Our Solar System

Wedding star maps

The sky over the day you said I do.

The stars above the place you married, at the minute you choose: the vows, the first dance or the last song. The Moon in its real phase, and the planets where they stood.

Design your wedding star map · £19 Open this example
Example: BathSaturday 3 May 2025, 22:30 BSTMidnight navy · 50 × 70 cm

What the sky held that night.

Over Bath at 22:30 on 3 May 2025, worked out by the same engine that draws the print.1

  • The Moon, 43% litA waxing crescent, half way up in the west.
  • MarsHalf way up in the west.
  • JupiterLow in the north-west.
  • 4,219 starsEvery star to magnitude 6.5 above the horizon, the brightest of them Arcturus.

Choosing the minute.

Most couples choose the moment they were pronounced married, the first dance, or simply the first hour of darkness that night. The sky turns through the evening, so each choice gives a different chart, with different stars rising at its edge.

A daytime wedding works too. The print shows the stars that stood above you behind the daylight, and the designer tells you the Sun was up. If you would rather have a night sky, choose the first dark hour of the same day.

The time is read on the clock of the place you married, summer time included, so a wedding abroad prints in its own local time.

Words for a wedding star map.

A title and a line under it. Each opens the designer with the words in place, ready for your names.

Questions about wedding star maps.

What time should I put on a wedding star map?

The minute that matters most to you: the vows, the first kiss, the first dance. If you are not sure, choose the first dark hour of your wedding night; the designer shows whether the Sun was still up.

Can we add our names and the venue?

Yes. The title takes up to 48 characters and each of the two lines under it up to 80, so names, a venue or a line from your vows all fit. The place, the date and time and the coordinates are printed under your words.

Can I make one before the wedding?

Yes. Any date up to the end of 2200 works, so the sky of a wedding still to come is worked out from the same planetary theory and star catalogue as any other.

Which theme suits a wedding print?

Midnight navy is the classic, black is the most dramatic, and cream paper sits well in a light room. The designer draws your own sky in all three side by side.

How accurate is the star map?

We test it. For four reference moments our chart is checked against JPL's Horizons system and the US Naval Observatory: the planets land within 3 arcseconds, the Moon within 12 and the bright navigational stars within 1.5. On a 50 × 70 cm print the worst of them is less than 0.03 mm from where it belongs.1,2,3

What do I get when I buy the print file?

A PNG image of your design at 300 dots per inch, at the size you chose (5,906 × 8,268 pixels for 50 × 70 cm), ready for any printer. Straight after payment we make your file at full size, ready to download from your order page, and we email you a link to it that keeps working.

Design your wedding star map · £19All about the prints

More occasions.

Not sure of the night yet? See the night sky on any date, free, then keep the one you want.

Sources

  1. Our own test of the chart against [2] and [3] for four reference moments (tests/prints-chart.test.js in our code, October 2026): planets within 3″, the Moon within 12″, the navigational stars within 1.5″; under 0.03 mm on a 50 × 70 cm print.
  2. JPL Horizons System, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons
  3. Astronomical Applications Department, US Naval Observatory. aa.usno.navy.mil/data
  4. The IANA Time Zone Database and its notes on how reliable old entries are. iana.org/time-zones, theory.html

The example's names are made up. Prices are in pounds sterling; the print file is a digital download. Every data source is on our credits page.