Real Wedding: Katie and Ashley

Check out these beautiful wedding photos posted on Two Bright Lights! Katie and Ashley's May wedding took place at the Maple Grove Inn in Knoxville, Tennessee - the deep greens and luscious flower bouquets are oozing romance.

Who doesn't love tiered cupcakes?!

Katie and Ashley customized our Big Day wedding invitation to create their own unique take on the design (see the original inspiration here!).

The couple turned the heart + initials icon found on the original Thank You Card into a light display inside their reception tent. They also used the invitation icon as the cover of their guest book - brilliant!

All photos by Dixie Pixel Photography

Lucky Friday #21: Esther Aarts Good Luck Card!

Hello all you lucky folks out there! This is the twenty-first edition of our Lucky Friday Giveaway! Each Friday we feature one of our letterpress cards. We’ll choose THREE LUCKY WINNERS to get a free card.  Post a comment by 12 p.m. PST the following Thursday, and we’ll announce the winners on the following Friday!

The three winners from last week are (drum roll, please):

Stephanie, Monique and Amy Marie Wingate!

We’ll contact you early next week to arrange sending your Rock On! card.

Now for this week’s edition:

Design: Good Luck

Artist: Esther Aarts

Inspiration: Hello!Lucky knows a thing or two about the subject at hand.

Who to send it to: A fella hoping luck will be a lady, a woman in want of a wishbone, a chap you wish to charm and cheer on.

Ideas we scrapped in favor of this one: Two chickens pulling on the ends of a wishbone, reading “Good Cluck.”

Favorite detail: Love the Raggedy Ann face on the first place ribbon.

Why letterpress? Sometimes you really should press your luck.

Don’t forget to post your comment, and tune in next week, same time, different stationery, to see if you’ve won!

Sunshine at the Curiosity Shoppe

The Curiosity Shoppe, a local San Francisco boutique that carries quirky home decor and funky personal accessories, is hosting a letterpress poster show that features a print (above) by our very own printer, James Tucker! We couldn't be more excited for him!  The show opens July 8th and also showcasing some of our favorite fellow Bay Area letterpress artists, like Pie Bird Press and Dutch Door Press. For more information about the show, please click here.

James' double-sided print, "Who Loves the Sun" was produced in a limited edition of 50 and is available for $40.

Fabulous Wedding Gift Guides

Feeling wedding gift blues? Want to give something other than kitchen platters or silverware? We feel your pain. Although wedding registry's are super helpful and a guaranteed success, there's something special about wrapping up the perfect gift for the happy couple. Refinery 29 recently came out with two brilliant gift guides that will have you feeling gift bliss. Here are a few of our favorite suggestions!

Custom Mugs by BROOKLYNrehab (above)

Custom return address stamp by Paperfinger (ideal for sending thank you cards!)

Ideal Bookshelf print by Jane Mount (for their new home together!)

Diana F+ Kirameki Lomography Camera (perfect to capture honeymoon highlights!)

More great gift ideas can be found here: The Ultimate Wedding Gift Guide and Best Host and Hostess Gift Guide

Thanks R29!

Real Wedding: Michelle and Jacob

Just married! We recently had the pleasure of designing a "Just Married!" photo card for Michelle and Jacob's private June celebration. This one couldn't be any more playful! The whimsical watercolor, precious pinks and tell-all photograph just screams pure joy.

Michelle and Jacob wed at the San Francisco City Hall, accompanied by 15 close family and friends. The photographer, our dear friend Edyta Szyszlo, shot these utterly romantic images of the big day, and their reception at Bar Jules in Hayes Valley (below). We're loving the simplicity of the event, and the casual/comfortable setting for their reception. Just the right amount of table decor paired with classic dinnerware makes for an effortless yet chic display.

All photos by Edyta Szyszlo.

Orla Kiely Kitchenware

Have we mentioned how much we love Orla Kiely?  We discovered these delectable earthenware jars in the kitchen section. Sadly, these only ship in the UK, but all the luckier for our British staff and clients. Perhaps we might come to some arrangement with our UK connections?

But there are charming offerings for everyone.

Just a little taste. Visit orlakiely.com for more.

Happy Independence Day!

YAY for the Fourth of July weekend! Our employees are getting ready to celebrate our country's independence, and we're showing our true colors! Lot's of reds, whites and blues popped up in shop today, and we just had to share!

You can write down your Big Ideas for a patriotic theme party!

Many Thanks to our H!L readers! Hope you have a terrific (and safe!) holiday weekend!

Our shop will be closed Monday, July 4th but back in action on the 5th. See you then!

