New menus, place cards, thank yous & more!

We're thrilled to announce that menu cards, place cards, thank you cards, and details (or directions) cards are now available on our website! To celebrate, we're offering 10% off your entire shopping cart through August 31st (enter code HLBLOG0809 at checkout)!

Our menu cards and place cards are pretty cool in that we can print your guests' names directly on them (you e-mail us an Excel spreadsheet after placing your order; additional fee applies). That way, your menu can do double duty as a place card, and you don't need to worry about writing guests' names by hand. We can even personalize place cards with guest's entree choices (a small icon in the corner). Oh, and matching table number cards are available to go with any of our designs!

Our thank you cards are digitally printed (or letterpress printed, if you feel like a splurge!) on nice thick cotton cardstock - perfect for written correspondence! If you just need a few and would like to indulge in letterpress, check out our non-personalized letterpress thank you cards, many of which match our invitation designs.

Our details cards are a great way to communicate directions and transportation info (e.g. where and when shuttle buses will be leaving), details on attire, children, additional weekend events (such as a post-wedding brunch or welcome reception), and wedding website.  Each one is designed to match the wedding invitation suite - especially love the little double decker bus on the Visit London details card!

Hope you enjoy these stationery bits! They're the perfect way to tie your theme or style through your entire wedding!

Mad Men meets Hello!Lucky

We at Hello!Lucky are huge fans of Mad Men (2nd season DVD came out 2 weeks ago!). Love the styling, the title credits, the outfits...everything about it! So we were psyched to discover the Mad Men Yourself app that just launched on the AMC website.  You can outfit yourself in a hip 50's outfit, with the obligatory cigarette, martini glass, or fur stole. Hours of entertainment! Here's the Hello!Lucky staff, mad-menned!

Co-founders Eunice and Sabrina

Our San Francisco designers and stationery consultants -- Shauna, Anna, Meredith, Corie, Lia, and Jessica

Heather, our shipping manager, along with our pressmen: James, Max, and Aaron

Christina, our finance manager, and Chun Yee, our Brooklyn-based partner in crime.  And last but not least our intrepid London office - Kelly and Iain!

Endless hours of entertainment. Happy Friday!

Thanks to Meredith for the tip!

Behind the scenes at Hello!Lucky

The intrepid Ms. Lia Lafreniere took these behind-the-scenes snaps of our studio a while back, and we thought we'd share them! Our space is an old button factory in downtown San Francisco - it's got a real club-house-y kind of feel...

Here's what you see when you come up the stairs to our offices...

We have flea market finds all over the place - including this be-bowed quail!

Downstairs is our press room and packaging area, where we do all our letterpress printing and ship out greeting card orders.

Aaron and James, two of our letterpress pressmen, getting ready to work on their vintage Heidelbergs...

The amazing and dexterous Francois helps finish orders that need ribbons, envelope liners, etc. He made that amazing paper dress on the mannequin upstairs!

Our packaging area, piled high with boxes and envelopes!

Back upstairs, we have some vintage shelves where we display our cards...right now that area is full of boxes of supplies for our new crafting book we're working on!

Our design department, led by Eunice our Creative Director, and whipped into shape on a daily basis by Shauna, designer and taskmaster extraordinaire!

Some of our invitations - getting ready to be checked, assembled and shipped to happy brides!

We welcome visitors, so if you're in the Bay Area, come on over! We're open 9 - 6, Monday - Friday and while we have a retail-ish area, it's best to make an appointment to look at invitations or chat with our staff. We're a small, super-friendly shop, and love it when people stop by!

Renegade Craft Fair

Hey all! We're going to be at the Renegade Craft Fair this weekend in San Francisco. Come on down and check it out! We'll be signing books at the Chronicle Books booth on Sunday, too. And, one of our favorite collaborators, Kate Sutton, will be there from the UK!

Tweet, tweet!

Yes, it's true! We've joined the masses of tweeting wall-writers! Follow us on Twitter and Facebook for news, deals, and more!

Wedding stationery shopping list

We just learned that a bunch of our coordinating wedding stationery was featured in a recent edition of Brides local magazines! We're so thrilled about this because we always get asked whether we can do coordinating items to match a bride's wedding invitation suite. The answer is YES, and with our new digital printing option, it is super affordable! Thanks, Brides!

