It's Friday We're in Love with...being starstruck!

Let me just begin by saying that I am from a very small mid-western town. The biggest star I ever saw was the Dukes of Hazzard CAR (oh, how I DO love the General Lee...)

But I had never seen a REAL star until I moved here. My first year here, I waited tables in Franklin and waited on Michael W Smith, Brooks & Dunn, Jodee Messina, just to name a few. So - I began to understand I was in a different place now! But none of them compares to what happened to us (Relish) last year...

Growing up in my small town, living with "older" parents - I grew up on country. I'm not talking Garth Brooks' modernized country - I'm talking CLASSIC country (although I sung "Friends in Low Places" at so many parties between age 17-23, I can sing every word to you right now. But that would be to the penalty of your ears!) Anyway... back to the story at hand. One of my favorite stars to listen to as a child, one of my mother's favorite stars to sing a long to... was Loretta Lynn. I mean - she is one of the biggest country stars of all time. And NO ONE has a voice like her's! I absolutely love her!

Last Summer, I was watching TV and her movie "Coal Miner's Daughter" (with Sissy Spaceck) came on. I of course had to watch it again for the 10th time. I love that movie and that night - it really meant a lot to me. I was daydreaming of my own "small beginnings" and where God was going to take me as well as our "baby" company Relish. Two days later, I came back to the office after lunch to hear a voicemail that said "This is Nita Baggott with Nashville Event Planning and I'd like to talk with you about doing invitations for Loretta Lynn..." I nearly fainted. Then I decided it was too crazy to be true! I called her back and so a dream began...

First of all, I must say that Nita is now one of my favorite wedding vendors to work with! She is so amazing, so professional but SO down to earth! She makes you feel so at ease! I love wedding planners who make you feel at ease. Actually, they amaze me how calm they are! I got to go to Loretta's studio downtown. I felt so important! :) Everyone was so nice and so pleased with what we created!

The stationery was for Loretta's 50th Years in Country Music celebration! How honored was I to be part of this amazing event?! Seriously?! I GET to do this?! AND I get PAID for it???!!! REALLY?! It was our biggest order to date, both monetary and emotionally! And all the OTHER cool celebrities (quite an amazing guest list) that RECEIVED our invites and saw our work at the event... wow...

MANY thanks to Nita and Nashville Event Planing for their amazing style, class and communication skills! Any bride OR special event would be SO lucky to have Nita and her amazing team (LOVE Miranda & Wendy too!!!) plan their event! Words cannot express my appreciation to them & Loretta & her team for working with us! It truly opened doors and took us to the next level! And at the same time, made this little smalltown girl's dreams come true! You could say... I "Relished" it! ;)

Thanks for joining us in our look back over the past 3 years! Can't wait to see what we have to share at our 5 year mark!

It's Friday We're in Love With... Top Relish Moments!

So, as we mentioned in last Friday's blog, Relish celebrating our 3 year anniversary this month. So, three amazing years has come with many great, pivotal moments. When looking back, we thought of the "Top 3" monumental moments. It was hard, because there's been so many great ones, but these moments were ones that brought happy tears, excitement and our next level of growth!

Monumental Moment #3: The Weddings, The (BIG) Bridal Show, January 2009 (Nashville, TN)

We had launched Relish over half a year earlier and had spent those first months working out kinks in the software, improving our product quality, and refining our overall brand. This bridal show was like our real coming-out party to the bridal community.

Since we are an online company, this bridal show was our first opportunity to see brides react to our products and our "design your invitation" concept. The question we had was how to take our software capabilities and turn that into a tangible experience at a bridal show. The answer came in the form of a "mini-invitation bar". We had miniature samples printed of our papers and also had embellishments. They could go through the bar and put together their own mini-invites.

The brides loved it and our line stretched out past 2 other booths. It was the highest traffic booth at the show.

 The best part was seeing the brides reactions as they had so much fun with the experience. THAT is what our whole mission as a company was from the start: to enjoy the experience. By the end of a non-stop 8 hour show, after seeing over 700 brides, we knew without a doubt we had accomplished our mission after a year and a half of building it up! This was the start of something big - for brides and for us Relish as a company!

Our #2 Monumental Moment coming up next week...

Happy Birthday Relish!

It's hard to believe that a mere 3 years ago today Relish was officially launched!

And it was actually about 9 months before that when it was conceived...

Rebecca & I (Stephanie) were chatting over coffee about helping some of our friends with their wedding invitation designs. We discussed how many invitations we were currently helping friends with because they weren't satisfied with the options being given to them out of the standard "big invitation books". Gradually the chat turned into "Why isn't there something like... this?" We wanted to create a system where brides could A) have a ton of options and B) be able to mix them up easily themselves to design their own invitations. When we first started discussing it, we didn't even have online software in mind. That was where my fantastically smart husband (Dustin) stepped in and voila! Relish was conceived!!! We got to work on designs, software layout, etc and after many long nights (after our day jobs), 9 months later Relish was finally born in May, 2008!!!

