2016 was truly a year of transition for us at And Here We Are.
First and foremost, personal life took a front seat this year as we conceived, gestated and birthed our very first child. John took one for the team and rejoined the American Workforce (working for ourselves didn’t come with a great benefits package)– but continues to support AHWA from the wings. And, we began the process of prioritizing our retail/wholesale business over commissioned work.
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SHOP
This year’s focus became more and more about the shop, as we added more and more items to our wholesale and retail offerings and participated in fleas markets all over the state (super fun, as Meghan got more and more pregnant) with the continued goal of exhibiting at the 2017 NSS this spring. We added more wholesale and consignment clients locally and around the country. Our biggest and best sellers became the boob and then butt prints, cards and mugs.
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WORK
We were fortunate to continue getting bad-ass amazing custom clients who let us push colors, patterns, hand lettering, letterpress printing, interesting shapes and watercolor textures into their hyper-personalized wedding invitations and brands. Check out the case studies of some of our favorites:Negin & Dan, Andrea & Cory, Florence Wedding, and Sitting Pretty Studio.
I mentioned before that we are prioritizing the wholesale side of the business these days.That isn’t to say we wont be doing custom work anymore (we know who butters our bread!), but we are reevaluating how many we can handle in a given time period, and we’re passing on projects if they aren’t going to be fulfilling or enriching in some way. Given the more precious nature of our time these days, we are finally learning how and when to say “no.”Soooo, if you want to get on our radar for custom work this year, hurry up and get in touch!
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PRESS
Wow, the press really liked the word “modern” this year. Here’s the press roll for 2016:
For Print Only (FPO) Lauren & Ben Wedding Invitation Suite
Green Wedding Shoes Modern New York City Wedding at The Foundry: Lauren + Ben
Green Wedding Shoes Modern Loft Wedding in Downtown Los Angeles: Andrea + Cory
Oh So Beautiful Paper Best Weddings of 2015
Oh So Beautiful Paper Modern Watercolor Gem Wedding Invitations
Oh So Beautiful Paper Modern Black, White and Gold Foil Wedding Invitations
Oh So Beautiful Paper Modern Hand Lettered Wedding Invitations
Oh So Beautiful Paper Modern Gemstone Copper Foil Wedding Invitations
Oh So Beautiful Paper The Best Wedding Invitations of 2016
Taste the Style Products That Every Feminist Will Love
To Work or Play Brand Review: And Here We Are
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2017 GOALS
This year, the goal is to get our cards & prints & things into your sticky hands.To accomplish that, we’re planning to keep making more stuff, attending Fleas, do a trade show or two (Hello, NSS), and beef up our social media and email lists (Join it!). And maaaaaybe, moving the studio into a storefront space. Is there something you want to see? Or something we made custom that you want to see in a retail version? Let us know!