Archive for the ‘Wedding / Anniversary’ Category

A new range that’s simply Bellissima….

Tuesday, July 19th, 2011

We at Hallmark know that when it’s an extra special occasion, you need an extra special card.

 This is why we have launched our exquisite brand new card range that is, as the name suggests, simply Bellissima. This is a collection of high-quality, simple but beautiful cards, with extra sophisticated designs for the most discerning of recipients. The exceptional finishing touch comes from the intricate hand-made adornments, delicately applied to each.

Every special occasion is catered for within this collection of 39 stylish designs, including birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, engagements and messages of thanks.

The gorgeous cards are available now in selected Hallmark branded stores high street card shops and selected supermarkets. Plus, priced at £2.99, the range is proof that luxury doesn’t have to break the bank.

So if you are looking for the perfect card to express your heartfelt message to a loved one, then let Bellissima say it for you.

 What’s more, if you haven’t got time to make it to the shops, why not peruse our special luxury range available to buy online. Just like Bellissima, the range adds a little touch of indulgence with a special pearlised finish.

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Rule Britannia! Celebrate the best of British with our new GB range

Monday, June 6th, 2011

The confetti has been swept up, the balloons taken off the Aston Martin and Kate and Wills have recently returned from their honeymoon in paradise. But, the British celebrations aren’t over!

With the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics just around the corner, plus another royal wedding taking place this summer, we can’t help but feel that now really is a good time to be British!

Indeed, here at Hallmark HQ, we are proud to be Brits! We’re proud of our stiff upper lip, our Royal Family, countryside walks and afternoon tea… Not to mention our very English eccentricities (the way we fire up the BBQ and dust off the flip flops at the first sign of sunshine is one that springs to mind!)

So much so that, in celebration of all things British, we’ve launched a brand new GB range with Brit-cool designs featuring the best of British!

Yes, it’s true, we do love our little isle – and no matter how shocking our Eurovision entry or how rubbish our summer is, there’s no getting away from this, so now we have a special set of cards to prove it!   

Rule Britannia, Rule Hallmark!

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Our predictions of luurve for 2011

Thursday, January 13th, 2011

2010 was a cracking year for romance sagas. Cheryl Cole dumped her love rat, Coleen Rooney kept her love rat and there have been more celebrity hook-ups, break-ups and get back together-ups than you can shake a stick at!

Nevertheless we’re officially declaring 2011 as the year of LOVE! Waity Katie is finally set to make it down the aisle in the biggest wedding of the new century, it looks like Cheryl’s heart is finally on the mend and the Beckhams will be celebrating more than a decade of marriage AND have got a new baby on the way!

So, here at Hallmark, whilst writing out congratulations cards for all those Christmas and New Year engagements, we decided to make our predictions for love this year and have a go at guessing the next celebrity couples that will join in star-filled matrimony! But somehow we don’t think we’ll be giving Derren Brown a run for his money…. take a look and see what you think!

  1. Louie Spence and Ann Widdecombe – the duo meet whilst busting some grooves at the local discotheque and become more famous than Ginger and Fred or Torville and Dean. A dancing power couple!
  2. Jedward and Samanda – Does anyone have any ear plugs?!
  3. SuBo and Simon Cowell – SuBo and Simon realise they’re the perfect couple. Mr Cowell picks out his highwaisted wedding trousers while the Glaswegian songstress serenades him.
  4. Cheryl Cole and Prince Harry – Prince Harry follows suit from his brother and after a whirlwind romance asks the nation’s princess, ‘Cheryl, will you marry me?’…. ‘Wey Aye man!’
  5. Nick Clegg & David Cameron – the country’s highest profile bro-mance is made official!

Do you have a prediction of love for 2011? Feel free to share them with us!

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Love is in the air…….

Tuesday, January 4th, 2011

It’s the start of a brand new year and Hallmark is declaring 2011 the Year of Love!

Wills has finally popped the question to Kate, and with December being the most popular month for engagements it seems there’ll be a lot of newly engaged couples celebrating in January. This New Year is definitely set to be a big one for engagement announcements!

So in celebration of all those newly betrothed couples out there, this January we want to hear all your wedding proposal stories. We want the good, the bad and the downright ugly! Was it romantically memorable or unbelievably unforgettable for all the wrong reasons? Did he or she get down on one knee at the top of the Eiffel Tower or was it over a bag of chips under Blackpool Tower? Let us know on Twitter #Willumarryme?  The best or worst wedding proposal will win a whole set of exclusive personalised Hallmark wedding invitations. Use them for your own wedding or give the prize as a gift to someone else who’s tying the knot this year!

