image via Heather Nash Photography
Guys, I am pumped about today’s post! I am so excited to introdude you to Laura, although I’m sure you already know who she is! Laura is the talent behind Paper & Honey®. Just take a little second to scroll through her portfolio… yes. Let’s dig in!
Introduce yourself! Who are you and what do you do?
Hey, I’m Laura! I’m a twenty-something, solar-powered, faux-redhead living in southeastern Michigan. Next year I’ll be celebrating five years of marriage with my awesome husband, Max, which is equal parts insane and totally extraordinary. The best years of my life. I love a whole lot of things, but a few take the top tier cake: our pups Moose and Pippa; sweating my brains out at hot yoga; Game of Thrones and being “one of those people” who read the books and has to tell you about it; travelling to new places — we just went to Europe for the first time!; and putting avocado on absolutely everything I can.
I’m a hand letterer, calligrapher, graphic designer, and brand new letterpress operator, but a wedding stationer first and foremost. Through Paper & Honey® I create meaningful paper for meaningful marriages. Heirloom quality invitations you’ll want to show your grandchildren; deeply pressed and thoughtful means of telling your one-of-a-kind love story.
Don’t you already love her?
image via Heather Nash Photography
What is your favorite thing to have for brunch? Menu item, recipe, anything!
Oh man. I’m honestly not a big breakfast person and skip it almost always! At home, I’ll make a sweet potato hash with red pepper and onion, topped with a fried egg, avocado, and hot sauce. We did Whole30 earlier this year and that was an everyday staple that carried over! If I’m out at a restaurant, I’m a sucker for any kind of Mexican / Tex-Mex / southwestern breakfast foods. Hopcat (an amaaazing restaurant here in Michigan) has an unreal brunch chimichanga with scrambled eggs, black beans, chorizo, pico de gallo, hollandaise, etc etc etc… UNREAL. Basically anything with hollandaise or avocado, I’m game.
Believe it or not, I’ve lived in Michigan my whole life and never been to Hopcat! This may need to change asap!
What inspired you to start your business?
A marvelous concoction of circumstances: wasting away in a 9-5 cubicle; an education in art and steadfast belief that I could be successful in doing what I actually WANTED to do; having the full confidence and unwavering support of my absolutely extraordinary husband; and my mother’s story.
When she was in her early twenties — the age I was when I first started Paper & Honey® — my mom was forced to study a field she was totally disinterested in because it was what she was “supposed” to do. She wanted to be creative and pursue her passion of fashion design but was held back by a system that kept her on the “safe” track to financial and career security. Growing up, she instilled a mantra in me. “If you do what you love you’ll never work a day in your life.” My mom worked a job she hated every single day because it was just… what you did. Live to work, not work to live, right?
Working at the 9-5 design job I got right out of college, I felt overwhelming regret and frustration when I thought I should feel elated. I had benefits and a salary, a career path at 22 years old — I should have been pumped! I should have been overflowing with gratitude. But instead I wanted to crawl into bed and never come out whenever I thought about spending the next 5, 10, 20 plus years in that basement cubicle. I cannot overstate how much life this place sucked out of me.
So, I did exactly what I don’t ever advise to anyone else and quit before I had anything figured out. I had been freelancing for a while and designing stationery on the side, and Paper & Honey® was a tiny newborn baby of an idea still growing, so I was at least on a (very small) path in the right direction. I was embarrassed to tell anyone my plans (someone actually asked me, “so, how’s unemployment going?”) and my dad was freaking. out. that I had just walked away from my full-time job.
But, BUT — I knew I could do it. I KNEW I could create this life for myself where I was happy and fulfilled and serving the world in a way larger than myself. Paper & Honey® moved away from all-encompassing graphic design and officially launched as a wedding stationery studio in early 2014, and has grown ever since. Besides meeting Max, this work is the very best thing to ever happen to me.
This story is so moving to me!! Makes me so thankful to love what I do!
image via Heather Nash Photography
So you recently added a new member to the family, Winnie! Can you tell us about her?
Winnie is the first press we’ve added to the Paper & Honey® family! She’s a literal one-ton hunk of early-1900s cast iron love. We picked her up from a tiny press shop in Gladwin, Michigan, where she got her namesake.
Adding a press this year is a Really Big Deal for us. Max has stepped into the business in such a big way by spearheading this project, converting our garage into a functional (and beautiful!) print space, and most importantly, becoming our primary press operator. It has been so rewarding and exciting to become a partnership with my husband. He’s always wanted to be more involved with P&H, but nothing was really a natural fit. With Winnie, he lights right up! Max is a craftsman at heart and delights in figuring out all of her quirks, working with his hands, and operating machinery. Now we not only design heirloom stationery for our couples, but have the capacity to actually bring them to life. Seeing their wedding paper evolve from concept to deeply printed goodness is what my stationer dreams are made of. (And printing together with the windows open, fresh air and sunlight coming in, our go-to Spotify playlists turned up and a bottle of our favorite beer? Actual heaven.)
image via Heather Nash Photography
What is a favorite task of your job?
