Valentines Chocolate Heart Boxes.

It's a curved-wall rigid box, cut on custom dies and assembled by hand. There are no straight edges for a machine to corner-stay, so each wall is formed around the heart outline and joined to the base.

The tray inside is cut to the same curve. That makes the heart the hardest common shape in confectionery packaging, and it's why these boxes take longer to plan than a square box.

The paper has to go around compound curves, and unless it is nicked and overlapped it wrinkles at the notch. We relieve the wrap paper with small cuts so it lies flat around the lobes and into the point.

Smooth wrapping at the notch is the quickest way to judge a heart box, and it's the first thing we check on a sample.

A heart holds fewer pieces than its footprint suggests, because the curve wastes cavity space at the lobes and the point. A heart the same width as a square box seats noticeably fewer chocolates.

We establish the real count from the tray layout early, before you price the assortment. Glassine cups go into each cell of the fitted heart tray as a barrier.

Red gloss with foil script is the classic, finished with a ribbon closure. Hot foil works well for the sentiment typography, and embossing adds a raised heart or logo on the lid.

For a stripped-back modern version, soft-touch lamination in a muted colour with a single foil mark looks current. Satin dressing inside is the traditional lining. This format doesn't take a window patch.

Common sizes are about 8 × 7.5 × 2 in and 10 × 9 × 2.5 in. We measure across the widest point of the lobes, then from the cleft to the tip, and then the depth.

Custom sizes need their own dies, so settle the size and piece count together before artwork starts. We'll send a dieline showing the tray layout inside the outline.

Heart boxes start at 500 per order. Because each size needs its own curved dies and hand assembly, most brands pick one size and one design for the season.

Retailers with larger programs can go up to 100,000, but capacity for hand-assembled rigid work is finite in the run-up to February.

Book in summer, even though production itself only needs 7 to 10 business days once the proof is signed. Rush slots at 5 to 7 business days exist, but every chocolatier wants the same few weeks and hand-assembled capacity fills early.

A heart sample comes back in 5 to 7 business days, and its fee is credited against the box order. Work backwards from your ship date, because stock that arrives after February 14 has missed its only selling week.

Any mismatch between lid and base shows immediately on a symmetrical curved shape. On a square box a slightly loose lid goes unnoticed, but on a heart the lobes misalign and the eye catches it at once.

We cut lid and base on matched dies and check registration on the sample. Rigid board with an art paper or specialty wrap keeps the curve true, so the lid seats the same way every time.