Raya Kalayjian was born into the clothing business. Following in the footsteps of her parents, who were both tailors, the budding designer was making complicated doll clothing by the age of seven. By the time she graduated high school, Raya had become the event planner for everyone she knew – for years she had been designing and making clothes for herself and all her friends and planning all their various parties and celebrations. She already had a reputation for creating fantastic invitations, decorations, fabulous flowers and clothes for the events. However, her love of fashion and clothing remained her main focus, leading her to the Fashion and Interior Design programs at FIDM, where she got her degree in Fashion Design. She spent all her spare hours at the huge Los Angeles Flower Mart, inspired by the glorious colors, shapes and scents of the millions of blooms surrounding her.
Although Raya worked for several years as a Juniors and Children's designer, her love of flowers eventually led her into starting her own floral business, which was immediately successful. It was natural for her party planning expertise to come into the fore; so the ever-entrepreneurial Raya then launched a wedding planning business, which was a hit from day one – in 7 years she did more than 200 events all over Los Angeles including weddings, showers and anniversaries.
Raya began hearing her brides complain that they had nothing fun or unique to wear as their big day approached. Always quick to respond to any challenge, Raya immediately started making adorable tees and tanks for her bridal parties with clever sayings like “It’s My Day”, or “Last Single Night Out”. They were a huge hit, with orders coming in faster than she could make them, and the collection grew and grew.
In response to this huge demand, Raya launched yet a third business; On Valentine’s Day of 2005, Weddingish was born – a website dedicated to providing fun, unique and affordable bridal accessories and gifts to brides and bridal salons across the country. The website grew by leaps and bounds; in less than a year, monthly wholesale and retail sales more than tripled and thousands joined the Weddingish mailing list.
Inspired by the popularity of the novel tanks, Raya began designing mini cookie replicas of the tanks and tees, such as "It's My Day!" "Last Single Night Out" and clever cookie sets to ask and thank those who are a part of the big day. Weddingish cookies received vast media attention and by popular demand, a variety of vibrant and delicious personalized cookies were born. Weddingish cookies have helped brides everywhere ask and thank their bridal party with a fresh, unique and sweet alternative!
Staying in close touch with her brides keeps Raya abreast of the ever-changing needs of brides and bridal parties; she is on top of the latest trends and is always coming up with new products and ideas (and knowing her, new businesses as well!). Always the perfectionist, Raya’s attention to detail is in everything she does; as she likes to say, “If Raya isn’t happy, then no one’s happy!”
Along came baby....Babyish was born....
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