This is such a good question! I have a few favorite tasks for different reasons. I LOVE designing — it’s why I do what I do. I adore hearing my couples’ stories, seeing what inspires them, and figuring out how to translate it in a fresh way. I feel my most creative when designing at the end of day (when the sun hits my office windows just right) with some loud, energetic music. That breakthrough moment when you KNOW you’re nailing it is the best feeling!
I also weirdly love packing up everything to ship to my couples. It’s methodical and soothing — counting everything out, going through my quality control process, and wrapping it all up in pretty packaging. So much of what I do requires a lot of brainpower and energy, so this task is nice and relaxing! It’s the last step before my couples actually SEE everything we’ve been working towards for months, so it’s all exciting and proud and nerve-wracking in a mom-sending-her-kids-off-to-college kind of way.
image via Andrea Pesce
What does an average day look like for you?
Each day is a little bit different depending on the time of year and what’s on the agenda! If it’s mid-wedding season, you can find me designing, printing, packaging and shipping, and of course, emailing and emailing and emailing. When it’s my off-season, I try to focus on more big-picture items, like updating my website and welcome materials, evaluating where I’m at, and working on improving my client experience. Either way, each day starts with a cup of black coffee (French Roast is my favorite) and ends with hot yoga and Netflix with my guy.
As a girl with lots on her plate, what is your favorite productivity tip?
I’m constantly battling my inbox, so the Inbox Pause feature of Boomerang (a Gmail app) is my favorite thing. I have this terrible habit of being totally derailed when that little red bubble pops up telling me I received a new message! Inbox Pause allows you to literally pause any incoming messages — heaven sent for an easily- and constantly-distracted gal like me.
This is genius and I’m installing it ASAP!!
image via Heather Nash Photography
What is something you can’t stop telling people about?
YOGA. I’ve been struggling with seasonal depression for a few years — as soon as fall hits it creeps in, and by winter I’m in deep. Last fall I got serious about handling it head-on instead of letting it consume me and decided to give hot yoga a try.
It was a total gamechanger. Last winter was the first in years I wasn’t totally and completely useless. Yoga has not only helped me stave off the blues, but for the first time in my entire life I felt STRONG. I felt capable and able and good in my own body. I was able to see my physical abilities grow and achieve personal goals in my practice, and each time I left my mat I walked away with an invaluable mental calm and full-body peace. YOGA IS GREAT. Everyone should try it!
You’ve now convinced me to give yoga another try!! I used to love it but got out of the swing of it!
What are three must-have items for you?
Let’s see…
- My heated blanket. Max got it for me last Christmas and ever since I joke that it’s my most prized possession. (It’s not actually a joke.) Michigan gets COLD, and this blanket keeps me nice and toasty. I bring it all over the house with me! In my office, on the couch, in the basement when we have a movie night. I used to use a DIY rice bag, but now I feel extra fancy. And extra extra cozy.
- My Happy Light. See previous question re: seasonal depression! A Happy Light is an energy lamp, and helps simulate sunlight. I like to say I’m solar-powered because it’s totally true — on bright, sunny days, I am UNSTOPPABLE. But take away my sunshine and I can get pretty bleh. My solar lamp helps my intake of natural daylight and improves my overall wellbeing.
- I’m gonna generalize here and say Face Things. I love facial products! I’m religious about putting on my SPF everyday, and slather myself with moisturizer, facial masks, and oils daily. My favorite mask is Queen Helene Masque Mint Julep — a nice and minty clay mask that leaves my skin feeling unreal! Self care is important to me (can you tell yet from this list?) and skin products are a small and generally inexpensive means of loving myself and my body.
Amen to all 3 of these!! Yes to heated blankets in Michigan, yes to Happy Lights, and YES to skin care!!!
image via Andrea Pesce
If you could have brunch with anybody who would it be?
I always stress out over this question because I DON’T KNOW! I don’t know who to pick! My go-to answer is usually the Obamas, but after thinking about it more for a solid 45 minutes and trying to come up with someone I could spend some time with without blacking out or looking like an actual idiot, I’d love to grab a spicy egg scramble with Abbi Jacobson.
I ADORE Broad City. It’s hilarious, it’s poignant and smart, it’s the celebrating-female-friendships buddy comedy I’ve always wanted. Brunch with Abbi would combine my all-time loves of laughter and feminism and art. She’s an illustrator (just like her character) and actually recently launched her podcast A Piece of Work — “everything you wanted to know about modern art but were afraid to ask.” Think going to MoMA with Questlove and having insightful and explorative (and dang funny) conversations about art. I mean, what more could you want?
image via Heather Nash Photography
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