Lucky Friday # 20, Julia Rothman Rocks the Birthday Card

Hello all you lucky folks out there! This is the twentieth edition of our Lucky Friday Giveaway! Each Friday we feature one of our letterpress cards. We’ll choose THREE LUCKY WINNERS to get a free card.  Post a comment by 12 p.m. PST the following Thursday, and we’ll announce the winners on the following Friday!

The three winners from last week are (drum roll, please):

Christa, Jean K and Lindsey!

We’ll contact you early next week to arrange sending your Belated Birthday card.

Now for this week’s edition:

Design: Rock On

Artist: Julia Rothman (or maybe we should call her Julia Rock-man from now on)

Inspiration: Catching a wave of New Wave nostalgia, jonesing for some Joan Jett, or blasting Blondie on the boombox.

Who to send it to: A Jem of a friend or a Misfit on your list.

Ideas we scrapped in favor of this one: Our singer-songwriter version featured a Garfunkel fro wig, a harmonica stand, a tambourine and a pair of Birkenstocks and it read “Happy Folkin’ Birthday.”

Favorite detail: Love that we amped up the palette with some hot pink ink.

Why letterpress? Why guitars, why Chucks, why leather, why letterpress? Dude, because it rocks!

Don't forget to post your comment, and tune in next week, same time, different stationery, to see if you've won!

Hello!Lucky featured in French Paper Sample Room!

The French Paper Sample Room, a site dedicated to designs printed on their various papers, featured a couple of our greeting cards by Esther Aarts!

We use French Paper Construction Cover White Wash for almost all of our trade cards - it's 100% recycled and really makes our inks pop! They've also got a great assortment of colorful envelopes to complement every design. Thanks French!

Studio Snapshot: Assembling Day-of Wedding Materials

It's summertime! For us, that means we're busy producing materials to be used at summer weddings, including programs, place cards, and table top decorations. We love to see how an invitation design can be translated to day-of wedding decor, especially when customized to match the wedding colors. Our Architecture invitation looks striking as a table number (above) and a welcome drink sign (below).

These tented signs work great as double-sided menus - one side for hors-d'oeuvres and and the other for cocktails!

We like to use a bone folder to fold each place card, guaranteeing an even score. Its all in the details, after all!

Jude's French flash cards

At craft night, Eunice has been working on French flash cards for her son, Jude. They are pen & ink illustrations with a watercolor finish - absolutely fantastic for any aspiring bilingual babies!

Eunice is trying to raise Jude bilingual in French and English, so she's always trying to find fun ways to teach him new vocabulary (ok, so he doesn't speak yet, but!) as well as adding to her own French vocab.  She has a love for making flash cards - the words really stick and it's a fun and quick excuse to doodle.  It's also a great excuse to play around with painting/watercolor techniques - the perfect platform to practice on (being the raging multi-tasker that she is!)

Her inspiration for each card is to find things Jude has seen, or words that are just plain amusing (like the fact that raccoon directly translates to "a washing young rat" more or less!) - both the raccoon and the otter are animals they saw at the zoo recently.  The kites are from a recent outing to Crissy Field and the race car is a noise he's learned to make lately.  Next up are a horse, gorilla, tiger, cow and duck - more noises he's been making lately (for the gorilla he pounds his chest!). Once he sees a cow and starts mooing, he will moo for the next 20 minutes!

Signing Party: DRAWN IN by Julia Rothman

For those of you lucky folks in the NYC area, check out this must-attend event! Julia Rothman will be in attendance, in addition to several other artists included in her new book— Drawn In: A Peek into the Inspiring Sketchbooks of 44 Fine Artists, Illustrators, Graphic Designers, and Cartoonists. They'll even have an assortment of original sketchbooks for guests to peruse.

Here's the Facebook Event Page, if you'd like to RSVP.

And the Google Books page if you'd like to take a peek inside, to see more of the diverse artists' offerings.

And a link to the (did we say gorgeous?) book on Powell's and Amazon.

The event will be held at:

powerHouse Arena

37 Main Street

Brooklyn, New York

Thursday, June 30 · 7:00pm - 10:00pm

Hope you can make it!

Lucky Friday #19, Belated Birthday Card

Hello all you lucky folks out there! This is the nineteenth edition of our Lucky Friday Giveaway! Each Friday we feature one of our letterpress cards. We’ll choose THREE LUCKY WINNERS to get a free card.  Post a comment by 12 p.m. PST the following Thursday, and we’ll announce the winners on the following Friday!

The three winners from last week are (drum roll, please):

Melissa, Cozette and Addie!

We’ll contact you early next week to arrange sending your Under the Sea card.

