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No two weddings are alike today, and no one knows that better than Hope in Handfuls owner Nicole Baldarelli.
“Everything in the wedding industry today is about making it unique and custom to your love story and an experience for your guests,” Baldarelli shared.
From hand-painted oyster shells and friendship bracelets as place cards to nautically themed cocktail menus on the sail of a model sailboat, to her latest challenge — a basketball-inspired wedding at a resort in Newport, Rhode Island — Baldarelli uses her creative magic to turn a couple’s vision into the kind of wedding day they imagine.
Her handmade décor and signage have welcomed guests to weddings throughout New England, including such notable venues as the Gilded Age mansion Rosecliff in Newport, Rhode Island, the historic Wentworth by the Sea Inn in New Castle, New Hampshire and the Wychmere Beach Club in Harwich Port, Cape Cod.
“We’re the wedding mecca,” the Milbury, Massachusetts-based creative explained. “Being surrounded by [locations like] Newport, Rhode Island and Cape Cod, people come from all over the world to get married here. To have that as my backyard, you can’t beat that.”
Her ability to turn an idea into something beautiful and unique comes naturally, Baldarelli said. As a child, she usually didn’t buy gifts; she’d often make them. “I’d see something, and I’d say, ‘I can make that,’” she shared, adding that when many kids created lemonade stands in the summer, she’d turn scrap wood into hand-painted signs and sell them at the end of her driveway.
But it was her own wedding in 2017 where others noticed her flair for event design. A natural at party and event planning — she’d excelled at that part of her duties when class president in high school and during her college years — she turned a tent on an open field on Cape Cod into the perfect barn-themed wedding venue.
“It was the era of mason jars and rustic décor,” said Baldarelli, who shared she also painted all the signage for the event herself, even spray-painting dozens of miniature plastic animals gold for her “what’s your party animal” themed place card markers.
Friends, she said, told her, “This is the best wedding I ever saw … You have to do this for a living!”
But it was the birth of her first child, who had medical issues, followed by the COVID-19 shutdown, that started Baldarelli rethinking her career working full-time in human resources. In May of 2021, she launched what she thought was going to be a side hustle doing signage and décor items for “all kinds of events” from weddings to birthday parties. Much of her work was single items — a cake topper, a happy birthday banner, a sign — ordered through her Etsy website.
“I had a dream [one night] that I had a business called Hope in Handfuls,” Baldarelli explained. “I woke up the next morning, told my husband, went out and bought a Cricut and opened an Etsy shop a week later.”
Shortly after establishing her side hustle, Baldarelli said she was laid off from her corporate job and moved to running her Etsy shop full-time.
In 2023, after “finding her footing” in the event signage business through networking with other vendors and wedding planners, the now mother of three closed her Etsy shop and moved to wedding work full-time.
“I not only make all the décor, now I [also] go and set it up,” Baldarelli said. “I’m a one-stop shop for all your signage needs.
“If you are looking for that immersive, cohesive, unique custom experience, that’s me,” she added.
Baldarelli said her work starts with welcome signage, which is often unique, to create an introduction to the day’s events. She also does programs for some couples, and for outdoor weddings, commemorative fans. For the cocktail hour, she’ll do custom signature drink signs, sometimes with an interactive element like lighting to provide the “wow” factor couples are looking for, and unique place cards, such as painted shells, for seating arrangements. She also crafts custom gift table signage and card boxes, along with memory table presentations for couples who want to include family members no longer with them in the ceremony.
“You name it, I’ll make it, and if I haven’t done it before, I’ll learn how,” Baldarelli said. In the age of Pinterest and Instagram, she said couples come with lots of ideas. She tries to make certain those ideas are a reflection of the couple, their love story and their vision for their wedding.
Baldarelli credits her husband, Mike, with helping her create the larger display signage and pieces.
“We go out to our garage after the kids go to bed at 9 [p.m.], and work until 1 or 2 a.m.” during the busy wedding season, she said. “Then he gets up at 7:30 [a.m.] and goes to work.”
She said Mike’s help, plus that of family members on both sides, has been elemental to her business’s growth and success.
A consultation usually starts eight months to a year out from the wedding date with an inquiry, a form filled out by the couple and a discussion about vision and budget, as Baldarelli said her work is customarily high-end. She then drafts a proposal and creates mock-ups of larger items for approval. From there, she works with the venue and other vendors to bring the couple’s vision for their wedding to fruition.
Along the way, there’s always a lot of checking in, consultations, and changes, she said.
“You always start with a design and then it’s totally different … the design evolves so much … that’s what keeps it interesting,” Baldarelli shared.
A new theme for wedding signage is a branding experience, Baldarelli said, creating a custom monogram and then using it not just on signage, but also on items such as baseball caps or sweatshirts, or even a holiday ornament that’s given out to guests.
“It’s cool to see my work on more things,” Baldarelli said.
Baldarelli is already booking out into fall of 2026. For couples interested in her services, she suggests getting in touch when the wedding date is set.
“The sooner the better,” she suggested.
For more information on Baldarelli’s services, including photos of her work at different venues, and an initial contact form, visit her website at hopeinhandfuls.com.
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