San Francisco Wedding Fair

Last week we had the pleasure participating in the annual San Francisco Wedding Fair. It was a fabulous event, with delicious food catered by the Four Seasons and a wonderful group of wedding vendors. Above, some of our favorite people: Stacy McCain of Stacy McCain Event Planning, Lisa Neighbors of Blonde Tulip Photography, and Stephanie Watanabe of Atelier Joya.

Good friend and fellow designer Stacy Pancake and her assistant Nicole debuted Stacy's beautiful new, minimalist and gorgeous letterpress wedding invitation collection.

The effervescent Mary Jo Bowling, Editor-in-Chief of the new San Francisco Bride's magazine was there celebrating their inaugural issue!

Floramor Studios  create a series of over-the-top floral displays representing different decades in history (this one is from the 1900's). Love the ostrich feathers!

Event planner Kathy Goodman of Well Rehearsed created a sunny display featuring a yellow parasol and edible cupcake pops!

Showcasing their ultra-modern style was Hartmann Studios furniture rental.

Friend and collaborator Michele Papineau displayed had her impeccable handwriting on display!

And of course, we were there showcasing our wedding invitations, including new designs by Joel Dewberry and EIEIO (stay tuned for more details!).  It was a fun day, and a great resource for Bay Area brides! See everyone again next year!

ISES Top Design

We were thrilled to work with the talented Morgan Doan to create this uber-chic table design for the ISES Top Design competition yesterday. Morgan worked with Blueprint Studio Collection to create the custom-upholstered chairs and table cloth in slate grey.

Hunt Littlefield ceated the gorgeous architectural floral displays, including a stunning orchid chandelier!

We created coordinating letterpress menus in a citrus green and slate grey (using one of our new designs created in collaboration with pattern designer Joel Dewberry), displayed in Japanese book cloth photo frames created by bookbinder Stephanie Haney.

And (drum roll, please!), we won the award for Top Design! Congratulations, Morgan and everyone on the design team!

2009 Preview Party!

We recently held our 2009 Stationery Preview party and are thrilled to report that it was a huge success!  We collaborated with some of the most amazing wedding vendors in the Bay Area to transform our working letterpress studio into a beautiful event space complete with red carpet!  Above, the fab Morgan Doan, event planner extraordinaire and mastermind behind this event, and Sabrina chatting by the welcome table.  Our sponsor booklet featured our new Sparrow design by Joel Dewberry.

Guests arriving...it was a fantastic crowd - some of the best and brightest in weddings...

The studio on its way to being transformed. Got Light? did an amazing job with the lighting and draping - we were truly blown away by the difference a little "pipe and drape" made.  The back-lit bar was provided by Blueprint Studio Collection and Wildflower Linens provided the lovely table clothes. DJ John Jow turned the place into a mini-nightclub with his expert music mixing.

Jane Hammond Events provided the seriously delicious hors d'oeuvres, including bite-sized crab cakes, empinadas, and mushroom tartlets and the most amazing brownies of all time.  Andronico's Market provided the excellent wine (selected by the talented Jeffrey Porter).

We made these little buffet signs - the holder was just a standard restaurant sign holder that we spray-painted a matte pink and the orchid pattern on the sign is from one of our new collaborations with Joel Dewberry.

One of the things we were celebrating was the launch of our latest invitation collections including a collaborations with EIEIO, Joel Dewberry, Julia Rothman, and the always amazing Lab Partners.  They did a destination series featuring New York, San Francisco, Hawaii and London (London and New York pictured above).  We've already gotten such and incredible response, we're already thinking about adding some new destinations to the line!

Sharla Flock designed the gorgeous floral arrangments - we love her subtle use of color and texture.

She used pieces from our large collection of flea market found vases and bowls to create an eclectic look.

One of our talented printers, James, did demonstrations of the letterpress printing technique.

We were also celebrating the launch of our new website which we are SO excited about.  The dapper Mr. Daniel James of Three Rings and brilliant event planner, Lisa Feldman, check out the new look.

