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{This bride took took an old map she liked and changed it to fit her event!}

Laura Hooper Calligraphy featured in INSIDE Weddings magazine!

Our Autumn Garden invitation suite is featured in the INSIDE Weddings magazine Fall 2009 "Hotspots" feature!

The invitations and map are letterpress printed on a rich wooden veneer, giving the invitations an added texture and special design touch.


Visit the INSIDE Weddings website for more wedding planning tips and ideas!

An Emotional Map for a wedding in Puerto Rico

This couple met when the groom-to-be was 19 and the bride-to-be was 17 - and a little over 12 years later, they are getting married in Puerto Rico!

You can see their journey to meeting each other in Herricks New York, their first trip together to Disney World, sharing their 21st birthdays together, and getting engaged in London shortly after their 10-year anniversary!


We love creating new icons to match our clients requests, and you will notice the traditional Indian bride and groom heading to the altar in Puerto Rico!

Laura Hooper Calligraphy in Telva Magazine, Spain

We are so pleased that a Spanish wedding that we worked on has been featured in Telva Magazine!

The wedding took place this past June in Cordoba, Spain, and the beautiful bride was Indira Anzola, owner and wedding coordinator for d-pleis in Spain.

This adorable map featured all of the wedding hot spots as well as the weekend itinerary on the reverse side.

We loved doing the Spanish map for Indira and d-pleis, and want to remind everyone of our international work - we can cover any area in the world and always welcome new projects!

Spotlight on: Dewdrop Designs

We were recently introduced to Gillian Dewberry's boutique shop, Dewdrop Designs, and wanted to share her gorgeous work with our readers! Her handmade guest books and albums are perfect for any occasion, especially weddings!


Dewdrop offers many different sizes ranging from super-large 14"x17" books to 8"x11" horizontal books. We are also excited about the new book covers that can be given as bridesmaid gifts. Similar to the other books, they are leather and a great memory of the wedding using the same image that brides choose for the guest album.

I recently worked with a bride who asked me for a recommendation about guestbooks. I immediately thought of Gillian and so I recommended that she contact her immediately. We ended up making a monogram from her invitations and I sent it over to Gillian, who screened it on the front cover of the book. {Photo below}


Below are the standard color swatches, but be sure to ask about custom colors!


The Dewdrop website also offers other adorable gifts such as jewelry, art, baby books and personalized stationery, so be sure to check it out for your guest book and gifting needs!

Laura Hooper Calligraphy on "From 'I Will' to 'I Do'"

Thank you to Anne Chertoff of "From 'I Will' to 'I Do'", a blog all about wedding planning! We are honored that she chose to feature tips from Laura Hooper Calligraphy on working with a calligrapher for your weddings. Anne has worked at Modern Bride, Martha Stewart Weddings, iVillage Weddings and is currently the Senior Editor at Brides.com.

Check out her blog to read yesterday's post featuring our advice and other wedding planning tips!

Tips on Placing Calligraphy Orders -- Rush Orders!

Sometimes your plans change. You thought you could do without personalized, hand-written invitation envelopes, but you simply can't - and your invites need to go out next week! Whatever your situation, sometimes things just come up last minute. Here at Laura Hooper Calligraphy, we will always do our best to attempt to accommodate you, which is why we offer "rush orders."

Rush fees: Our standard turnaround time is 2-3 weeks (this can vary up to 4-6 weeks during the high season), but we can usually offer a one week turnaround. This will run at about a 20% upcharge of your total order, or more depending on the work, and the timeframe in which you need your envelopes. For example, if you need your envelopes done overnight, over the weekend, or over a holiday, this is going to cost more -- in essence, you are paying for the "overtime" of the calligrapher. This is pretty much an industry standard, though I know some people do charge more than this for the their rush fees, and I am sure some charge less. Every calligrapher and their policies are different.

Also, please know that your "rush order" itself is not actually "rushed." Your envelopes will still have the devoted attention and care that all orders receive here at Laura Hooper Calligraphy. Instead, your order will be double-booked, or piggy-backed behind another order already in the schedule) requiring us to work outside of our standard business hours (which from 7am - 12am are already pretty non-standard!), hence the additional charge.


