Hello!Lucky
Letterpress greeting cards, thank you notes, DIY projects, free printables and craft inspiration.
UK friends! Our London team will once again be exhibiting at one of the most fun and unique wedding fairs across the pond. A Most Curious Wedding Fair will be taking place in just a couple of weeks. This really is a fabulous event packed with inspiring and creative vendors. Iain and Hamad love it when our fans and friends stop by the Hello!Lucky booth to say hello, so be sure to do so if you attend the fair!
Event details: 19 -21 April 2013 The Truman Brewery 91 Brick Lane, London. E1 6QL
We are so thrilled to pick up our store features again. This time we're kicking off with a great shop we love in the UK called Postmark. Postmark has two shops, one of which is located in Balham, just a little south of our offices in London Bridge. When Postmark in Balham opened their doors they added greatly to to the the area's increasing reputation for being a shopping destination for those seeking out a more individual retail experience. We chatted a bit with the owners to give you a little more insight into this great independent boutique.
We are a small family run company based in South London. Run by a team of passionate card lovers with over 25 years experience, we pride ourselves on our hand picked selection of cards. We mainly deal with small independent publishers with over 95% of them based, designing and producing in the UK.
Our Balham store first opened it's door in 2004 and soon became a neighbourhood favourite. We won the title of 'Best Independent Card Retailer - London' in 2008 and the buzz and excitement this created was the catalyst for us opening our East Dulwich store in December 2008. In 2009 we then became the first company to retain and win this award twice. This award is the industry 'Oscars' and rewards and recognises excellence in the greeting card industry.
We pride ourselves on customer service and are always looking for new and exciting ways to stand out from the rest. In both our stores, you can use the first of it's kind, in house postal service. Each store has an in store postal service, enabling customers to send their cards and parcels to anywhere in the world without even leaving the shops. Just pop in, pick a card, write it and we will do the rest! We have been finalists in 2007,2010 and 2011 for 'Best Retail Initiative' for our fresh and intuitive retail ideas. From our 'Golden ticket' campaign to our most recent 'Beat the postal price increase' campaign starting in November 2012.
While Hello!Lucky is one of our favourites we also stock cards from Caroline Gardner, Urban Graphic, Simon Drew, Noi Publishing, Almanac Gallery, Rachel Ellen, Pigment Productions, The Art File, ArtPress, Stop The Clock to name just a few as well as numerous small up and coming publishers who we feel could be the next big thing!
We're still swooning over all the beautiful details of Izzy and Harry's UK wedding last December. Their save the date cards and invitations were only a fraction of the fun paper products displayed throughout their big day, so when Izzy sent us these beautiful photos by Sven Arnstein we had to share.
Custom wedding signage was created for almost every table along with matchbox favors, wild-flower seed packets, a wishing tree and a delightful 'thumb-print tree', and they all matched perfectly with the Hot Air Balloon save the date.
The couple really went above and beyond to create a whimsical space. We always love a winter wedding...
To view more photos, visit Hello! Magazine! Thanks Izzy for sharing the beautiful photos.
It's hard to believe it's been over four years since we first featured the work of Abigail Brown on our blog. Her textiles had caught our attention back then, and she still continues to inspire us. Her collection of hand crafted birds are some of the most intricate textile pieces we've ever seen, and to top it off she incorporates reusable materials in her designs. A London dweller now, Abigail inherited her skills from her seamstress grandmother, and while she has transformed the long-time craft into fine art sculpture, her attention to detail is craftsmanship at its finest.
We are simply in awe of the work involved with these pieces. Our favorite might be the classy Californian Quail adorned in chic herringbone.
Her felted fledglings make timeless gifts for the bird-lovers in your life, but if they are out of price range you can still enjoy her work in other ways. Abigail's shop is full of prints, postcards, plush toys and every day accessories.
Abigail does more than just birds. Her butterfly brooches are just as elaborate and beautiful but are affordable for all!
To view more of Abigail Brown's work, click here and to get your hands on your very own, visit her shop!
