Guest Post: Dainty Fleurish Co

August 31, 2015

When I took my hiatus, I really thought about what I wanted this space to look like. I knew I wanted my posts to mean something, and that might mean not posting every day, but it means posting something of value when I do. I thought about the posts I would write, the topics I would cover and then it hit me. I have been blessed to have a lot of friends and people close to me in a lot of different stages of life. Single ladies, married ladies, engaged ladies (men, too!), moms, doctors, nurses, you name it, I probably know someone doing a hell of a job at it. 
So it dawned on me, why am I being so greedy with my friends? 
Why am I not sharing how awesome they are with my readers? 

This post comes from my friend Alexandra. She's a wife, a mother (wait until you see her daughter), a friend (mine!), a daughter, sister and a business woman. Ally and I have been friends since high school (which if your paying attention was 10+ years ago!). Ally has been working her butt off to start up her business and is doing such a good job. Her work is incredible. I used her for all my wedding day paper. She did my menus, my place cards, my programs and the chalkboard that was at the entrance to our ceremony. She's started a business doing all things calligraphy and I am so excited to share her with all of you plus some amazing picture of her work!



Tell us about YOU.  Who are you, what do you do?
Hi! My names is Alexandra and I am currently living in the wonderful city of Charleston, SC. I'm from Scottsdale, AZ and my heart will always and forever be there! I am a military wife and a stay-at-home mom to a sassy (almost) 2 year old, named Isla. For the last 4 years I had been working for my dad, who is a doctor, doing medical administration for his office. Having a creative background (theater and fashion design) this job (even with its great and steady paycheck) was not cutting it for me. Since I have a background in art and a love for it since I was in art classes with my grandmother at age 2, I decided to start making things for myself and friends and family.  
Some of these things included my own wedding invitations, lettering envelopes for my best friends wedding, birth announcements and my daughters first birthday invites. I have always been interested in fonts (as nerdy as that sounds), lettering and calligraphy. I took some classes and fell absolutely in love with it. Combining that with the knowledge and love of water color, passed down from my grandmother, I came up with my little business of Dainty Fleurish Co.

Tell us about your business!
DaintyFleurish Co. is mostly handlettering and watercolor. I do everything from wedding invites and envelopes to handmade custom watercolor floral wreaths with monograms (which incidentally I just started making for all my engaged friends one day and it sort of just took off from there) Any thing having to do with lettering, you can count me in. Whether its chalkboards, lettering on glass, envelopes, invites or just a hand-made quote that you want to hang in your house, I love doing all of it.

Tell us how/why you got involved in this kind of business.
Being inundated with art since I was young is definitely part of why I started this. I wanted to carry on the wonderful talent that goes back at least 4 generations. I also wanted to start a business that wouldn’t feel like work. I have so much fun with each order I get, whether its researching the different kinds of flowers that someone wants in their custom water color wreath, or figuring out new writing styles for envelope addressing. Each and every order I get is different and I absolutely love that!
How long have you been doing this?
I have been doing calligraphy with pointed pen for about 8 months, but I have been hand lettering (which is using any other form of pen other than the traditional calligraphy pens and nibs) for about 5-6 years. Painting and illustration go back to when I was just a little tot and would sit in on my grandmothers art classes that she taught at the Phoenix Senior Center. My education in fashion design also helped a lot with lettering and sketching.

What are your goals for your business?
My goals would be to be able to do this business full time. I really love the idea of being one of the calligraphers featured in amazing magazines and blogs such as Real Weddings, Style Me Pretty and The Knot. I would love to have customers who keep coming back. From doing their wedding calligraphy, to art work for their home, to birth announcements. I just love the idea of being apart of someones life for all of the biggest occasions one goes through!

What’s the inspiration behind the name of your business?
The name Dainty Fleurish Co., is a bit of a play on words. I wanted to portray something sweet and simple which is how I see calligraphy, and that’s where the word “Dainty” comes from. “Fleurish” is a play on the words Fleur (which means flower in French and I wanted something to relate to the floral wreaths since they are a big part of the business) and Flourish which is what all the curly parts of a letter in calligraphy are called.

Where can we find you? 
You can find me on Instagram and at my Etsy Store!

I hope you all go check out Ally and her amazing work!

1 comment

I love hearing from all of you and greatly appreciate all your feedback and comments! xx Kristen