other.
*This post was originally published January, 2012 and updated on February 9, 2021.*
Tutorial for Creating Typography Wedding Vow Art in Adobe Illustrator
This is a tutorial (via screen shots) for making typography wedding vow art. This project has a bit of a learning curve, but makes for a wonderful anniversary, or Valentine’s Day, gift.
- Start by opening Adobe Illustrator and select Create a New Print Document. This will give you a standard 8.5″ x 11″ picture to work with. Once your page is open select the Type Tool (it looks like the letter T).
- Type your letter in the middle of the page, select your font (I used Monotype Corsiva), and increase the font size to 800. You can use the Selection Tool, the black arrow at the top left of the tool bar, to drag your letter around the page and position it where you like.
- For a script font, like the one I chose, you may need to make your letter thicker to allow for more space for your words. You do this by selecting Stroke and increasing the weight to your desired thickness. Mine is increased to 28 pt.
- Adjust the angle of your letter, if you so choose. For me, the angle of the A in this font left too much white space on the page so I adjusted it to make the A more centered, but still kept the script font I liked. Click Transform and then in the lower right of the box that appears there is a skewed square. Click the box and use your mouse to scroll until your letter is at the angle you prefer.
- Select your letter and go to Object in the toolbar across the top of your page. Select Expand.
- Make sure the boxes next to Object and Fill are selected and click OK.
- Go back to Object and click Expand again. This time your options are Fill and Stroke. Make sure both are selected and click OK. Your letter should now look like this.
- Right click your letter and select Ungroup. Do it again.
- Highlight your entire letter and go to Pathfinder and select Expand. This is going to, in a sense, melt everything together and give you one thick letter.
- Right click your letter and select Release Compound Path.
- Right click again and select Ungroup. This will allow you to type inside your letter without text filling in the holes in your letter.
- Click and hold the Type Tool until a list of other options appears. Select the Area Type Tool.
- Click the upper corner of your letter. A flashing cursor should appear and be in 800 pt. font. Reduce your font size to 12, or whatever size you want, and paste your text inside. It helps if the text is not formatted. You’ll need to paste several times to fill your letter.
- Select the Selection Tool and right click your letter, select Create Outlines.
- Select the middle triangle of the A (or any other letter with a “hole”) then go to Pathfinder. This time select the 2nd Shape Mode icon which is the Subtract from Shape Area icon. Then press the Expand button.
*If for some reason this doesn’t work (it look me awhile) then just select the triangle and change the color to white at the top of the page.*
From there you can make the letter bigger or smaller, then have it printed and framed. Not only is this wedding vow art super cute to just hang in your house all year round, but it would make a great Valentine’s or anniversary present. 
In our old house our vows used to hang over our respective nightstands. I haven’t found a spot for them in the new house yet, but I definitely will be hanging them somewhere! It’s so special to have them hanging where we can see them daily.
For more DIY home decor, be sure to read my napkin throw pillow tutorial!
Thank you! Definitely will be doing this sometime soon! 🙂
What a great tutorial! Thanks for sharing!
Wow, this tutorial is very smart. I used to do it in Photoshop before I knew better.
Thanks for the detailed tutorial, Ashley! Deep purple will look great with this!
Oh this is so sweet! Just in time for Valentines day, or maybe a kids room with words that describe them? Love it!
that is amazing
I love this! Anyone know how to create this in the Silhouette Cameo?
This is such a wonderful anniversary gift idea as well. I want to make one of these!
This is such a creative idea! My parents have been married for 40 years and they’ve had their vows hanging over their bed as long as I’ve been alive, I know that much. When I was younger and would clean the house, I would always pause to read the sweet words they said to each other at just 17 and 19 years old. I didn’t do anything with my wedding vows (aside from storing them in a document on my hard drive) but this is a great idea for the future! Lots of work, but well worth it!
WOW! What a beautiful idea! I love how this turned out. Sending this to an engaged friend!