Maker Faire

We're exhibiting again this weekend at the Maker Faire, at the San Mateo Expo Center. Looking forward to checking out all the fabulous crafts and DIY projects! Come visit us in the main Expo hall!

Donna Hay General Store

Donna Hay opened a gorgeous new home wares store recently in Woolahra, Sydney, Australia.  For those of you not in the know, Donna is an internationally renowned cookbook author, magazine editor and homewares designer.

Emilie Goldstein, the retail manager, shared these lovely pictures of the beautifully styled shop interior.

We're thrilled that our letterpress greeting cards are carried there as part of a hand-picked letterpress stationery selection.

Just two of the many designs Donna selected for the shop.

The bottom one reminds us of Donna's gorgeous desserts!

Her magazines and website are full of simple, pretty inspired recipes and crafts like this doily table runner and hand drawn place mats.

Here's Donna outside the store. Sounds like it's been going swimmingly - can't wait for her to open one here in the States!

D*S: In the Kitchen with Eunice!

Kristen over at D*S posted Eunice's recipe for Eaton Mess today (a tribute to her brand-spanking new British hubby, Daniel!). So delicious and refreshing for a summer day!

Limited Edition Prints Featured on D*S

It was so exciting to see our new limited edition Woodland prints featured on Design*Sponge! We worked with some of our favorite artists, including Julia Rothman, Kate Sutton and Lab Partners, to create their own interpretations of the "Woodland" theme, and couldn't be more excited by the results! We even created one ourselves (above). Each print is 12" x 18" and is available for purchase here. Each one is printed in a limited quantity of 250, so when they are gone, they're gone!

{Kate Sutton}

{Lab Partners}

{Julia Rothman}

National Stationery Show

As always, there was a lot to take in at the National Stationery Show! It was hard to pry ourselves away from our booth, but we did manage to nip out to see what's new with some of our favorite designers. One of our favorite new products is this genius LCD card by Yellow Owl Workshop.

Also love this lucky horseshoe calendar from Hammerpress.

New gift wrap from EIEIO.

New cards featuring stitched scrap materials from Pikku.

Pretty fabric-covered magnets and tacks from Girl of All Work (these would be great for hanging wedding seating cards!)

Simple, elegantly packaged boxes of quotes from Spilt Milk and Cookies -- a great favor idea for showers. The lovely owners happen to be the parents of Jon Retsky, co-founder of the Bay Area's leading special events lighting design firm, Got Light?, and a friend of H!L (small world!).

Fantastic graphic cards from Fugu Fugu Press.

Prints of the designs from Binth's amazing Joker playing card series, along with stunning new card designs.

One of our favorite new cards, by H!L designer Shauna Leytus - dancing dreidels! Yea!

Another great show, and always inspiring!

Hello!Lucky: Best Wedding Invitations!

Whoa! We just got named "Best Wedding Invitations" in San Francisco Weekly's Best of San Francisco 2009!  H!L greeting card retailer The Bell Jar also won in the "Best New Gift Boutique" category - double whoa!! (Congratulations, Sasha!). Even though we create wedding invitations for brides all over the country (and world!), it's an extra-special honor to be recognized by our home town, which is so full of talented designers (many of whom we got the chance to catch up with this week at the National Stationery Show). Check out the write-up on our invitations here.

We'd like to thank the Academy, our husbands, all our dedicated, creative and talented employees and clients (you know who you are), Richard Siebert, who taught a couple of cute girls how to print way back when while regaling us with stories of Berkeley in the 70's, chain smoking and wearing a "Bianca's Smut Shack" t-shirt, and all the mentors and friends who have helped us along the way...our mom and dad...blah blah blah...(cue music!!). Thanks again, San Francisco Weekly!

National Stationery Show, here we come!

It's that time of the year again!  We're heading to the National Stationery Show today, and super excited to catch up with all our favorite designers, friends, customers, bloggers, and editors again, and of course to be in one of our favorite cities!

Here are the details:

Booth 1434 National Stationery Show Jacob Javitz Center Sunday, May 17 - Wednesday, May 20

Please feel free to stop by!

 Above: Adapted from our Visit New York Wedding Invitation and Save the Date by Lab Partners for Hello!Lucky

Eunice & Daniel's wedding

Eunice & Daniel's Tim Walker-inspired wedding was last weekend in a valley near Wilbur Hot Springs in Northern California! We're so excited we can barely contain ourselves - it was so amazing and wonderful!

