It's Cloud Nine Here in L.A.

It's my first trip to L.A., and I was taken straight to Cloud Nine. Literally. After a 4 a.m. wake-up call on the East Coast (where it was an unforgiving -10), I found myself at 4 p.m. on an L.A. freeway in sunny 70 degree weather headed for Claremont, CA, where I had a book signing that evening at Cloud Nine, a terrific stationery store on the main street. The owners, Dina and Joanne, who are also independent wedding and event planners, were so welcoming when I arrived, making it easy to settle in. They gave me a tour of their store, where they have put together a great mix of boxed stationery and gift paper, in addition to offering custom invitation services. The fabulous custom examples are mixed in around the store, along with beautiful pens, date books and single cards, mostly of the letter press variety so chic right now. 

The signing got under way, and I had a big stack of books in front of me. The store carries a good variety of the Emily Post library, and there was interest not only in my book, Emily Post's Wedding Parties, but in our big book of etiquette, aptly named Etiquette, and in our children's series, as well as in Peggy's Excuse Me, and even the big business book! Who knew! There wasn't ever a crush, so I got to do what I love best: talk through each customer's questions about etiquette fully. (My publicists are out there laughing as they read this. Anna? Loves to talk about etiquette? Nahhhh....)

As we parted for the evening, I picked up a box of stationery for myself from Wiley Valentine, a new favorite I found there. The ladies presented me with a beautiful pen and card case from Acme, perfect for our event the next morning--another signing, this time with a talk and Q&A session on wedding etiquette over at the (fabulous!) Double Tree Hotel in Claremont. (They give you warm, melty cookies when you check in. Call me a sucker, but in my jet lagged haze I became a loyal Double Tree customer before even seeing the room.)

Saturday morning, Dina and Joanne put on a great event, with a full room and lots of mimosas. The women had tons of good questions ranging from the usual sticky ones, such as what do you do if someone RSVPs for their kids at a no-kids wedding, to the appalling: "Someone sent me a shower invitation asking me to include a gift receipt with my present--was that okay?" No! And no again! (Though on the flip side, while you cannot ever ask someone to do it, it is nice for the giver to include a gift receipt when sending an off-registry gift.) Afterwards we had a whirlwind signing--let's just say the pen came in very handy!

Comments

[Brie]

I had no idea you were going to Claremont, that's where I grew up! Glad to see it treated you so well. :)