Not fretting over Fonts

My fiance and I are designing our invitations through Zazzle. We selected two fonts for them.

Now that we're thinking about signage at the wedding itself, I decided that I would try to find the same fonts for free. I've read (on Weddingbee, etc) of brides/grooms going so far as to pay for fonts -- I wasn't about to do that; if the fonts weren't available, then I would find something suitable.

But don't fret -- I was able to find the main one: Parisian. I found it within seconds on Font Space.

(example of the font 'Parisian')

And for the other one, P22 PanAm, I haven't been able to find it (for free/open source). PanAm really brought me back to a style of font used around the turn-of-the-century and I suspected that the font was titled for Buffalo's Pan-American Exposition in 1901. That is exactly what we were looking for, as our reception is in a building that was built just at the end of the 1800s and our wedding is not a black-tie event (we didn't want script font thinking that it would convey that the event was overly formal).

(example of the font 'P22 PanAm' - source)

So when I checked out P22's website, I was pleased to see that indeed, the font was created for that reason. According to P22,

"This font was created to help celebrate the centennial of the Pan-American exposition of 1901 which was held in Buffalo, New York. It is based on a variety of printed ephemera from the exhibition (which incidentally is most noted not for the spectacular electrical illuminations provided by nearby Niagara Falls, but rather for the assassination of President William McKinley)." [cite]

One thing that I noticed that P22 was selling their font cheaper (by five cents) on their website than other third-party websites (such as fonts.com) sell them. But, if I were to purchase a font, I would see about buying it directly from the source, as they are the ones that put their sweat equity into designing it in the first place!