Now for this week’s edition:

Design: Belated Birthday

Artist: Eunice Moyle

Inspiration: Some things just take a little longer, no? But it's worth it!

Who to send it to: Many will admit to being a little sluggish when it comes to sending snail mail, so send it to a friend who you might have left behind on the snail trail.

Ideas we scrapped in favor of this one: For a while we had bees on the brain. “To Bee or not to Bee-lated,” with a harried, flustered postal carrier bee was a clunker.

Favorite detail: The back of the card is cute in an ant-ique kind of way. (see below!)

Why letterpress? Pressmen are busy as bees setting type with coppers, brasses and slugs! (ooh, pardon for being SO letterpresoteric)

Don’t forget to post your comment and check back next week, same time, same stationery (; D), to see if you’ve won!

Real Wedding: Erin and Nick in Sonoma

We're thrilled to share Erin and Nick's beautiful Sonoma wedding! There were bushels of beautiful photographs, taken by Kate Harrison Photography, so it was hard for us to choose! Nevertheless, we narrowed them down as best we could— all the more for you to savor!

Such a fun and stylish wedding party! The ladies have such beautiful bouquets and we love the simplicity of the boutonnieres.

Our Heartland wedding stationery was a perfect choice for the style and venue!

Love the door at the altar—this photo is so magical!

Such a fun way to escort guests to their places!

And such splendid places!

Congrats, Erin and Nick. We wish you all the best! And thanks again to Kate Harrison for sharing the beautiful images!

Studio Snapshot: Happy Birthday Lia!

Happy birthday to Lia, happy birthday to yooouuu! The Hello!Lucky staff has quite the lineup of summer birthdays. It seems as though every week we've gathered sweet treats and savory snacks back in our break area to celebrate. Last Friday's festivities were dedicated to Lia, one of our dearest sales consultants. Lia, the head of the sales team, has been with us since 2009. We love her sparkling charm and unwavering expertise. And check out the spread! French cheeses, fresh fruit, homemade Spanish tapas (we may have to start celebrating half-birthdays, too!)

Make a wish!

Happy birthday Lia! Cheers to another fun and fabulous year!

Pride Week!

Hello!Lucky is celebrating Pride Week! A big hug and shout-out to all our LGBT friends, clients and colleagues!

Hello!Lucky's Big Day featured in Paper Runway

Paper Runway's online magazine Ever After featured Hello!Lucky's Big Day Wedding Invitation in their latest issue! Ever After highlights all of the goodness involved with wedding paper products, along with real weddings, beautiful photography, and much more. And, to our sweet surprise, the wedding of Elsie Larson (of A Beautiful Mess - featured below) made the front cover. You go girl!

Thanks Paper Runway for the shout out!

A Beautiful Mess on Style Me Pretty

If you haven't seen this amazing urban chic wedding on Style me Pretty, you simply must.  We just love it and had to share!

The author of A Beautiful Mess shared her wedding— so naturally it's amazing! Photographs by Apple and Arrow. Follow the links on Style Me Pretty for more breathtaking details.

Happy Father's Day!

To all you cool dads out there, have a happy happy father's day from all of us at Hello!Lucky!

Any dad would love these brownie burgers and cookie fries that we found on Bakerella! Have a great weekend!

Lucky Friday #18! Julia Rothman goes Under the Sea!

Hello all you lucky folks out there! This is the eighteenth edition of our Lucky Friday giveaway! Each Friday we feature one of our letterpress cards. We’ll choose THREE LUCKY WINNERS to get a free card.  Post a comment by 12 p.m. PST the following Thursday, and we’ll announce the winners on the following Friday!

The three winners from last week are (drum roll, please):

Aggie, Lisa and Andrew!

We’ll contact you early next week to arrange sending your Cheers! card.

Now for this week’s edition:

Design: Under the Sea

Artist: Julia Rothman

Inspiration: Maybe Julia “conch-ed” out and dreamt about a certain “Lawrence Whelk” doing a duet of “Under the Sea” with Ariel, in glass of champagne. “A one an’a two an’ a..!” Ehr, umm, that is, maybe Julia just likes mermaids.

Who to send it to: This card was sure made for a mermaid, but you could send a sand dollar a holler, or grant a fish a birthday wish.

Ideas we scrapped in favor of this one: Some of the puns were kinda washed up, like an encouragement card with a mermaid, reading “On a scale of one to ten”… ‘nuff said.

Favorite detail:  Naturally the angelfish and seahorse would be the chivalrous types.

Why letterpress? If you send a card under the waves the ink might wash away, but with a letterpress card a mermaid could at least get an impression.

Don't forget to post your comment and check back next week, same time, same stationery (; D), to see if you've won!