We had already attended a bridal show that January and some networking events so we invited some of our favorite Nashville vendors to a small party to celebrate "the beginning" on May 4th, 2008. Below are some of the photos from that launch party! The next day (5th of May, 2008) we launched our iBuilder software online.

We didn't know it that first August afternoon, but we were about to embark on a huge journey! We've been blessed with so much growth since then! We have a board of directors, designers and production assistants to help churn out the gorgeous invitations AND to get us growing to the next level! We have been inspired by bride requests and suggestions and are currently in the process of our 3rd major software upgrade! (it's going to be fabulous... but wait until you see the one after that! teaser, haha) We have now sent out orders to every amazing US state and to several different countries! We are extremely blessed by this business and TRULY LOVE what we do! (more and more every day!)

We just want to say thanks to our customers all across the world for helping us grow! Thanks for your inspiring designs and feedback for ways we can take the "Design your own invitations" to the next level!

Thanks to our amazing Relish team!!! We are considerably blessed to be a company where talent, creativity and cutting-edge technology mesh into an amazing product!

(us with the always amazing Ashley's Bride Guide!)

And a special thanks to our local Nashville vendors that we met 3 years ago, many of whom have become our friends! We've enjoyed watching many of their businesses grow as well! Special hugs & love to Shara (Cakes by Shara), Zach & Jody Gray (Gray Photography), Sarah Willard (Music City Events) and especially Ashley (Ashley's Bride Guide) - you believed in us then and that helped inspire who we are now!

We are definitely enjoying the journey!!!

xoxo,

Stephanie & Rebecca
(and the getrelish team)

What's Happenin' Wednesday: The Little Black Dress Revue

If you are engaged and live in the Nashville area, you have the opportunity to be part of a very classy (and fun) event on Tuesday, November 9th! Welcome to the Little Black Dress Revue!

When I was engaged, I only got to go to the big wedding shows, but now there are new opportunities for brides to attend small events that are catered to them for a night of fun and enjoyment. Events where they can meet just a few of the best wedding vendors in a more relaxed atmosphere. Relish has been a part of some of these events, but this new event is like nothing I've seen before.

Hosted by Sarah Willard of Music City Events, it's guaranteed to be fabulous (because she is as is all of the events we've seen her do). Also sponsored by our favorite Ashley's Bride Guide, lending additional credibility that it's going to be a truly fabulous bride-centered event! Not only that, but you get to bring your groom!!! It's a true date night at the Noah Liff Opera Center (can you say elegant?!) with cocktails, live music and mingling with some of the best wedding professionals in the Nashville area. Not only is it going to be fabulous, but all guests will be entered for a chance to win a $5,000 wedding package!!! Now, THAT is fabulous!

So come on out on November 9th. Relish will be there and we would love to meet you in person! So get out your little black dress and join this one-of-kind party! See all the exciting details HERE!

What's Happenin' Wednesday: Fall Exclusive Invitations

Welcome to our first edition of "What's Happenin' Wednesday". We want to thank our sweet Paula Kennedy who did such a great job on her Wednesday blog ("BeCome A Long With Me") for the past few months. She finally became a Long this past Saturday afternoon, when she married her longtime love, Dean. It was a beautiful wedding and Paula was an absolutely stunning bride. We will do one more blog with Paula in a few weeks to give the final details of her wedding. Congrats, Paula - everyone at Relish is so very happy for you!

So - what else is happening this Wednesday? In case you hadn't noticed, Fall has finally arrived! As the weather cools and the leaves begin to turn here, we wanted to take this turn of seasons to reveal Relish's new Exclusive Line of invitations! Relish's Exclusive Invitation Line consists of made-to-order invitations that have a very special flair to them. All the collections inside the Exclusive line feature specialty papers, and unique touches that will wow anyone who receives one. And the first collection we'd like to feature is our Falling For You collection, which is just perfect for this time of year! 

This one (above) is called "Sweet November" and is based out of our iBuilder line.
It features the leaf-patterned "November" paper and has a vellum top layer.
Extra touch is Orange Rhinestone in the middle of the names.

Above is the "Leaf Pochette": a self-folding Antique Gold envelope that opens up to reveal 3 layers inside: Shimmering Metallic Copper, layered with a 4-leaf specialty paper with gold foil accents, layered with clear vellum.

And last, but not least - my personal favorite: "Falling Leaves". 

The bottom layer is the Shimmering Copper Metallic cardstock. It has the verse printed on it in Dark Brown Thermography (raised ink - so beautiful!) The top layer is a specialty Fall paper that features gold foil accents. The real key is that the top layer has a maple leaf die-cut out of it to reveal the bottom layer.
And one last touch is the Gold Rhinestone in the center.
This invitation is simply stunning to see, to hold!

