Indie I Do!

The Indie I Do show on January 17th was a great success, we had 700 people through the doors so lots of visitors to the booth. Here is a photo of me sitting during one of the very few breaks in the waves of people that attended. Seven hours standing in heels is enough to make you want to collapse at the end of the day.





Here is a photo from the show showing some of the models (right) that were roaming around showing off some of the dress designers' work. It was fun to watch this kind of off-runway fashion show because every time you turned around there was someone new in a different style of dress.



This is a photo of my lovely assistant Nikki who was kind enough to help me with the show (you may recognize her from other events we've participated in, such as Got Craft). Other than my husband, I think she knows the most about our invitations and the custom design process, so it's very comforting to have someone help out that can answer questions that brides and grooms have. One day, I may try to steal her away from her day job to come work with me : )


We met a lot of different couples at the event, and had a great time talking to everyone about their wedding plans and ideas. We also met a lot of photographers, wedding planners, and other people involved in the industry, which was great. Not having done any wedding shows prior to this one, I didn't realize that such a friendly community of wedding vendors existed in the Vancouver area.

We met quite a few grooms that day too, which was surprising to me as I figured most guys would opt out of a wedding fair. But it was very nice to see them involved and asking questions. I wonder if they knew ahead of time that there would be a couple of burlesque dancers at the show doing their acts (I guess burlesque lessons are all the rage for stagette parties now - what will these young people think of next!). There were also vendors selling pasties and offering pastie making parties for stagettes (my table neighbor was Ms. Fondapetting, so we learned all about pastie parties).

One of the most often asked questions we heard was "When are you supposed to mail out invitations?" - Traditional etiquette says 3 months before your wedding or more, especially if you have a destination wedding planned where guests will need to arrange their travel and accommodations. A lot of brides also asked how long letterpress invitations can take to design and print - usually four to 6 weeks, depending on a variety of factors (although we do offer RUSH services if our schedule allows). And do we print stationery other than wedding invitations? YEP!

The only sad part of the day was when the show was over and we went out to load the car. I found another Toyota parked on top of the bumper of my Toyota. The person had either hit it without knowing it, or parked it and it rolled forward when the person took their foot off the brake. The photo doesn't show it well, but the red car was actually on top of my blue car. LAME! Luckily once the guy drove off (he came back eventually) there was no damage or marks. If there were, well, that would make this my third hit-and-run accident and that would just mean I have terrible luck when I leave my car parked somewhere.



Anyways, all's well that ends well, and Lotus Events and Blue Olive Photography did a great job organizing the show. I will definitely be back next year for the second annual Indie I Do!

This week we are finishing off an invitation order for Natalie in Toronto - her invitation is half in English and half in Japanese, so I'm very excited to see the Japanese characters printed on the Crane Lettra.

Happy letterpressing!