Small businesses allow you to make memories. Out campaigning in Montclair on Thornhill & came across this quaint plaza with shops that were all open! I walked in and found out about the business from the owner as her husband sat just smiling and beaming as thought it was their first day! He asked what I did..."sell sex toys!"...Tell me more he joked. I listed to how the space became. It was in her blood. AND it took a class at Piedmont Adult School to make her leave corporate America. The most famous commission, she could disclose, was a poem from Bobbie Kennedy to Bill Clinton. Memories. Being the Council Person for District 4 is the goal but learning about what has moved & sustained ppl makes the conversation of the rough stuff worth it all! I need a hand written letter. read more

Papineau Calligraphy - The Owner and her Best Friend of 40 years! - Calligraphy Near Me - Oakland, California

Michele helped us in situation where time was of the essence. She responded immediately, gave solid quick solutions, got the work done in less than a week, and was kind and thoughtful through the whole process. I would recommend her for any calligraphy, printing needs, and anything else she offers. Wonderful woman and great business person!! We are so happy! read more

Michelle addressed all the invitations for my wedding eight years ago. She is a true gem of an artist and rare among calligraphers. I can recommend her highly for any job. Eight years later she is doing the place cards at my 70th birthday celebration. read more

If you're looking for a calligrapher, do not hesitate to use Michele and her team - their work is impeccable! The beautiful job they did with our wedding papers (save-the dates, wedding invitations, escort cards and some signage) truly set the tone and took the entire feel to the next level. Not only was Michele's calligraphy incredible, she was always very professional: communicative, organized, and delivered on time. She was also happy to give some advice where needed...she was a joy to work with! If only all vendors were as dreamy! And, if my word isn't enough: my Mother (who would know) said it was the most gorgeous calligraphy she's ever seen! read more

Michele was the best vendor we worked with while planning our wedding, HANDS DOWN. Professional, prompt and incredibly creative, our hand addressed wedding envelopes were stunning. I was so delighted with the quality of her work that I commissioned her to write a poem read during our wedding ceremony as a birthday gift for my husband a few months later. Thanks so much Michele! read more

We were referred to Michele from Papyrus where we ordered the invitations for my sister's wedding. She is a pleasure to work with and her shop is very cute and welcoming. Michele is a definite professional who knows what she is doing and will help guide you in what you want. She knows the business and helped answer all of our questions. She did a terrific job and it really completed the invitations and made them look even more beautiful. She is also reasonably priced. We are so glad we found her and would highly recommend her to anyone looking for someone to do calligraphy! read more

Michele Papineau of Papineau Calligraphy was a life saver. I made the dreadful mistake of having our wedding save the dates made on Etsy which arrived late and poorly printed on cheap paper. Michele came to the rescue by single-handedly managing the re-creation of our save the date cards by a trusted, local vendor who did a beautiful job. Without Michele's effort to save my save the dates, I am not sure they would have been printed and sent on time and so beautifully. She matched the pantone color of our cards to ink she custom created for calligraphy. Her expertise and follow through went above and beyond. We received so many compliments on our save the dates and the calligraphy by Michele. Of all of our wedding vendors Michele proved to be a shining bright light against the rest. This lady and her beautiful calligraphy saved our event. Beautiful, beautiful work and 100% dependable which I am finding seems to be a rarity to find in the wedding industry. read more