We had a whole selection of our work on display - this was a variation on our popular Cherry Blossom design - including fan programs, and round menus designed to fit into the dinner plates.  We were also introducing our new digital printing option - an excellent (and fast!) alternative to letterpress (or a budget-friendly way to augment beautiful letterpress invitations).

Gorgeous photography by Allure West.

Thank you so much to all our incredible partners in this event and to everyone who came out for the party!

The Wedding University

Lately we've been chatting with a lot of Bay Area brides who are in the throes of wedding planning, and understandably feeling a little overwhelmed!  So, we were thrilled to hear about our friend and event planner extraordinaire Jubilee Lau's upcoming Wedding University. What a great idea!

This day-long event is an educational seminar to school brides- and grooms-to-be in the myriad aspects of wedding planning, including how to stretch that wedding budget as far as it'll go! Check out the A-list vendors who'll be sharing their expertise here. Check out the U's blog here.

The Wedding University Sunday, February 8, 2009 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. Four Seasons Silicon Valley Tickets are $25 for one guest, $40 for two guests

BAWN Event at Flood Mansion

We were thrilled to co-sponsor a cocktail party and networking event hosted by the Bay Area Wedding Network (BAWN) last week at the glorious Flood Mansion in San Francisco. This is one of the city's iconic wedding venues, perched on a hill top in elegant Pacific Heights, with sweeping views over the bay.

Co-sponsor McCall Associates designed this lovely table setting featuring orchids and bamboo, and a gorgeous citrus colored linens from Wildflower Linens.

Here's a detail of the decorative touches they added to the backs of the chairs - lovely!

Everyone had a grand time, including the effervescent Kathy Goodman of Well Rehearsed!

Gorgeous modern cake by True Confections.

Lovely chocolates by Coco Délice - their chocolates can be customized with a monogram or design and come in a range of adorable favor boxes!

Finally, Curtis & Johan of Perfect Circle Photography did a beautiful job documenting the event.

Chelsea Fuss: Event Designer & Stylist

We just love the pretty, whimsical, vintage-inspired aesthetic of photo stylist and floral & event designer Chelsea Fuss.  She writes her own daily blog, Frolic!, which is a must-read for design and wedding inspiration. It's a gem!

This strawberry table setting with jam jar favors is just so darling!

Some oh-so-inspiring snaps from her photo styling portfolio -  we're especially smitten with her color choices and use of vintage wall papers/fabrics! (Photos by John Valls). Chelsea's work has been featured in the UK's Easy Living magazine, and on some of our favorite blogs, such as Snippet & Ink.

Real Wedding: Heather and Tom

We are so excited to share these amazing photos of Heather and Tom's wedding this past August! We met Heather and Tom when they approached us to work with them on their wedding stationery.  When we heard they were getting married at Heather's dad's home in Cape Cod (where Heather grew up), we were smitten.  Oh, did we neglect to mention Heather's childhood home is an amazing 11-acre property with an apple orchard, pond and a farm house built sometime in the late 1700s?  Obviously, we drew heaps of inspiration from their venue and designed their wedding stationery accordingly - the save the dates and invitations were designed with vintage fruit crate packaging in mind.

Heather looked stunning in French chantilly gown by Liancarlo with a floral motif resembling apple blossoms.

A vibrant color palette of oranges, reds, greens, yellows and pinks was evident throughout.

Guests were greeted with vodka spiked Arnold Palmers (iced tea and lemonade) and Heather walked down the aisle to "You are My Sunshine"  performed by Uni and her Ukelele who also played during the cocktail hour.

We worked with the delightful Allison of Pineapple Productions on these seating cards which Allison threaded onto bamboo skewers and inserted into mini macintosh apples.

Allison writes:

The party tent, provided by UnderCover Tents, featured lanterns in various abstract shapes in the spectrum of late summer colors -- pomegranate red, spicy orange, mango yellow and deep raspberry.  Tables were dressed in linens in the same color palette.