And we also want to hear about your dream wedding, so let us know what your #Perfectday would be. Do you dream of a ceremony on a sandy Seychelles beach or nuptials in New York? Do you imagine saying “I do” by the Monkey House at the zoo or in your own back garden? -  whatever your fairytale day may be and however weird or wonderful, we want to know!

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From Copacabana to Lady in Red; Hallmark’s Ultimate First Dance Wedding Playlist

Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010

Earlier in the month, we launched our search for the most unique or unusual wedding songs that brides and grooms choose for their first dance. It was part of our weddings month here at Hallmark, with the aim of helping inspire people to have a brilliant and unique day.

Well, we certainly got a good response, and loads of you gave us your suggestions through Facebook and Twitter. We think we’ve heard it all now, from a Blues Brothers medley, to Justin Timberlake to the Jack Rabbit Slims dance off song in Pulp Fiction!

So, from dance floor classics, to film soundtracks and hard rock monsters, in no particular order, here’s our ultimate ten unique, crowd-sourced, first dance wedding songs. We’ve chosen these based on the songs nominated the most times, as well as the ones we thought were most unusual. We’d love to know what you think!

Hallmark’s unique first dance wedding songs

  • D.I.V.O.R.C.E; Dolly Parton (played ironically, of course!)
  • The Lady in Red; Chris de Burgh (even though the bride wore white!)
  • I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For; U2 (a joke, surely)
  • Copacabana; Barry Manilow (we love this 80s classic – but for a first dance?)
  • You Never Can Tell; Chuck Berry (from Pulp Fiction, complete with amazing dance moves)
  • Paranoid; Black Sabbath (not your typical wedding song!)
  • Hokey Pokey, Ray Anthony (easy to remember the moves for this one)
  • Firestarter; the Prodigy (wonder if they danced like Keith Flint!)
  • I want to break free; Queen (we hope not)
  • I Can’t Dance; Genesis (neither can we!)

And you can listen to the playlist here!

Remember, Hallmark.co.uk offers thousands of card designs covering all occasions, including an extensive range of weddings and anniversary cards.

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The worlds top five first dances at a wedding

Monday, July 26th, 2010

Regardless of how contemporary a wedding may be, the first dance has always maintained a sense of tradition – the newlyweds embracing as they share a slow dance to a predictable wedding standard like Wonderful Tonight, I’ve Had The Time of My Life or Your Song. It’s all fairly nice and a little predictable, or so it used to be. Thanks to a young couple, YouTube and a one-hit-wonder from 1992 this has all changed and the first dance is becoming as much about entertaining the guests as a special moment between the bride and groom.

To celebrate the age of the first dance performance, here are our top five first wedding dances.

1. Baby’s got back
We have to begin with the couple that started it all. They might not have been the first pairing to do something different with their first dance but with over 12m views to date they definitely set the benchmark. This video is helped by the fact that both of them can dance and neither are embarrassed by what they’re doing – especially the bride, look at her go!

2. Thriller group effort

Why should the first dance only involve the newlyweds? This couple brought the rest of the wedding party on board and recreated Michael Jackson’s classic Thriller dance. Legend has it that Michael Jackson (or his management) added it to his own favourites list! While there are far worse Thriller mimes on YouTube the slightly sloppy choreography is made up for by the groom’s enthusiasm – just look at his face, he’s loving it!

3. NYC style
If you’ve got the budget to hire dancers and full lighting rig then why not use it? This New York couple did and the result is probably one of the most impressive first dance videos on the web. What really makes this video is that despite all the practice and dollars that went in to making it, the couple just look really happy goofing around.

4. How to make an entrance

Ok, not strictly a first dance, but this wedding entrance has been viewed nearly 62 million times and that can’t be ignored. Once again it shows how much fun can be had when the guests are truly made part of the big day.


5. Crazy in love

This couple decided that crazy was the theme of their wedding and blended as many songs as possible with the word ‘crazy’ into this dance medley. It’s helped by some pretty good dance moves and the most important element – fun!

Why not share your favourites with us on our Facebook Page?

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Hallmark’s top tips for the perfect wedding anniversary gift

Thursday, July 22nd, 2010

It’s Weddings’ Month here at Hallmark during the whole of July, so we thought it would be a good time to discuss wedding anniversaries.