I’ve just been away visiting family in Switzerland for a few days, but I’m back again to inspire you to plan your dream wedding. If like me you’re still hungry for more inspiration from Harry Judd (think band Mc Fly and 2012 Strictly Come Dancing winner) and his sweetheart Izzy Johnston’s wedding, read on. Her pretty pastel bouquet, which was made of brunia, freesia, sweet avalanche, pacific blue and avalanche roses, is so on trend. Pastels like nectarine, white linen, African violet and dusk blue are really top of the colour charts as well this spring according to colour trend forecasters Pantone, so take note.
And whilst you’re in a ‘floral’ frame of mind, why not check out Hello! Lucky’s brand new wedding designs: Classic Rose and La Vie en Rose. Again pinks and yellows stand out from the crowd, judging by what dress French actress Marion Cotillard was wearing to the BAFTAs 2013 and by the colour Dame Helen Mirren dyed her hair.
The colour yellow could be that of your bridesmaid’s dresses, table flower arrangements or going away outfit and pink carefully used is great all round, but particularly special for the flower girl’s dresses. I'd steer away from dyeing your hair pink for your special day, but you never know it may be just your thing!
If you're in the UK and need help with your wedding flowers, call upon these experts:
Florists: G Lily, Jamie Aston, McQueens, David Austin
Wedding planners: Isabel Smith, Mark Niemierko, Zoe Lingard
Photo credits: Bouquet made of two tone arum lilies, pink roses, hyacinth, brunia and lisianthus by Aleit weddings. Bouquet made of apricot coloured David Austin roses by David Austin.
Hi! My name is Vanessa Mason, you may remember me as the Style Editor at You & Your Wedding and Cosmopolitan Bride magazines here in the UK. I left the world of weddings to have our two amazing babies, Scott and Sienna (now two and a half and eight months) and when Sabrina at Hello!Lucky asked me to be a guest blogger for their gorgeous company, I didn’t have to think twice, I jumped at the opportunity. What an honor! Well, enough about my details, let’s talk weddings! Just before Christmas, Harry Judd and his sweetheart Izzy Johnston tied the knot. As a nod to Harry’s Strictly Come Dancing win in December 2011, they tucked into a cake topped with a glitter ball trophy.
If you like the glitter ball touch, why not take the idea further and use them in vases as table centerpieces? To keep costs low, only place them on the head table in front of the bride and groom and special guests like the best man or your respective parents. The idea works nicely, as the vases are so tall, they don’t interrupt the flow of conversation over the table. They also provide great atmosphere thanks to the lights placed inside them and as the evening falls, the fairy lights reflect pretty twinkling light off the glasses, cutlery and tea lights! Whatever you decide to do for your wedding, just have fun and make it look beautiful!
Suppliers: Silver mirror balls to buy (www.dzd.co.uk), glitter balls to hire (www.eventprophire.com), vases to hire (www.weddingandeventprophire.com), fairy lights to hire (www.partylights.co.uk).
Wedding photos by Aleit Weddings, styled photo by Bill Kingston
On January 9th the London Tube celebrated its 150th anniversary! As such an intricate structure with so many historical memories, we had to pay tribute somehow. The Tube logo is one of the main inspirations for our Love London invitation suite! We had to put our own touches on the design, but we love it's classic color palette and bold type.
The Tube hasn't always been as widespread as it is today. This vintage Underground map shows some of the original railways.
Penguin released a coffee table book in 2007 titled Transit Maps of the World. Below is a map showing all the cities that currently have or are planning to build an urban rail system. Pretty impressive! Wouldn't it be nice to be connected to all these countries by train?
Of course we're not the only ones feeling inspired by the London Tube. Other companies are paying tribute to the railways as well. 1210 Apparel created this Hip Hop Roots tee-shirt, connecting all the defining forces of hip-hop music into one crazy tube/tree.
Congratulations to the London Tube! We wish you another 150 years of efficient journey through our second home.
