The core values of my business: The 5 Cs

Leah E Moss Designs - the core values of my business - calligraphy quote in studio

I recently took Ashlyn Carter’s course “Copywriting for Creatives” (which is amazing btw), and as part of the curriculum, she challenged each student to identify the core values of our business. I had never really given this idea much thought to put it down concretely on paper. Giving such a structure around what my beliefs are and how I think my company works best was a new – and an important – exercise.

Each of my core values ended up starting with the letter “C,” giving the set of values a grouping, as my 5 Cs. I hope reading these gives you some insight into some of the “secret sauce” that makes up Leah E. Moss Designs!

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Oakland Hills Country Club Wedding – Purple and Pink Florals for Cecelia and Kegan

Bride and groom portrait with bouquet - Purple and pink florals for wedding at Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan - Leah E. Moss DesignsI was introduced to Cecelia by a mutual friend (and one of her bridesmaids), sweet Staci. I’m so glad she put us in touch, and I was even more thrilled to have the chance to work with Cecelia and her mom on the custom invitation for her wedding celebration to Kegan. There were tons of purple and pink florals on both the invitation suite and at the event, where they celebrated at Oakland Hills Country Club. Everything tied together beautifully and cohesively from start to finish – that’s the goal!

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Four reasons why taking an in-person workshop is your best bet

Four reasons why taking an in-person workshop is your best bet - Leah E. Moss Designs - watercolor workshop in Petoskey, MichiganThere are so many online education resources these days for creative people to choose from! Let me start this post by saying that I think that’s great. Anything from a YouTube tutorial to a Skillshare class to a full-blown, multi-week course has benefits – and I’ve taken lots of them, both to grow my creative skills and to flex my business muscles. This post is by no means saying these are bad options. Use what’s out there and soak up as much knowledge as you can! However, I’ve also had the pleasure of taking classes from instructors live and I’ve found that an in-person workshop option is your best bet.

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Dani and Joe: How a Romantic Lace Wedding Dress Inspired their Castle Farms wedding Invitation

How a Romantic Lace Wedding Dress Inspired the Invitation for a northern Michigan Castle Farms wedding - Leah E. Moss Designs #michiganwedding #custominvitations #laceweddingdressIt was a Sunday morning in August of 2017, around 10:45 am or so, and I got an inquiry on my website from this girl, Dani, who was a guest at one of my client’s weddings the night before. Her form basically was like “So… I was at Rachel and Justin’s wedding last night – loved your work. I want to meet with you for our wedding.” This other couple was still at their out of towners brunch and this girl was on it about their stationery vendor for their Castle Farms wedding the following summer. I liked her already.

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Shanna Skidmore Feature – Confidence in Pricing

Shanna Skidmore Feature - How I found the Confidence to Increase my Pricing - Leah E. Moss Designs #entrepreneurship #selfemployed #smallbusiness
Photo from Blueprint Summit 2018 by Sarah Ingram

I’m humbled that my sweet mentor and friend Shanna Skidmore featured me on her website. We chatted about lots of things in running a small business – including money. With Shanna’s help in The Blueprint Model, I found my confidence in pricing my work to earn a fair, livable wage in my business. Pricing seems to be a taboo topic, especially for creatives, but the fact is that in order to continue to serve your clients well, you need to price your work to reflect the full value you’re providing. Talking about money should be an open dialogue, and the price to your clients isn’t an emotional thing. It’s math – and that should give you confidence, when you know why you charge what you do.

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Pets Wedding Ideas from Sara and Alex’s Misty Farm Celebration

Pets wedding ideas from Sara and Alex's celebration - Leah E. Moss Designs #petsatweddings #michiganwedding #customweddinginvitations

When I asked Sara and Alex what was important to them in their relationship, they immediately both jumped to say their pets. Their pets were their babies, and their life – for them, that was what was most important. Their goal for the wedding was to incorporate their pets as part of the day, in as many elements as they could. For me, I took that and ran with it. From a crest with their dog and cat on it at the top of their wedding invitation, to the signature drinks being named for each fur baby, to their sweet dog in an amazing floral wreath making a cameo appearance, Sara and Alex’s Misty Farm wedding is sure to give you lots of amazing pets wedding ideas.

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5 Meaningful Graduation Gift Ideas

Image result for graduation cap and gown toss

Now that spring is (finally) upon us, we all have a special graduate to celebrate this season! Honoring someone’s achievements is always a fun thing, but meaningful graduation gift ideas are sometimes hard to come by. Here are my suggestions, and congratulations to anyone in a cap and gown this year!

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Rachel and Josh: An elegant wedding honoring tradition at Congregation Shaarey Zedek

An elegant wedding honoring tradition at Congregation Shaarey Zedek - Leah E. Moss Designs
When I dream up an ideal client, I picture Rachel in my mind. I had the pleasure of working with her from New York (and her amazing mom, Beth, locally in Michigan) during the majority of her engagement to Josh, and she was the best. Through the entire wedding planning process, she was excited, organized, open to ideas from her vendor team, appreciative, passionate about giving their guests a seamless experience, and just so, so, so happy to be spending forever with her person. These two had an elegant wedding honoring tradition at Congregation Shaarey Zedek this past spring, and I was thrilled to play a small part in their big day.
 

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Heartfelt, One-of-a-Kind, Heirloom Gift Roundup – Happy Valentine’s Day!

Custom calligraphy gift commission - Leah E. Moss Designs

Valentine’s Day is just a good excuse to express your love to people you care for. A heartfelt, one-of-a-kind, heirloom gift is the perfect way to demonstrate how much someone means to you. As a calligrapher and watercolor artist, I’ve had the honor to create lots of these gifts for clients. Anniversaries (especially the first – for the paper anniversary gift), birthdays, milestones, and yes, Valentine’s Day – a meaningful gift is always treasured. Here is a roundup of some of my favorite ways to share your love.

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2019 Reading List

In 2019, I’ve set a goal to read one book per month. Here, I’m updating this list monthly with the book I read each month. Happy reading!

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