Turning Wedding Experience into a Business

This MoBster learned a lot in the year-and-a-half run-up to Daughter's wedding. Most of what I learned I've shared here, but something unexpected grew out of our wedding experience. A new business was born.

No, I'm not a wedding planner. Yikes! Hats off to folks who do that full-time. But I found another niche that has become a nice little sideline for Daughter and me. We got the idea because a) the amount of time - and sometimes money, if brides opt for calligraphy - it takes to address and stuff wedding invitations, and b) we both have good handwriting.

Kate and I hand-addressed her invitations rather than sending them to a calligrapher because we like the look of natural handwriting. It seemed a more personal approach. Might this be something we could do for other brides who don't have the time, money for a calligrapher, or good enough handwriting to do this themselves?

In December 2008, I put an ad on craigslist here in NYC offering my handwriting services. I had no idea whether anything would come of it. Believe it or not I got two quick jobs from the ad: one for addressing baby announcements and one for writing thank you notes for a recent bride (she provided the copy, I just wrote it long-hand for her). Elegant Scribbles was born.

Over the past 2 1/2 years, the business has ticked right along. Daughter joined the endeavor last year, so now we have an Atlanta branch. While we also address for corporate and non-profit events (and we have some great clients!), most of our work stems from brides-to-be - engagement party invitations, save-the-dates, wedding invitations, and thank you notes.

Over this Memorial Day weekend, I'm addressing, stuffing and stamping 175 wedding invitations for a couple here in New York. But location doesn't matter for Elegant Scribbles. Most of our clients are from New York and Atlanta, but we've had clients from Illinois, California, Florida, and other states. Daughter and I have very different handwriting styles, and neither are location-specific. Have pens, will write and ship!

So you never know what will grow out of your wedding experience. Besides a great marriage, of course!

And if you're really interested in our work, visit Elegant Scribbles at http://www.elegantscribbles.com/, our ad on The Knot, or follow us on Facebook and @elegantscribble on Twitter.