It's not every day that celebrity couples come to us for help designing their wedding stationery. We're always sure to respect a future bride and groom's privacy before their big day, but this wedding was top secret. UK superstars Izzy Johnston and Harry Judd said their "I do's" last month on what was said to be a "the best day ever." It was covered by Hello! Magazine with exclusive photos and information about the event. We don't need exclusive photos to know this beautiful couple must have had a ball.
We recreated Eunice and Daniels's save the date for their own - including wedding bells, pet cats, and musical instruments (Harry is in the British pop band McFly and Izzy is a former member of Escala - an electronic string quartet). You may have recognized this design from our Cut Paper photo save the date, but you can order your own version of this hand-drawn beauty soon. In the mean time, feel free to contact our UK offices at ukinfo@hellolucky.com for more ordering info!
Congratulations to Izzy and Harry. We wish you a lifetime of health and happiness!
These lovely illustrations by London based artist Charlotte Trounce have us giddy with design envy. The whimsical, hand-painted illustrations are definitely up our alley, and we're crazy about her compositions and bold color palettes. Plus, they embody some of our favorite things about Hello!Lucky's second home.
Charlotte created this alphabet in honor of the 2012 London Olympics. Hilarious! To see more of her work, head over to charlottetrounce.tumblr.com
UK friends! This weekend our fabulous London team will be exhibiting at one of the most unique wedding fairs across the pond, A Most Curious Wedding Fair, billed as the wedding event for the not-so-blushing bride. We always love hearing about this event as it truly does showcase some of the most original and current wedding trends. If you are in the UK do stop by and say hello to Iain and Hamad who will be holding down the Hello!Lucky booth.
Most Curious Wedding Fair details: 6th October 2012 (London), 11am-5pm
York Hall, 5-15 Old Ford Road, London E2 9PJ Entry: £4
There is a good reason why the word ‘Chic’ cannot be adequately translated into English; we simply just don’t do it as well as the French! Virgine and Antoine both live in London and wanted to take some of the elements of their life here to their May wedding in Paris, mainly in the form of a black London taxi! We just love the way the photographer has managed to capture the mix of the formal and informal in these stunning photos of the happy couple who seem to have the whole city to themselves!
The reception was a little out of the city at the Manoir de Gressy where the more rural setting provided a beautiful contrast to the city and where Virginie chose an elegant restricted palette of cool greys and silver with just white flowers and green foliage in simple domed bunches. For their stationery they chose to have a customized version of our London Skyline, which we adapted to have the Paris skyline alongside.
We produced the table signs showing either London Tube stations or Paris Metro stops and Virginie also designed a wonderful 32 page booklet herself with graphic images of the two different cultures - The Gherkin vs. Tour Eiffel, Pimms vs. Ricard, Macaron vs. Cupcake etc.!
A customized photo booth with the somewhat Banksy-esque gun-toting Queen along with a host of props allowed the guests to create some memorable photographs of the big day.
Nous remercions Virginie et Antoine d'avoir partage ses photo avec nous. Nous tenons a leur souhaiter beaucoupde bohneur pour leur futur.
We have been asked on several occasions to describe what London has been like over the Olympic period but to be quite honest, for Londoners not attending the events themselves, it has been strangely quiet. Now, in the hiatus between the Olympics and Paralympics, seems a good time to reflect. There has certainly been a good deal of celebrating and decorating going on but very little with direct reference to the games themselves for fear of contravening the rules regarding use of the rings, name, date, venue and so forth. Instead the city has been awash with flags of all nations - best shown in this glorious display down Regents Street in the very centre of town.
Twenty Major statues throughout the capital were also adorned with new headgear including Admiral Nelson on his column in this natty number seen above which was made for him by Lock & Co – the same company that made his real tricorn 200 years ago! (They have been going since 1676!) Smaller shops have dusted off the Union flag bunting from the Jubilee celebrations (in the best spirit of ‘Make do and Mend’) and given us charming window displays such as this one at our friend’s salon ‘The Powder Room.’