For true letter artistry, for hand-done calligraphy that conveys exuberance and joy and at the same time underscores the special importance of one of life's major transitions, I whole heartedly recommend Papineau Calligraphy. Michelle Papineau's fine work provides a visual pop! I wish I could take a photo of people's faces when they see their own name beautified with Michelle's exceptional artistry. In our increasingly digitized world, with penmanship no longer part of public school curriculum, the hand-addressed and hand-written have become noteworthy because people seldom do it anymore. There were few choices for wedding invitations in my day. I remember invitations seemed standardized. The invitation language was a template, I remember endless discussions about white, ecru, ivory or cream colored paper: and then the printing - embossing or engraving. Still, I remember how I felt when I saw the invitations to my own wedding: my name in print, my soon-to-be husband's name, my parents' names, how it made me feel, how important it was to share this special event in my life with family and friends. Then years later, to find my wedding invitation in my grandmother's scrapbook. I wanted my daughter to experience this same feeling... but how could we get there, with so many choices today and so much around weddings is commercialized. (I'd advise people to do some research before purchasing designed invitation sets from craft-type stores. I've done quite a bit of desk-top printing in my professional life, and I have difficulty printing with these sets: I believe the intention is to drive people to have their invitations printed by these craft-type stores...I digress). For my daughter's wedding invitation, we wanted to put together a very personalized packet that would showcase this special transition in her life, and at the same time convey a thoughtful and personal welcome to our guests. And did Michelle's work deliver! Her artistic calligraphy on my daughter's wedding invitation has set the stage. I cannot express how deeply appreciative I am to hear my daughter say how very special her invitations are...how very beautiful...she feels the same way I felt when I was a bride. Michelle Papineau, of Papineau Calligraphy, is a true artist! read more

Michele Papineau has been a staple of our business for years. Not only does she always take the best care of us, getting our diplomas done beautifully, but she also stepped in to help me find a printer for one diploma. If you're shopping for a calligrapher, you found her! You won't be disappointed. read more

Michele is fantastic! I dropped off the invitations to Michele in person and met with her--the work displayed in her showroom was amazing. And Michele was such a warm, professional, organized, and caring person--she offered great advice and had insight (both when I met with her and over email). Michele wrote our wedding invitation calligraphy (all delivered when promised) and SO many people have commented on the calligraphy and said it was the most beautiful writing they've seen. Her calligraphy really did take the invitations to the next level. I would recommend Michele to even those who live outside the Bay Area (you can always send envelopes, escort cards, etc. via UPS and pick your font through her website). In fact, I asked Michele to send me the completed envelopes via UPS or messenger because I didn't want to cross the Bay Bridge traffic during rush hour, and she was great with accommodating me. I'm looking forward to working with Michele on signage and place cards (and whatever else I can think of!) read more

Michele was truly excellent in every way for my daughter's wedding. She just could not have been more professional and was a total pleasure to work with. Her calligraphy is second to none. She did all the calligraphy on the very formal wedding invites as well as all the escort cards, place cards and numbered table markers. Michelle truly cares about all her clients and gives you the best advice possible. Look no further if you need outstanding calligraphy work from a true professional. read more

I just picked up my wedding invitation envelopes from Michele at Papineau Calligraphy yesterday, and they are beautiful! Michele is easy to work with and very knowledgable with invitation etiquette, wording, and style. She is quick to respond to questions via email and willing to work with you and make changes as needed. I highly recommend Papineau Calligraphy, you won't regret it! read more

We recently used Papineau Calligraphy services for one of our corporate projects at The Framer's Workshop. Michele, the owner, is not only an excellent calligrapher, but also an organized business person. She kept in contact with me by e-mail and phone throughout the project, which she had ready on time. The results were stunning. Also, her beautiful shop is conveniently localted on Thornhill Avenue in Montclair with its own parking lot right outside. Her web site is clearly organized with illustrations of available styles. We highly recommend her services. read more

Michele was the calligrapher for our wedding invitations, and we are so incredibly happy with her quality work. The addresses were absolute perfection. We also had her create a custom color for the ink, and she matched the color exactly. She is extremely easy and pleasant to work with, and I really recommend her if you are looking for someone to hand-address invitations. read more

We just received our save the dates, and they are amazing! We had Michele add some text to the inside of our save the dates, as well as address the envelopes. We worked with Michele through our wedding planner, so I didn't have any personal experience with Michele, but I know that the finished product is amazing. The cards already had some printing on them and she matched that print exactly. The addresses are perfect, flourishy but not so much you cant read them. I love the white ink on the pink envelopes, I love everything about them! I don't want to let them go! Further based on some research that I did, I would say that her prices are reasonable. Thanks Michele for getting our wedding off to its official start, no going back now! read more

