Today we’d like to introduce you to Amanda and Mike Bohrer.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Like most small businesses, we sort of stumbled into business. We got married in 2015 on family land in the middle of nowhere, Texas. We had to prepare the land for such a big event and ended up building a lot of pieces for our big day – tables and a dance floor were just a few! The piece that really started it all was a handmade LOVE marquee sign. After our wedding, we had several friends and family interested in renting the sign for their weddings.
Over the next year we wrestled with the idea of starting our own business. During this time in our marriage we were struggling with infertility. We finally decided to give the business a shot in hopes of making some extra income to help pay for infertility treatments and/or adoption costs. Mike sold his beloved dirt bike to pay for the startup costs. We immediately threw ourselves into making our little dream into reality. It really helped to focus on the business rather than the pain and heartbreak of infertility. It strengthen our marriage as we got to work in the garage together every evening after our day jobs.
We slowly began to make relationships and gain trust of other local wedding vendors in DFW. We are so grateful for every venue owner and vendor that gave us a chance and invited us to their Open Houses or referred a couple to us. They have helped get us to where we are today! This has allowed us to be able to expand beyond wedding rentals and we now offer custom wood cut out signs for children’s rooms and the home. We also have big plans to add more marquee letters to our inventory in the upcoming year.
And we are very happy to add that we welcomed our miracle baby girl, Logan Rose, to our little family in December 2017.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Oh goodness, no! I don’t think any small business can ever avoid struggles. We will be the first to tell you we have made so many mistakes along the way. It is incredibly hard to own your own business. It really does take blood sweat and tears!
One of the hardest things we have had to overcome is time management. It is still something we struggle with nearly every day. We tend to overload ourselves with projects so we have no one to blame but ourselves! There have been many times we have pulled an all-nighter in order to hit a deadline. We make it a point to ask ourselves two questions after a mistake or rough day – one, “what did we learn from this?”, and two, “how can we do better next time?” The difficult task is to make sure we really learn from the mistakes and put a solid plan of action to in place for the future. We are finally learning to say “no thanks” to the projects and builds that are either we can’t fit into our schedule or are not our expertise.
Something Vintage Something New – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
We are a bit different as we mainly offer custom pieces that we build by hand according to the client’s wishes. The most popular piece and the most well-known is our LOVE marquee sign that is rented for weddings and events. We just added an online shop of custom wood cut out signs. These are especially popular for baby rooms and the home. We have also recently expanded into custom booth set ups for bridal and trade shows.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
We have been blessed enough through this journey that we have hit most of our goals for each season. But what makes this so much sweeter is when a bride and groom or a family follows up with us after an event or after they hang their sign up to let us know that they love the piece we built.
Pricing:
- LOVE Marquee Sign Rental Starting at $175.00
- Custom Wood Cut Out Signs Starting at $40.00
- Coming Soon: Custom Metal Signs
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.somethingvintagesomethingnewrentals.com
- Phone: (214) 213-1897
- Email: somethingvintageandnew@gmail.com
- Instagram: _somethingvintage_somethingnew
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SomethingVintageSomethingNewRentals
Image Credit:
Nate and Grace Photography
Jordan Blalock
Cactus and Coast Photography
Megan Kay Photography
J Bridges Photography
Getting in touch: VoyageDallas is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
