Calligraphellie

It's been kind of quiet around this blog.  That's because for the past few months I've been spending most of my dwindling calligraphy time to helping my friends Dzung and Nate with their wedding!  Dzung and Nate are friends from church, but also the masterminds behind their respective businesses, Honeysuckle Catering and Fotomokio.  Together, they also produce cooking demonstration videos on Honeysuckle Catering's YouTube channel.  (How adorable is Dzung in those videos!)  Since this was the only wedding I committed to in 2014, I really wanted to be open to whatever they wanted to do.  

First, I created a "logo" and did some spot calligraphy for them to use on their Save the Date cards, invitations, and website.  Oh la la!  

For day-of wedding things, I started by painting these wooden arrow signs:

Here is a sign I did as the ceremony program:

This is the seating chart I did.  This is definitely the biggest chalkboard I've done up to this point.

Also, they needed a lot of menus and food signage.  With Dzung's passion for food, you can imagine that the menu for this wedding was going to be extensive and delicious!  To begin, I wrote on these little tags for the crostini bar:

Here are the two bar menus I made, including one for signature cocktails.  I'll take one of each!  (Just kidding, I'm a total lightweight.)

For dinner, I created this buffet menu.  Out of all the signs, this one is my personal favorite.

And then I wrote these cute little chalkboard signs for the dessert bar.  Instead of just one wedding cake, they had a whole dessert bar of eight different cakes and pies!  I'll take one slice of each!  (Not kidding.)  Out of everything I did to help with this wedding, I think my favorite was that our other artist friend, Aislin, took the wedding logo I designed and laser cut it into a spectacular wooden cake topper! (Sorry about the blurry pics.)

Also, here is the sign for a fun photo booth.

And of course, what young, modern wedding isn't complete without its own Instagram hashtag?  I wrote it in sidewalk chalk near the entry way.

It was also fun to see how Dzung and Nate incorporated the logo I made into different aspects of the wedding day, from a bag for throwing flower petals to the little recipe books that they made as wedding favors to adorn the table settings.

So as you can see, I've been busy for the past couple of months.  I had such a wonderful experience working with Dzung and Nate.  Their wedding day was so joyous and fun.  I loved seeing them use their creativity and style to create a truly beautiful and memorable wedding.  Cheers!

My dear and wonderful friends Emily and David were married on July 13th in Berkeley.  It was a truly joyous occasion that combined 3 of my favorite things: calligraphy, Berkeley, and Emily&David!  The reception site was about 0.5 miles from the church, so they thought it would be fun for guests to take a scenic stroll through campus and asked me to write some sidewalk chalk signs to help guide their way.  Writing these signs throughout campus was so thrilling for me because it had been years since I'd been back.  If anyone told me 10 (er....15?) years ago as a student that I'd be back doing calligraphy signage, I think I would have been thoroughly confused.  Just goes to show you that life is always wide open.  Join me on our walk...

I just received these shots of some of the signs I did for Christina and Seth's wedding.  There's nothing like a good photographer to make your work look even better!

Photos courtesy of Em the Gem

One of my best friends got married on Saturday!  She wanted the chalkboard look for table signs and a menu, so I thought I'd take a stab at it.  This was my first time using a chalkboard pen, but it turned out to be pretty easy and I'm quite pleased with how the signs turned out.  Who knew I could produce such good looking signs?

For escort cards, I wanted to experiment with a more modern yet elegant style.  I could not be more happy for Christina & Seth!

Paper: Paper Source (Gravel)

Ink: Dr. Ph. Martin's Pen-White

Nib: Nikko G

I had the pleasure of writing place cards for the wedding of my friends Jimmy and Aileen.  I was really excited that Aileen wanted to use white ink on slate gray cards.  So modern and classy.

Also, for Christmas my husband got me a copperplate calligraphy set that included an oblique pen holder, which is the legit pen to use if you're right handed.  An oblique pen holder is one where the angle of the nib is offset.  As you can guess, it takes a bit of practice to get used to but the offset angle definitely helps the nib to move more smoothly.  Anyway, this was my first major calligraphy project using the oblique pen holder, and I was pleased to find that I think I'm just as good with the oblique holder now as with the straight holder.

(Photo courtesy of Andria Lo Photography)

Congratulations Aileen & Jimmy!  It was so fun to be part of your special day!!!!

Paper: Paper Source (Slate)

Ink: Dr. Ph Martin's Pen-White

Nib: Gillott 404

Congratulations to my friends Lauren & Josh! They got married this past weekend at a gorgeous wedding in Sonoma, California. I had the pleasure and privilege of writing the escort cards for the reception. It was really fun to have my first "event" and see them all laid out on the table. I need to give Lauren a lot of credit for helping to encourage me in my new hobby.  Having an event where I know people will be looking at my work served as great motivation to practice and get better. 

I also made some cards for Lauren - one for her bridal shower and one for the wedding.  It was fun to add illustrations to add some oomph to the cards.