I decided rather last minute to hire a calligrapher to work on our wedding envelopes. We had ordered such beautiful invitations that to not have a calligrapher really complete the look, wasn't something that was sitting well with me. My husband and I were doing separate searches and Papineau Calligraphy was one that we both had chosen to look into further. I contacted Michele right away to see if she was available. I expressed to her our time constraint and to see if she might be able to work with us. Michele was BEYOND accommodating. She was very easy to work with, her quality of work was beyond incredible and everyone absolutely loved it. Her pricing was very fair and worth every penny. I would highly recommend Michele at Papineau Calligraphy! Thank you so much! read more

We just picked up our wedding invitation envelopes, and I have never seen such beautiful calligraphy in my life! Michele was so wonderful to work with. We had requested a tight turn-around time, and she was able to accomodate us and finished even earlier than expected! I am so happy we worked with her. I wish all of my wedding vendors were as talented and professional. read more

Michele was selected by my wedding planner to do Calligraphy for my wedding envelope and it looked beautiful. My friends are now using her on their invites as well. I highly recommend her work. read more

Michelle P is amazing! She is highly organized, professional and an excellent communicator. I'm getting married this weekend and she wrote my table assignments and some other odd and ends for me. Her work is beautiful! She is in constant communication with her customers, a habit most business owners lack. I feel at ease and worry free working with her. If you want to work with a business professional who clearly understands her customers and produces over the top quality work, look no further! Thank you so much, Michelle P! read more

I am going to try to express what a true artist Michelle is but it is difficult because her work is magical! She did all of the invitations, escort cards for my daughter's Wedding and we were impressed beyond believe . They were so beautiful. I actually had guest tell me that they were gong to have invite framed! Since then, Michelle has done many other projects both for me and my daughter. Her work never fails to amaze us. Not only is she a great artist, she so humble, and just a wonderful person to chat with. If you are looking fir a Caligrapher, please look no further, I can assure that you will LOVE her talent. read more

It was such a delight to work with Michele Papineau. Like all super professional wedding vendors, she helped us with so much more than just her area of expertise. She gave us great advice that helped make the day so much better. The calligraphy was so beautiful it was one of my very favorite parts of the wedding. She is phenomenal and I will get calligraphy from Michelle for formal events now that before I would have never considered. read more

I found Michele at a wedding fair that I attended and was blown away by the samples of her work that were displayed, so booked her just as soon as I'd ordered our invitations. She was very easy to work with and made the whole process worry free. We received our envelopes back exactly when promised and they were truly little works of art! I received so many compliments on the gorgeous calligraphy and several friends with formal events coming up asked me for her contact information. I'd highly recommend her work! read more

Papineau did the invitation envelopes and escort cards for my May wedding. They were extremely professional and did an amazing job - not only was the calligraphy *gorgeous* but they fact-checked every single address (and found some errors - my own fiancee got his grandparents' town spelling wrong!). Their office is a calming and wonderful atmosphere and the prices extremely reasonable. They exceeded my expectations - and after my invites went out my cousin called and said she wanted to use the same people for her wedding invites since mine had come out so beautifully! read more

Michele's work is exquisite. She has a deep sense of pride in what she does and takes complete ownership of the project, from start to finish. She did our wedding invitation envelopes and we could not have been happier with the finished result. She is professional and very prompt. read more

Hi my name is Casey and I am getting married this September. I was referred to Papineau Calligraphy for my wedding invitations. All I can say is this was the best investment I have made. If you're going to spend money to have quality invitations, you want the envelope and the addressing to be up to par. It was a little more than I originally wanted to spend but the owner (Michele) was willing to work within my budget and was very accommodating. I would recommend Michele with 5 stars. I looked through all my envelopes and they are all perfect and so beautiful. This were also done within a very timely matter considering it is wedding season. Thank you so much for my beautiful envelopes Papineau Calligraphy, I can't wait to send these out and hear what people think! read more

We just had michele do some absolutely stunning calligraphy for us. Not only was her work meticulous and creative, she is dependable and does everything she promises in first class style.. A pleasure to work with!!! The best!!!!!!! read more

