Countdown to Carles - A Longan's Place Wedding

We met Victoria and Andrew at the Rusty Pelican Bridal Show in October of last year. They were enthralled with the idea of having a custom invitation created for their big day. After all, they are also entrepreneurs, have their own printing company, and, yes, designed their own save the date. Although Victoria was very excited to work with us, it was Andrew who I remember was really passionate about how he invisioned the invitation design for his big day. I'm always excited to see grooms take interest in details for the wedding as much as the brides do. I am so happy with how their suite turned out and even more excited with the photos our dear blushing bride, Victoria, shot of our design. 

I am so excited for the both of you as you start this new chapter in life and am honored to have helped with an important detail of that moment.

Venue - Longan's Place

Stationery - Only One Mark, Inc. (US!)

Wedding Photography - Nili Photographics

Photos of Invitation Suite - Victoria Carles (Blushing Bride)

Bridal Gown - Brides of Florida

Hair & Makeup - Beauty by Jaxy

Preparing Your Garden

Most of you are reading the title of this post as if it were a surprise line drive to right field. Yes. You heard me use a baseball reference. Softball in my case...but I keep moving onto the point. The last thing I think any of you would expect from me would be to write a post relating to gardening. But it might actually surprise you to see where this leads...

You may have noticed a bit of a buzz on social media regarding a certain book coming out. One I can say I've been waiting for since reading Make It Happen. Just in case you need an introduction, Make It Happen is a book written by the ever thoughtful Lara Casey. Her highly anticipated follow up to her first book, Cultivate: A Grace-Filled Guide to Growing an Intentional Life, is kinda picks up from where Make It Happen left off, but not in the way you think it would. 

The book is divided into three parts, this post being about the first part titled Prepare Your Garden. Like Lara's first book, Cultivate is written to not only give you great content, but also constructed to make you think and reflect on your own story amongst the one written on the pages in front of you. This is especially true with some of the topics Lara touches upon. In this particular portion, she refers a lot (as in most of the theming of this book) to actions that revolve around gardening. Weirdly enough, it was until I really started sinking into this book that I realized how accurate the correlation gardening had to how we build our lives.

Throughout each chapter, Lara disperses the lies we believe into actionable truths. From Embracing Your Season to Nourishing Your Soil, I was constantly reminded that it takes time to get your foundation in order. Something that in this microwave, instant gratification moment of time we live in, it can be difficult to really cultivate a life that is rich in love and truth. 

To some of you, this sound like I'm talking to you from the deep end of reality, one you would rather stay away from. But the deep end is a part of the pool you need to visit from time to time. Because goodness knows playing in the shallow end of the pool is limiting.  

Cultivate is available today on Amazon. There is also an audible version available. 

I'll be updating the blog with my progress in the book for those of you who may be interested in reading it. So far, I say get your copy. Whatever "season" you may find yourself, it will definitely give you a faith based, batch of helpful real talk verses some of the fluff that is out there.  

Stationary VS Stationery

There has been a battle brewing in the wedding and events industry that some of you might not know about. It is something that has been seen by some as a common mistake and a major faux pas by others. So much so that memes and products have popped up addressing the issue.

Do I have you at the edge of your seat? Are you dying to know what I'm talking about? I'll give you a clue below...

This great pillow created by Elizabeth at Pomp Creative can be purchased on her ETSY Shop. Click the image to purchase now.

That's right. The issue that has been plaguing countless Facebook Groups and subjects of frustration amongst vendors has been how the word stationary/stationery is written when used in the context of invitations and paper goods. Just in case you don't know, stationary is when someone or something is completely still; not moving. Stationery is used to describe products used for writing such as paper, pens, pencils, and ink. It has actually gotten some folks pretty upset when one mistakenly uses stationary instead of stationery.