Guests lounged on hay bale "sofas" draped with colorful quilt and outdoor pillows all placed under an heirloom apple tree.  We used upturned antique cranberry crates as occasional tables.  Hanging votives and staked lanterns were placed throughout the property.

Guests danced (and sang) the night away to Sticky Fingers, a Rolling Stones cover band.

Beautiful photos courtesy of Kristin Spencer Photography.  Check out more photos here.

Catering:   The Lobster Trap

Cake:   Delicious Desserts

Flowers:  E. Sandwich Florist

Congratulations Heather and Tom!

Well Rehearsed

Sometimes you meet someone and you can just tell they have equal doses of impeccable style and flawless organizational skills...not to mention a gracious, spot-on formula for creating a memorable, personal celebration...

That's how we felt when we met Kathy Goodman of Well Rehearsed, a San Francisco-based event-planning company that specializes in rehearsal dinners. So you should meet her, too!

Kathy specializes in designing rehearsal dinners. Brilliant idea, right?

Above, a charming Yosemite rehearsal dinner...

..and a fun football-inspired rehearsal dinner for two devoted fans (to USC, and, of course, to each other!).

Keep an eye out for Kathy's work featured in the inaugural issue of San Francisco Brides magazine, coming out in December.

PS. Kathy does all kinds of other parties as well, including bridal showers and baby showers!

Real Wedding: Sandy & Harry

Thanks to Jeannie Savage of Details Details Wedding and Event Planning and Ira Lippke Studios for sharing these stunning photos of Sandy and Harry's wedding this past August in Laguna Beach.  Sandy selected our Cherry Blossom design for her save the date cards and wedding invitations opting for bold and vibrant colors and modern typsestyles.

The creative juices really started flowing when it came to the day of stationery. When Jeannie wondered if the seating cards could be in the exact shape of the blossoms on the invitations, our answer was an enthusiastic yes!

Diecut blossoms on colorful cardstock were artfully arranged on branches and featured calligraphy by Michele Papineau of Papineau Calligraphy.

Round menus fit perfectly into chargers and scallop labels reading "love sweet love" adorned take home candy bags.   Sandy and Harry also provided their guests with to-go boxes of comfort food liked grilled cheese sandwiches and burgers to satisfy their late night cravings.  A much appreciated touch, we're sure!

Love the elegantly simple cake punctuated with blossoms and bands of bright green and dramatically lit lounge area at the reception.

Such a beautiful wedding with so many thoughtful touches (cue gorgeous sunset!)...

For more photos and inspiration, please visit Jeannie's blog.

Real Wedding: Cristy and Charles

Thanks to Geoff White Photographers and Morgan Doan of Events by Morgan for sharing these gorgeous photos of Cristy and Charles' wedding in Half Moon Bay, California. Above, the bride's gorgeous Oscar De La Renta wedding gown.

Hello!Lucky designed programs (and wedding day stationery) with a seashell motif, which Morgan anchored elegantly with starfish. The ceremony aisle and trellis were beautifully decorated with white roses and petals by Edward Bellingeri Design (Note: his website is under construction). The wedding took place at the Ritz Carleton Half Moon Bay.

The bride and groom looked stunning and happy!

Morgan created a glamorous reception, with dramatic lighting design by Got Light? and a delicious chocolate cake with raspberry filling by Susan of Elegant Cheesecakes.

It was a weekend-long affair (the couple hails from New York City), and the ocean theme was carried throughout, including the weekend rehearsal dinner.

See more photographs here. Congratulations, Cristy and Charles!

Photographs courtesy of Geoff White Photographers.

One Love Campaign

We're thrilled to be participating in The One Love Campaign, a new initiative to promote same sex marriage which launched this week. Originating from the recent California same sex marriage ruling and San Francisco's status as a leading destination for same sex weddings, the Campaign's mission is create a national movement to raise awareness and support for all couples of decide to tie the knot.