If you are looking for a calligrapher - Michele is a must. She is a genius and just as kind as she is talented. Super professional, organized and truly does the most beautiful work. Michele did my wedding invitation calligraphy, table numbers and escort cards - they were all done so beautifully I did not want to part ways with the materials. The envelopes took my gorgeous wedding invitations to an entirely different level - we got compliments left and right asking who did the calligraphy - her work is so special and personalized. I knew from the moment I stepped inside MIchele's studio I was in good hands. She is so easy to work with and at the top of her industry - every piece of work she showed me was flawless. Visiting with her during our sessions was one of my favorite parts of the wedding planning process! She made everything so easy and I trusted her point of view every time. In addition to being a truly talented calligrapher, she has great suggestions in terms of aesthetic and is a huge resource and also helped me find other vendors I needed. She knows so much in this area and really educated me on this process. Have no worries if you are not in the Bay Area - I got married in LA and she ensured everything was delivered seamlessly and in a very timely manner. She's the type of person that you don't have to double check on - she's ON IT! This is a huge plus in my book, as so many are not in this industry and I loved knowing anything she touched would be perfect. I am already trying to think of another event to plan so I can work with Michele and her team. read more

Michele is amazing. Her work is incredible and she is such a wonderful person. During the wedding process, all I wanted was to have people make things easier for me and Michele was one of these people. She is extremely professional, friendly and provided an immense amount of guidance regarding the invitation process. We just send our wedding invitations and we have had an overwhelming response from our guests about her amazing calligraphy. I cannot wait for her to do our place cards and the rest of our wedding day calligraphy. She is truly incredible. You can't find someone better than her to do your invitations. Thank you Michele!! read more

We were referred to Michele by a friend who recently got married and we are so happy that we got to work with her! Even though I picked one of her simplest calligraphy styles, our invitation envelopes amazingly beautiful, and so elegant that people said they actually saved them! My only regret is forgetting to get one made for myself! Closer to our wedding day, we also had Michele do our escort cards and personalized menus. They were perfection. I was thrilled with the whole process working with Michele. She was very responsive to all my random emails, contacted me if she had a question on names being correct, finished everything earlier than I anticipated, and best of all she had great suggestions about colors and styles that worked with our wedding. I want to get married again just so I can do more calligraphy! read more

Michele was a total delight and pleasure to work with from the start! She beautifully designed the calligraphy for our wedding invitations and day-of items all of which received rave reviews from our guests. Michele was so supportive, communicative and informative throughout the whole process it was a true joy to work with her!! read more

Michele did my wedding invitations and place cards. They were all gorgeous. We got so many compliments. She is a pro! We didn't have any extra envelopes and I was a little worried when she pointed that out, but as it turns out we didn't need any because she did everything perfect the 1st time. She told my fiance who picked up the invitations to have the post office hand cancel them instead of running them through the machine and it just added to the overall effect. Love her! read more

A truly amazing experience. Michele did such a fantastic job and kept me informed through the entire process. She even helped with recommendations of which style would look best for my job. I would highly recommend her for any calligraphy work. I love working with local businesses in the Montclair and Oakland area and she is definitely one I can recommend and use again. read more

Michelle is superb. My DIY Escort Cards looked like DIY doo doo so I had her re-do my Escort Cards and create forgotten Table Number Cards for my Wedding. She was calming, professional, reasonably priced and incredibly fast and the quality of her work is exceptional. I would highly recommend her to any Bride looking for a Calligrapher. read more

I cannot recommend Papineau Calligraphy more highly! Michele did such an amazing job with both the envelopes and place card for our wedding. Michele suggested what lettering we use for the envelopes to best coordinate with our invitations (something I would have never had the eye to do well!) We had a bit of a snafu with the wedding invitations we ordered from Paper Source, and Michele completely calmed me down and suggested a solution to the issue! Michele has such an eye for detail. I had made some mistakes on my list of addresses, which Michele caught and reached out to me about. I was so thrilled with how the envelopes turned out, and we also heard from our wedding guests how beautiful the calligraphy was! Michele also did our place cards, which were so elegant. Not only is Michele's work amazing, she is also so easy to work with. I would work with Michele again in a heartbeat! read more

