Wedding map gift ideas: venue maps, love stories and wood anniversaries

1. Heart piece3mm walnutCut on its own and glued on the venue. Raised, not engraved, so it sits above the streets.
2. Top layer3mm light woodRoads and the names band. The band is solid wood across the heart so the names have a clean surface.
3. Land3mm birchWater cut out, local streets engraved.
4. Water3mm blue acrylicSolid heart-shaped base that shows through the water.

Wedding maps are a standing product line for at least one scaled laser map business, next to city, golf and housewarming maps. Three formats cover most orders:

• Heart map: one place, usually the venue, in a heart with the names and date on a band. 10 to 16 in.
• Love story board: met, engaged, married in separate windows. See love story maps.
• Memory poster: a portrait board with a headline like “THE DAY WE SAID YES”, the map, and a message panel.

Center the map on the venue and pick a zoom where the town is recognizable. A river bend, a coastline or a lake does more than a grid of streets. Mark the venue with a raised heart or a pin, and engrave the coordinates under the names.

For a destination wedding, the venue is often outside town. Zoom out until there is a road or shoreline people know, or use two windows: the venue and the hometown.

A heart is a hard shape for a street map. The point of the heart is narrow, and the lobes cut streets off at odd angles. A few things keep it clean:

• Let the frame band do the holding. Every road that reaches the edge ties into the band, so no piece of street floats loose at the point.
• Put the names on a solid band across the heart, not engraved into the land. Raised streets running through letters read as a mistake.
• Raise the venue marker. A small walnut heart cut on its own and glued on top stands out more than an engraved one sitting under the street layer.
• Leave the name off the edge. On a narrow heart border, a second line of text at the point looks cramped. One band of text is enough.
• Mask before you engrave so smoke stays off the light wood, and dry-stack the layers before any glue goes on.

The same rules apply to any odd frame: star, house or state outline. More in designing maps that sell and premium map finishing.

These are ideas we think are worth testing. We did not find sources showing how well they sell, so try them with one planner or one couple before you build a line around them.

• Guest book alternative: a large engraved map of the town with a wide frame band for guests to sign. Test your pen and finish on a scrap of the same wood first.
• Table maps: name each table after a place in the couple’s story, with a small map of that place on the table sign. Several small maps can be laid out and cut on one sheet.
• Favors: engraved map coasters of the venue town, sold in sets.
• Wedding party gifts: small map ornaments of the venue, one per person, with the date.

Wood is the traditional 5th anniversary gift, and wood maps are marketed straight at it. Good centers for the map: the city where they met, their first neighborhood, the proposal street, or the first trip. “Anniversary map” searches peak in May, alongside wedding season.

This is repeat business. The couple you made a wedding map for is a 5th anniversary customer five years later. Keep their file.

1. 01January to FebruaryMake samples of each format and shoot photos. Valentine’s Day orders for heart maps are your test run.
2. 02MarchListings live with clear lead times. Custom map makers quote anywhere from 7 to 9 business days for small pieces to 3 to 7 weeks for large or custom work.
3. 03April to MayPeak. Proof everything in writing. Names and dates are the order.
4. 04After the weddingNote the date. A card at year five offers the anniversary piece.