The Campaign will showcase select high profile Bay Area businesses, of which Hello!Lucky is one, who offer a full range of luxury services for relationships, weddings, events and honeymoons for all couples tying the knot.

The One Love Campaign includes a select list of high profile local businesses representing the first group of vendors openly promoting their services to all gay & straight couples getting married. The One Love Campaign Preferred Businesses offering Wedding Services include:

Hello!Lucky: Hello!Lucky is a specialty design firm, creating vintage-inspired, artisan-printed custom letterpress, social stationary, and wedding invitations. www.hellolucky.com. In honor of The One Love Campaign, Hello!Lucky will donate 5% of each One Love client package to SF Pride, sfpride.org.

One Life, LLC: One Life, LLC established by renowned relationship expert Ali Berlin (the aforementioned co-founder of The One Love Campaign), is a San Francisco based company dedicated to visionary relationships, innovative global service and the active expression of conscious love. As One Life’s passionate leader, Berlin offers both private custom coaching and exclusive wedding officiating services for progressive couples and individuals. www.aliberlin.com In honor of the One Love Campaign, One Life will donate 10% of all One Love affiliated client services to the client’s choice of SF Pride, sfpride.org or SF LGBT Center, sfcenter.org.

Paula LeDuc Fine Catering: For twenty-eight years, Paula LeDuc Fine Catering has pushed the boundaries of what is possible, by creating unique and unforgettable events for each client and their guests. Create, celebrate, experience ~ the extraordinary. www.paulaleduc.com. In honor of the One Love Campaign, Paula LeDuc Fine Catering will donate 5% of your total event catering to the client’s choice of SF Pride, sfpride.org or SF LGBT Center, sfcenter.org.

Alison Events: With a fresh take on weddings, Alison Events doesn't just lead couples down the aisle, but helps them create unique, authentic and inspiring wedding experiences. With a down-to-earth planning process and a sophisticated take on style, we will help you create the wedding of your dreams and enjoy the process along the way. www.alisonevents.com. In honor of the One Love Campaign, Alison Events will donate 2% of each package purchased to SF Pride sfpride.org.

Lisa Lefkowitz Photography: Lisa Lefkowitz has been documenting unions since 1999 and has earned a national reputation for her luminous images and sensitive style. Her approach to weddings is photojournalistic in spirit; she unobtrusively captures each moment as it unfolds. Lisa’s work has been featured in Martha Stewart Weddings, Elegant Bride and Bride’s magazines, as well as many other publications. www.lisalefkowitz.com. In honor of the One Love Campaign, Lisa Lefkowitz Photography will donate 2% of each package purchased to SF Pride sfpride.org.

The Claremont Resort & Spa: Perched majestically on a pristine mountainside in the Berkeley Hills, standing watch over the glistening Golden Gates of The San Francisco Bay, The Claremont Resort & Spa is a San Francisco Bay Area landmark focused on preserving its tradition while conserving the future. From Signature Journeys at Spa Claremont and fitness classes at the newly renovated Club at the Claremont to exquisite Four-Diamond restaurants and the famous Bay Area views, The Claremont is a tradition, an entitlement of generations and America's quintessential grand resort. Please contact The Claremont for special packages. www.claremontresort.com

Mulberry Photography: Mulberry Photography specializes in fashion inspired weddings and portrait photography. Led by husband and wife team Albert and Tari Lewis, these two accomplished professional photographers have made Mulberry Photography an innovative and highly recognized company, with a style that is unmatched in the industry. Mulberry Photography has studio offices in Lake Tahoe & Palm Springs, but travel globally to shoot. www.mulberryphoto.com. In honor of the One Love Campaign, Mulberry Photography will donate 2% of each One Love package during 2008 to SF Pride, sfpride.org or SF LGBT Center, sfcenter.org.

