From blushing bride to wedding decor diva
HAMILTON PROFESSIONALS
Name: Jessica Prominski Age: 27
Position: Owner, calligrapher and maker at Miss to Mrs Weddings
Job description: I make wedding and home decor and gifts, and provide calligraphy services.
My day always starts with coffee, and then could go from doing calligraphy on a mirror a client has dropped off for their seating chart, to creating table numbers on cardstock. From cutting out iron-ons for a T-shirt, to cutting, sanding and staining wood, to a trip to Michaels. Or a trip to one of the shops I’m a vendor in to drop off stock, to posting on social media, and emailing clients and setting up new listings on Etsy. Every day is different.
How did you come to be in this
job? Unofficially, I’d been doing this forever. Planning my best friend’s wedding two years ago, to engagement parties and baby showers for friends, to my own wedding last year.
While planning my own wedding, I realized I couldn’t find what I wanted — personalized stuff wasn’t available anywhere local in Hamilton. And I struggled to find the colours and themes I wanted for my wedding.
Through talking to other brides, I realized everyone was feeling the same way — that so many stores offer decor, but it’s cookie cutter stuff, very corporate, and not unique. I started my business in April to fill that gap, while finishing up planning my own wedding for July. In October, I quit my corporate job, and decided to pursue this full-time. What gets you up in the morning? I love weddings. I love the fact that every day I create things from nothing. I am able to transform ideas into real things that people love.
And I get to spend time creating unique pieces that are meaningful for life’s milestones — engagements and wedding, babies, new homes, retirements, birthdays, etc.
It’s really cool to do things on my own terms, to structure my day the way I need to, and to fill a gap in the wedding industry. Lessons learned? Endless — working for some corporation where all of the processes are provided for you, to running your own business and having to figure every detail out on your own, is hard. Once I have a plan for the day, and some goals for the week, I can get started.
But until then, I’m frozen. Roots: Homegrown — born and raised in Hamilton, off to university in Ottawa for four years, then living in Hamilton ever since. Recent social media post(s): A photo of a seating chart I lettered by hand onto a mirror with the caption: “loving this beautiful mirror seating chart — not vinyl decals, all names and words are hand-lettered onto the mirror! wipes off with Windex! :)” Contacts: misstomrsdiy@gmail.com; misstomrsweddings.etsy.com; facebook.com/ misstomrswedding; misstomrswed (Instagram) Groups and associations: I am part of endless social media groups, but formally I have my items for sale in several local shops: The Handmade House Dundas, Willow Tree Studios Smithville and the Handmade Den in Guelph. Favourite place in the downtown: I’m obsessed with La Piazza Allegra. I dream weekly about their cappelletti, specifically the sauce it’s in. What would make Hamilton a better city? A wedding show for small businesses — which I’m trying to make happen. What’s next for you? I’d love to get into some more shops, expand my business by getting some new tools for wood items, and to be featured on some blogs.
If you know a Hamilton Professional who would make a good candidate for this profile series, send an email to shenderson@thespec.com.