Did you write your own vows and want to remember them in a special way? Say hello to The Standard Canvas. This sweet small business designs one-of-a-kind wedding vow canvases that allow married couples to remember those timeless words every single day. As if it couldn’t get any more warm and fuzzy, The Standard Canvas is actually run by a husband and wife team who create each piece with love. It has been such a joy working with Shayna and Tony at The Big Fake Wedding Raleigh, The Big Fake Wedding Charlotte, AND The Biggest Fake Wedding (we really like each other), and we’re thrilled to share more about them on our blog today!
“Tony and Shayna bring such a unique piece to the wedding. They create a beautiful canvas with the couple’s vows, making for the perfect wedding gift!” – The Big Fake Wedding Raleigh Team
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Tell us a little bit about the story of The Standard Canvas.
We are a husband and wife team that are entrepreneurs at heart. We love starting new little businesses and watching them grow. 🙂 The original vision for The Standard Canvas was to have a variety of pre-designed canvases that people would purchase over and over and over again. During the next two weeks we designed nearly 100 designs and opened our Etsy shop in July 2013. Our very first order, the customer asked if we could put her wedding vows on canvas. “Absolutely!”, we said. And about 90% of the sales from that point has been fully customized wedding vow art. We kind of stumbled into the niche market and are so excited that we did!!
Who or what inspires you?
The Spirit of God fills us with the urge to do creative things. In the light of Jesus, we immensely enjoy and are greatly inspired by all the little things in life: taking walks in the park, smelling flowers, gazing at the stars, chatting by the fire pit… Just to name a few.
What is the best part of your job?
It has been so awesome to watch our little idea grow and even flourish over the past couple years. For so long, we dreamed of starting our own businesses, and by God’s grace, it is now a reality. We love being our own boss and having the flexibility to direct our company as we see fit. We love the process of bringing people’s ideas to life. The thrill of happy customers. Being able to whistle while we work, play music as loud as we’d like, take dance breaks, and even respond to emails in our pajamas. It’s pretty awesome!
What advice would you give to aspiring small business owners?
Don’t stop trying. Seriously, if you have the desire to start your own business…don’t give up. We started a number of little businesses that failed. We just kept plugging away and now we have 3 successful businesses. A couple books that really inspired / motivated us are The Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris and The Search for God & Guinness by Stephen Mansfield. Definitely must-reads in our “book.” 😉 And for all the podcast lovers out there, one of our favorites is Entrepreneurs on Fire (EO Fire John Lee Dumas).
What is your favorite part of The Big Fake Wedding experience?
Do we really have to choose?! We love meeting all the fellow vendors during Cocktail Hour; watching everyone bring their talents to the venue and transforming it into something so dreamy and beautiful; the connections and relationships that are built; and we love the dance floor. 🙂 One of the most valuable assets we take home from being a Vendor at The Big Fake Wedding is the professional photographs of our canvases in action. High five to all the photographers!! You guys rock! These photos help to create more excitement about The Standard Canvas.
Photo Credits:
Erica Akroyd Photography (1) | Emily Millay Photography (3) | Love Ya Jess (5)
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