I Dream of Etsy...

Yes, if you read the post title just right, little visions of a Genie dancing around in her bottle might appear...or you might find yourself humming along the title song. Duh duh. Duh duh da duh duh. Duh duh. Duh duh da duh duh. You get the picture.

But it’s not little scantily-clad head-boppin’ genies that I dream of...it’s the most wonderful place on the internet – the world of Etsy. I’m sure most of you have heard of Etsy before, as I would think that most of my readers are brides and fellow weddingbee addictees...but if you by chance haven’t heard of Etsy, click here and it’ll take you there.

It’s wonderful. Truly amazing how many talented people there are out there. I’ve looked at everything from jewelry to paper goods and most recently wedding bands for B. The site offers some really great finds, and most of them are at more than reasonable prices.

And I long to open my own Etsy shop. It’s actually very simple, you just need to have goods to sell – anything that is vintage or homemade can be sold there for a small fee, and they will even give you an internet “storefront” for your wares. It is a secret goal of mine to one day open an Etsy shop. I’ve been thinking about it for quite some time now, and I’m pretty sure that I’m going to do this once the dust settles after our wedding. I’ve just had way too much fun creating all of the little projects that I’ve done for our wedding to not share them with others.

I can offer hand-sewn or hand-crafted items on there, like my kid’s activity books for those brides that want handmade but don’t want to hand make the goods themselves. I could offer printed paper goods, like my invitations and thank you cards and such. Or my pocketfolds - I could charge half of what regular stores charge for them, but still be beating the best price online anywhere. I could offer...oh wait. I can’t tell you about that one – it’s still a surprise to three wonderful ladies! Later, I promise...

The point is that I think that there are many things that I could offer up for sell on a place like Etsy. Especially since it’s a store that is targeted to people looking for fancy items, but that are still hand-made and less expensive than things seen on traditional wedding websites on the internet.

So what do you think? Would you open an Etsy shop? Are you as obsessed with Etsy as I am? Maid Britney and I were bemusing the fact that we don’t have more time to browse Etsy...until I pointed out that if we did have more time to browse, then we’d probably have more things than we would know what to do with! Staying on our budget is also important, so maybe it’s best not to have more time for Etsy right now...

The start up cost is minimal...just posting fees, and I could use examples of my own wedding items just to get started, adding more as I increase my “portfolio.” (I feel like an artist using a word like portfolio!) I think that this could work...but it’ll have to wait a bit. I’m ok with waiting, though. That gives me time to think it through and work on some catchy name for it.

Got any suggestions for a name?