Bad Wedding Marketing from Sharpie Marker Pens

Basi­cally Sharpie want me to tell you that their mark­ers are great for wed­dings. Write your guest names in big fat felt tips (admit­tedly in pretty colours) on place names. Per­fick! If you can squidge all those fat let­ters onto your del­i­cate place names…

Hand­writ­ten wed­ding place name card — def­i­nitely not with a Sharpie!!

It ain’t that easy to sell chunky felt tips to a calligrapher

Just say­ing. If I was in Sharpie’s mar­ket­ing depart­ment I’d be feel­ing a lit­tle sheep­ish. They even phoned me up to tell me how good their big fat pens were. I explained that I was a wed­ding cal­lig­ra­pher, and could there­fore blog about their pens and share the press release with you, but might not be entirely com­pli­men­tary. They seemed pleased… ?!!

Sharpie’s big fat pens — the one size fits all wed­ding solution?

“When it comes to pick­ing the ideal wed­ding dec­o­ra­tions, invi­ta­tions, favours and all the other lit­tle things that help to make your big day extra spe­cial, the choices can be over­whelm­ing. At the same time, it can be hard to find some­thing that fits you and your other half perfectly.

“With Sharpie, the UK’s favorite per­ma­nent marker, this needn’t be an issue as you can uncap the free­dom to cus­tomise your day and cre­ate the per­fect addi­tions to any wed­ding, hen party or stag do.” [I can see they’d be good for writ­ing L plates in a sin­gle stroke…]

“Avail­able in 24 bright and bold colours, plus an out­stand­ing metal­lic range in sil­ver, bronze and gold, Sharpie mark­ers are the ideal option for the cou­ple who want their wed­ding to stand out from the crowd and say some­thing about them.”

They’re also good for after school clubs, art lessons for the under-11s and draw­ing Dan­ger­mouse / Homer Simp­son / Mr Men char­ac­ters with.

My big fat marker pen wed­ding decor… and other options

I do think you can get away with using Sharpie pens for bits of your wed­ding decor. If you’re hav­ing a DIY or rus­tic theme they’ll work for scrib­bled name tags, quirky signs and hand­writ­ten head­ings on your menu or seat­ing plan.

Wed­ding writ­ing — not with a Sharpie, but with a sharp pen. They’re as dif­fer­ent as chalk and helicopters.

The finer things in life… wed­ding writ­ing tips

For your wed­ding invi­ta­tions, full-name place cards, smaller tags and any ele­gant wed­ding styling, step right away from the Sharpie mark­ers! You can ruin an invi­ta­tion or a del­i­cate place card by cram­ming names in with a chunky pen.

Either hire a cal­lig­ra­pher or use a lovely foun­tain pen to write any­thing you’d like to look ele­gant and grace­ful. If a pro­fes­sional wed­ding cal­lig­ra­pher is out of your bud­get, find a friend or an aun­tie or uncle with lovely hand­writ­ing to help out.

Any joined up hand­writ­ing can look good as long as it fits with your wed­ding style. Prac­tice makes per­fect, and using a pen you enjoy writ­ing with will make all the dif­fer­ence. Trust your­self with a lovely pen — and if you’re not con­fi­dent about your hand­writ­ing then the last thing to use is a Sharpie! The fat­ter the pen you use, the clum­sier your let­ters will be.

Here’s the offi­cial exam­ple — make your own mind up!

Sharpie — the offi­cial sell for big fat wed­ding pens

And here are a few of mine for com­par­i­son

Cal­lig­ra­phy by Claire — see more by click­ing ‘My Cal­lig­ra­phy’ in the top menu of the Eng­lish Wed­ding Blog or visit www.Calligraphy-for-Weddings.com

www.Calligraphy-for-Weddings.com

So there you have it. Big fat marker pens from Sharpie, per­fect for writ­ing on the sole of your wed­ding shoes. Or pro­fes­sional cal­lig­ra­phy by a wed­ding blog­ger. Who’s not the ideal can­di­date for pro­mot­ing Sharpie pens. Sorry about that.

Oh! And a final point to end with — why the hell are those pens called Sharpie? They’re as sharp as the busi­ness end of a wooden spoon. Just saying!

For more infor­ma­tion and ways to get cre­ative visit: www.sharpie.com