help plz with sampler design

Have you considered putting their names in a circle (John and Mary and

- then it's always John and Mary or Mary and John) and the date in the middle?

Are we talking "her name/his name" as ElizabethAnn and Bo, or are we talking her name/his name as in Mary Katzenellenbogen and Sam Wu?

If the two first names are more or less the same length, then I think I'd do just first names and only his last name. John ~JONES~ Mary

or John + Mary JONES May 1, 2006

Another idea.

If you put the names in a heart, with her name in the wide part and his name in the narrow part, it won't look nearly as imbalanced. Everyone will think how wonderful it was that she married someone whose name fit so neatly into the heart. :) Then you'd just need to make your "&" ornate enough and big enough to use up a lot of the space between the names so that each name has the same number of stitches between it and the heart outline.

If there's really a huge discrepancy between the names and you'd wind up with an "&" 100 stitches high to make that work, then piece out with rows of flowers:

/ \/ \ MaryMargaret * * * & * * * Mo \/

(Not even going to try to ASCII-draw the rest of the heart around that. )

Side by side is nice, if you can fit it ;-) In any case, the traditional way is to have the woman's name first.

Can you make it all on one line? I think

Elizabeth and Bob

tends to look a little better than

Elizabeth and Bob

Or, could you pad his name a little bit by adding his middle name? Or, if they share a last name now, you could go with

Elizabeth and Bob Smith

perhaps with the "Smith" in larger letters.

Hmmm, maybe I'm not geting the layout. Is this a band sampler, or how is the thing laid out?

I think that's just a personal choice based on your design sense. I can see any of the above working out, depending on the particular situation. Sometimes it works well to have the border in a different color, but a similar value. On the other hand, how the balance appears will depend on what two hues you're using, so there's really no substitute for just laying it out and seeing how the colors in question look.

Best wishes, Ericka

Val In this age and time , i think putting the names side by side would be nicer. You could enhance the number of seprating threads between his letters

Elizabeth & B o b Elizabeth Smithson & B o b O n e i would put the date Exactly in the middle of their names

As to colors sifferent colorings would be neat ,,, mirjam

Karen C - California wrote: :

Just the first names and the date below.

like Elizabeth and John

I realize now that true center is not always same as spatial center. I may have to push the 'and' or the "&" to the right.

By the way, do you think the 'and' is classier than an ampersand?. Same or lighter color? I don't want more than two colors on an ecru background for the whole thing.

Since we're dealing with a long first name, "and" might be better for balance.

I do all the lettering in one color.