It's not too late to order these invitations for your Fall wedding! Just give us 3 weeks to get them to you and you will have the hottest, most unique invitations!

Stay tuned as we feature more collections in this line of invitations and stay with us each Wednesday to see what's new and happenin' with Relish!

Relish A Celebrity Invitation

First of all, all of us at Relish want to apologize for being gone so long. Thanks to those of you who have asked about us - we are glad to be back to blogging! So - where have we been? Well, it was a very busy (& fun) Summer. We had orders come in for brides from all across the country - some of which we will feature in future blogs. We also had one very cool order for a local client - an event invitation for a very special lady. While we know we live in Nashville, we sometimes forget that means that special people, people we grew up adoring actually live within miles of us. We were reminded of this when we got a call to do invitations for an event honoring the one and only Loretta Lynn.

I grew up listening to Loretta, as my mom and dad loved country music and loved her. I adored her voice, it was so original, so comforting. I remember watching Coal Miner's Daughter (with Sissy Spacek) when it first came out in the 80s. To this day, when I hear her, I think of my childhood and of my mom and I think of all things country music. She truly is an icon! This year, Loretta Lynn celebrated 50 years in country music. 50 years ago, she released her first hit record, I'm a Honky Tonk Girl. Many festivities have taken place this year to celebrate and honor her and her remarkable career. The last big invitation-only event took place at her ranch in Hurricane Mills, TN last weekend (Friday, September 24th) and Relish was very honored to be a part of this special occasion.

Nita Baggott, of the fabulous Nashville Event Planning worked with Relish to create the event invitations, which were sent out to 300 guests, which included Loretta's family (such as Crystal Gayle - whom I also adored growing up), the Nashville elite (such as Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Marty Stuart and my fave Sheryl Crow), some famous friends (such as President George & Laura Bush) and many media outlets, which covered the event. The invitation was from Relish's Origami line (you can build your own in our iBuilder software) and featured an Antique Gold pochette (self-closing envelope), with Metallic Red paper, layered with white Vellum, all enclosed in a black envelope.

Custom additions were the blind embossed logo on the outside of the invite and the record guest pass inside. Loretta's team wanted to incorporate her first record into the design if possible. They also needed some sort of insert for guests to bring with them to the event as their guest pass. So, we combined these 2 into one very neat insert. We recreated her record art and had the cards die-cut into a record shape. On the other side was a photo of Loretta and the information about the guest pass.

We also worked with our sister company, Kismet Creative Group to create drink coasters (seen below on table) for the event, using the record as well as black gift bags with the logo embossed in gold foil.

We cannot express how honored we were to be a part of this event. It's always a pleasure to get to develop new relationships with great event planners such as Nita (LOVE her and NEP!) and it's great to get good business. But what an exceptional treat when the client is someone you used to sing along to when you were 5 years old! The pleasure was all ours!

If you're not sure who Loretta Lynn is (how can this be?!) or if you love her like we do - visit her website to see just how much she helped shape country music and the impact she had! Also, be watching for a very cool tribute album coming out this Fall! And read about the big celebratory event here at CMT! To see more about the other vendors involved, visit NEP's blog.

So, that's a little bit of what's been going on at Relish. More exciting news coming soon! We will be back to blogging a few times a week. Glad to be back - we missed you guys! :)

As Featured on...Better Nashville!

I Love Nashville! Don't you? And now is the time to support Nashville in it's flood relief efforts however you can. Being a team of stationery designers, we found the niche that worked for us: "I Love Nashville" line of stationery! We are donating 100% of the proceeds to the Red Cross' Nashville flood relief efforts!!! So you can get cute stuff and donate to the cause at the same time!



You can now get stationery with a Nashville theme! Get it Thank You notes; "Give" notes; Blank (scenery) notecards; and if you're a bride - yes, you can even get your entire invitation package!



There are four Nashville inspired designs (and counting)! There is a little something for everyone! The Skyline & Boots come in 7 different color options for a better variety!



And as the title of this blog suggests, we are going to be featured on WSMV Channel 4's "Better Nashville" program this Thursday (May 20th) when it airs between 1:00 - 2:00pm. Be sure to check it out "live" or you can catch the interview starting tomorrow afternoon at www.betternashville.com



Help us spread the word!!! Please tell your friends to check out the new Nashville stationery and support a good cause! Mention Coupon Code "Nashville5" and save $5 on your order! We can't do much more than that because we want to GIVE it to the Red Cross!!! One idea some people are doing is ordering a larger quantity to share with friends to make it more affordable (it's cheaper per piece the higher quantity you go AND we get to donate more!)

Thanks for your support!!!