Weddings Editor Launches First Handcrafted & DIY Wedding Boutique Catering to Smaller, More Personal, Handmade Weddings Trend

Irvine, CA, August 21, 2009 --(PR.com)-- It’s a puzzle for any wedding expert: While weddings keep getting smaller and more personal—one of the biggest, recession-inspired wedding trends of 2009 that will surely continue in 2010—online wedding superstores remain as large and sterile as ever: filled with a dizzying maze of images, links, and an overwhelming array of outdated, mass-produced items.

Noticing the bridal marketplace had failed to shift with the times and preferences of high-style, time-strapped brides, weddings editor Lisa Marie Rovito launched Orange & Blossom (www.orangeandblossom.com), the first highly edited online boutique serving modern, creative, couples. Purposefully small and warmly personal (couples receive a hand-written "Congratulations!" card from the company on their wedding date), the shop features handcrafted & exclusive items from vendors and artists across the U.S., all in one place with a calm, inviting online “atmosphere.” The shop attracts stylish couples looking for something meaningful, different, real. From the items to incorporate a traditional Moroccan hand-washing into the wedding ceremony to a handpainted set of Date Night at Home ceramic dinner plates for a chic, off-the-registry gift, the boutique adds unique new designs and artists frequently to its tailored selection of DIY ideas, exclusive handcrafted jewelry, handmade accessories, gifts, paper goods, and ceremony and reception décor. Icons on the site denote “exclusive,” “eco-friendly” and “handmade” items to create an easy, targeted browsing experience.

Lisa Marie Rovito spent years assembling fabulous wedding finds for the pages of Bridal Guide magazine and Palm Springs Life Weddings magazines before trading a career in publishing for the opportunity to bring those same finds together in an actual e-commerce website. “In the last few years, many inspiring wedding blogs featuring real weddings have become very popular with brides,” she says. “But there wasn’t one comprehensive wedding boutique where brides could turn to find those kinds of meaningful, handcrafted items from many different sources. I wanted to welcome brides—and artists who create these pieces—into a fun yet soothing place like that.”

The shop stands by a “less is more” philosophy and emphasizes through its copy and in its blog that a wedding should be just one beautiful day in a lifetime of many. (The tagline, in fact, is, “It’s going to be a beautiful day…”) Ever innovative, Orange & Blossom will expand with a vintage items section later this month, in addition to a growing selection of supplies for new global wedding traditions, and the first-ever virtual wedding planning service, a convenient, affordable consultation package at the fraction of a traditional wedding coordinator’s fee.

For more information or product images, please contact Orange & Blossom founder Lisa Marie Rovito at lisamarie@orangeandblossom.com or toll-free at (888) 7-ORANGE.

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