TRuEStyle: TRuEStyle offers expert personal styling for fashionable weddings and everyday elegance. Founded by Teresa Kuhl, TRuEStyle translates each couple’s unique taste into a sophisticated and polished look with a flare all their own. www.truestylesf.com. In honor of The One Love Campaign, TRuEStyle will donate 5% of One Love client services to SF Pride, sfpride.org.

Sillapere: Sillapere is a San Francisco-based style lab, inventing parties and celebrations with irresistible sassiness and enduring sophistication. While providing the highest quality of service and design to clients, Sillapere also uses creativity to instill cutting-edge style with a strong commitment to sustainability for our planet. We believe in celebrating love and designing weddings that allow people to connect at a deeper level. www.sillapere.com. In honor of The One Love Campaign, Sillapere will donate 2% of all One Love packages to the client’s choice of SF Pride, sfpride.org or SF LGBT Center, sfcenter.org.

New Wedding Inspiration Boards

We're thrilled to announce a new wedding inspiration board area of our website, where you can browse through pretty, creative ideas for coordinating all the design elements of your wedding.

The boards cover a wide variety of themes and were created by the lovely and inspiring Kathryn of Snippet & Ink; they (of course!) feature our letterpress wedding invitations and paper. There are lots of fresh ideas for other wedding vendors, as well - just click on any of the images within the boards to link to its source (note the images shown above are just excerpts - click here to browse the full boards). Happy browsing!

Place Card Chopstick Holders

We created these simple chopstick holders, which double as place cards with calligraphy by Michele Papineau, for a Maui wedding designed by Lisa Feldman of Lisa Feldman Design. The tapered triangle shape allows the chopsticks to slide out of the holder, and tilts the guests' names up so that they can be easily read.

The holders were designed to fit Lisa's fresh, tropical persimmon and chartreuse color palette, which she carried throughout the wedding weekend events.

We also collaborated with Lisa to decorate these shantung silk favor boxes (from the Container Store), each of which contained a wind chime. More photos of this incredible wedding to come!

Photos courtesy of Lisa Feldman.

Fall Wedding by Jubilee Lau Events

Many thanks to Jubilee Lau of Jubilee Lau Events for sharing these gorgeous photos of a Fall-themed wedding she designed last year at Thomas Fogarty Winery, a stunning Bay Area venue in the Santa Cruz mountains with views extending in every direction. Jubilee collaborated with floral designer Nancy Liu Chin to create stunning floral arrangements featuring pumpkins and squashes with flowers spilling out of them. They used oranges, golds, and reds in the color palette, which coordinated with the green winery surroundings. The couple, Julie and Jay, looked stunning, too, and the entire event was filled with joy (as a wedding should be)! Congratulations to the couple, and the Jubilee and Nancy for creating an unforgettable event!

 Photographs courtesy of Gene Higa.

Fork & Spoon Productions

We are in awe of the talent, creativity, and skill of San Francisco-based event production company Fork & Spoon Productions. Proprieters Jennifer Spiegel and Jonathan Biel are a dream team, offering world-class, mouth-watering food (both honed their skills with Wolfgang Puck), gorgeous flowers, and impeccable event design that is straight out of Martha Stewart Weddings (Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia is a client).

Jennifer and Jonathan are a rare mix of both visionary and down-to-earth - no theme or concept is beyond their grasp (we had a blast collaborating with them last year on an Iceland-themed birthday party, complete with ice sculptures and Viking-inspired invitations!). What's more, given that they are both full-service and consummate professionals, you can just sit back, relax and enjoy a splendid event!

Oh, How Charming!

We can't say enough about the work of Los Angeles-based event planner Lisa Vorce of Oh, How Charming!, who we had the privledge of meeting through the Bridal Bar. Lisa's versatility and exceptional eye for design and detail are first-rate. And of course we love her internationally-inspired aesthetic, which she brings to planning events at venues ranging from Los Angeles' Moroccan-inspired Hotel Figueroa to the Loire Valley in France.

Photo credits (from top): Thayer Allyson Gowdy, Aaron Delesie, Elizabeth Messina, Jon Nickson, Elizabeth Messina