The New Logo

Rebranding is just one of the things I worried about for the new name change. I loved my Palm Papers branding but didn't want to just swap in a new name and move on - I wanted it to be a little different, while still reflecting the clean style of my designs.

Enter Angi of Angelique Ink, and this logo became the bright spot during some pretty down days. I love it and every time I looked at it, I get a little more excited. She is amazingly talented and patient and worked with me down to the letter. There's just something about calligraphy - obsessed!

A little honesty...

I’ve been trying to figure out how to put into words what has been going on with my business, thinking that I could come up with some great way to share some not-so-great news. I thought about spinning it into a really positive thing, and brushing over the truth, like this is what I wanted to do, but that would be hard to do if I were telling you in person. In person, I might tear up or full out cry, because this is something that I am sad about, so I think I’ll share as I might if we were talking over coffee – but you are spared the tears and tissues. Sorry to those who have not been so lucky.

In the next few weeks, I will be changing my business name.

Let me explain a bit. In January, my husband and trusty COO/CEO/doer of all the work that I ask him to do, began the process of trademarking Palm Papers. I always felt like it was something I needed to do, especially now that it’s my full time salary. We hired a lawyer and got the process started and pretty much immediately hit an extremely huge roadblock. Turns out, there already existed a trademarked business that was in legal trademark world, EXACTLY me. No huge web presence or social media presence, no way for me to have found them on my own, but trademarked in the 80s. Not only could I not trademark my name, but now I knew that this business existed that could one day discover me and send a cease and desist in 2 months? 5 years? Never? It scared me and I didn’t know what to do. After seeking advice from some generous lawyer friends, endless discussions with my husband and a tiny shred of hope that I could hold on to my business name, we decided to reach out to the business and see if we could coexist, which obviously was a failed effort, which makes sense – why was I trademarking myself to begin with… I would have said no as well. I don’t have any ill will towards them at all, just the situation that I ended up in.

I have gone through so many emotions with this news – the biggest one is sadness for the loss of my business name. The other is dread. All the work that it takes to change my name makes my head spin. But I am working on getting over it, and have had a lot of encouragement that in the end, my business name is not my business. I am my business and my designs are my business and that part is not going to change. No one cares what name I am designing under. If you’ve worked with me or follow me on instagram/twitter/facebook, I hope I never alluded to the fact I was a big business. It’s just me. Responding to emails, designing proofs, answering questions, packing up orders - all me. Working one on one with my clients is a huge part of what I sell and I know that in the end, that’s the part that matters and a business name is just a name. So, I think the only natural thing to do is to design under my own name.  In the near future, I will be changing to Lauren Chism Fine Papers. You might already notice the changes on Minted and partially on MyPublisher, but my website, email and facebook page will all be changing over the next few weeks.

I still go through the whole – ‘I wish I had never tried to trademark my business’ – or ‘I wish I had found this out when I chose Palm Papers – why didn’t I trademark it immediately’, but I don’t think there’s any way it could have happened. I named my business before I had any dream of doing it full time… spending $2k to trademark it wasn’t really possible and while it seems like it could be, ignorance is not bliss when you receive a cease-and-desist letter. This way, I have time. Time to make changes, time to figure out the details and slowly transition to the new name.

I have been in quite a rut on the blog lately due to all this and I am ready to come out of it and start sharing stuff again. I already feel like a weight has been lifted as I type this and I think sharing with people just might be the first step to putting all this behind me.  I am hopeful that it will be what is best for me somehow – even though I can’t quite see the benefit as I am working through the details and pains of making the change. Right now, it just sucks!

So there you have it. Honesty. Can someone get me a tissue?

Lauren Chism for Daily Sip Studios

I have neglected to post a recent collaboration with my friend Kimberly at Daily Sip Studios. You might remember her from letterpress adventures in Chicago and our NYC trip earlier this year. Kimberly asked if I would like to contribute some of my designs to her letterpress shop and I was quick to say yes! I love letterpress (who doesn't), and while I work with custom and wedding clients, I don't really have time to expand my celebrations or social stationery into letterpress, so I jumped at the chance. You might recognize 'Meet Baby' from my etsy shop.

Or my 'Floral Frame' stationery.

She also is offering one of my Christmas designs, 'We Believe', photographed in a rich red color, with edge painting!

Gorgeous! I love Kimberly and love being part of her letterpress shop!

Little Black Book Member

Exciting news! Last week, I was invited to join Style Me Pretty's Little Black Book! If you aren't familiar with Style Me Pretty, it's probably the mother of all wedding blogs, full of the most beautiful inspiration. I've been following along since I was a bride and feel truly honored to be included among such amazing vendors.

You can view my profile here!

Worth the Wait

I had lunch with a Dallas wedding planner a few weeks ago (the lovely Stefanie Miles of Lavender Joy Weddings), and we talked about taking the time to establish your brand. We talked about the months we spent on our branding and websites and how during that time, it’s easy to compare yourself to everyone else while you are working just to get started. This time is hard, but in the end, it is so worth the wait. If you are in this phase… just know that it does eventually come together, and it’s worth preparing for success instead of just rushing into it, hoping you can get there quicker. Things have been going really well since my website launched, and lately, I’ve had this overwhelming sense of relief. Relief, that what I started out to do 9 months ago is finally done. Relief, that I am finally reaping the benefits of having done the work FIRST. Relief, that someone actually does want to buy my invitations. (Because that worry was always there until several someones did actually want to buy them.)

I quit my job last November and while I had a few design ideas for my collection, I was essentially starting from scratch with that part of my business. My experience over the past few years has allowed me to learn what I like, what I want to offer, and what I want my focus to be, but I had to establish a consistency throughout my business. Processes, policies, prices, contracts, samples… then finalizing, choosing, printing, photographing. It took time! Also, the control wasn’t always in my hands and it was challenging to not know that everything was going to happen in the time I wanted it to. Sometimes it felt like I would be ‘preparing’ forever! But I chose to finish everything before I would proceed with anything else, and so I kept going.

That meant not advertising, not promoting myself, and not booking brides. Now, weddings, up until this point, have been just a small part of my business. I design for Minted, I design custom designs and stationery, but it’s weddings that I have decided to focus on and the first few months of the year, I didn't book a single wedding. As a whole, my business was actually really profitable while I was working on my site, but I knew that the profits weren't coming from brides and I would compare myself to other wedding stationers… that designer seems to be booking a ton of weddings, she got asked to this, they were featured there, they seem to have a really successful business, more successful than mine…. Doesn't it always LOOK like everyone has it all together? Insecurities about what I was trying to do, the time I was taking to do it and the progress that I was making only magnified how well I thought everyone else was doing. It really made me worry whether what I was doing was the right thing.

Now that I am done and am finally able to do all the things that I was waiting on, it's such a relief to know it was the absolutely the right thing to do. It’s totally okay to choose this route, even while you feel like everyone else is up and running and seems to be passing you by. Sometimes the right thing is to jump in, but sometimes it’s all the hard work and preparation that allows you to be ready for when the opportunities start to come your way.