Calligraphy + Letterpress = Brilliance

What can we say? Michele Papineau has done it again. For her holiday cards this year, Michele hand wrote the lyrics to "I'll be home for Christmas" and we letterpress printed them in festive red ink. We just received a hand addressed card with a little note inside. It's so wonderful to be friends with such a talented artist! Thanks Michele!

Chick-o-Meter: Week 2

Chick-o-meter update #2 is in! We're now at 900 chicks - almost a third of the way to our goal! Woot!

We want to especially give a shout-out to Michele Papineau of Papineau Calligraphy, our Chick-o-Meter MVP!  Thanks for your support, Michele!!

For those of you not in the now, Michele does amazing hand calligraphy. Check out this beautiful custom Christmas card she did recently (which we letterpress printed). Lovely, eh?

Thanks to all who've contributed to our effort so far! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Modern Creative Bridal Fair

 

We recently blogged about the fabulous Stacy McCain, and are thrilled to be participating in a bridal fair she's organizing with Dekker Photography on February 26th, featuring a collection of wonderful vendors, including Magnolia Floral Design, Cake Work, Best Beverage Catering, Amy Kuschel,  Got Light?, and Papineau Calligraphy.

The party will be on Thursday the 26th of February from 6-9pm and will be a low-key, intimate affair (unlike many of the large, impersonal bridal fairs out there!). There will be an open bar, delicious catering, live music and beautiful decor. So come on by, have some food and drinks with us and have fun! Tickets are available at

www.brownpapertickets.com/event/55135

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!

Learning the Letters

In a never ending effort to increase our stationery geekiness, a couple of us made our initial foray on a quest to learn calligraphy. With the help of the talented Michele Papineau of Papineau Calligraphy (the go-to specialist for all H!L calligraphy needs) we learned the basics of letterforms, angles, and some tricks of the trade. Michele has been doing calligraphy for over twenty years - her work has been featured in Elegant Bride, Martha Stewart Living and Cooking Light among others.

Her Oakland studio is full of beautiful calligraphed wedding invitations, handlettered  poems and a vast array of pens, nibs, inks and paints.

Michele showed us some basic letters - she made it look so easy!

Calligraphy is definitely a lot harder than it looks. It's going to take a bit more practice for the rest of us!

Thanks for all your help Michele!

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.