Our Beautiful New Showroom and Studio!

You know it's bad when you when have to get a good night sleep because you are going to have a big day ahead of you, but your mind is racing and you cannot sleep at all! That was me for 4 nights last week after we finally got the keys to our new location. I was so excited and eager to get moved in and set-up that I couldn't sleep. Even with no furniture moved in, our new painted showroom with the new track lighting looked great. We spent all of last weekend moving in and slowly setting things up. It got complicated with a nice snow storm, but things worked out.

This past week was spent laying the room out and deciding what to put where. It's a big decision, especially with things like glass shelving that had to be mounted to the wall. I am so thrilled with how everything looks. We went for a very bight, clean look with the white walls, furniture, and track lighting. It helps show off the colors and textures of the invitations and papers that are displayed throughout. There are, of course, more things that will be added over the next few weeks but at least we are ready for appointments. We had our first appointment this morning! I have 4 more coming up in the next week so I'll be excited to see people's reactions to when they come in.

We are working on the signage for outside, above the door, in addition to window signage, and a glass etched sign for inside. I have 2 event planners, Danielle Badiali of Full Circle Bridal and Allison Sargent of Allison Sargent Events working on tablescapes that will add more color, as well as give clients some ideas for their own wedding. Dominica Parisi of Florentina Flowers was kind enough to give us a beautiful centerpiece for our table.

Enjoy the before and after photos. More will be uploaded as we continue to improve upon the showroom.

New Year...New Ideas...New Venture

Happy New Year! Welcome to the new blog for Hyland Creative Design. We custom-design and produce beautiful invitations for weddings and charities. This year, we will be expanding into Bar/Bat Mitzvah events. For a look at our business and products, visit our website at www.hylandcreativedesign.com. We will be updating the website with invitations from 2008 in the next month.

I am planning on 2009 being a great year for the business. The big news to start off the new year is that we are moving into a new boutique and studio. We will have a beautiful showroom and meeting area as well as a separate production room. I will post photos to show the transformation as the weeks go on.

In addition, we are also launching a new website for our other business, Hyland Paper. We wanted to offer new lines of invitations that are semi-custom and priced mid-range, that can be purchased on-line. We will be launching this new website later this month.

Everyone has been asking me if I am nervous about the economy, especially with launching a new website and signing a 3-year commercial lease. Call it the entrepreneur in me, but I think now is better than ever. It shows more professionalism and stability. If you can make throughout a recession like this, you can succeed at anything. Failure isn't an option. We know that people aren't going to spend as much but we work in an industry in which people will always get married. We sell a product that is almost required for a wedding or event. Costs will be a factor but we hope that customers will see the benefit of choosing our custom invitations verses ordering from a book where the invitations are pretty cookie-cutter.

We've got some great new projects in store for 2009. Check back often for these new projects and the opening of our new boutique and studio.