There was naturally official Olympic merchandise around and several major British artists designed posters our favourite of which was this stripe design from Pop artist Bridget Riley, but we must confess that the bold graphic simplicity of the 1948 poster is perhaps somewhat more to our tastes.
Despite – or perhaps because of – the organiser’s fierce protection of the brand some people really did go out of their way to make an alternative point… we loved the cheeky shop window of this gent’s outfitters.
We also loved these posters from New North Press are just letterpressed genius! Alas – they are not for sale but they have plenty of others in their online shop and offer hands-on courses in this most wonderful of arts at their studios in Hoxton, North London!
If all this red, white and blue has given you ideas for your own celebrations and if seeing the city in such a party mood has re-kindled your love affair with it then perhaps consider our new Love London range for your own event. If nothing else you’ll get to re-use all that bunting again!
Thank you thank you!!! to UK based Perfect Wedding Magazine for nominating and selecting Hello!Lucky as the Best Wedding Stationery in 2012! This is a hugely exciting award because we admire all the brilliant stationers in our category. Our London office has been kicking butt with all their success and press, and we could not feel more proud of the hard working team involved with making Hello!Lucky London such a hit. You can view the winners of the Perfect Wedding Awards here, and subscribe to the magazine here!
Whilst the downside of our temperate climate here in London is that this summer has, to date, been a complete wash-out, the silver lining is that the flowers have been blooming like never before. This was so wonderfully apparent at the Cheshire wedding of Ellie and Jon in late June where cottage garden favourites like peonies, roses and delphiniums abounded and were so perfectly picked-up in our Nouveau Peonies design that they chose for all their stationery. We love the way that the lace of Ellie’s beautiful dress was echoed in the place cards and how the floral theme was continued to the cake iced simply in white rose motifs.
Even the weather stayed fair!
All of us at Hello Lucky would like to wish Ellie and Jon all the best and to thank Ellie’s Mother, Jan, for being so wonderfully organized with the stationery!
Time has come for the games to begin! Our team is cheering for the opening of the 2012 Summer Olympics and perhaps even more excited about our newest Love London wedding invitation suite! The classic typeface invitation in red, blue, and black has all the elements of a traditional London destination wedding. In celebration of the events we're offering 15% off all UK wedding orders throughout the Olympic games. From now until August 12th you can enter the code London2012 at checkout to receive your discount. Everyone deserves a ring!
For all our UK brides, order your Love London invitations here and don't forget to enter the code London2012!
It doesn't take much to get the average Brit. thinking about holidays, especially considering the hit-and-miss wash-out Summer that we've been having recently. What could be more enticing than these charming retro-inspired posters by the French tourist board that have appeared all over the capital in the last few weeks to gently tempt us wet and weary commuters into packing our suitcases and heading South.
We love the use of the different fonts and the wonderful graphic cartoons that put us in mind of those classic Pink Panther opening sequences.
Beautifully fresh and oh so very French - who but a Frenchwoman would co-ordinate her deckchair with her son's t-shirt!
Allez...en vacances! Bon Voyage
Is this possibly the most beautiful envelope you've ever seen? The bold cobalt paper, the warm persimmon ink, these complementary colors work magic. It comes from one exceptional Los Angeles artist, Plurabelle Calligraphy. Molly (the owner and creative mastermind) has a collection of work that is simply to die for, so we are delighted to feature her on our blog. Molly has made quite an impact on today's calligraphy customs by giving a modern spin on the traditional art form, or dare we say, a calligraphy facelift!
You'll find on her website that there are various lettering styles to choose from, but we're really liking the combination of vintage and modern in one.
This graphic East London wedding back in 2010 caught our attention when we saw that Plurabelle Calligraphy hand wrote each guest name on the Visit London invitations, along with the adorable "Socks for bowling" signs.
To view more photos of this fabulous East London wedding head over to OMG I'm Getting Married (love that title!)
And don't forget to visit Plurabelle Calligraphy!