Wedding anniversaries have to be the easiest time to buy gifts for your partner because, thanks to tradition, an entire 90 years worth of presents is already planned out in advance. However, not every gift suggestion is befitting a modern marriage, so if a barometer doesn’t sound like your idea of romance here are our top tips of what to buy (apart from an anniversary card of course): 50th Wedding Anniversary

  • 1st –cotton. Why not try some beautiful cotton Egyptian towels or bed sheets?
  • 6th – Sugar. More like something you would borrow from a neighbour than buy a loved one but how about a packet of love hearts? No, not just any old pack, a personalised pack!
  • 13th – Barometer. We get a bit of a raw deal in the UK as in America the 13th year is celebrated with lace, much nicer than a barometer. But this shouldn’t stop you being creative, how about a holiday in the sun? Pick the right place and time of year and you can predict a long weekend of good weather and act as your own barometer.
  • 16th – Hollowware. Hollowware is table service items made from metal which aren’t flat – such as tureens, pitchers and bowls. If the pair of you have more than your share of hollowware, why not treat your special one to a meal and night in a classy hotel which uses traditional hollowware, such as The Ritz?
  • 17th – Furniture. Quite how you’ve managed all these years without furniture is anybody’s guess! If you don’t think a new bed or table is suitable, what about a picnic in the woods? It’s where most furniture begins and makes for a romantic hide-away. We know it’s a tenuous links but who buys furniture as an anniversary present?
  • 40th – Ruby. This should be straightforward, but where’s the fun in that? If your loved one doesn’t like rubies, how about treating them to a romantic meal in a tasty curry house – Ruby Murray, being the cockney rhyming slag for curry. Of course, you could go a step further with a whole trip away to India.
  • 90th – Granite. Some would consider a gift made of granite unbefitting 90 years of marriage, so, if a new kitchen worktop isn’t your idea of romance how about a weekend away to Aberdeen, otherwise known as Granite City? Or, if you’re a bit more adventurous, a trip to America’s Yellowstone national park, known for its granite domes.

Of course, these are just our initial ideas, please feel free to tell us your thoughts by adding your own in the comments below, and we will work them in to an extended list in the future.

Here is a full list of anniversary dates (via Wikipedia) which clearly show which year equates to which type of gift.

Year Gift
1st Cotton
2nd Paper
3rd Leather
4th Fruit and Flower
5th Wooden
6th Sugar
7th Woollen
8th Salt, Pottery
9th Copper
10th Tin, coal
11th Scent
12th Silk and Fine Linen
13th Barometer
14th Clock
15th Crystal
16th Holloware
17th Furniture
18th Coloured Gems
19th Furniture
20th China
25th Silver
30th Pearl
35th Coral
40th Ruby
45th Sapphire
50th Gold
55th Emerald
60th Diamond
65th Blue Sapphire
70th Platinum
75th Diamond
80th Oak
90th Granite

Image credit: boboroshi’s http://www.flickr.com/photos/boboroshi/

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What must you do B430?

Tuesday, April 13th, 2010

Having launched our B430 competition yesterday we have been overwhelmed with the number of entries we have received despite the fact that the competition has only been running for a day!

In case you were unaware, we asked people on Twitter to tweet in ideas for what you should do before you’re 30, using the #b430. Similarly on Facebook, we asked entrants to do the same except we requested that they include a picture along with their idea. The pictures shown are two of our Facebook entries – a skydive and climbing Everest. We have had so many great ideas that whittling them down to 30 for our crowd-sourced guide to 30 things that you must do before your 30 is going to be a massive challenge, let alone deciding on one final lucky winner, who will receive a brand new Apple iPad!

If you haven’t entered yet then don’t worry, there’s still plenty of time because the closing date isn’t until the 3rd May, meaning that you still have a good few days to come up with some inspiring ideas to share with others as to what they should ensure they do before they reach the big 3-0.

Keep those ideas coming everyone and look out for our 30 before 30 guide book which will be available for download from the website in May!

Image from crschmidt, used under Creative Commons.

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Do you want to give your Dad 15 minutes of fame?

Thursday, March 18th, 2010

Today we launched our Dad in the Ad competition which gives your dad the chance to star in his very own personalised advert that will be broadcast on national TV in front of millions! The competition, which is a world-first, is being run as part of our build up to Father’s Day which is on June 20th (don’t forget the date!).

Of course, it’s not just children that can enter their dads into the competition – friends, wives, girlfriends or relatives can nominate right now at www.hallmark.co.uk All you need to do is enter a few details about the dad being entered, upload a couple of photos and then wait to find out if they get through. Make sure you hurry though as the competition is running for a short time only – until April 4th.

The competition is an extension of Hallmark’s personalised online card service which lets people personalise their cards so they look just the way they want, with everything from adding you own photo, changing colour or text, and adding your own personal verse. We thought it would be great to take this personalisation a few steps further and launch the very ultimate in personalise gifts – an ad made for one person, shown on primetime TV!

It’s really simple to enter and will only take a few minutes. And who knows, in three month’s time maybe your dad will be famous!

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