If you do require a rush order, please inquire for a specific rate quote and turnaround time.

Los Angeles, CA Map

Recently, we created this fun map for a Point Dume, Malibu wedding featuring our very own hometown, Los Angeles, CA. You can see that our couple wanted to showcase well-known Hollywood and Los Angeles landmarks such as the Sunset Strip, Hollywood Boulevard, Paradise Cove, the Santa Monica Pier, Beverly Hills, and downtown LA. This map even comes complete with the spotlights of Hollywood and an adorable icon of Grauman's Chinese Theater.

In addition to the landmarks, the couple also included spots with personal meaning such as the Huntley Hotel, Terranea Resort in Palos Verdes, the bride's family home, and of course the wedding location at Point Dume.

As you can see, there are many options to making your map special, and we love the framed effect on this one with the deep blue florals. The calligraphy on this map is Chaucer Script.

Tips on Placing Calligraphy Orders

I frequently get requests from my clients as to how their lists should be submitted prior to my work on their envelope order. Though we have all this information outlined in our contracts, I thought a short explanation as to why I ask for your list this way might encourage more of my clients to send their lists in the proper format!

Submitting alphabetized lists: It may seem obvious to submit your address lists in alphabetical order (preferably numbered as well), but very often we receive lists that are not in any particular order to the blind eye like ours. This is an extremely important detail to streamlining the entire process for three main reasons:

1. It is easier for me to follow along your list while I'm working if the names are in alphabetical order and numbered. If I lose my place, I need to be able to pick back up quickly.

2. Submitting your changes. Although we ask that your lists be submitted complete and accurate, often times you will have adjustments or additions. It is much more efficient for us to be able to quickly located the name or number that needs to be changed. Flipping through pages of hundreds of names both difficult and time consuming.

3. Checking the order. After I complete any order, we always double check it for errors and omissions. Having a numbered, alphabetized list is vital to making this move more smoothly.

And, as always, your list should be in MS Word (and not just cut/paste directly from Excel into Word, this defeats the purpose of why I need it in Word in the first place.) If you or your fiance are not adept at performing a mail merge to get your spreadsheet into a word doc don't despair -- we are very efficient at it now! You just need to make sure your Excel list has these 3 columns : Name, Address, and City/State/Zip. If you have that, then you can send us the list and we'll happily convert your list to Word for you.

Thanks for taking the time to read my tips-- Keeping in mind not all calligraphers use the same guidelines, so if you don't plan to use us for your calligraphy please peruse the guidelines setup by your artist of choice. By following these simple rules you're sure to have a happy calligrapher!

Another Emotional Map

We thought it would be fun to share another one of our "new" emotional maps! The emotional maps detail out a couple's journey to each other and then together to their wedding day.

This bride and groom were both born on the East Coast, shared their first date in Massachusette in 2004, and also shared their second "first date" in 2006! You can see the dates and trips that are important to them, such as their summer trip to Maine, date to the Science Museum, and winter trip to New York City.

This client in particular used Allegro script for her Emotional map, as well as everything else she ordered from us: Letterpress save the dates {photo below}, calligraphy for her invitations, placecards as well as a seating chart {for which we'll post pictures next week}. This emotional map is printed in 22x30" and will be framed at the reception for all to see. The bride is also having it printed on her program covers!

{The bride chose one of our custom hand-drawn maps of Newport, RI to announce the wedding just about a year ago.}

The emotional maps are a great way to let your friends and family know what events have shaped your relationship with your soon-to-be bride or groom - and they make a great keepsake for you to cherish forever!

Stay tuned for another Emotional Map in the near future.

Puerto Rico Map & Itinerary

We were so happy when this bride asked us to do a map and itinerary for her wedding in Puerto Rico coming up this month - especially since I myself visited the island just this past January!

You can see that the map is full of life and many "hotspots" hand-picked by the couple. They wanted to let their guests know their own favorite spots such as their favorite restaurant - El Patio de Sam, the lighthouse area known for whale watching and surfing - El Faro de Rincon, and of course the very cruise ship terminal that I sailed into in Old San Juan!

After completing the map, we used the icons to tie it into their wedding weeking itinerary!