I love a good love story. After 35 years of marriage, I thought it was time to celebrate and tell ours in a very special way…so I created a font!
The name “Hello My Love” refers to the way we greet each other. As corny as it sounds, there’s nothing that puts a smile on my face more than to see my hubby, Michael, walk in the door, which is in direct sight of my home studio and say those 3 words.
We were married November 9, 1984. Two kids and five houses later, we still like each other and feel an even deeper love and appreciation for our relationship. For us, that required a big celebration! So last October, we took a trip to Vienna and Italy with our sons Alex and Nick and his girlfriend Victoria.
This is all of us in Verona at a pasta making class.
But I wanted something beyond a trip to commemorate this wonderful moment in time. The font is that tribute to our love story. It represents the hard earned ease and flow that comes from sharing the ups and downs of life together and learning “this too shall pass”. It speaks to the level of gratitude that evolves after experiencing heartbreaking moments as well as extreme joy during the many years that we’ve been lucky enough to share together. But most importantly it’s filled with the love that grew and evolved into something that we cherish every day.
So how did this journey begin?
It all started many years ago when I first saw Michael at the age of 4 in his grandfather’s corner grocery store. I imagined he got to eat all the candy he wanted! Fast forward 12 years, and we met at McDonald’s after our high school’s football game. We dated for awhile but went our separate ways when he left for college. Eleven years later, I moved to Dallas. Meanwhile, back in our hometown of Erie, Pa. his mom ran into my dad at a local Italian deli. When he told her I lived in Dallas, she was delighted to share that her son had been transferred there 6 months earlier. When Michael called his parents at the usual time, she shared the news. He gave me a call. We reconnected at a restaurant called “The Magic Time Machine”. (How perfect is that!) And a year and a half later we were married at the same church both of our parents had been married in. Serendipitous to say the least!
I can’t imagine my life without this man who has taught, accepted, tolerated, supported and encouraged me for the last 35 years to follow my own unique path. He puts his all into whatever he does. He is passionate about his family, golf, track and field and his faith. He’s been a loving, devoted father whose sons always know how proud he is of them. And he’s a great story teller, regaling us throughout the years with funny moments of his life working in his close knit family’s Italian deli and bakery. He is usually laughing so hard he can barely get the words out. I love his laugh. It’s a deep gut laugh. It’s like his whole body is erupting with joy.
I could go on. But I hope this helps you to understand the inspiration behind the font. I hope you have your own love story to tell. It doesn’t have to be a romantic one. It can be about having a special bond with a friend, a family member or discovering how to love yourself. We all need to learn that.
The love that inspired me to create this font, is not the kind of emotion you see in movies. Someone doesn’t complete you. It’s doing real life together, every day, with repetitive menial tasks, kids that don’t want to go to bed and parents who become ill. It’s never feeling like you can do it all but somehow managing the most important things because you’re doing it together. It’s going through the stages of life, re-inventing yourself and your relationship over and over. It’s knowing when you to let the small things go and focusing on the good that’s in front of you. Forgiving quickly, crying or comforting when the need arises, knowing when to lead and when to follow and always keeping a sense of humor…these are the subtle lessons that come only with time. This is, to me, what real love is about.
I’m grateful to have it in my life. And I wish I could pass it out like candy. But I can’t. So I’ve put it into a font. My hope is, that it’s used to celebrate many stories about real love.
You can take a peek at the Hello My Love font here.
It’s on sale for 50% off for a limited time. Oh and it comes with a bonus…91 Ornaments including frames, florals and design elements.
Here’s some pics of the font is use.
