Small (Wedding) Business Saturday!

For our minimony we purchased customized hand sanitizers as our wedding favors and our guests loved them. I also purchased matching shirts for my husband and I from Etsy when we took our weekend vacation after the minimony.

No, unfortunately, the small businesses I reached out to during wedsing planning were not interested serving a wedddomg so small (3 guests).

My FH and I had considered renting out a small black owned business coffee shop for an informal reception but mamy of our loved ones will not dine indoors

Possibly from Etsy. Tons of stuff to browse there. Not going out to local stores with the pandemic

We live in northern AZ, small-ish town. I started putting together my bridesmaids bags last year. & bought from several small businesses up here. There’s a farmers market during the summer where I purchased their earrings. Got the totes, makeup bags & several other things from Etsy.

View Quoted Comment Those shirts are so cute!! Good find! I'm hoping to buy some fun shirts that say some kind of cool quote on them for when my fiance and I go on our honeymoon. What Etsy shop did you find those at?

View Quoted Comment That's a bummer. Sorry that you ran into that issue! Small weddings are just as beautiful as large weddings.

View Quoted Comment It's a weird time, that's for sure. Everyone has different comfort levels with the pandemic. Maybe you'd be able to rent out the coffee shop for an anniversary party once the pandemic is over?

View Quoted Comment Thank you! We used CustomTeeZone on Etsy.

View Quoted Comment I love Etsy!! Great selection. Pretty sure I helped keep them in business throughout the pandemic so far lol, my fiance and I definitely bought quite a few things for our wedding from there. I also am not really going out to local shops during the pandemic, but I've been trying to support some of the local shops online. What types of wedding items are you looking for on Etsy?

View Quoted Comment I definitely agree with that. Don't have anything specific in mind I'm looking for...just browsing first to see what catches my attention.

View Quoted Comment Ooh, I love the farmer's market idea! I'll bet you can find a lot of unique gifts for wedding party at a farmer's market or even at craft shows. Did you get them all the same style of earrings? Or different for each girl? I also bought tote bags for my bridesmaids from Etsy, super happy with how they turned out.

View Quoted Comment Very cool, I'll have to check them out! Thank you for sharing!

Not this year, but last Black Friday/Small Business Saturday I did a ton of shopping. Artifact Uprising for our photo guestbook and Staghead Designs for my husband’s ring. There’s a lady on Etsy who does beautiful dried flower hairpieces (TheMoonlightPetals) that I used for my adventure shoot hairpiece. I bought an SVG file from the shop CraftBox8 (also Etsy) that I used to make my denim Mrs. jacket. Planning on purchasing a photo session with our photographers for my sister and BIL to continue to support them and will utilize them when it comes to getting some of our pictures on canvases.

View Quoted Comment Makes sense! I hope you're able to find some cool things!

I ordered about $800 of items from Etsy for my wedding; sadly, I had some terrible service with about 30% of the shops. I haven’t ordered from Etsy in a about 2 months because the stress isn’t worth it to me. And I loved supporting small businesses before. I’ll give them another go for Christmas.

View Quoted Comment I wanted them to be the same. They’re homemade sterling silver, dangle & the bottom is curved to shape a heart. I purchased things here & there do I wouldn’t get slammed all at once. I work at a hospital & when the gift shop had 50% off sales, I got soaps, jams & syrup.

View Quoted Comment I love all of this!! I think it's fantastic that you're still supporting your photographers even after the wedding. My fiance and I are planning to do the same, our photographer and DJ are both amazing, and we hope to find ways to support their businesses after our wedding. Thank you for mentioning the Etsy shops, I'll have to check them out!

View Quoted Comment Oh wow, sorry to hear that you didn't have great experiences! Definitely adds stress to shopping. There were a couple shops that I didn't have a great experience with, though overall, the large majority of Etsy shops I've purchased from were fantastic. Definitely check the reviews - if they aren't great, look for another shop. If you end up ordering from Etsy again, I hope you have a better experience this time!

View Quoted Comment Those sound beautiful! I'm sure your bridesmaids will love them. I did the same thing - I spread out buying wedding party gifts over a period of time (and as things went on sale) so that I didn't have to spend a whole bunch of cash on gifts at once. Sounds like you got some great deals on practical gifts!