You may be reading this and thinking, "These people are nuts for being offended that I mistakenly misspelled the word. It's a common and honest mistake." Well, I mean wouldn't you be slightly peeved if someone misspelled your name? Truth be told, I made this mistake in our business within our first year. Needless to say after I began to learn more about this industry and what a privilege it was to create these treasured paper goods, I quickly made the change to the correct spelling of my occupation.

Any who, for those of you passing through and thinking this is silly, here's some expert food for thought.  If not, just remember recheck that spelling before you send that email or social media status. 

Change is Coming...

Yes, yes, I know...I'm getting Game of Throne Fans excited by my blog title. Truth be told, neither Gus or I are into Game of Thrones (don't throw your computer to the wall just yet), but felt like this title, in a sense borrowing the sentiment of #winteriscoming, was really appropriate.

Back to why we've taken you away from your regularly scheduled social media scroll break. We have some news and it's about time we told you about it. We have been in business for almost 6 years. Trust me when I say that there has been a lot of blood, sweat, and hard work (okay okay...tears too) that have gone into everything we've done since starting on this journey in 2011. But like any good movie plot, change is immenent young padawan (total Star Wars reference...look it up). 

Change can be scary, but so needed. After taking some time and reevaluating everything from our branding, logo design, website, and presence in general, I think I should tell you about some changes that will be taking place in our company.

OUR BRANDING AND LOGO DESIGN

Although it went through a slight redesign, the logo you see today was as it was at the beginning of our company; from the text written in my hand writing and the fountain pen that many of you have probably been puzzled about. Our branding elements like the wood background and accents that were purely from a photo taken of our dining room table (that we still have). The electric blue color throughout our branding was a random idea that I thought was needed. 

All of this imagery just doesn't feel right anymore.

OUR WEBSITE

When the needs of your project changes, so do the tools in your tool belt. Our website has always been a great tool for our us to communicate not only what our business does but who we are. We have been brainstorming and making moves to provide more services to benefit the experience that you, the client, will be receiving. This means we need to expand and change the way our website is coded, shaped, and make sure we are using to its fullest potential.

....which brings me to our biggest change....

OUR ROLES IN THE COMPANY

As a lot of you may know, Gus and I work as a husband and wife team. Although we have probably mentioned it in conversation, we haven't specified our roles in the company (which is totally our fault). We both feel it's important to be totally transparent with y'all if we haven't discussed it before.

I, Monique, handle all of the day to day work from answering emails, putting together invoices, and running our social media accounts. I also am the only designer and customer service representative that will not only walk you through the process but be a source of knowledge and comedic relief when things aren't always going right in your planning. 

Gus is responsible for our back end. He is the one that keeps track of our accounting and finance department. Gus is my biggest supporter and has been known to be my minion when in need of another set of hands to complete an order.

For these reasons and others, Gus is taking a step back in terms of presence in our social media accounts and other aspects of the business. So, in a sense, it will be I, Monique, that you will hear from and interact with on a daily basis. But don't freak out, our relationship is fine. I'm still going to include the emotionally, sappy posts that I know you guys love seeing (and I love sharing) about us as a couple. We just want to be clear on why Gus won't be as visual in the future.

After watching YOU PANIC A LITTLE, LET ME EASE YOUR MIND BY TELLING YOU WHAT WE AREN't changing...

OUR MISSION

I genuinely feel like our mission is to serve couples by helping them create beautiful, custom invitations and paper goods. There is a reason why a light bulb went off in my head after our wedding. Ultimately, WE WERE NOT THE ONLY ONES WHO STRUGGLED DESIGNING THEIR DREAM INVITATIONS. So many of you are in that struggle right now (or were until we helped make that wish come true). You should be able to have a design you love and treasure as something that tells the epic story of your prequel. Like Episodes 1-3 of Star Wars, your children and their children's children will want to know the details of how you two came together. Your invitation is a great way to help tell that story.

With all of that said, I hope you keep along with our journey to see whats in the future for Only One Mark, Inc. Change will come along slowly (or all at once), but one thing remains: our mission to create your dream stationery for your big day. 

Until next time!