Michele is excellent. She addressed the envelopes for my daughter's wedding invitations last year, prepared the escort cards, place cards, and table names, even re-doing the table markers at the last minute to meet a nervous bride's precise requirements. Her work is nothing less than spectacular and she will have your projects done when she says she will. When we needed to redo addresses or place cards, she quickly prepared replacements and mailed them immediately to us. Her office is in the most adorable little village off Highway 13. I recommend Michele without hesitation. read more

I thought my mother-in-law-to-be was going to address our wedding invitations, but last-minute work obligations kept her from doing so. Desperate for an alternative two weeks before the date we had set to get the invitations out, I turned to Yelp and found Michelle at Papineau Calligraphy. She was able to fit in our job and executed the calligraphy beautifully....so beautifully that I wish I'd had her address one with my fiance and my names for a keepsake! Her studio is easily accessible from Hwy 13 and super cute. In this modern world where we forego true craftsmanship and skill for the sake of technology, it's a gift to have artisans like Michelle doing what they do. read more

What a pleasure it was to work with Michele! Our daughter got married just a few weeks ago and since she resides in Chicago but wanted a Bay Area wedding, I was her "executive assistant" and interacted with many vendors. Michele definitely ranks at the very top of my list! She and her staff do beautiful work, and Michele was very responsive and personally replied to all of my correspondences. Her extensive knowledge of etiquette also proved very helpful. We had our invitation envelopes, escort cards, table numbers, and other signage done by Papineau Calligraphy, and could not have been more pleased. We requested a custom color for some of our items and the color was exactly what we hoped for. I thought the pricing was very fair and I highly recommend Michele to anyone looking to add that special touch to their wedding paper goods. read more

We happened to drive by Michele's shop and stopped in to ask her about her calligraphy services. It was our lucky day! She did our wedding invitations and we received MANY compliments on how beautiful they looked. We also had her do our escort cards and table cards. We were very pleased with how everything turned out and would absolutely use her services again. She was very prompt with responding to emails and was able to get things back to us very quickly. She also had several suggestions for us about things I never would have even thought about--super helpful. I would have no reservations about recommending Michele! read more

Michele was wonderful! She did our wedding invitations, escort cards, table numbers, and additional signage, and every bit was absolutely beautiful. Michele was knowledgeable, professional, and (as one step into her shop reveals) extremely talented and creative with great taste - I was completely charmed. I would absolutely go back to Papineau Calligraphy for any future events, and would enthusiastically recommend Michele to any bride out there! read more

I could not have been more thrilled with Papineau Calligraphy! Michele is an extremely talented artist who can make your special day even better! From our first conversation over the telephone, I knew I was in excellent hands. I needed my envelopes addressed in a hurry, and Michele was able to accommodate this. She actually had my envelopes ready two days after receiving them! When I arrived at her studio, I was completely in awe of her work. I had reviewed her different calligraphy styles on her website prior to our appointment, but was amazed at how beautiful her work was in person. She took the time to study my invitation and make recommendations on which styles of calligraphy would work best with the invitation suite. She also recommended adding some colored ink dots in between the zip code numbers to tie in the colors from my invitation, and this looked AMAZING! When it was time to pick up the envelopes, Michele let us use her studio to assemble the invitations and stuff the beautiful envelopes. She even helped assemble them! Michele also let us use her supplies that we needed to glue the inner belly band together. We went straight from Michele's studio to the post office to mail the invitations (she even gave us driving directions to a post office nearby that hand cancels the stamp). I couldn't stop looking at the invitations on the drive. My Fiance was also extremely pleased with the calligraphy. We both agreed that the envelopes would set the tone for the entire event! Our guests started receiving their invitations the next day and were raving about the beautiful calligraphy! I had several people ask me who did the calligraphy and was very excited to refer them to Papineau Calligraphy. I am also going to have Michele do our escort cards, table numbers and menus. It will definitely add something special to our reception, and tie it all together. Her work is meticulous and beautiful, and I am so thankful that I was referred to Papineau Calligraphy! Our entire experience working with Michele was wonderful! Not only is her work stunning, she is professional and a joy to work with. read more