Today we’d like to introduce you to Lauren Moncure.
Hi Lauren, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My whole dream started to develop around this time last year. I had graduated from the College of Charleston with a degree in Marketing and an accidental minor in Studio Art, and I was working as a front desk assistant while applying for marketing jobs (somewhere around my 400th application if we’re being honest…)
I really was trying to follow the path I had planned for myself. I thought my dream was to build a stable career where I could support myself and my future family. But no matter how hard I tried to get my foot in the door, that path just never seemed to open up. Meanwhile, I was painting commissions for friends and family and realizing I was waking up every day with something someone wanted me to create!That’s when I started wondering if maybe being an artist could actually be a stable career.
The more I leaned into it, the more I realized how important art is in our lives. It gives us a way to remember the people, places, and little moments that make us who we are. I didn’t just want to make pretty artwork, I wanted to create work that helped people slow down and appreciate those things.
That became the foundation for Of The Grain… the idea that we are all Of The Grain(s) of life that make us who we are. I began combining my background in marketing with my love of art and found my place in wedding stationery, hand painting couples’ stories into their invitations and throughout their wedding day.
Now, eight months in, I’m incredibly grateful to call myself an artist and founder of Of The Grain. I create bespoke wedding stationery and fine art, and I’m beginning to build wonderful relationships with some really incredible venues, planners, and vendors within the wedding industry.
It’s a path I never expected to take, but I feel incredibly lucky that I get to make a living creating something meaningful for other people!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Has it been a smooth road… Definitely not, but I don’t think many business owners could say that building something that means so much to them was an easy thing.
Apart from the challenge of finding my place in the world after graduation and figuring out what I really wanted out of life, I think my biggest challenge has been learning how to wear so many different hats. I went from being an aspiring marketing analyst who liked to paint, to a business owner figuring out how to run an entire company on my own, with minimal corporate experience.
As every small business owner does, I’ve had to learn everything from pricing, contracts, taxes, and printing to client communication, web development, social media, and all of the less glamorous pieces that come with running a business. There’s also a lot of uncertainty that comes with building something from the ground up, and I’m still figuring things out every day. I definitely have moments where I have to remind myself that I’m only eight months in.
I’ve also learned to be comfortable not having everything figured out. I can ask questions, learn from people who have done it before me, and keep improving. I think that willingness to learn has been one of the biggest things that has helped me build Of The Grain.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
At its heart, Of The Grain is about preserving the moments, people, and places that make us who we are.
I’m an artist and wedding stationery designer, specializing in hand painted stationery and fine art. My favorite way to work with couples is through my Luxe Design Experience because it gives me the time to really get to know their story and create something completely catered to their lives. We talk through the people, places, and little details that matter to them, and I turn those pieces of their story into artwork that becomes part of their wedding.
I love that there isn’t a template for what that looks like. Every couple gives me something different to work with, and that’s what makes the process so rewarding. They can receive their finished designs as digital files to print themselves, which allows me to work with couples anywhere in the world, or they can have me take care of everything through my White Glove service (I printing, assemble, addressing, and mail their invitations).
While weddings are a big part of what I do, I also create custom artwork for people, families, homes, meaningful places, milestones, and businesses.
What I’m most proud of is that I’ve built a business where my art can genuinely mean something to someone else and share that love with other people. In just these first eight months, my work has already made its way across 25 states, Canada, and even to the United Kingdom. I get to take pieces of someone’s life that might otherwise live only in their memories and turn them into something that they can have forever 🙂
That, to me is what makes Of The Grain different… the work isn’t just designed to be beautiful. It’s designed to be theirs!
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
I believe that luck has played a pretty big role in getting Of The Grain to where it is today.
My grandfather and grandmother were immigrants from England, and they were able to achieve their own version of the American dream. But their story wasn’t always easy or successful. They would tell us that “Success is based on three factors: 25% knowledge, 25% personality, and 50% luck…” I’ve thought about that a lot while building Of The Grain.
I’m still very much at the beginning of my business, so I wouldn’t say I’ve “made it” by any means. But I’ve had some really incredible opportunities in these first eight months that I can absolutely attribute to being in the right place at the right time, meeting the right person, or having something happen that I never could have planned for.
Even not getting that marketing job I thought I wanted ended up being a kind of luck in disguise. It pushed me to consider a path I hadn’t originally planned for, and ultimately gave me the opportunity to build Of The Grain.
But I also think my grandparent’s point was that you can’t control the 50% that is luck. You can control what you do with the other 50. I can keep learning, showing up, creating, and try to have the kind of attitude that allows me to recognize an opportunity when it comes along! I can’t control everything that happens, but I can control how I respond to it and what I make of it. I think that’s the part of their advice I carry with me the most.
A lot of the opportunities I’ve had with Of The Grain have started with something as simple as a conversation, or someone being willing to introduce me to another person. I’m incredibly grateful for that, and I don’t take any of it for granted.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://ofthegrain.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_ofthegrain
- Other: https://www.pinterest.com/ofthegrain/