We can't share more at the moment as will be featured in an upcoming issue of Martha Stewart Weddings, but stay tuned for behind-the-scenes blog posts on the Martha blog and look out for the article!

In the meantime, the happy couple is heading out to Europe on their honeymoon. Huzzah!

New Sock Monkey Cards!

Our new Sock Monkey greeting cards are here, now available on our website! Nerd Monkey (above) has got to be our favorite (purchase the card to see the back, which features a Super Monkey lunch box and Monkey's report card!)

I say, old chap!  Here is our monkey on safari, complete with pith helmet!

Our extremely, er, camp sailor sock monkey saluting you on your birthday!

And, finally, Monsieur Monkey, the mustachioed accordion player.

Check out our entire sock monkey greeting card collection here.

New Joel Dewberry & EIEIO designs!

After months of anticipation, the new Joel Dewberry and EIEIO designs are available for purchase on our website! The Sparrows wedding invitation design, above, based on Joel's Aviary collection is one of our favorites.

Joel's gorgeous fabrics can be found in all kinds of applications like this gorgeous tote bag from Ivan & Mary that we spotted on Style Me Pretty last fall. You can also buy his fabric by the yard here that you can use for crafting projects (think bridesmaid purses, fabric-covered  headbands, welcome bags, and table runners!).

 Shangri-la (show above) is another favorite.

EIEIO's  modern designs are sleek and refreshing. Meadow (shown above) is so perfect for an outdoor wedding, we can barely stand it! The subtle lines look gorgeous letterpress printed.

We're also loving Poppy Stripe in this red, gravel and pool colorway, inspired by many of EIEIO's beautiful paper designs (especially Flower Pop). Again, EIEIO's papers are perfect for crafting accessories -  napkin rings, wrapping favors, envelope liners, you name it!

All of the designs are available either letterpress or digitally printed; coordinating items such as menus, place cards, directions cards, programs, and thank you notes are available for order via phone/e-mail (contact us for more details). All colors can be customized, too!

Alex's baby shower

We got ready to welcome the latest Hello!Lucky baby into the world recently. The expectant mom: Alex, one of our stationery consultants! We threw a shower for her at our studio, the highlight of which was the fabulous hand-crafted items created by our staff! Here's an adorable elephant baby snapsuit by Haley.

It even has a cute heart on the butt!

Shauna knitted Alex these adorable booties and hat.

And Jessica embroidered this cute baby tee with a snail (it says "snail" in German).

Since Alex is German, this was a definite theme. The highlight of the tasty treats was a delicious German Potato Salad by James, complete with its own authentic signage.

Stay tuned for updates as the latest Hello!Lucky baby arrives!

Sneak peak: New designs by Joel Dewberry

And now for a sneak peak of our new wedding designs, part deux - Joel Dewberry! Joel is an incredibly talented textile designer and whose fabrics we'd been coveting! When we finally met we instantly connected - we completely identify with his "eclectic modern" philosophy  - it was a match made in heaven! Here's a sneak peak of the results of our collaboration on a new wedding invitation collection...

These designs will be available exclusively on our website in 2 weeks (both letterpress and digital). Check back soon, and check out Joel's amazing fabrics here.

Sneak peak: New designs by EIEIO

We have long been huge fans of Jean Orlebeke over at EIEIO - she's created an amazing range of modern gift wrap designs, which are sold at high-end boutiques (think MoMA design store). She's hands-down one of the most talented designers we know, so we were thrilled when she agreed to collaborate with us on an exclusive collection of wedding invitation designs! Here's a sneak peak...

We're so excited to be working with Jean! This designs will be available in both letterpress and digital formats on our website in the next 2 weeks. Check back for more info, and call us to order in the meantime!

Photos by Sara Remington.

Freedom to Marry

We're thrilled to be contributing to the upcoming Freedom to Marry fundraiser at Amy Kuschel Bride benefiting Equality of California. It's going to be a great party, organized by I Do! Wedding & Event Design, catered by Joshua Charles, and featuring a show of Amy's 2009 bridal collection. Here are the details - everyone's invited!

Thursday, February 12, 2009 National Freedom to Marry Day 6 - 8 p.m. Amy Kuschel Design Studio 23 Grant Avenue, 5th Floor San Francisco, California

RSVP to Ruby@amykuschel.com (and if you can't make it, make a donation to EQCA!)

Photo credit: Photomischa