Wedding photography by Caro Hutchings Photography
We're over the moon about our recent nomination for the UK's Perfect Wedding Awards! You can vote for Hello!Lucky as the best Wedding Stationery in the UK. We are honored to be considered in such a talented group of stationers, and are tickled with excitement. The polls are open until August 6h so get your vote in today!
Perfect Wedding Awards 2012 Poll
In celebration of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee we're delighted to release our newest London wedding suite Love London! The classic lines and bold typeface make it fit to be a favorite.
Right now we only have the Save The Date available on the UK site, but be sure to look for the rest of the suite in the coming weeks. And if you'd like to order it sooner feel free to contact our UK office directly at 020 7378 9740.
We hope you all had a wonderful weekend celebration. If you're in the UK be sure to take advantage of our 20% off sale on all UK orders until midnight on June 5th. Enjoy!
Saturdays at the historic York Hall in London's East End may usually be associated with boxing matches and Turkish baths but last weekend it was the venue for the first Most Curious Wedding Fair in London. Rather than the 3-day events this was just a single afternoon but after the doors opened the hall very swiftly filled-up.
It was lovely to see so many small independent traders there nearly all with something unique and charming on display all with a distinctly vintage theme. For our own booth we created a fold-out screen in calico and then hand-drew picture frames onto them and mounted the invitations onto acetate sheets which we attached using upholstery tacks secured by a small cork at the back. Larger suites of invitations we just laid-out on the table in the front for the guests to handle to feel the quality of the cardstock.
Among the many stands that took our eye were this fantastic paper artist called Suzi McLaughlin who creates the most exquisite works from folded paper and laser-cutting. We just adored the simplicity of the bouquet made from printed paper.
For an equally beautiful keep-sake Suzi also makes 3d books where the pages are folded over and have a cloud of butterflies (or anything else you may want) flocking out of them. Or this beautifully simple open book with a simple corsage. Just stunning!
Entertainment was provided on the stage throughout the afternoon with ballerina models giving a fashion show of vintage dresses, music from The Old Time String Band and from a couple of very saucy burlesque dancers! It was good to be at a show where there was most certainly something for grooms!
There were a couple of bakers and caterers that caught our eye. Christina at Feast Food certainly did both with her wonderful dress, fantastic display of delicious-looking goodies and the lovely old kitchen dresser . They cater any event and can provide the crockery and service to if needs be!
Pom Poms of a different sort from BeauButtons who create these fantastic bouquets from vintage buttons and notions; a truly inspired way to put Granny's old button box to good use and to serve as a lasting memento to all those much-loved dresses and coats.
A couple of wonderful characters couldn't fail but to catch our eye! For those of you wanting a totally unique service provided at your wedding, look no further than Reginald Spleen and his travelling snuff bar. Like a living cameo from a 19th Century state fair Mr. Spleen brings a wide selection of this delicacy from tobacco-free lemon snuff to deep, rich 'knock your socks off' Cafe Noir...the taste of which stays with the taker for several hours...trust me!
Lastly we couldn't help but mention Pearls and Swine and its particularly colourful designer Bink. From all the wonderful fascinators and headpieces on her stall she chose this spectacular fruity model - and we are all very glad she did as it kept a smile on our faces all afternoon!
Congratulations to Gemma and Becky from Most Curious for putting-on such a pleasurable and successful event - here's to the next one!
Photography Credit: Alex Dimopoulos of My Love Story
At Hello!Lucky we specialize in Letterpress greeting cards, as well offer DIY step by steps & free printables. Led by sisters Eunice and Sabrina Moyle, our small team of expert designers and artisan letterpress printers specialize in creating neon & foil, holiday cards, birthday cards, & thank you cards, that are full of creativity and whimsy. We've been featured in Martha Stewart Weddings, Design Sponge, Style Me Pretty, Real Simple, and many other leading publications. Please feel feel to contact us via chat, phone or e-mail - we'd be happy to assist you!
Hello!Lucky | P.O. Box 17605, San Francisco, California